Alan Wake 2 gets a chunky patch tomorrow, October 22, as developer Remedy Entertainment has unveiled the Anniversary Update.
A blog post outlined the myriad additions coming to Alan Wake 2 in a major update to its acccessibility settings, with Remedy adding options such as infinite ammo and one shot kills. The update is free and launches alongside but not as part of the The Lake House expansion.
Alongside the accessibility additions comes the ability to invert the horizontal axis and not just the vertical, plus updates to DualSense functionality on PlayStation 5 such as motion control support and more haptic feedback. The full patch notes are available below.
“We can’t believe it’s been almost a year since Alan Wake 2 was released,” Remedy said. “Thank you to everyone who has played the game and become a member of our fanbase and the Remedy community, no matter when you joined us or how long you’ve been a fan.”
Alan Wake 2 arrived in 2023 as a survival horror game following the titular writer who continues to face psychological horror beyond anything imagined in his books. In our 9/10 review, IGN said: “Alan Wake 2 is a superb survival horror sequel that makes the cult-classic original seem like little more than a rough first draft by comparison.”
As of August, Alan Wake 2 had yet to turn a profit for Remedy, but it had recouped most of its development and marketing expenses.
Alan Wake 2 Anniversary Update patch notes
Added the ability to invert the X (horizontal) axis on mouse and controller, and not just the Y (vertical) axis
Added gyro aiming (motion controls) support on PlayStation 5
You can turn the motion sensor function on and off, as well as tweak horizontal and vertical sensitivity, set gyro space, and choose whether your pitch, yaw, and roll directions are standard or inverted
Added haptic feedback to healing items and throwables on PlayStation 5
Added Gameplay Assist menu in Gameplay Options, which contains several options such as:
Quick turn
Auto complete QTE
Button tapping to single tap
Weapon charging with taps
Healing items with taps
Lightshifter with taps
Player invulnerability
Player immortality
One shot kill
Infinite ammo
Infinite flashlight batteries
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Since this is a Sonic review I’ll go fast and cut to the chase: Sonic X Shadow Generations is a fantastic combination of one of the Blue Blur’s classics and a new helping of smartly designed Shadow levels built around his own abilities, and after spending some time with it has become one of my favorite Sonic games I’ve ever played. Sega and Sonic Team have learned from their recent attempts, Frontiers and Superstars, and have found clever ways to weave the best ideas of those games into a major refresh of a fan favorite. And certainly, when it comes to Shadow the Hedgehog, this is his definitive game.
Half of the content of Sonic X Shadow Generations is remastered from 2011’s Sonic Generations, which we gave an 8.5 In ourreview back then. It does have a few new bells and whistles, like the adorable Chao hidden in each 2D and 3D stages, but other than their level designs are mostly unchanged because they hold up just fine. I’d like to imagine that the Chao are a hint that we’ll see the return of the Chao Garden from Sonic Adventure 2 in a future Sonic game, but for now they’re just a nice homage.
If you never played the original, it’s definitely worth experiencing it for the first time here: Sonic Generations is a stellar combination of 2D and 3D gameplay that celebrated what was at the time a 20-year history by curating and recreating some of the best and most iconic Sonic levels that had come before. Shadow Generations wastes no time showcasing its creativity with multiple stand-out moments. The very first stage, or instance, transforms into fractals and looks like the alternate dimensions we’ve seen in Dr. Strange or Spider-Man: No Way Home.
The levels from Sonic Generations also get a slight but noticeable graphical boost thanks to the current generation of consoles: environments look more polished and the colors are more vibrant, making enemies, hazards, and springs just a bit more noticeable when you’re moving at high speed. So by default this is the best way to play it, even if the difference isn’t night and day.
This is the best way to play Generations, even if the difference isn’t night and day.
However, the real reason you’d want to play Sonic X Shadow Generations is the all-new campaign filled with creative reimaginings of Shadow’s stages from his past appearances throughout the Sonic series. Shadow’s five-hour campaign is separate from the Generations storyline but plays out in a similar way, in that each stage has one part in 2D and another in 3D. Shadow’s stages have all the fast-paced appeal you’d expect to get when playing as Sonic, similar to when new paths open up when replaying a stage after Sonic has gained the light dash ability. Shadow starts with a similar skill called the Chaos Dash, and then goes on to open up even more pathways when returning to stages with abilities like the Doom Wings that let you fly short distances and skip whole sections of levels, making them play very differently.
