Category: IGN

Dune: Awakening developer Funcom has apologized after “patching out” a layout change in the Deep Desert that briefly transformed PvE territory into PvP, leading to “an unfortunate amount of lost bases and equipment.”

Yesterday, Funcom released another patch for Dune: Awakening, with more tweaks to improve the endgame experience for players who’d prefer to spend time in PvE activities, including the ability to farm Tier 6 resources and a better chance of getting Unique drops in PvE loot in Deep Desert.

It follows on-going efforts from the developer to improve PvP in the Deep Desert after an AMA revealed many players branded the endgame “toxic” due to griefing even after the ability for players to squish each other with their Ornithopter was supposedly patched out. Later, griefers intentionally landed their Ornis on other players’ own thopters to prevent them from farming.

However, the change — which was “intended to only occur with the next Coriolis cycle and not impact the ongoing cycle” — resulted in an “oversight in the development process and internal communications,” resulting in heavy losses for some players.

“We’re incredibly sorry that this happened and we want to acknowledge that this should have been handled better. We’ve changed our internal processes as a result of this and will be better in the future,” the team said in a statement.

“We are working to reimburse vehicles and items (to the best of our ability) to players who were impacted by this. You can expect the reimbursed materials, items, and vehicle components to show up in the in-game ‘Claim Rewards’ tab by the end of this week.”

In the same statement, the team also revealed it was working hard to eliminate cheaters from Arrakis, writing, “our primary focus, which continues over the next weeks and months, will be to remove all identified exploits (third party cheat engines, client hacks, or in-game exploitation of game mechanics). In addition, we will be hard at work improving the game, adding quality of life features, and addressing critical gameplay issues.

“We have zero tolerance for the type of player behavior that has an impact on the experience of other players, and we will continue to focus on ensuring that players can enjoy the game as it is intended,” the statement added. “If you see someone cheating or exploiting, please report them to us using the available reporting channels.”

Funcom said that so far it has taken action on “several hundred” cheats caught using exploits, cheats, and hacks, with “more waves of bans coming as we identify further culprits.”

“We have a team dedicated exclusively to fighting hackers and fixing exploits. Over the next few patches, they will be introducing additional efforts to prevent exploits by increasing security on several client/server communication layer, performing additional penetration testing against common attack vectors, and auditing our item and inventory systems to make sure they are resistant to item duplication,” Funcom stated.

Finally, the team also apologized to players who had lost “vehicles or other resources” due to in-game bugs. Though admitting some issues are hard to replicate and resolve, Funcom said it is now working on tools to “better reimburse players for vehicle losses due to bugs.”

Dune: Awakening has enjoyed a superb launch, with a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam. Within hours of going live on June 10, Funcom’s survival MMO had clocked up over 142,000 concurrent players on Valve’s platform, and hit a new high earlier this month of 189,333 players. And it’s already clocked up over 1 million players, too, making it Funcom’s fastest-selling game ever, and securing a Great 8/10 in our review.

If all that’s got you interested but you’re not sure where to start, make sure to check out all the Dune: Awakening classes you can choose from, and our Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step guide to the story. We’ve also got Dune: Awakening resource guides that’ll help you find iron, steel, aluminium, and a Dune: Awakening Trainers locations guide to help you survive on Arrakis.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

The four-day marathon that is this year’s Prime Day is live now, running from July 8-11. There’s hardly any product category that’s not on sale at Amazon at the moment. But each year Prime Day is one of the best times to stock up on board games, and this year is no different.

It seems like most board games are on sale right now for Prime Day 2025, and the prices are mostly excellent. Below, we’ve highlighted our picks for the best board game deals available now – but you’ll need a Prime membership to get most of them. You can sign up here.

Save Up to 50% Off Board Games for Prime Day

As an added bonus, a bunch of the games are part of another sale that’s also going on right now that saves you $10 when you spend $40 on select items. So if your game(s) are eligible and you spend more than $40, you’ll get an additional $10 off. As a deal-focused commerce editor, I love it when you can stack a deal on top of a deal. It feels like you’re working the system.

Azul

More Prime Day Deals

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

Here’s some good news for superhero-loving Minecraft fans — there’s a new Superman skin pack up for grabs.

And best of all, the pack — which contains skins for Superman, Lois Lane, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific — is available now from the Minecraft Marketplace for free.

It’s all to tie in, of course, with James Gunn’s new big-screen take on Superman, which is out later this week (July 11) and sees Superman fighting to balance his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as the new DCU properly kicks off.

Superman stars David Corenswet as the titular hero — who replaces prior leading man, Henry Cavill — Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, as well as Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, and Isabela Merced.

