I’ve done my time in major MMOs like Final Fantasy 14 and World of Warcraft, but outside of that I’ve only dabbled in the various other forms this subgenre can take. So when I say that Throne and Liberty isn’t quite rising to my past experiences with massively multiplayer dungeon-diving, loot-grinding, and boss-slaying, it’s an opinion coming largely from a “normie.” That said, both FF14 and WoW have big expansions launching the same year as this, NCSOFTs Guild Wars 2 follow up, and though its world is beautiful and its combat grows into a compelling and active ballet of skill interactions, the largely boring story and repetitive quest design I experienced in my 10 or so hours with the Open Beta makes me worried for Throne and Liberty’s chances at unseating the kings of the genre.
It is a great-looking game, though. The character creator lets you customize your avatar with some commendable levels of detail. And no matter what you put together, the end result will look fantastic, and shows no signs of the sort of player character uncanny valley that some games suffer from, where the overall quality of your PC is lower than the handcrafted NPCs from the developers. The world is pretty stunning, too. Once you see the huge flying whale for the first time, you’ll go quite a few hours before you see something that majestic again, but the environments you’ll travel through on your journey are rich in color and detail. I really loved the swampy forest overrun by spiders and the colorful plains with giant wild birds that are Definitely Not Chocobos. Even better, all of this runs remarkably smoothly. Becoming your own mount and morphing into a wild cat to sprint through cities or fast traveling from location to location loads lightning fast and in real time no matter how many people are on screen.
You’re going to do quite a lot of traveling from place to place, guided around by a completely unremarkable story about magically blessed youngsters growing into warriors of destiny, and the various factions in the world of Solisium that want to use them for their own gain. I didn’t get too far into it – only around chapter 5, which is halfway through the available content at the time – but none of it stood out as compelling. Thanks to a reliable narrator that recaps important parts of the story I did soon after doing them, I found myself skipping through much of the bland dialogue in non-cinematic exchanges.
The bulk of the quests both on the main path and side missions are pretty run-of-the-mill MMO fare.
The bulk of the quests both on the main path and side missions are pretty run-of-the-mill MMO fare. You’re gonna be collecting pieces of the local wildlife to make a potion, find missing people, do a stint as a mail carrier, etc. There’s a steady pace of new things to learn and do as you go along, but Throne and Liberty treating the main story as an elongated tutorial gave me a bit of anxiety about how to use all of the random stuff I was getting as rewards, to the point where I was very conservative with how I spent any loot because I didn’t what to spend it on upgrading something if I was only going to learn that I could have spent it on something else in the next couple of quest phases. Every region of the map has its own specific side tasks, which are worth completing for their rewards even if you aren’t usually the type to make sure all of their boxes get checked. These are more likely to feature more interesting missions or puzzles to solve than the main quest, but there’s plenty of “kill X of Y” here, too. I didn’t get to see too many of these myself, but I chatted with a few folks in my travels who described some more complex platforming missions in instances that I definitely wanted to try out myself.
You’ll do a great deal of fighting on your journey, of course, and its active combat is Throne and Liberty’s standout feature. Players aren’t restricted by classes. The pair of weapons they choose to wield determines what abilities are available to them. Similar to NCSOFT’s other big MMO, Guild Wars 2, fights require lots of positional awareness, and skills have lots of synergies with one another both within and across weapon types, and encourage lots of trial and error to figure out the best combinations for getting the most out of them. Every weapon has an auto attack pattern and can parry enemies’ big attacks so long as you hit the button prompt just right, and each weapon has their own set of follow-up attacks that take great advantage of the opening you made. This mechanic seems ancillary against smaller foes, but against bosses and other strong enemies, defense is a must if you’re going to make it out of their clutches alive. Mastery of it was an absolute must in the Bloody Palace-style boss rush mode where you face off one-on-one with tough foes that have lots of power and small margins for error.
I used the greatsword and the staff, giving me lots of power and health in melee and also some escape tools and long-range magical options. I used them mostly to charge into close combat, blast all of my abilities, then use a magical freezing cloud to leap me away from enemies and blast them with fire and lighting bolts until they closed the distance. These abilities have more direct synergies, too. Greatsword players have access to a skill that can stun targets, and can follow it up with another skill that does bonus damage to stunned foes. The staff can put burning conditions on your opponents, and a second bigger fire spell will do more damage to enemies with burning stacks on them. Late in the beta I experimented with some cross weapon synergy with other weapon options like the wand, which focuses on debuffing and healing, with some promising results.
Most of the stuff I got up to like big world events where I had to race other players to collect the most macguffins from orcs, or smaller, more simple fetch quests, rewarded me mostly in money and gear upgrade materials. . It’s a double-edged sword, because though much of the source of your ever-growing power outside of your characters leveling up also comes through leveling up your gear, but a lot of that gear is bland and boring through much of your climb. I was around the mid-to-late 20s in level when I logged off for the last time from the beta, and I had only picked up two different swords – neither particularly impressive in looks or stats. Armor was a bit more dynamic, but I had almost no connection to the loot I was grabbing at all outside of making the numbers go up. I can’t speak to how that shakes out towards the higher levels, where one would expect equipment to get more exotic, but trudging there means that the only things you’re slaying are bad guys.
Overall, I certainly enjoyed most of my time with Throne and Liberty. There are big, late-game things that I want to come back and participate in, like large-scale PVP battles between guilds and raid dungeons. The story and quests won’t upend any long-standing MMO conventions. The inner voice that usually commands me to make sure every task that can be done must be done very quietly let me skip through slow dialogue and turn a blind eye to many menial side tasks. I never skipped an opportunity to fight, though. The parry system mixed with the joy of discovering sick skill combos across the various weapons available to you was by and large the most fun I could find in my time with it, and might be enough for me to come back to test my mettle against the cream of the crop when Throne and Liberty finally launches in September.