Shadow’s Chaos Control ability also creates fantastic moments where he does things like freeze time to destroy a missile flying at him in a flashy mini cutscene. And, unlike in the 2D Sonic stages that play like classic Sonic with no homing attack or boost gauge, Shadow keeps all his abilities for his 2D sections so they feel just as fast as his 3D stages.
Besides the main stages there are various challenge stages with objectives like requiring you to destroy enough targets before reaching the goal, or finish a hazard-filled level with a single ring to unlock bosses and the next set of stages. It’s similar to Sonic Generations, with the main difference being that you need to complete all of the challenges to acquire the keys you need, instead of just one. I do miss the collecting of the Chaos Emeralds you get in Sonic Generations, because some of them had fun rival boss battles against characters like Metal Sonic and Silver, but since Sonic is collecting them in his portion of the story it wouldn’t make much sense for Shadow to be collecting them at the same time in his.
With both campaigns combined, the total number of stages is now over 150.
With both campaigns combined, the total number of stages is now over 150, including traditional, challenge, and boss stages. That would take even an avid Sonic fan about 15 to 20 hours to burn through. And for those looking for even more challenges, completing the Shadow campaign will unlock a new option that increases the difficulty of bosses and challenge levels when replaying them.
Though minimal, there are some new storylines that creatively weave between games where Shadow has appeared, tying them into big moments we’ve seen in past games, like Sonic and Shadow’s duel in Sonic Adventure 2. There is also a healthy dose of new scenes filling in Shadow’s past that reunite him with friends and foes, and offer more context to his storylines in games like Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Adventure 2. These moments ranged from fascinating to kickass, and they always left me wanting more.
Like Sonic’s, Shadow’s is made up of fun reimaginations of some of his best stages across past Sonic games. We’ve got new versions of levels like Radical Highway, Rail Canyon, and the Space Colony Ark, and each stage is packed to the brim with creative routes that make good use of Shadow’s old and new abilities.
He begins with his iconic Chaos Control ability, which stops time (including the stage timer) and allows you to outrun hazards like a runaway train, stop groups of enemies in their tracks so you can dispatch them with ease, or use the new Chaos Dash to reach strategically placed shortcuts.
From there, you unlock Doom abilities that give you new options for movement and combat. Without going into spoiler territory, one of my favorites that you get about midway through his story is Doom Surf. This power makes water levels a lot more fun by giving you a shadowy manta ray that can spin-attack through enemies and objects. These abilities are handed out after finishing a group of stages or an area’s boss, and they come at a fast enough pace to keep things consistently interesting and different from what came before.
Doom Surf makes water levels a lot more fun.
There are also some creative and enjoyable new versions of boss fights, like a metallic dragon that has you chasing him on the water, knocking trash into him, and charging up so you can unleash Chaos Control and land some real damage with a homing attack. I wish there were more of those, but those that are here make excellent use of the most recent Doom abilities and are all fantastic additions to the collection of egg robots and various other bosses from Sonic history.
In fact, the only stage that broke my momentum and reminded me of the missteps of modern Sonic games was the Sonic Frontiers 3D stage. It feels empty compared to most of Sonic X Shadow Generations and had an overreliance on a new sludge-based upgrade for Shadow that reminded me of one of my least favorite Wisp powers from Sonic Colors. Other than that, though, I enjoyed replaying every stage to find optimal paths, gather collectible keys to unlock secrets in the hub world, and improve my runs until I earned the coveted S-rankings.
Sonic X Shadow Generations also evolves the all-white hub world of Sonic Generations by taking it from a 2D plane to a three-dimensional one that expands outwards as you complete all the stages in a section and its accompanying boss. In between stages, I’d spend some time exploring the hub world to see what chests I could open using the keys I’d collected, as well as completing various optional activities like collecting 100 rings in a short amount of time to unlock multiple rewards like artwork, music, or journal entries about characters and the events of Shadow’s life.