In our Superman movie review, we slapped it with a healthy 8/10, writing: “Superman is a wonderfully entertaining, heartfelt cinematic reset for the Man of Steel, and a great start for the DCU on the big screen.”

Last week Minecraft announced a raft of new features to make use of the copper resource — including the long-awaited debut of copper golems. Not only will Minecraft now let you craft copper tools and armor, the copper golem from Minecraft’s 2021 Mob Vote is finally being added, after remaining a fan-favourite concept over the years.

And don’t forget that last month, Minecraft got a big graphical update courtesy of its Vibrant Visuals update — but only on supported platforms for now.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

I’d argue one of the biggest comic storylines of the past half-decade came not from people in spandex and capes, but instead from half-shell heroes in the IDW mini-series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin. Now, the sequel series picks up 15 years after the conclusion of the original storyline with a new team of turtles released as an all-in-one collection – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution. To celebrate this release, Amazon has it on sale for $24.49. As an added bonus, even with it being Prime Day, you don’t need a Prime membership to take advantage of this deal.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II–Re-Evolution

Other Prime Day Deals

Did we mention it’s Prime Day? Amazon is running its big annual sale through the rest of the week, with deals on pretty much anything you can think of. Highlights so far include Audible Premium for $0.99, discounts on the latest Kindle and a “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” deal on books and Blu-rays.

Scott White is a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and guide coverage. Follow him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.

Grab your cards, Samurai. CMON’s Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City is getting in on the Prime Day savings with a nice 36% discount, making it only $69.99. Instead of trying to cram the massive video game’s story into a box, Gangs of Night City instead puts you in control of one of the universe’s various gangs (each gang having unique asymmetric abilities), and you wage war as you and the other players try to carve out more territory.

Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City The Board Game

The four-day marathon that is this year’s Prime Day is live now, running from July 8-11. There’s hardly any product category that’s not on sale at Amazon at the moment. But each year Prime Day is one of the best times to stock up on board games, and this year is no different. It seems like most board games are on sale right now for Prime Day 2025, and the prices are mostly excellent. Below, we’ve highlighted our picks for the best board game deals available now – but you’ll need a Prime membership to get most of them. You can sign up here.

Save Up to 50% Off Board Games for Prime Day

As an added bonus, a bunch of the games are part of another sale that’s also going on right now that saves you $10 when you spend $40 on select items. So if your game(s) are eligible and you spend more than $40, you’ll get an additional $10 off. As a deal-focused commerce editor, I love it when you can stack a deal on top of a deal. It feels like you’re working the system.

So what worthy board games are on sale right now? A whole lot of them. Azul is always one of our top sellers when it goes on sale, and it’s currently on sale for $19.49, which is great considering it usually hovers around the $33 range. Check out our Azul board game review for details.

Gamers may want to pick up Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City while it’s on sale for $69.99. It’s “a surprisingly preem experience,” as our critic put it in his review. A ton more are on sale, whether you’re looking for family-friendly board games like Guess Who? or horror board games like Nemesis.

More Prime Day Deals

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.

Nineteen employees have been laid off from Star Trek: Bridge Crew and Tom Clancy studio Ubisoft Red Storm, IGN has learned.

Ubisoft confirmed the layoffs to IGN in a statement as follows:

Today, Ubisoft made the decision to eliminate 19 roles at Red Storm Entertainment. This step is part of our ongoing, targeted restructuring and global cost-saving efforts, and reflects the needs on the studio’s projects. While this was not an easy decision, it was a necessary one given our operational priorities. We remain committed to supporting those affected with comprehensive severance packages, extended health-care benefits, and career transition assistance. We deeply appreciate their hard work and the impact they’ve had on Ubisoft.

Ubisoft PR also confirmed that no other Ubisoft locations were impacted by today’s layoffs. However, the company did not respond to IGN’s request for information on how many employees remain at Red Storm or the status of the company’s current projects.

Ubisoft Red Storm was originally Red Storm Entertainment, founded by author Tom Clancy specifically to make games based on his novels, including Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. The studio was acquired by Ubisoft in 2000, going on to create hits such as the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series and assisting on other popular Tom Clancy games such as The Division. In more recent years, it has taken a backseat role as more of a VR and support studio beginning with Werewolves Within in 2016. and continuing more recently with Star Trek: Bridge Crew and Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR.

Red Storm also worked on a canceled Splinter Cell VR game, and the also-canceled The Division Heartland. Most recently, Red Storm assisted on XDefiant, which just shut down completely last month after an announcement last year. At the time, Ubisoft shut down the San Francisco and Osaka studios behind the game, with some layoffs occuring at Red Storm as well. It is unclear what project Red Storm is currently working on.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

If I say the name “Hideo Kojima” what comes to mind? Is it his latest creation, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (a game we rather enjoyed) or would be it be one of his earlier creations? I would be willing to bet a large portion of folks would immediately think of Metal Gear Solid and the gravely tones of David Hayter.