SSD prices are trending upward for 2024, but there are still some excellent deals to be found if you’re vigilant. Today, Amazon is offering the PS5-compatible TEAMGROUP 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SSD) for only $104.99. You’ll need to supply a heatsink, but you can easily get a PS5 heatsink for under $10. All of the other best PS5 SSDs cost $140 or more.
TEAMGROUP 2TB SSD (PS5-Compatible) for $105
The PS5 is an outstanding gaming console, but the 1TB SSD is a real bottleneck. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, for example, can exceed 200GB alone. NBA 2K23 weighs in at 150GB and even older games like God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West require 90GB of space. Future games like Grand Theft Auto VI will undoubtedly demand even more space. The advantage of a PS5 console over the Xbox Series X is that the SSD slot is not proprietary; you can install most third-party PCIe Gen4 x4 SSDs as long as they are fast enough. Slower drives WILL work, but they may bottleneck the original SSD.
Although TEAMGROUP isn’t as well-known of a brand as SanDisk or Samsung, this brand has been around for a while and is a legitimate manufacturer of flash-based storage. This particular model has plenty of good reviews on Amazon. This particular SSD meets all the requirements for your PS5 upgrade. This is a PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD with an M.2 2280 form factor and transfer speeds of up to 7,400MB/s read and 6,500MB/s write which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. It also makes an excellent boot drive for your gaming PC, especially with its 2TB storage capacity.
It’s hard to talk about modern video games without mentioning the influence of Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar’s iconic crime franchise has grown from a controversial PlayStation 1 classic to a universally recognised cultural behemoth, with its most recent entry, Grand Theft Auto 5, becoming the third best-selling game of all time.
However, the series didn’t grow into a landmark success overnight. Rockstar has been slowly building its iconic crime series for over two decades, creating hyper-immersive open worlds that players explore for years after their release. With over sixteen Grand Theft Auto games dropping since the franchise began in 1997, new players are probably wondering where to start. To help you get stuck in, we’ve listed every GTA game in chronological order so you can plot the best route through the timeline of this crime-riddled world. You will have to wait unil 2025 for GTA 6, though.
There are a total of 16 games in the Grand Theft Auto series – eleven on home consoles, one on PC and four on handheld devices. We also already know that GTA 6 will be coming out in 2025.
Before we dive into the list, it’s first worth noting an important detail about the overall continuity of Grand Theft Auto. As confirmed by Rockstar back in 2011, the GTA series is split into three unique timelines: the 2D timeline, the 3D timeline and the HD timeline. Although events in these timelines might be similar or even identical, Rockstar doesn’t consider all of them canon to each other. As such, we’ll separate the games into their respective universes.
Which GTA Game Should You Play First?
If you’re wanting to get into the Grand Theft Auto games before GTA 6 arrives, you will likely want to start with the latest in the series: GTA 5. You can certainly go back to previous games, but GTA 5 is a masterpiece in it’s own right and is playable pretty much everywhere. You can also take advantage of GTA Online for multiplayer.
Where Is GTA 6 on the Grand Theft Auto Timeline?
With the recent reveal trailer confirming that GTA 6 will be taking place in what appears to be a modern day Vice City, it seems like there won’t be jump in time either forward or backward. References to TikTok and modern vehicles pretty much confirms this, but we don’t have more information than that yet.
The Grand Theft Auto 2D Timeline
Below, we’ll list the Grand Theft Auto games from the 2D universe. These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
1. Grand Theft Auto: London 1961
The second expansion released for the original Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 is one of only two GTA releases to not hit a PlayStation console, with the DLC only available to PC players.
The mission pack acts as a prequel to Grand Theft Auto’s first expansion, Grand Theft Auto: London 1969. It follows a nameless criminal rising through the ranks of the London crime families by completing jobs for a mobster called Harold Cartwright.
2. Grand Theft Auto: London 1969
The first expansion for the original Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 marked the series’ first visit to London.
The tale follows a nameless British criminal who fights against various crime syndicates while building their legend on the city’s streets. These include Harold Cartwright’s gang, which the player joins forces with in Grand Theft Auto: London 1961, as well as a pair of sinister crime lords known as the Crisp Twins.
3. Grand Theft Auto
The first entry in the mainline series, Grand Theft Auto follows the adventures of a nameless protagonist as they make their mark on the criminal underworlds of three locations: Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City.
Set in 1997, the criminal’s adventures see them complete bank heists, assassinations and getaways, building their reputation while aiding various sinister gangs. Along the way, they meet a host of high-ranking criminals, including Robert Seragliano, El Burro and Uncle Fu.
4. Grand Theft Auto 2
The second mainline entry in the series, Grand Theft Auto 2 is arguably the biggest departure for the series to date. Shifting away from the setting of the first GTA, it takes players to a nigh-on futuristic metropolis known as Anywhere City, which bears no striking resemblance to any other location in the series.
The adventure follows a criminal named Claude Speed, who works with various crime syndicates around Anywhere City to make money and earn respect. The game’s position on the timeline is tricky, mainly as in-game references allude to it taking place in both 1999 and 2013. Regardless, it’s the final game in the 2D timeline.
The Grand Theft Auto 3D Timeline
Below, we’ll list the Grand Theft Auto games from the 3D universe. These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
A prequel to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the PSP’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories takes place in 1984 and follows US military soldier Victor Vance who, after being framed by his sergeant, is dishonorably discharged.
