Baldur’s Gate 3’s Patch 2 comes out soon, said developer Larian Studios.
The developer said in a tweet (below) that this patch includes “major performance improvements” with “many” new tweaks and changes, and is also the start of Larian incorporating feedback into Origin character epilogues. More details are coming soon, but the developer didn’t share exactly when.
Patch 2 is around the corner. It features major performance improvements, many new tweaks & changes, and begins our journey incorporating feedback into Origin Character epilogues, among other major things. Details coming soon.
Larian director of publishing Michael Douse called Patch 2 “equally chonky”, referring to the size of Patch 1, whose patch notes were so big they exceeded Steam’s text limit. “We’re discussing internally about comms, dates, and rollout,” Douse said. “As well as all things around it. We’ll give details soon.”
An equally chonky Patch 2 is right around the corner. We’re discussing internally about comms, dates & rollout. As well as all things around it. We’ll give details soon.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is set to launch on PlayStation 5 on September 6, with the Xbox Series X|S version due out later this year. You can find our list of the most rewarding romances in Baldur’s Gate 3 right here.
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.
Now that PS5 consoles are regularly available to buy, it’s an excellent time to start picking up games, accessories, and hardware for it. What’s even better is when you can find all of those things at a discounted price.
TL;DR – Best PS5 Deals Right Now
Below, you can find a variety of different sales on everything from games to SSDs and even information on where to buy a PS5 now. And, though not a sale but still exciting to keep on your radar, if you’re looking to preorder Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for PS5, we’ve even included links to those preorders so you won’t miss out on the web-slinging action.
Could your PS5 use more storage? Prices have been plummeting since Sony started letting people upgrade their SSDs. Right now you can get a TeamGroup T-Force A440 Pro 1TB for $53. It’s hard to beat the recent Prime Day we had, and this doesn’t match the best 1TB deal at $50 during that sale, but it’s pretty close at about $3 more. Now’s a great time, in general, to pick up a PS5-compatible SSD.
If you wish to join the hunt to defeat Lilith and save Sanctuary, why not do it at a discounted price? We gave it a 9 in our review, calling it “a stunning sequel with near perfect endgame and progression design,” and as someone who’s also spent plenty of time in Sanctuary, I can also confirm it’s worth getting for your PlayStation collection.
It doesn’t need to have a massive discount to be a good deal, so we thought it would be a great idea to pick out our absolute favorite PS5 and PlayStation offerings that would be relevant to buy no matter the time of year, or the sales going on. From the latest DualSense controllers, to the very best PS5 SSDs on the market, we’ve got it all right here.
For those who can’t wait until October 20 to get their hands on this highly-anticipated sequel, have no fear, you can preorder the game right now at a variety of different retailers. It also comes with some fun preorder bonuses when you do, which you can learn more about in our Spider-Man 2 preorder guide.
Anyone who preorders Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, regardless of version, will get the following in-game extras as well: Arachknight Suit for Peter Parker “with 3 additional color variants”, Shadow Spider Suit for Miles Morales “with 3 additional color variants”, Web Grabber gadget and 3 skill points.
There’s no shortage of PS5-compatible headsets. If you’re constantly having to turn down the volume when you play, you might want to pick up one of these, then you can listen to your games as loud as you darn well please. And if you’d like to see even more options that are worth buying, check out our collection of thebest gaming headsets.
Availability has significantly improved for PS5 consoles this year. This means you no longer need to wait for specific sale events like Black Friday to make your purchase, as retailers such as Amazon are likely to offer the same console bundles during various sales throughout the year. Therefore, if you are in need of a PS5, there’s no real reason to delay your purchase and you can take advantage of any available sale.
If you’re desperate to pick up a console before the likes of Spider-Man 2, go ahead and buy one as they’re now regularly available. However, it’s worth noting that during sales Black Friday, there may be new unique bundles and promotions for the PS5 that are not offered at any other time of the year, such as the God of War Ragnarok bundle for $499 that is now out of stock and not available at the time of writing.
With how expensive gaming is getting in 2023, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.
Mimimi Games has announced its final game is Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew and that the studio will slowly shut down over the next few months.
In a statement on its website, the studio said the team enjoyed creating games for the past 15 years and are proud of what they accomplished. However, the game development process took a toll.