Similar to his blue counterpart, Shadow also has stages that are entirely locked to the old-school 2D perspective, and they feel right at home as he races his way to the goal. Besides a McDonalds toy called the Shadow Grinder from 2003 and a DLC stage in Sonic Forces: Episode Shadow, this is the first time we’ve gotten multiple full-2D Shadow levels, and it was interesting to see how his expanded move set impacted their designs. Abilities like Chaos Spears allowed me to hit switches from a distance to open up alternate paths, while Doom Surf meant no longer having to deal with those underwater sections of Sonic games that a lot of people don’t enjoy – you can just surf right on top of the water until reaching land.
Finally, I have to call out that the music accompanying our favorite hedgehogs as they race to the goal line is excellent, the guitar riffs for stages like Radical Highway and Space Colony Ark return, and are joined by some fantastic tracks like Crush 40’s All Hail Shadow and Sonic Heroes Rail Canyon theme. One of my favorite elements of the Generations games is the selectable background music for every stage and challenge, so if you only want to hear Live & Learn across every stage like the Crush 40 sicko you are, you can do that! The only catch is that you have to find some music tracks in chests scattered across the Shadow’s hub world or by collecting the musical notes and Red rings in Sonics to unlock them, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay.
The Call of Duty riot shield has been a source of much debate within the community for years. This primary weapon replacement — a huge shield that lets you deflect bullets from enemy weapons — has sparked as much frustration as it has devilish delight, with critics claiming the riot shield encourages frustrating turtle tactics that are hard to counter, and fans saying, essentially, get good.
Over the last few Call of Duty games, the riot shield has met with consistent calls for it to be either nerfed or pulled from the game. It’s a particular favorite of the Modern Warfare sub-brand, appearing in last year’s Modern Warfare 3, 2022’s Modern Warfare 2, and 2021’s Call of Duty: Vanguard. Black Ops developer Treyarch, however, isn’t a fan; the only Treyarch game to have a riot shield as a weapon was 2012’s Black Ops 2.
And so, when Activision published a blog post confirming all the Black Ops 6 launch weapons, fans were quick to scan for the riot shield. Lo and behold, it is nowhere to be found; cue rapturous applause from (most) fans who are now looking forward to straight up gun fights in their gun game.
With Black Ops 6, players won’t need to worry about having to change their strategy to cope with riot shield opponents, which means no need to save that explosive just in case or scan for those hard to hit weak spots. In truth, the riot shield and its slower, more defensive gameplay probably wasn’t the best fit for the fast-paced Black Ops 6 and its new Omnimovement mechanic anyway.
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.
Bloober Team has released the first major update for the Silent Hill 2 remake in Patch 1.04, addressing myriad gameplay issues as well as improving the survival horror game’s technical performance.
The patch notes were released on Steam and outline dozens of changes made to Silent Hill 2. Some address funnier bugs like protagonist James teleporting through a peephole and getting stuck in a window near Neely’s Bar.
On the technical front, Bloober Team has reduced visual glitches when using the latest version of Nvidia DLSS, added an option to enable DLSS frame generation in the menu when using DLSS for supersampling, and added support for AMD FSR 3.1.1. The full patch notes are available below.
Bloober Team and publisher Konami released the Silent Hill 2 remake on October 8 to glowing critical reception and strong sales, leaving many fans of the previously dormant horror franchise eager for more.
In our 8/10 review of the Silent Hill 2 remake, IGN said: “Silent Hill 2 is a great way to visit – or revisit – one of the most dread-inducing destinations in the history of survival horror.”