Fresh out of a job, he decides to enter Vice City’s underworld, quickly becoming the head of a crime family with the help of his brother, Lance. The pair embark on an adventure to disrupt Vice City’s crime scene, meeting and recruiting a variety of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’s supporting characters along the way. By the time the game wraps up, Vic’s story catches up with the beginning of Vice City.
2. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
The fourth mainline iteration of the series, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City takes place in 1986; two years after Vice City Stories. It follows Tommy Verceti, a notorious gangster from Liberty City who is sent to Vice City to oversee the expansion of his boss’ drug trade after being released from jail.
Tommy lands in hot water after a supposedly simple drug deal goes horribly wrong. Losing the drugs and money exchanged in the deal, Tommy is given one last chance to make things right.
To redeem himself, he dives into the seedy underbelly of Vice City, allying with Lance Vance to take on its various crime families and find the drugs and money stolen from him. As he becomes a bigger name around Vice City, he slowly creates a growing criminal empire, which doesn’t go unnoticed by his former employers.
3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
The fifth mainline iteration of the series, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas tells the story of Carl ‘CJ’ Johnson and the Grove Street Families.
Set in 1992, San Andreas follows CJ as he returns to Los Santos after his mother is killed in a drive-by meant to assassinate his brother. Reuniting with his friends, family and local gang, The Grove Street Families, it doesn’t take long for CJ to get stuck back into the criminal underworld, vowing to get revenge on the gang that murdered his mother.
While CJ attempts to rebuild the Grove Street gang’s former glory, it becomes clear that something shady is happening behind the scenes. Pursued by a crooked cop named Officer Tenpenny, CJ deals with betrayal, corrupt law enforcement and the various factions vying for control of Los Santos and the neighboring cities of San Fierro and Las Venturas.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Set in 1998, Liberty City Stories acts as a prequel to Grand Theft Auto 3 and follows a gangster working for Salvatore Leone named Toni Cipriani. Returning to Liberty City after fleeing to Italy to escape the repercussions of assassinating a member of the mafia, Toni gets stuck back in working for his former boss.
Along the way, he meets several high-level mafia contacts and climbs through the ranks of Sal’s gang, murdering rival crime lords and assisting Leone’s attempts to gain political sway with the mayor. The story concludes with Salvatore Leone’s family standing as one the most powerful crime syndicates in Liberty City, setting up the events of Grand Theft Auto 3.
5. Grand Theft Auto Advance
Taking place in 2000, Grand Theft Auto Advance was a Grand Theft Auto 3 prequel released on the Gameboy Advance. It follows a criminal named Mike as he attempts to get revenge for the death of his partner, Vinnie.
Deciding to leave Liberty City and find new opportunities elsewhere, the story begins with Mike and Vinnie completing jobs for the mafia in an attempt to tie up loose ends and fund their escape. However, the plan falls apart when Vinnie is killed with a car bomb, driving Mike to find and kill his murderers. In pursuit of vengeance, Mike teams with various Grand Theft Auto 3 characters, including 8-Ball and Asuka Kasen.
6. Grand Theft Auto 3
The final entry in the timeline but the first game of the 3D era by release date, Grand Theft Auto 3 takes place in 2001 and follows a new Claude, a bank robber that’s shot and left for dead by his girlfriend, Catalina, during a heist.
Claude survives but is arrested and sentenced to life in jail. However, while en route to prison, Claude manages to escape after the Columbian Cartel raided his convoy in search of another prisoner. Fleeing the scene, Claude is soon inducted into the criminal underworld of Liberty City, working with the mafia, the yakuza and various other syndicates.
Although he rises to become one of the city’s most notorious gangsters, Claude’s goal quickly becomes one of vengeance, as his path eventually crosses with Catalina, setting up an inevitable confrontation between the former couple.
The Grand Theft Auto HD Timeline
Below, we’ll list the Grand Theft Auto games from the HD universe. These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
1. Grand Theft Auto 4
The first game of the HD era, Grand Theft Auto 4 takes place in 2008 and follows an Eastern European ex-soldier named Niko Bellic as he makes his way to Liberty City. Coming to America to reunite with his cousin, Roman Bellic, who has allegedly found fortune after moving to Liberty City, Niko is shocked to find Roman is actually broke, living in a cockroach-infested apartment and running a failing business.
It doesn’t take long for Niko to find work and amass cash through less-than-legal means, meeting and befriending an arms dealer named Little Jacob and working off Roman’s debts with a Russian loan shark named Vlad Glebov. However, after discovering that Vlad has been sleeping with Roman’s girlfriend, Niko kills him, sparking a chain of events which puts him and Roman in the sights of the Russian mafia.
To survive, Niko allies with the crime families of Liberty City, where he becomes tangled in their politics and becomes one of the city’s most feared criminals. All the while, Niko has an ulterior motive, wanting to track down and murder a former comrade from his days in the military that double-crossed him and his squad.
2. Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and The Damned
Set during the events of Grand Theft Auto 4, The Lost and the Damned was GTA 4’s first expansion. It follows Johnny Klebitz, the Vice President of a revered motorcycle gang called The Lost MC.
Released from a long stint in rehab, the story opens with The Lost MC’s President, Billy Grey, returning to the gang and reassuming his position as its leader. During his time away, Johnny led The Lost MC, forming a truce with the gang’s main rivals, The Angels of Death. Once reinstated, Billy and Johnny begin to clash after Billy orders The Lost to break the truce with the Angels of Death, starting a ruthless gang war.