Thanks to Prime Day, the Nintendo Switch version (which will also run on the Switch 2) of the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 is the lowest it has ever been at only $16.99 – that’s a whopping 58% discount.

Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 (Switch)

More Prime Day Deals

Prime Day is one of the best times to buy pretty much anything. Even Best Buy’s joined the fun with tons of Switch game discounts. Here are some other deals to check out.

Scott White is a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and guide coverage. Follow him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.

This week Maxroll has two major updates to share: the launch of Maxroll’s beta Borderlands 4 planner and a massive update to Maxroll’s Elden Ring section with a new, comprehensive database.

Maxroll’s Borderlands 4 Planner

Maxroll has released a beta version of their Borderlands 4 planner, with skill trees for two of the game’s playable characters: Vex and Rafa. This is a work in progress that Maxroll will add to as more information is known about the game, but for now, you can play around with the planner for yourself, check curated builds from Maxroll’s Borderlands 4 Team (Moxsy, AbbyHour, Byrdman & Chadly), or browse community builds.

• Borderlands 4 Planner (beta)
• Maxroll Builds
• Community Builds

Vex

Vex is the Dark Siren, and her powers focus on summoning companions and enhancing herself. Conjure up dark clones, a large cat named Trouble, or create Eldritch bombs that annihilate the Timekeepers’ forces.

• Phase Familiar summons Trouble, a large cat companion who wreaks havoc among Vex’s foes.
• The Incarnate tree adds a powerful Eldritch Blast to your toolkit.
• Use Dead Ringer to transform Vex into a master of minions, summoning multiple Phase Clones and commanding them against her foes.

Rafa

Rafa is an ex-Tediore soldier on the run from his former employer. He uses his exo-suit to slice and blast his way through the Timekeepers’ minions.

• With Peacebreaker Cannons, you gain an auto-firing turret ability.
• Rafa swaps his guns for Arc Blades, and he dashes around the battlefield, slashing enemies with Blade Fury. Use the Arc Knives tree to enhance your slashing expertise.
• Equip the APOPHIS LANCE cannon to Rafa’s arm and use it to obliterate foes.

Maxroll’s Elden Ring Database

If you’re more of an ARPG enthusiast than a looter-shooter fiend, you might be more interested in Maxroll’s new Elden Ring Database, where you can learn more about the weapons, armor, Ashes of War, spells, Talismans, Spirit Ashes, Great Runes and Goods.

In Maxroll’s Weapon Database you can see attribute scaling, affinities, Guard Absorption and more for each of the game’s weapons. You can also select weapon upgrade levels to see how the damage changes with upgrades. For regular weapons, this info also includes different affinities so you can check whether it’s better to run the weapon as is or swap it over to Heavy on your unga bunga build.

Maxroll also has information on the Armor sets (and pieces), Ashes of War, Spells (including the rather esoteric spell types), Talismans, Spirit Ashes and Great Runes. This is especially helpful for more complex things like Ashes of War, as in the Maxroll database you can see the FP cost and even the default affinity change when adding it to your weapon.

Last but not least there’s Goods, a catch-all category for consumables, crafting materials, key items, Crystal Tears (for the Wondrous Physick), upgrades, maps, lore items and more.

Written by IGN Staff with help from Maxroll.

It’s been a month since Magic players were able to dive into the realms of Final Fantasy and its casts of memorable characters, but now it is time to look at the stars and prepare to blast off with the trading card game’s next set, Edge of Eternities. IGN recently had a chance to check out some new cards and get a breakdown of the set’s new mechanics players will get to play around with when the set launches on August 1 (preorders are available now).

Edge of Eternities Important Dates:

• July 18: Full Card Image Gallery
• July 25-31: Edge of Eternities Prerelease Events
• July 29: MTG Arena Release Date
• Aug. 1: Worldwide Tabletop Release

From spaceships to alien races, this new release marks a drastic departure from the more high-fantasy aesthetic that Magic is known for, but at its core, this is still very much a Magic: The Gathering set. One thing the team wants to make very clear is that Edge of Eternities is science fantasy, not science fiction, which means you can expect to see both flying space whales and spaceships.