“At the same time, dedicating the past decade and a half of our lives working on increasingly ambitious games took a heavy personal toll on us and our families,” Mimimi said. “After the release of Shadow Gambit we decided it was the right time to prioritize our well-being and to pull the brakes instead of signing up for another multi-year production cycle.”
Mimimi will no longer create any new games, but will continue to fully support Shadow Gambit. The studio has already been working on a patch for all platforms and will release more content for the game later this year. Thankfully, Shadow Gambit’s successful launch has allowed Mimimi to pay bonuses to employees while they transition out.
The studio’s portfolio includes games such as Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and Desperados 3. Its latest game, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, is a real-time strategy title that takes place during the Golden Age of Piracy where a curse has revived the dead with supernatural abilities.
In IGN’s Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew review, which returned a 9/10, we said: “Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is a peak example of the stealth tactics genre from a studio that is clearly mastering its craft. Its mission structure is spread across excellently entertaining levels with rich detail to find and master, while characters shine with voice performances, endearing humor, and colorful art that both delight and impress.”
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
RoboCop: Rogue City is delayed to November 2, developer Teyon has announced. It was due out in September (the RoboCop: Rogue City Steam page still caries the September release window).
Confirmation comes from a tweet from Teyon:
#Gamescom is now in the rearview mirror, and it left us buzzing with excitement! 🎮🔥
Last week Robocop: Rogue City took the stage during screenings on Gamescom. Mark your calendars for November 2nd, when this thrilling experience will hit PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series S and… pic.twitter.com/JZy3xK17eZ
IGN went hands-on with RoboCop: Rogue City at gamescom 2023, and found slow first-person shooting, decision-making, and a spot of detective work is all part of this unique-feeling game. The video below has 16 minutes of exclusive gameplay, fresh from gamescom 2023.
RoboCop: Rogue City now launches on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S on November 2.
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.
Activision has unveiled a new-look Lara Croft who’s set to hit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone as part of Season 5 Reloaded, and the design has certainly set tongues wagging within the Tomb Raider community.
Lara Croft arrives in Call of Duty as a store bundle operator, with the Tracer Pack: Tomb Raider bundle adding Lara’s signature Mach-5 dual pistols based on a new sidearm coming to Call of Duty. These pistols are also used in Lara’s Play for Sport finishing move.
But it’s images of Lara in Call of Duty released by Activision that some fans are calling our first look at the new “unified” Lara Croft.
While the reboot trilogy told the origin story of Lara Croft becoming the Tomb Raider, the original games “featured a seasoned and confident adventurer”, said game director Will Kerslake. The development team said it envisions “a future of Tomb Raider unfolding after these established adventures, telling stories that build upon the breadth of both Core Design and Crystal Dynamics’ games, working to unify these timelines”.
Does Call of Duty’s Lara Croft offer a first look at the Lara we’ll see in the upcoming new game? Fans are torn, with some suggesting we’re seeing an older “survivor” Lara, and a return to Lara’s iconic dual pistols, classic outfit, braid hairstyle, and backpack, with no sign of the bow and arrows seen in the latest games. Others say what we’re seeing here is simply Activision’s Lara Croft, which may have nothing to do with Crystal Dynamics’ Lara Croft.
A relatively vague description of the new game was also shared, though it essentially conforms to what players would expect from Crystal Dynamics’ next game. “The as-yet-untitled new Tomb Raider game is a single-player, narrative-driven adventure that continues Lara Croft’s story in the Tomb Raider series.
“It includes all the elements that have made Tomb Raider one of the most revered franchises in gaming, giving players control of the confident and multidimensional hero Lara Croft in an environment that rewards exploration and creative pathfinding, with mind-bending puzzles to solve, and a wide variety of enemies to face and overcome.
“Crystal Dynamics is drawing on the power and cutting-edge technology of Unreal Engine 5 to take storytelling to the next level, in the biggest, most expansive Tomb Raider game to date. The title is currently in early development, and additional details will be announced at a later date.”
Half a year later, in June 2023, Embracer announced plans to close studios, cancel games, and lay staff off just weeks after a $2 billion contract deal fell through. At the time, Crystal Dynamics insisted its Tomb Raider project and the contract development it was doing on Perfect Dark for Microsoft studio The Initiative were not impacted by the Embracer restructure.
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.