As the two gangs battle it out, Billy begins to lead The Lost down a self-destructive path, guiding his brothers into increasingly dangerous situations. With civil war brewing in the group, Johnny is forced to consider where his loyalty lies.
3. Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
The second of GTA 4’s expansions, The Ballad of Gay Tony also takes place alongside the core Grand Theft Auto campaign. The story follows bodyguard Luis Lopez as he tries to save the life of his boss and legendary nightclub owner, Tony Prince.
Although Tony is a fixture of Liberty City’s nightlife scene, his businesses are failing. To make matters worse, he’s also in debt to the Ancelotti crime family, who are ready to collect what they’re owed. Swearing to help his boss, Luis tries to square Tony’s debts, helping out his various criminal acquaintances.
It all crescendos with a risky plan from Tony, who decides to acquire millions of dollars worth of smuggled diamonds and exchange them in a deal. However, the plan falls apart, leading Luis on a wild goose chase around Liberty City in an attempt to retrieve the diamonds and keep Tony’s debts from catching up with him.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Taking place in 2009, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars tells the story of Huang Lee, the son of a murdered Triad leader who is tasked with flying to Liberty City to deliver an ancient sword to his uncle.
After arriving in Liberty City, Huang is ambushed, with his attackers stealing the sword and shooting Huang. Believing him dead, they dump his body, allowing Huang to escape alive. Reuniting with his uncle, Huang embarks on an adventure to track down the sword and deliver it back to the Triads. Along the way, he works with various gangs and the FIB, learning that the sword’s theft may have been an inside job.
5. Grand Theft Auto Online
Although it’s difficult to judge where exactly it falls on the timeline, Grand Theft Auto Online begins shortly before Grand Theft Auto 5 and has, over the course of ten years of updates, shifted to a period of time long after the game’s main campaign.
The core story follows a player-created criminal that heads to Los Santos to find fortune, reputation and fame, creating factions, buying property and taking part in criminal ventures. The story has evolved over the years, with one of the latest updates revisiting the character of Franklin years after the events of Grand Theft Auto V, as he tasks the player with helping him in his business ventures.
6. Grand Theft Auto 5
Set in 2013, Grand Theft Auto 5 follows the story of three criminals: Franklin, Michael and Trevor. After staging his death during a bank robbery in the small town of North Yankton, Michael Townley enters a witness protection programme, moving to the sunny city of Los Santos to live a life of luxury in a giant mansion with his family.
However, he’s lured out of retirement when he meets Franklin Clinton, an ambitious small-time criminal sent to repossess Michael’s son’s car. Forming a friendship, Michael begins to mentor Franklin, eventually leading the pair to rob a jewelry store to pay off a local crime lord. However, the act doesn’t go unnoticed.
On the outskirts of Los Santos, Michael’s former friend and criminal associate, Trevor Phillips, watches a clip of the heist on the news. Realizing that his seemingly dead partner is still alive in Los Santos, Trevor heads to the city, joining Michael and Franklin to stage various elaborate heists. However, Trevor’s animosity towards Michael’s betrayal begins to drive a wedge between the group, as tensions rise and the truth behind the pair’s past comes to light.
According to last year’s reveal trailer, the new Grand Theft Auto game will be set in Vice City and feature two protagonists, though not much has been confirmed about the next installment’s gameplay. This may be one of the biggest game releases to date, and we’re all hoping it’s worth the wait.
Tony Pankhurst, the UK actor who became a recognizable face in Supermassive’s horror series The Dark Pictures Anthology, has passed away aged 67.
Supermassive’s X/Twitter account revealed that Pankhurst had passed away. In a tribute page published by his family (spotted by GameSpot), it was revealed that Pankhurst had passed away on May 9, with Supermassive Games learning of the news today and providing a recent donation to the family. As the tribute page reveals, any donations would be provided to “Hospice in the World,” as the organization “provided such love and support to [Pankhurst] in his final weeks.”
We are all saddened to hear of Tony Pankhurst’s passing. He was the face of The Curator, and we loved working with him. 🤍 pic.twitter.com/ZZQbeViE8S
“We are all saddened to hear of Tony Pankhurst’s passing. He was the face of The Curator, and we loved working with him,” Supermassive said.
Pankhurst is best known for his work on The Dark Pictures Anthology series. Although Pip Torrens has done both motion capture and voice work for The Curator, Pankhurst’s likeness inspired the fictional character’s appearance. Pankhurst even played the character in a live-action trailer for 2021’s The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes.
The Curator is a recurring character in The Dark Pictures Anthology series. While he appears polite and calm, his presence, combined with the dark and ominous room he is in, is unsettling. He records players’ stories as they endure horrific and supernatural events throughout each game.
The Curator has appeared in every installment in the first season of The Dark Pictures Anthology, starting with 2019’s Man of Medan, and most recently appeared in a cameo in the 2023 PlayStation VR2 spinoff The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR.
The Dark Pictures Anthology series concluded its first season following the release of The Devil in Me in 2022. A second season is planned, and the first entry in season two, Directive 8020, is currently in development.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Astro Bot is getting a limited edition PlayStation 5 controller, Sony has announced.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Nicolas Doucet, studio head at developer Team Asobi, offered a first look at the Astro Bot Limited Edition DualSense Wireless Controller.
PlayStation’s upcoming platforming celebration, due out September 6, features over 50 planets, new powerups, lots of enemies, secrets and PlayStation-infused characters to collect. It also features a DualSense wireless controller turned into a living character in the game.
The controller design features Astro’s blue accents on the handles and buttons, carved-in, sci-fi lines, and Atro’s pair of eyes on the touch pad.