Silent Hill 2 Remake Patch 1.04 Notes
Technical
– Reduced visual glitches when using the latest version of NVIDIA DLSS. – Added an option to enable DLSS frame generation in the menu when using DLSS for supersampling. – NVIDIA Reflex is now active when DLSS frame generation is enabled. – Added support for AMD FSR 3.1.1. – Added an option to enable AMD Fluid Motion Frames in the menu when using FSR 3.1 for supersampling. – Updated Intel Nanites to support upcoming driver updates. – Improved performance and optimization for Steam Deck. – Fixed stuttering issues related to sky map generation. – Added an option to enable/disable HZB culling to fix stuttering on some AMD/Intel GPUs. – All graphic settings should be saved locally. Gameplay
– Fixed an issue with translation for UI “High” preset not being translated and displayed correctly – Fixed an issue with Wooden Plank appearing during James’ death animation – Fixed streaming issue where staring at the walls inside the Grand Market caused problems with loading all of the environment around James – Fixed an issue where interacting with the wrong side of the peephole in Brookhaven Hospital teleported James to the other side – Fixed an issue where breaking windows near Neely’s Bar got James stuck in the window frame – Fixed an issue that allowed James to access the inaccessible balcony in Blue Creek Apartments – Fixed an issue with Abstract Daddy’s behavior during boss fight where the enemy was not hitting James properly – Fixed multiple issues with Abstract Daddy’s 3rd TV – it should now have the correct audio, and the wall won’t interfere with its position – Fixed an issue with a question mark from the Conference Room not disappearing after obtaining Cinderella figurine in Lakeview Hotel – Fixed an issue with collision detection with the Dayroom walls in Brookhaven Hospital – Fixed an issue where James was falling under the map when approaching Laura entering Brookhaven Hospital from the bushes on the left – Removed debug numbers displayed behind wallpapers in Blue Creek Apartments’ Clock Room – Resolved an issue with James not being able to leave the 3F corridor in the Lakeview Hotel – Fixed an issue with the lightbulb on the 3rd floor of Blue Creek Apartments constantly switching on and being impervious to destruction – Resolved an issue with the small coffee table blocking James in the corner of the room located in Woodside Apartments – Fixed an issue where after completing the Disgust Path in Labyrinth, the player was forced to do it all over again – Fixed an issue with Spider Mannequins getting stuck when attacking James while he is going through squeeze traversal – Fixed an issue with James getting stuck in the window frame while attacking Lying Figures located outside of the window – Added more natural movement for James when switching weapons while aiming – Fixed an issue with triggering Spider Mannequin event on Fear Path in the Labyrinth multiple times – Improved the ability to pick up items during the final boss fight – Fixed an issue with picture frames overlapping in the Moth Room – Improved the deformation of Nurses’ skirts – Fixed an issue occurring when displaying the information about unlocking NewGame+ which didn’t appear in the player’s chosen language – Fixed visible unloading of the door of an abandoned garage in the west side of South Vale – Fixed question mark on the map during Chute Puzzle in Woodside Apartments
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Bloober Team has admitted it knew it had to “evolve” after releasing The Medium, a decision which led to the development of bigger games such as the Silent Hill 2 remake and the upcoming Cronos: The New Dawn.
Cronos director and producer Jacek Zieba told IGN that The Medium, which arrived in 2021 as a psychological horror adventure game alongside a Metascore of 71 on Metacritic, became a turning point for the studio as it looked to make bigger and better games.
“I think after The Medium it was very clear to us that we needed to evolve,” Zieba said. “It was like, ‘let’s end the chapter of the adventure games.’ Layers of Fear, Observer, and The Medium, [games that were] strange, experimental, with fixed camera tools. ‘Okay, let’s finish with that.’
“We also want to evolve, so let’s go into survival horror, let’s create something of our own, something different than other games in the genre in terms of world, story, and also gameplay. Let’s create another game of our dreams.”
The Silent Hill 2 remake was somewhat of a coming out party for Bloober Team to show it could make a big budget survival horror adventure. It arrived October 8 to glowing critical reception and strong sales, and Bloober Team is open to making more Silent Hill games too, either remakes or something completely fresh.
In our 8/10 review of the Silent Hill 2 remake, IGN said: “Silent Hill 2 is a great way to visit – or revisit – one of the most dread-inducing destinations in the history of survival horror.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Space Marine 2 Update 4.0 added a new PvE map and with it the terrifying Tyranid Hierophant Bio-Titan, which ordinarily must be tackled by a squad of three players working together to down this enormous xenos monstrosity.