It’s been a pretty great gamescom for Warhammer. A full showing of Space Marine 2 finally charged into the fray, Darktide got a long-awaited console release date, and Rogue Trader showed off its retinue of fantastic companion characters. But perhaps the most interesting Warhammer showing at the convention was Realms of Ruin, the strategy game set in Games Workshop’s lesser-explored Age of Sigmar fantasy universe. After an hour of hands-on time with its single-player, I’ve found myself excited by the prospect of a game that finally continues and potentially advances the legacy of the great Dawn of War cinematic campaigns.
Dawn of War was, of course, the touchpoint that we identified in our first preview of Realms of Ruin. The first of the two missions I played certainly felt like it owed a great debt to that series’ design, with my squads of tanky, hammer-swinging Stormcast Eternals marching from capture point to capture point. Once seized, I could build fortifications atop them to prevent my sneaky Orruk Kruleboyz enemies from reclaiming them and cutting off my resources. Fundamentally, this is Dawn of War’s Listening Post system in a fantasy skin – and I don’t say that as a complaint.
It was the second campaign mission I played that showed Realms of Ruin in a more interesting light. Here I was battling against the newly-revealed Nighthaunt, a faction of ghosts that fight in packs. Naturally that means there’s a certain amount of Zerg comparisons to be made, but unlike Starcraft’s horde army the Nighthaunt don’t aim to blanket an area with cheap expendable units. Realms of Ruin operates at a smaller scale, with a limited number of squads that can survive for longer durations than many RTS units. And so the gangs of Nighthaunt Chainrasps that descended on my Stormcast felt as if they were slowly suffocating me rather than completely overwhelming my forces.
It was important to escape those moments of suffocation, since this mission had a centrepiece tug-of-war mechanic that required constant attention. The Nighthaunt had bound a mysterious artefact in huge spectral chains that stretched across the land. To break the spell and claim the artefact, my Stormcast had to defend our resident wizard, Demechrios, as he cast a counter spell. To help him, I also had to capture and hold a trio of anchor points – holding them all simultaneously would deplete the chains’ power. Should the Nighthaunt reclaim an anchor, the spell would begin to build in strength again, and so maintaining control and dominance across all three of the three battlefield sectors was essential.
The real appeal is seeing the love and care developer Frontier has put into recreating the world of Age of Sigmar.
This long, attrition-like war for control highlighted the importance of each unit’s specialties. As with many RTS games, Realms of Ruin uses a rock-paper-scissors approach. Offensive units can smash defensive units with greater efficiency, but are weak against ranged units, who are weak versus defensive units. It creates a triangle that’s easy to understand and relatively simple to manage. But atop that are special abilities that allow a little more spark and personality; the angel-winged Prosecutors can soar across the battlefield and then hurl their hammers from up high, while the Stormcast’s heroic Lord-Celestant leader, Sigrun, can charge into squads and scatter them to the winds – ideal for knocking back Nighthaunt who are capturing one of the anchors.
In many ways, what I’ve described is true of so many RTS games, from Dawn of War to Ground Control to Command and Conquer. Realms of Ruin feels good from a strategic perspective, but perhaps not exactly groundbreaking. The real appeal, at least for me, is seeing the love and care developer Frontier has put into recreating the world of Age of Sigmar.
Games Workshop’s modern fantasy setting is extremely popular on the tabletop, but has largely been ignored in the video game world. It’s a genuine thrill, then, to see characters and armies that I’ve only ever seen in static plastic form come alive on screen. Each of the two sample missions were topped and tailed with extravagant cutscenes, and the visual effects of the characters’ attacks – particularly those of the spectral Nighthaunt, who glide across green mists – was a delight to watch. Maybe Realms of Ruin won’t break the mould for strategy games, but it certainly breaks the trend of Age of Sigmar being ignored on PC and console, and does so in high-budget fashion.
There is the potential for Realms of Ruin to push the genre forward in other ways, though. The roguelike-inspired Conquest mode has captured my attention. The system creates a series of randomly generated battles for you to try and overcome, with each built on challenges such as time limits and reduced vision or movement. It sounds like a fun and novel way to spice up classic skirmishes, espcially since each run will plot your high score. Conquest wasn’t available to play at gamescom, but it sounds like the kind of mode that could potentially give Realms of Ruin a much more interesting longtail for single-player focused fans with no interest in climbing the PvP ladder.