Starting Friday, August 9 at 7am PT in the U.S. and 10am local time in the U.K., France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Portugal, players can pre-order the DualSense wireless controller – Astro Bot Limited Edition through direct.playstation.com, as well as from select retailers, priced $79.99/ €79.99 / £69.99 / ¥11,980. It launches alongside the game itself on September 6.
In the blog post, Doucet outlined how Astro Bot uses the features of the DualSense.
“First, as many of you expect from an Astro game, you can feel the surfaces that Astro runs and slides on, from grass, sand, metal to more squishy textures or water,” Doucet said. “That was already the case with Astro’s Playroom, but we have increased the number of textures you can feel through the controller.”
“Next, we doubled down on the adaptive triggers combined with haptic feedback, by tying them tightly to Astro’s new powers. For example, when using Barkster, the bulldog Jetpack, you can feel the thruster ratting against your finger in synch with the animation, giving a very dynamic and immersive feeling. Every new power up has been given that same special treatment so you will be able to experience various expressions through your fingers.
“Finally, given the number of enemies and boss battles we added to this new adventure, it was important to work on battle and impacts by combining all of the above. Whether it’s stretching, pounding or pummeling hard surfaces, there are many new types of impacts that can be experienced in Astro Bot.
“And of course, we could not finish this post without mentioning the Dual Speeder, one of Astro’s most recurrent gadgets, allowing him to fly into various planets. The Dual Speeder makes full use of motion control, adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.”
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.
A new Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League cutscene has sparked a debate about the direction the story is going in, as the latest season teases the next playable character.
Mrs. Freeze was added to Rocksteady’s controversial live service shooter last week as part of the launch of Season 2, and with it came a cutscene that’s set tongues wagging within the game’s small but loyal community.
Warning! Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League Season 2 spoilers follow:
The new cutscene shows the return of The Flash after the Suicide Squad save him from captivity by killing yet another post-launch Brainiac as part of Season 2. The Suicide Squad had killed The Flash alongside other corrupted members of the Justice League in a bid to save Metropolis from destruction at the hands of Brainiac in the base game’s main story.
Some have called the story development a surprise, while others have said a post-launch plot twist that saw the return of “good” Justice League members was always on the cards. Either way, players are wondering about the exact nature of the Flash’s return, what it means for Brainiac’s masterplan, and raising the possibility that other characters apparently killed by the Suicide Squad, including Batman, Green Lantern, and Superman, could also be set to return.
One of the most controversial story beats in the Suicide Squad base game is the death of corrupted Arkham trilogy Batman, who is unceremoniously executed by Harley Quinn. Some criticized the death, saying it failed to give the character, voiced by the late Kevin Conroy, the sendoff he deserved.
But could Batman now be set to return alongside more voice work from Kevin Conroy? This new cutscene suggests the Suicide Squad killed clones of the original Justice League members during the main story, with Brainiac holding the real deals hostage. However, some suggest the Suicide Squad did in fact kill the original Justice League members, but Brainiac has since revived them, and it is now the task of Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark, to save them.
Whatever the case, in the cutscene The Flash sees the Suicide Squad and wonders why they’re not in jail, before collapsing. The character’s return is not mentioned further.
Perhaps more revelations, and real Justice League members, will show up in Season 3, which looks set to add Lawless as a playable character. While the list of post-launch DLC characters was already leaked via a datamine, Rocksteady has teased their inclusion with changes to Metropolis that clearly indicate who’s up next. Season 1, for example, teased the arrival of Mrs. Freeze with a chilly change to Metropolis, and now players have spotted another change that suggests Lawless is coming soon. After Lawless, Deathstroke is expected to round out the year one list of playable characters.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was of course panned by critics upon launch and has extremely low player numbers on Steam. Some of the frustration stems from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League not being another Batman game from Rocksteady, despite being set within the Arkhamverse. The developer’s single-player Arkham series is much-loved by fans, with 2011’s Batman: Arkham City in particular held up as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, superhero video games of all time.
Last month, Warner Bros, told IGN that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will see out its first year of support, but declined to comment on what happens afterwards. The question is, will Rocksteady’s apparent post-launch plan to have the Suicide Squad pivot to saving the Justice League after killing them be fully realized?
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 main Assassin’s Creed subreddit has warned users against debating the historical accuracy of the upcoming video game Assassin’s Creed Shadows, specifically protagonist Yasuke’s status as a samurai.
Moderators of r/assassinscreed, which has over 700,000 members, locked down a post titled “There is no ‘debate’ – Yasuke was a Samurai. If you disagree, you can do that somewhere else,” due to “brigading” in the comments.
The post followed a controversial statement issued by Ubisoft to Japanese fans in which the company apologized for promotion materials it said “have caused concern” among the community.
The four-page message, posted in both English and Japanese, explained that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is not intended to be a factual representation of history. Instead, it is described as “a compelling, historical fiction set in Feudal Japan. Ubisoft added that it hoped Shadows would “spark curiosity” in players who then research the historical period the game is inspired by.
In addition to the apology regarding the marketing materials, the message also discussed Yasuke, one of Shadows’ two protagonists: “While Yasuke is depicted as a samurai in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, we acknowledge that this is a matter of debate and discussion. We have woven this carefully into our narrative and with our other lead character, the Japanese shinobi Naoe, who is equally important in the game, our dual protagonists provide players with different gameplay styles.”
While Yasuke has often been presented as a samurai in popular media, both in Japan and beyond, his depiction in Shadows has given rise to debate regarding the historical truth. The argument has lived side-by-side with criticism over Ubisoft’s decision to feature a Black man as a lead protagonist in a Japan-set Assassin’s Creed game – a backlash Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot alluded to while condemning “malicious and personal online attacks.”