After leaving the final elevator room and entering the map’s boss fight area, players are meant to activate a central terminal to link their sidearm with ultra powerful fortress lascannons — powerful enough to down even a Bio-Titan.
You then use your sidearm as a targeting system for the cannons, aiming at the Bio-Titan as the guns get to work. After one barrage the cannons are out of juice, so you have to recharge them by spinning nearby energy stations, which in turn spawns the Tyranid horde. Meanwhile, the Bio-Titan will bombard your position with high-damage artillery fire.
Once the cannons are recharged, you need to activate the central terminal to link your sidearm once again, aim, and let the cannons fire. You need to repeat this process a number of times to bring the Bio-Titan down. It’s a stressful boss fight with a lot going on; the Tyranids can easily overwhelm your squad, even on the easier difficulties, and the Bio-Titan itself can effectively one-shot you if you hang about the same area for too long. Crank the mission up to Lethal — the new, hardest difficulty added with Update 4.0 — and you’re in for a world of hurt.
Or are you? One Space Marine 2 player has worked out a way to solo the Bio-Titan even on Lethal difficulty, exposing a flaw in the design of the mission that the developers at Saber Interactive may want to patch out at some point (once they’re done addressing the backlash to Update 4.0, perhaps).
It all started with redditor RedditOakley’s discovery that it is possible to deal damage to the Bio-Titan when it walks past the Space Marines just after they step out of the final elevator room but, crucially, before activating the terminal (this imposing moment was used to reveal the Bio-Titan in promotional videos). This (tiny) damage is reflected when the Bio-Titan’s health bar displays, and then you do all that fortress cannon stuff we mentioned before.
RedditOakley theorized that it would thus be possible to continue to damage and eventually kill the Bio-Titan using Space Marine weapons and without having to go through the cannon activation process, and that theory turned out to be true. The only question was, from where would you safely shoot the Bio-Titan down? After all, in Space Marine 2 ammo is scarce; infinite ammo resources are ammo crates and loadout pods only; and the swarm can quickly become too much to handle.
The answer is the elevator room itself, which, if you never activate the terminal, is a safe haven of sorts (although you won’t see the Bio-Titan’s health bar). “I fired up a solo Minimal [the easiest difficulty] run and progressed to where the door opens and you meet the titan,” RedditOakley explained. “We have the ammo crate next to the elevator and a loadout pod available, the door to those never closes as the room is used to spawn enemy waves.
“The titan itself will walk around the battlefield, and often stay close to where you’re standing. This is the range where it is possible to shoot and damage it with your guns. The titan will even lob acid globes at you here after a while.
“So that’s what I did. I just kept shooting, and shooting and shooting, clearing the waves and [tougher] extremis that came along the way. I didn’t have any way of seeing my progress as the health bar isn’t visible in this area, so all I could do was keep shooting and praying.
“Then eventually a red hit marker showed up and the end cutscene appeared.”
In their post, RedditOakley issued the Space Marine 2 community a challenge: kill the Bio-Titan using Space Marine guns only on the hardest difficulty, Lethal. Of course, someone answered the call: redditor xD3viLzx, who used the Sniper class and the Las Fusil to slowly — and I mean slowly — solo the Bio-Titan on Lethal.
As you can tell from the footage of the run, xD3viLzx popped in and out of the elevator room to snipe at the Bio-Titan, returning to grab ammo from the loadout pod when needed. Whittling down the Bio-Titan’s health in this way took 45 minutes, rinsing and repeating while occasionally avoiding a barrage from the Tyranid itself and dealing with waves of enemies. It’s a monotonous cheese, for sure, but an effective one. Upon the final blow the mission ended properly, the victory recorded as it would if the Bio-Titan were killed as Saber intended, and the appropriate rewards dished out.
It should be noted that this cheese isn’t a win button. xD3viLzx still had to make it to the mission’s final area in one piece on Lethal solo, which for me is a more impressive feat than the Bio-Titan cheese itself. xD3viLzx’s perfect parry was on point, but there were a few hairy moments in the run when the AI-controlled teammates saved the day with a revive. Still, the cheese makes the hardest part of the mission relatively trivial. You just need time and the patience of a saint; the entire run took one hour and 14 minutes.