But for me, the story mode is still the biggest draw. Cinematic RTS campaigns feel something of an antiquity these days, but what I’ve played of Realms of Ruin transported me back to the good old days of lavish cutscenes, concept missions, and personality-filled battle barks. Even if it turns out to be something of a modern relic, Realms of Ruin will likely still be the Age of Sigmar game I’ve been hoping for.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
It means those hoping to jump into Game Pass just to play Bethesda’s space role-playing game now have to pay $9.99 / £7.99 for a month on PC, or $10.99 / £8.99 for a month on Xbox, or $16.99 / £12.99 for a month of Ultimate, if you sign up through Microsoft’s website. Check out IGN’s guide on how to avoid the Xbox Game Pass price hike if you’re looking to save money.
While Microsoft pulled the Game Pass trial on the quiet, it’s an unsurprising move given the high-profile and commercially crucial imminent launch of Starfield. Microsoft has a lot riding on the game, which is expected to boost Game Pass subscribers significantly. By ditching the $1 trial, Microsoft is also boosting Game Pass revenue.
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 biggest difference between Starfield and Fallout 4 is Bethesda’s decision go with a silent protagonist this time around. But that wasn’t always the case.
In a recent interview with Polygon, lead designer Emil Pagliarulo talked about the decision to feature a silent protagonist in Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi RPG. Asked whether Bethesda went the direction it did because of the negative fan reaction to Fallout 4, Pagliarulo said it was a factor. Fans will recall that Fallout 4 voiced protagonist drew criticism owing to the reduced number of dialogue options despite more than 13,000 lines of dialogue.
Still, there was apparently a point where Bethesda wanted to give a voice to their hero and even recorded a few lines of dialogue.
“We hired an actor, we got the voice, we listened to him and we were like, ‘You know what, this guy is too specific,'” Pagliarulo remembered.
It seems that Starfield’s designers wanted to ensure that players were offered the maximum range of expression. Bethesda apparently weighed bringing in multiple voice actors, or simply going with one voice actor who was “more convenient.” Ultimately, though, Bethesda realized it wasn’t going to work.
“We realized that the only way to really do it and let the player be the person they want to be was to have an unvoiced protagonist,” Pagliarulo said.
Starfield’s approach reflects a change across gaming
Pagliarulo went on to reflect on the role of the voiced protagonist in AAA games.
“There was a time in the industry where every protagonist was voiced. It was a AAA thing. We started realizing, ‘You know what, maybe that’s not the case, maybe fans will actually enjoy the game even more…’ I mean, we played with different things. There’s a big argument, if in Fallout 4 and other RPGs, players don’t like reading a line of dialogue, a player response, and then they click it and get [a different spoken line],” Pagliarulo said.
“But the problem is, then you read it, and then you click it, and you have to wait for them to say the same thing. So that’s not ideal either. So then we just arrived at, ‘What if we just go text?’ and it was just really freeing. And, I mean, we have over 200,000 lines of spoken dialogue in Starfield with no voiced protagonists. And it was not having a voiced protagonist that allowed us to create such a big world.”
Silent protagonists seem to be in vogue in RPGs owing to the popularity of fully customizable characters. Baldur’s Gate 3 is among the recent releases that opted to leave its customized hero unvoiced. However, other major RPGs have found plenty of success with voiced heroes, including Mass Effect.
When Baldur’s Gate 3 launched earlier this month, it earned near universal praise for its gameplay, characters, and apparently infinite choices. Since then, many have been taking it slow through the first two acts to discover everything hidden across the continent of Faerûn.
However, as players reach act 3, many are discovering that it’s… a touch less polished than the first two acts.
Warning:Many of the threads linked contain heavy spoilers for act 3 of Baldur’s Gate 3. Click through at your own risk.
On the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit, a number of users have chimed in to express frustration at act 3 for being buggy, laggy, and in some cases, seemingly unfinished. For instance, u/rejian called out that they had 11 quests in their journal in act 3, six of which were impossible to complete due to bugs. u/meramipopper had a similar experience. Others, such as u/justchiller and u/IceyCoolRunnings brought up serious performance issues.