The statement noted that the Assassin’s Creed series has always taken “creative license and incorporated fantasy elements” into its historically-inspired settings. “The representation of Yasuke in our game is an illustration of this. His unique and mysterious life made him an ideal candidate to tell an Assassin’s Creed story with the setting of Feudal Japan as a backdrop.”
The mod team behind r/assassinscreed said Ubisoft’s statement “exacerbated” what it called “this tedious discussion that has been endlessly talked to death,” and gave users of the subreddit a “final reminder” of what the Assassin’s Creed franchise entails.
Here’s the r/assassinscreed mod team’s statement in full:
With the reveal of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, there has been an influx of certain individuals spilling into various communities online such as this subreddit and raising arguments about “historical accuracy”. As we are all exhausted of this tedious discussion that has been endlessly talked to death, not to mention exacerbated by a recent official statement from Ubisoft, we would like to give a final reminder to those participating in these debates as to what exactly this franchise entails, and why there was never any point to these discussions to begin with outside of thinly veiling bad faith intent.
Assassin’s Creed is historical fiction. This means that while certain locations, events and figures may be based on reality, and can even have a slight focus on accuracy, their depictions are largely exaggerated for the sake of a more enjoyable video game. While all of our player protagonists have been fictional to date, the introduction of Yasuke has given some people the false impression that the above rule does not apply. It still does. Yasuke, who is a samurai as confirmed by multiple reputable historians around the world including from Japan, may not have held as large as a role in the real world as he does in Shadows. This is okay. It is a video game. You are not meant to use Assassin’s Creed as a sourcebook for actual historical knowledge – it is meant to compel you to do your own external research after immersing you in a glimpse of authenticity.
We are not here in this community to debate on historical record. Most of us understand as fans that while these games provide us a great look into what historical settings could have felt like and have fun comparing them to actual record, we do not chase accuracy within this franchise and primarily play for other reasons. So if you are specifically here to leave comments about your displeasure about Yasuke’s inclusion or various other inaccurate details that have been pointed out in Ubisoft’s depiction of Feudal Japan, it is time to understand that this is not the place for this discussion and it never will be. Feel free to take your displeasures elsewhere, away from this franchise and its communities.
Any further comments attempting to dispute Yasuke’s societal status, disparage his inclusion in game or containing statements bordering on concern trolling for historical accuracy will be swiftly removed and met with a ban.
The mod team also provided a list of links to reddit posts explaining how the Assassin’s Creed series has handled historical accuracy in previous games.
The post outlines the subreddit’s firm stance on Shadows, and is a clear attempt to draw a line under what has become one of the big talking points around the game. As Eurogamer pointed out, this debate has spilled over into the real-world, with a fringe Japanese politician requesting the Japanese government comment on the matter. But so far there has been no meaningful result.
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.
Xbox fans are waving goodbye to the Xbox 360 Marketplace, which shuts down today nearly 19 years after it launched.
The Xbox 360 Marketplace hit the internet alongside the Xbox 360 in November 2005, and brought with it a storefront that would become familiar to a generation of gamers.
Microsoft shuts down the Xbox 360 Marketplace today, July 29, not only marking the end of an era and the true end of the Xbox 360, but making a long list of video games and add-ons that were exclusive to the digital storefront impossible to buy. That list includes the likes of Aegis Wing, Meteos Wars, and Crimson Alliance.
Fans have taken to social media to reminisce about the Xbox 360 Marketplace, including former Microsoft employee Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb, who for years would write posts about sales and updates for the Xbox 360 Marketplace and became the face of Xbox for so many fans.
“Almost 19 years on, all good things must come to an end,” Hryb tweeted. “It was my pleasure sharing all the thousands of marketplace sales and updates I’ve given over the years. Thank for having fun, playing fair and filing feedback.”
This is the final weekend for the Xbox 360 Marketplace.
If you don’t purchase in these last 2 days, you’ll lose your chance forever. End of an era to my favourite system of the 7th Generation. pic.twitter.com/tqZo06NFXx
— no context nostalgia (@nostalgiaooc) July 28, 2024
Before the marketplace closes on Monday, here’s a showcase of my final Xbox 360 digital library. I’ll still be collecting physical games, but it’s sad to see my childhood console have it’s support finally dropped. pic.twitter.com/J9or5CPrcX
WARNING: TONIGHT IS THE FINAL NIGHT YOU CAN GET THE $1 SOUR BILL AVATAR SHIRT FROM THE XBOX 360 MARKETPLACE, THIS IS NOT A JOKE pic.twitter.com/qRdsg4SKZr
It’s worth noting that despite this shutdown, you can redownload previously owned titles and DLCs, buy backwards compatible games on the Xbox One and Series storefront, and still play online on Xbox 360. So, only games unavailable via backwards compatibility on Xbox One / Series and Xbox 360-era content such as avatars, icons, and themes are gone forever.
Alas, digital preservation evangelists are again proven correct.
Ahead of the shutdown, Microsoft-owned video game developer Double Fine offered Xbox 360 owners free digital codes for Kinect Party, the sequel to Happy Action Theater. The Psychonauts and Brütal Legend developer warned Xbox 360 players that they should download any games ahead of the closure. Because Xbox 360 Kinect is not supported by subsequent Xbox hardware, Kinect Party is one of the games lost forever amid this shutdown.
And in a nod to concern from some quarters that Microsoft’s closure of the Xbox 360 Marketplace would have a significant impact on video game preservation, Double Fine tweeted: “Alas, digital preservation evangelists are again proven correct.”