As it is still early days in the spoiler cycle, Wizards is still keeping a vast majority of the set’s contents under wraps, but we do have confirmations that some of Magic’s scariest creatures will be making their appearance around the Blind Eternities. Once again, Eldrazi, residents of the Blind Eternities, will be causing havoc for players with the reveal of ‘Anticausal Vestige’. For six mana reads “When this card leaves the battlefield, draw a card, then you may put a permanent card with mana value less than or equal to the number of lands you control from your hand onto the battlefield tapped” with Warp 4 (more on Warp in a moment). More exciting, however (and I admit I am partially biased towards this next one because I love them and have decks of them), it looks like Slivers are making their return! We got to see a new alternate showcase art version of the Sliver Overlord, and the narrative that Wizards has been releasing for the set also implies the return of these fury-enducing creatures, which I can’t wait for. After all, being a hivemind and all, what good would only a single Sliver do?

Edge of Eternities also sees reprints of the highly requested and sought-after Shock Lands – special dual-colored lands. These lands will allow you to tap for one of two colors of mana, and while similar cards normally come in tapped, by taking a little damage, Shock Lands will enter untapped, meaning you can use them right away!

Compared to some of the more recent sets, Edge of Eternities takes it easy with only four new mechanics – Void, Warp, Station, and Lander Tokens. Station was first revealed during MagicCon Vegas and is similar to Crewing vehicles, whereby tapping creatures grants a benefit; however, Station has some important differences. Firstly, tapping creatures to Station something can only be done on your turn at sorcery speed, doing so will put a counter on that card based on the total power of the creatures you tapped, and once a threshold is met, the card will gain access to new abilities. While we have seen examples of Starships that include the Station mechanic, Wizards has now revealed a new land type, planets, that will also benefit from this mechanic. Each of the five main colors will feature their own speciality planet that when stationed will have some pretty powerful effects, such as blue’s ‘Uthros, Titanic Godcore’ that by default will tap for a single blue but when its Station 12+ requirement is met, for a Blue and tapping Uthros will add a blue mana for each artifact you control.

Next up is Warp, an alternate casting option for the cards with it. By casting a card for its Warp cost, which looks to be less than its normal casting cost, it will enter the battlefield and then get exiled on the next end step. The twist with these cards is that they can then be cast at a later time for their normal cost from exile. From what it looks like, many of these cards with Warp will have “when they enter” trigger effects, allowing you to take advantage of that effect twice. However, being able to play these cards from exile is only available if they are sent to exile due to paying the Warp effect, so if another card exiles them instead, they are gone for good and can’t be played.

Paired with Warp, Void provides players with new options to enhance the effects of the cards it appears on. By playing a card with Void after a non-land permanent has left the battlefield or a card has been played for its Warp cost (referred to as spell warped), then the Void card’s effect will be strengthened. I’m intrigued by the sort of synergistic opportunities that may arise between various Warp and Void cards.

Lastly, there are the Lander tokens that are being introduced in this latest set. By paying two colorless mana and sacrificing the token, you can search your library for a basic land and put it into play tapped. Right off the bat, I can already see how cards that generate these Lander tokens will prove to be powerful additions to any Landfall deck, and coming off of Final Fantasy, cards like ‘Tifa Lockhart’ whose power doubles whenever a land comes into play will be able to easily take advantage of the additional lands dropping in. For even more utility, if you are playing a deck with ‘Wandering Minstrel’, this would make the lands that the Lander tokens bring out, come out untapped instead of tapped, letting you use them right away! Talk about mana ramp!

Outside of the mechanic like Warp, with cards like the newly revealed Cosmogoyf (“This creature’s power is equal to the number of cards you own in exile and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1”) and Sothera, The Supervoid (“Whenever a creature you control dies, each opponent chooses a creature they control and exiles it. At the beginning of your end step, if a player controls no creatures, sacrifice Sothera, then put a creature card exiled with it onto the battlefield under your control with two additional +1/+1 counters on it”) gives me the sense that Wizards is aiming to make your exile zone into a resource all of its own. If that ends up being the case, cards with Flashback or something like Agatha’s Soul Cauldron that let you exile cards from graveyards could easily make a card like Cosmogoyf super scary. We will have to see how much they lean into messing around with exile (hopefully, there won’t be too many “exiled this way” cards so you have to keep track of what cards get exiled with what).

Edge of Eternities continues to push Magic: The Gathering into new dimensions with this space fantasy adventure. Who knows what other mysteries lie in wait out near the Blind Eternities and what horrors await players? This peak at the set has given us a taste of starting to concoct new deck ideas, and over the next month, more and more will be revealed. In the meantime, be sure to enjoy the amazing cards from the recent Final Fantasy set, including keeping your eyes open for the cards everyone seems to want and are chasing after. For a full look at what the rest of the year of Magic is looking like, check out our full release schedule, and for fans of Secret Lair, including the upcoming Sonic The Hedgehog drop, check out our breakdown of every drop so far this year.

Scott White is a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and guide coverage. Follow him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.