Still others, including u/CynicalSigtyr and u/paradox-paradise called out a number of quests that seem inconsequential or even unfinished once they reached Baldur’s Gate 3. While you could chalk that up to someone not liking the story, users including u/noobiestboob have noted large amounts of cut act 3 content still present in the game’s files, especially pertaining to Minthara and Karlach.
People don’t want to admit it because it’s a great game but I’ll take one for the team and tell the truth:
Baldur’s Gate III has bugs…and it gets especially buggy in Act 3
Minthara in particular has drawn attention from fans in the wake of Larian’s big patch. While many players probably killed the villainous drow in the goblin encampment without a second thought, it is possible to recruit her into your party. Some have done so in the hopes of fixing their problematic fave. But fans who have made it to act 3 have noticed that Minthara’s quests and dialogue are a little thin.
“People say she was supposed to get fixed in this patch, but she still feels buggy. If I’m being honest, I don’t think they planned her out at all, I think so much has been cut and overall she is just a missed opportunity. She is vacant in all of act 3 and act 2, just not well done in the least,” one fan wrote.
“Minthara is, quite surprisingly, an incredibly layered character for someone that dies in 90% of runs. It’s just unfortunate that her character progression doesn’t go that far, because despite her straight-shooter attitude she is extremely nuanced. What could have been…,” another fan lamented.
IGN has reached out to Larian Studios for a roadmap for potential future fixes as well as comment on updating characters such as Minthara.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s act 3 feels far from finished
While we won’t go into specifics of their story complaints here to avoid spoilers, suffice it to say the general community vibe is that the story in act 3 feels a lot less complete than it does in the previous two acts. Many speculate that it’s the result of it being the farthest bit of story from the well-tested early access content of act 1.
But wait, you may say, there’s been a recent patch that’s surely fixed all of this, right? Unfortunately, it seems like Baldur’s Gate 3’s most recent patch did not solve these problems — at least not broadly enough for users to stop being frustrated. Multiplethreads in just the last 24 hours indicate that act 3 is still a messeven with the fixes, and for most of the same reasons.
Much of the community is sympathetic to the issues. Baldur’s Gate 3 is enormous, after all, and making enough content to fill all the choice possibilities is a herculean task on its own. But many remain frustrated given how much it contrasts with the excellence of the first part of the game.
The issues with act 3 haven’t hampered everyone’s enjoyment. For instance, our reviewer specifically called out the act 3 performance issues, but felt they were trivial compared to the overall quality of the rest of the game. But others are having a much rougher time, especially on weaker PC hardware.
And for everyone else who hasn’t reached act 3 yet (guilty!), it may be a good idea to slow down your playthroughs in hopes that a future patch — or even one of the console releases — tidies up the game’s climactic finale.
Larian Studios has committed to working on improving the game’s issues, and promised a second patch “right around the corner” that “will feature significant performance improvements.” Larian has also said it will not start working on expansion content until after it’s done with major patches.
In the meantime, Baldur’s Gate 3 is slated to release on PS5 on September 6, with the Xbox Series X|S set for sometime later this year. And if Minthara isn’t working out for you, you can find our list of the most rewarding romances in Baldur’s Gate 3 right here.
Additional reporting by Kate Bailey.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Elon Musk, who has spent much of the year in the headlines for his radical transformation of the platform previously known as Twitter, didn’t have a great time at a recent Valorant tournament.
Musk dropped in on the finals of the Valorant Champions tournament over the weekend, which took place in Los Angeles. He was filmed outside the event with his young son, X Æ A-12 Musk, then later joined the crowd as Evil Geniuses took on Paper Rex.
At one point Musk appeared on the main video screen, drawing boos and chants of “Bring back Twitter” from the crowd. The moment quickly caught the attention of social media users, who responded to the boos and discussed Musk’s handling of X generally.
“Elon should have figured out who was a blue checkmark so he could have given them each a megaphone before he showed up. Pretty much how modern Twitter works,” one user joked in a highly upvoted message on the LivestreamFail subreddit.
Elon Musk getting booed at VALORANT Champs and the crowd starts chanting “bring back Twitter” lmao pic.twitter.com/lDoWse78YV
Musk’s moves have made the billionaire behind Tesla and SpaceX a polarizing figure on social media and elsewhere. For his part, Musk did not respond to the reaction at the Valorant tournament, instead focusing his attention on SpaceX’s Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station.
As for the tournament itself, team Evil Geniuses ultimately won 3-1.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