X/Twitter user @Kalyoshika provided a helpful list of video games that haven’t survived the shutdown. It includes the likes of The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, Death Tank, and Diabolical Pitch.
Alright alright people want it so here it is. The Xbox 360 store is being obliterated from orbit on July 29, 2024 so I’ve written a non-exhaustive thread here of a few interesting games/DLC that will not survive*. Some are on sale others…not on sale.🧵 pic.twitter.com/a8Mn2pIX09
Do you have any fond memories of the Xbox 360 Marketplace? Did you buy anything last minute before it was lost forever? Let us know in the comments.
Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
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 upcoming Disney Lorcana set, Shimmering Skies, is upon us with the early release on August 9 in hobby stores followed by the wide release on August 23. This is the fifth set since Lorcana launched almost one year ago. Alongside a new expansive set, two starter decks will be released: An Emerald/Steel deck featuring The Lion King’s Scar and The Emperor’s New Groove’s Kronk, and an Amethyst/Ruby deck featuring Frozen’s Elsa and Wreck-It Ralph. Starter decks are always a good jumping-off point when getting into a new card game; these two new decks are no exception.
Starter decks usually have a theme, and the hope is that the included cards have a unifying playstyle. Usually, starter decks will get you part of the way to an optimized deck before players begin to brew some ideas. The Emerald/Steel deck, for instance, focuses on keeping your opponent’s characters damaged throughout the game and capitalizing on that board state. The featured Scar character has an ability that allows the player to draw a card whenever one of their characters challenges a damaged character. Another example includes Scar’s hyena minion Ed, who is protected from being challenged if the opponent’s character is damaged. There’s even a location card, Tropical Rainforest, that forces opposing damaged characters to challenge if able. All of this disrupts the opposing player from playing their cards how they want to.
And those are just some of the emerald cards in the deck. Regarding steel, there are some cards that can help with this overarching damaged character control strategy, like Tug-of-War, which gives the player a choice of dealing damage to all opposing characters with the Evasive ability or without, or Yzma, who can deal 1 damage to a character if any of the player’s characters banish another character through a challenge. This disruption deck is kind of interesting in the sense that you somewhat dictate how your opponent plays some of their cards if the setup is there. The only potential concern with this deck is that the player is leaving all of these opposing characters on the field. So if the player were to lose the ability to disrupt, all these surviving characters can now wreak havoc.
With the other available starter, the Amethyst/Ruby deck doesn’t synergize as much as its counterpart. The new Wreck-It Ralph characters Vanellope and Snowanna, for instance, have the rush ability to challenge opposing characters as soon as they are played, but don’t have a huge benefit like the current Amethyst/Ruby decks do when potentially trading characters in this way, such as drawing when banished. Sure, there are amethyst cards that exert characters to make them targets, but the rewards seem disappointing compared to what the new Emerald/Steel starter deck can pull off. With that said, there are just some good cards in the Amethyst/Ruby starter deck that players can most likely use in their own constructed decks. For example, The Sword Released is an item card that lets the player gain lore as well as force your opponent to lose lore if the player has the strongest character on the board. Another useful card is Finders Keepers, which lets the player draw three cards. Drawing and filtering the deck down is always useful when fishing for certain cards at pivotal moments in the match. Although the deck itself isn’t great on its own, the guaranteed cards can be useful in deck brewing if your options are limited.
…if the player were to lose the ability to disrupt, all these surviving characters can now wreak havoc.
Both Shimmering Skies starter decks, like other starters, continue to give players a pre-constructed taste of what their respective set will be like. We have new characters and abilities to mess around with, and that’s always exciting for any card game. Although one starter deck seemingly plays better, both work as a means to get into the game for those looking to try out the latest Disney Lorcana has to offer. For more Disney Lorcana, check out our interview with one of the game designers on how the card game came to be.
Each Shimmering Skies Starter Deck comes with:
60 cards
11 damage counters
1 paper playmat
1 paper tracker token
Game Rules
Amethyst & Ruby
2x 36 – The Nokk – Mythical Spirit
2x 39 – Archimedes – Exasperated Owl
2x 40 – Bruni – Fire Salamander
2x 41 – Earth Giant – Living Mountain
2x 42 – Gale – Wind Spirit
1x 46 – Anna – Mystical Majesty
2x 47 – Archimedes – Electrified Owl
1x 48 – Elsa – The Fifth Spirit
1x 50 – Olaf – Happy Passenger
2x 54 – Maleficent – Vengeful Sorceress
3x 56 – Anna – Eager Acolyte
2x 57 – King of Hearts – Monarch of Wonderland
3x 59 – Hypnotic Strength
2x 60 – Finders Keepers
2x 64 – Retrosphere
2x 68 – The Library – A Gift for Belle
2x 103 – Taffyta Muttonfudge – Ruthless Rival
1x 104 – Wreck-It Ralph – Demolition Dude
2x 106 – Turbo – Royal Hack
2x 108 – Rancis Fluggerbutter – Chocolate Charger
2x 110 – Snowanna Rainbeau – Cool Competitor
2x 111 – Daisy Duck – Spotless Food-Fighter
2x 112 – Mickey Mouse – Enthusiastic Dancer
3x 114 – Taffyta Muttonfudge – Crowd Favorite
2x 117 – Taffyta Muttonfudge – Sour Speedster
2x 122 – Donald Duck – Daisy’s Date
1x 124 – Vanellope von Schweetz – Random Roster Racer
After a long week, the weekend is finally here, and we’re rounding up some of the best deals you can find. This weekend, you can expect to save on new video games, accessories, and monitors. The best deals for Sunday, July 28, include the PSVR2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Kingdom Hearts All-in-One package, Final Fantasy XVI, the Sony 27″ INZONE M9 Monitor, and more.