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.
At the time, the internet collectively scoffed at that request. And now, it’s all out in the wild. Today, October 21, ahead of the playtest going live on October 23, some users were able to download the playtest, which weighs in at 2.2GB. Images of this website and its details are now spreading across social media, Discords, and subreddits.
The leak appears to have been kickstarted by X/Twitter user @Ethan_ThisGuy, who posted images of the playtest website along with the post: “hope Nintendo doesn’t kill me for this.”
Spoilers for Nintendo Switch Online: Playtest Program test follow:
Those images, which X/Twitter has now pulled offline “in response to a report from the copyright holder” (a clear sign of their legitimacy), reveals a social MMO hybrid experience some are already comparing to the Miiverse, Nintendo’s discontinued social network for 3DS and Wii U.
The idea, according to leaked images of the Nintendo website, is to work with other players to develop a massive planet via farmed resources and building on your own plot of land. Players use Beacons that emit a healing light that “purifies and develops the land.” The idea is to place multiple Beacons until your planetary block is fully developed.
The player’s Beacon sounds like a protected space in which only they can move, lift, or edit items. Outside their Beacon is considered a public space anyone can work in.
There’s a ‘Dev Core’ that acts as a player hub. Here you level up your character, obtain items, and talk to other players. Players earn points for developing the land and socializing with others.
There’s a definite user-generated content (UGC) aspect to this new game, and you’ll be able to share what you make with others. This is very Nintendo: it says to create UGC players must pass a test in-game to show they understand “the importance of respectful communication.” Only then will players obtain a UGC License and be able to create UGC. There is, as you’d expect, a player report feature, which I imagine will come in handy for tackling all those… certain things players will inevitably build.
And finally, as Nintendo had signaled, it recommends playing this new game in TV setup with a wired connection, given it’s a server-based experience.
That’s all we have for now. It’s odd that Nintendo would insist on such secrecy around what sounds like a relatively straightforward Switch online MMO (we still don’t know the name of the thing), but hopefully we’ll know more when it actually goes live later this week and, well, the whole thing inevitably leaks.
This is a Switch experience for now, but the big question is whether it will also be available on the upcoming Switch 2, which Nintendo has yet to formally announce.
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.
The weekend is officially here, and we’ve rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for Sunday, October 20, below:
Resident Evil 4 for $19.99
Resident Evil 4 was one of the biggest games of 2023, with Capcom recreating one of the highest-praised action titles ever. As Leon S. Kennedy, it’s up to you to travel to Europe and rescue the President’s daughter, Ashley Graham. With the Separate Ways DLC also available, the Resident Evil 4 remake is simply one of the best action games ever. There’s never been a better time to jump in, with this price acting as an all-time low.
EA Sports College Football 25 for $42.99
EA Sports College Football 25 is available on sale for $42.99 this weekend. This game marked the first college football title from EA since NCAA 14, as a lawsuit regarding player NIL (name, image, and likeness) prevented the company from producing further entries. Many of the older modes have returned to College Football 25, including Dynasty, Team Builder, and Road to Glory. Of course, dozens of new features have been added, including Stadium Pulse, which creates challenging road environments in college football’s biggest stadiums.
Save on Popular LEGO Sets This Weekend
There are quite a few LEGO deals available on sale today. This includes the LEGO Super Mario Piranha Plant set, the LEGO Ideas Jazz Quartet set, the LEGO Walt Disney Tribute Camera, and more. If you’re preparing to start shopping for the holiday season, these are solid gift ideas!
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Woot! (owned by Amazon) is offering The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for Nintendo Switch for only $39.99 after you apply a $10 off promo code “ZELDAWELCOME” during checkout. This promo will only work for first orders. Amazon Prime members get free shipping, otherwise there is a $6 flat fee. You’ll be getting a physical copy, which also includes a 90-day Woot! warranty. Woot! mentions that copies may or may not be imported, but all Nintendo Switch games are region-free so you’ll be able to play the game regardless. You won’t have to worry about language either since that setting is determined by your Switch console.