PSVR2 for $349.99
You can score a new PlayStation VR2 headset for a record-low $349.99 right now at Amazon. This VR headset has all sorts of high end features, including a 110 degree FOV, 4K HDR visuals, eye tracking, and more. Plus, the PC Adapter is set to release in just a few days, which will allow you to play Steam VR titles through the PSVR2 headset. While it’s certainly a tough buy if you play exclusively on PS5, the PSVR2 can make for an excellent PC headset, especially at this price.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $54.99
For the second time this year, you can pick up Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on sale. This sequel to 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake brings Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII outside of Midgar for the very first time, with Sephiroth looming and moving in on his goals. This experience offers well over 100 hours of content, with 36 sidequests and a main story over 40 hours long. If you haven’t played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, now is the time to score one of the best 2024 titles out there at a discount.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for $49.99
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is also on sale, priced now at $49.99. This matches the previous low, which occurred during the Days of Play sale earlier this year. Spider-Man 2 features both Peter Parker and Miles Morales as playable characters, with a whole new area of New York to explore. You can swing through the city with new suit abilities like Web Wings and take down criminals all around. You’ll need to be prepared, as both Kraven the Hunter and the symbiote Venom are prepared to take you down and rule over NYC.
Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package for $39.13
If you’re itching to start a new series, Kingdom Hearts is one of the best out there to jump into. From Tetsuya Nomura, Kingdom Hearts 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 57% Off Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was one of the first major PlayStation 5 titles, releasing in June 2021. This title featured Rivet for the first time, another Lombax who exists in the universe. Together, Rivet and Ratchet must work to take down Doctor Nefarious and save the galaxy once again. With the classic action gameplay and new features, Rift Apart is an excellent platform you should play if you are a fan of the genre.
Star Ocean: The Second Story R for $29.99
Star Ocean: The Second Story R is an HD-2.5D remake from Square Enix. Taking the HD-2D sprite style found in titles like Octopath Traveler II, this game adds a 3D camera and 3D environments. There are a total of 99 different endings for you to discover, which makes this adventure one that can last for dozens of hours! Explore the world with fantastic quality-of-life updates, new battle mechanics, and more in this gorgeous remake of Star Ocean 2.
God of War Ragnarok for $39.99
Years later, God of War Ragnarok is still one of the best PS5 games you can pick up. This action game acts as the sequel to 2018’s God of War, following Kratos and Atreus as Fimbulwinter looms. If you’ve yet to play this game, this is a great time to pick up Ragnarok at a discount and see why so many players love this series. $39.99 is a fantastic price, and you’re not likely to see anything lower outside of major holiday sales toward the end of the year.
Final Fantasy XVI for $29.99
Final Fantasy XVI for PlayStation 5 has hit a new all time low at Amazon at $29.99. As one of the biggest titles of 2023, FFXVI brings a wide variety of new systems and elements to the world of Final Fantasy. You play as Clive Rosfield on a mission to track down the one who killed your brother as a child. You can expect larger-than-life setpieces, mesmerizing boss battles, and a memorable soundtrack from Masayoshi Soken.
27% Off Sony 27” INZONE M9 4K HDR 144Hz HDMI 2.1 Gaming Monitor
The Sony INZONE line of monitors is a fantastic choice for anyone looking to upgrade their display arrangement. This M9 model features a 4K HDR display with a refresh rate of 144Hz. With HDMI 2.1, the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S can take advantage of higher frame rates. Backlighting is a major focus as well, with 96 local dimming zones to ensure no detail goes unnoticed. This is the lowest price the M9 has been at, so now is as good of a time as ever to pick up a new monitor.
PowerA Kirby Controller for $39.99
You can always use an extra controller, and this PowerA Kirby controller is perfect for Nintendo Switch! One of the best features of this PowerA controller is the addition of two mappable buttons on the map, which can come in handy in fighting games or any other title. Additionally, two AA batteries will power this device for over 30 hours, so you won’t need to charge it.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition on Sale for $39.99
Amazon has Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition listed for $39.99, which is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen. This is an amazing deal since you’re essentially getting both Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Spider-Man Remastered for under $20 each. Both rarely go on sale for that low, so this is your best option to pick up these games.
Save $50 Off a PS5 Slim Console
Alongside deals on games and PSVR2, you can also save on a PlayStation 5 Slim! Both the Disc and Digital versions are available on sale for $50 off, which is likely the best deal you can grab outside of the Holiday season. If you’ve been thinking about picking up a PS5 for College Football 25 or the upcoming Astro Bot, now is an amazing time to save $50 and grab a new system.
Demon’s Souls for $29.99
Demon’s Souls has returned to an all-time low with the PlayStation Back to School sale. For $29.99, you can expirence this Bluepoint Games remake of one of FromSoftware’s most memorable titles. Since this title is only on PlayStation 5, you won’t be able to play Demon’s Souls on PC or other platforms. Slay the demons and explore the world of Boletaria like never before.
One Piece Odyssey for $19.99
This deal on One Piece Odyssey is fresh, being the lowest we’ve seen this RPG yet. Offering turn-based combat, One Piece Odyssey looks to create a fun experience with an original story featuring the beloved Straw Hat Pirates. If you’ve already played Pirate Warriors 4 and are itching for a return to the world of One Piece, now is the time to do so with Odyssey priced at just $19.99!