Disney Classic Games Collection
Next up, you can save on the Disney Classic Games Collection for Nintendo Switch on Amazon. This package includes multiple different versions of Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book that released over the years. You can use new features like Rewind, which allows you to retry any difficult areas, or start the game from any point with access to full game playthroughs. Additionally, there is even a CRT filter that is designed to mimick displays from the original releases!
Xbox Series X|S Seagate Expansion Card
Today, you can save $50 off the Seagate Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S. This is the 2TB model, which will allow you to increase your total storage on Xbox Series X to almost 3TB. Since neither Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S supports a standard NVME SSD slot like the PlayStation 5, you will need to purchase an Expansion Card to increase your console’s storage.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 for $39.99
Luigi’s Mansion 3 is available this weekend at Woot for only $39.99. This is one of the best games available on Nintendo Switch, filled with charm and all sorts of fun puzzles. With Halloween right around the corner, there’s never been a better time to pick up the game if you haven’t already!
Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package for $35
Kingdom Hearts is one of Square Enix’s best series, and it’s a must-play for any RPG fan. The series mashes together the worlds of Disney and Square Enix to tell the tale of light and darkness. This All-in-One package contains a total of ten games, with everything up to Kingdom Hearts III included. Now is the perfect time to get caught up before Kingdom Hearts IV, so pick up the All-in-One bundle today and jump into Sora’s journey.
Mario Party Superstars for $39.99
If you’re waiting for Super Mario Party Jamboree to go on sale, Woot has a great deal on Mario Party Superstars that can hold you over for the time being. Superstars features five boards from the Nintendo 64 era, recreated with new twists. You can hop online and play with friends anywhere in the world, with 100 different minigames to discover. While its content offerings are not as good as Jamboree, this is still a great Mario Party game and well worth picking up.
Metaphor: ReFantazio Collector’s Edition Available
Metaphor: ReFantazio has quickly become one of the hottest games of 2024. Katsura Hashino, known for directing Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5, has led ATLUS’ Studio Zero on this project, with illustrator Shigenori Soejima serving as Character Designer on the project. Metaphor is the first step into the world of fantasy for ATLUS, and it’s been a massive success. In our 9/10 review, we stated, “Metaphor: ReFantazio is poetic, and at times, idealistic, but it also understands its complexities and that change requires action, and that even far-fetched fantasy stories can serve as inspiration to make our world a better place.”
Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games has said Squadron 42 launches at some point in 2026.
If the game does indeed launch then, it’ll come out an incredible 14 years after CIG first launched Star Citizen’s crowdfunding drive.
During CitizenCon in Manchester, England this evening, CIG boss Chris Roberts, known for creating the Wing Commander series, took to the stage to say he was “confident” that Star Citizen’s long-awaited standalone single-player story game would release in 2026.
Roberts’ on-stage comments followed a lengthy live gameplay demo that suffered a number of crashes, bugs, and graphical problems, but did give the audience a good idea of Squadron 42’s first hour.
CIG demoed Squadron 42’s prologue, which is designed to set the stage for the player as a pilot in the sci-fi game. The demo was heavy on flashy cutscenes with CGI representations of Hollywood stars such as Gillian Anderson, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, and Mark Strong, mixed with on-rails turret action in a huge space battle. The demo ended with a first-person shooter segment as the alien enemy boarded the player’s ship.
“We did say we were doing it live, risking the demo gods, and they brought their wrath down on us,” Roberts said as he walked on-stage.
“There’s a lot more that goes on in Squadron 42 after that, but that sets up where you came from and from there you become a pilot and start serving on a smaller ship, the Stanton. But there’s a lot more in the game than we were showing there. It’s been a lot more stable for me when I’ve been playing these last few weeks.”
Roberts continued: “Both the team and I are confident of giving you this game in 2026. Obviously you can see it’s not going to be tomorrow, because you saw a few crashes there.
Gladiator has three minutes of battle and eight minutes of prologue. This was an hour of crazy stuff.
“Thank you for supporting us and allowing us to build such an ambitious game. Crashes aside, there’s probably not another game that has a prologue that has that much action. Mostly there aren’t movies that have that much action in there. Gladiator has three minutes of battle and eight minutes of prologue. This was an hour of crazy stuff.
“But thank you for allowing us to build something so amazing, and I can’t wait for you all to be able to play it in the moderate future.”
Star Citizen is considered one of the most controversial projects in all video games. Over the 12 years since its crowdfunding drive began, Star Citizen has been called many things including a scam by those who wonder whether it will ever properly launch. Its virtual space ships, some of which cost hundreds of dollars, are often the focus of criticism.
Indeed, Star Citizen has now raised over $729 million according to figures from CIG. The developer makes revenue publicly available on its website, which at the time of this article’s publication shows Star Citizen has raised $729,151,801. CIG calls this money “funds raised.”
In March this year, CIG began talking about Star Citizen’s 1.0 launch being within sight, although there’s still no release window. 1.0, Roberts has said, “is what we consider the features and content set to represent ‘commercial’ release.” As it stands, Star Citizen is still in Alpha.
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.
The weekend is officially here, and we’ve rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for Saturday, October 19, below:
EA Sports College Football 25 for $42.99
EA Sports College Football 25 is available on sale for $42.99 this weekend. This game marked the first college football title from EA since NCAA 14, as a lawsuit regarding player NIL (name, image, and likeness) prevented the company from producing further entries. Many of the older modes have returned to College Football 25, including Dynasty, Team Builder, and Road to Glory. Of course, dozens of new features have been added, including Stadium Pulse, which creates challenging road environments in college football’s biggest stadiums.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Woot! (owned by Amazon) is offering The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for Nintendo Switch for only $39.99 after you apply a $10 off promo code “ZELDAWELCOME” during checkout. Amazon Prime members get free shipping, otherwise there is a $6 flat fee. You’ll be getting a physical copy, which also includes a 90-day Woot! warranty. Woot! mentions that copies may or may not be imported, but all Nintendo Switch games are region-free so you’ll be able to play the game regardless. You won’t have to worry about language either since that setting is determined by your Switch console.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 for $39.99
Luigi’s Mansion 3 is available this weekend at Woot for only $39.99. This is one of the best games available on Nintendo Switch, filled with charm and all sorts of fun puzzles. With Halloween right around the corner, there’s never been a better time to pick up the game if you haven’t already!
Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package for $35
Kingdom Hearts is one of Square Enix’s best series, and it’s a must-play for any RPG fan. The series mashes together the worlds of Disney and Square Enix to tell the tale of light and darkness. This All-in-One package contains a total of ten games, with everything up to Kingdom Hearts III included. Now is the perfect time to get caught up before Kingdom Hearts IV, so pick up the All-in-One bundle today and jump into Sora’s journey.
Save on Popular LEGO Sets This Weekend
Amazon has two popular LEGO sets available on sale for a limited time this weekend. First, you can save on the LEGO Super Mario Piranha Plant set. This kit allows you to make one of Super Mario’s most iconic enemies, warp pipe and all! Additionally, you can also save 20% off the LEGO Ideas Jazz Quartet set. You can build a piano, cello, drum kit, and more.
Mario Party Superstars for $39.99
If you’re waiting for Super Mario Party Jamboree to go on sale, Woot has a great deal on Mario Party Superstars that can hold you over for the time being. Superstars features five boards from the Nintendo 64 era, recreated with new twists. You can hop online and play with friends anywhere in the world, with 100 different minigames to discover. While its content offerings are not as good as Jamboree, this is still a great Mario Party game and well worth picking up.
Metaphor: ReFantazio Collector’s Edition Available
Metaphor: ReFantazio has quickly become one of the hottest games of 2024. Katsura Hashino, known for directing Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5, has led ATLUS’ Studio Zero on this project, with illustrator Shigenori Soejima serving as Character Designer on the project. Metaphor is the first step into the world of fantasy for ATLUS, and it’s been a massive success. In our 9/10 review, we stated, “Metaphor: ReFantazio is poetic, and at times, idealistic, but it also understands its complexities and that change requires action, and that even far-fetched fantasy stories can serve as inspiration to make our world a better place.”
