A former head of communications at Dead Island 2 publisher Deep Silver has opened up about the “eight-year product delay” Dead Island 2 endured after early playtests reported “horrific feedback.”

At the end of a Develop:Brighton talk as reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Martin Wein — now at GameFlex Consultants — talked candidly about the sequel’s troubled development, and how it was decided at a major milestone meeting with then-developer, Yager, that the game as it was then “sucked.”

Dead Island 2 was revealed at E3 2014 but soon went quiet before “mutual differences” separated Yager from Deep Silver. It was then moved to Sumo Digital before being shifted again in 2019 to its final home of Dambuster Studios. A new trailer and gameplay video was released on December 6, 2022, during a Dead Island 2 Showcase that announced it was delayed once again, slipping 12 weeks to April 2023. It was the first proper look at the game fans had since it was re-revealed after years of troubled development in August 2022.

“I was working on that with the creative team, and we were mightily proud of that [trailer],” Wein said. “But then, about three to four weeks later, we had a major milestone with the development studio that was in charge at that time. And boy, that game sucked.

“It had nothing to do with what [made] the original Dead Island […] really fun. So we commissioned a play test and got horrific feedback. And we sat down with the development team and said, ‘Okay, what’s the course of action?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, leave it with us.'”

But at the next touch-point, Wein said little had changed, with playtest feedback indicating the sequel was “not fun, not engaging, [and] does not feel like the Dead Island that I played.”

“So at the end of the day, we had to take the game away from that external developer, find a new studio, and that put the game on a journey of… well, it was supposed to launch in 2015. When did it come out? 2023?

“Sometimes you have to make hard decisions,” Wein added. “Because we could have, at that point, put out a sh*t game. It might have made some money, but it would have killed the franchise.

“I cannot really speak to the conversation between the production team and the development partner as I was not part of those, but as the developer wanted to pursue their vision rather than follow player feedback, the ultimate decision was made to part ways.”

When it did finally release in 2023, IGN’s Dead Island 2’s review returned a 7/10. We said: “Dead Island 2 is a hilarious gore-fest and a competent zombie-slaying adventure, but lacks creativity outside of its great sense of humor.”

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.

Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2 updates continue with patch 01.003.200, which makes a big balance change and a number of fixes.

According to patch notes released by the developer, 01.003.200 reduces the time it takes for the Helldiver to regain control after ragdolling from 0.8 to 0.5 seconds.

This seemingly innocuous change will have big implications for how Helldivers 2 feels to play. It’s a game that leans heavily on its physics systems and the emergent gameplay that comes from them, and that includes being blasted around the map.

As any Helldivers 2 player will know, you spend a lot of time prone on the floor recovering after being smashed into a ragdolling status. There’s a panic that sets in as you slowly pick yourself up and dust yourself off while the forces of the Illuminate, the Automatons, and the Terminids continue their assault. Those precious few milliseconds may make all the difference, especially on harder difficulties.

Meanwhile, the flag can now be “proudly” planted directly into enemies — dead or alive — “ensuring the eternal colors of Super Earth are never tainted, only quenched by the blood of its foes.” So, if you want that Charger to be running around with your flag on its back, now you can make it happen.

There are a number of balance changes worth checking out in the patch notes below.

Things are hotting up in the world of Helldivers 2, with the PC and PS5 game set to become the first PlayStation Studios-published title ever on Xbox when it launches on Series X and S next month alongside crossplay.

Helldivers 2 update 01.003.200 patch notes:

🌍 Overview

• Balancing
• Mission Fixes
• Weapon Fixes
• Miscellaneous Fixes

⚖️ Balancing

General

Helldiver

• Reduced the time it takes for the Helldiver to regain control after ragdolling from 0.8 to 0.5 sec
• Increased chest injury bleed damage from 1 to 10. Chest injuries now cause more noticeable damage, as the previous value of 1 was so low it appeared to have no effect

CQC-1 One True Flag

• Thanks to some groundbreaking military research into pointier flag tips, the flag can now be proudly planted directly into enemies—dead or alive—ensuring the eternal colors of Super Earth are never tainted, only quenched by the blood of its foes. Absolute Democracy

Primary weapons

AR-32 Pacifier

• Stun duration increased from 1.5 to 3 sec
• Starting magazines increased from 5 to 6
• Max amount of magazines increased from 7 to 8
• Slight increase in stun value applied to enemies

SMG-72 Pummeler

• Stun duration increased from 1.5 to 3 sec
• Slight increase in stun value applied to enemies

ARC-12 Blitzer

• Slight increase in stun value applied to enemies

R-2124 Constitution

• Bayonet stagger strength increased from 20 to 25

R-2 Amendment

• Bayonet stagger strength increased from 20 to 25

Sidearms

P-92 Warrant

• Now also locks-on to Large sized enemies

Throwables

G-109 Urchin

• Stagger strength increased from 0 to 50
• It now staggers and affects Large sized enemies

G-10 Incendiary

• The amount of fuel has been increased in the grenade, resulting in longer-lasting fire duration

G-13 Incendiary impact

• The amount of fuel has been increased in the grenade, resulting in a longer-lasting fire duration

Stratagems

A/FLAM-40 Flame sentry

• Fire damage resistance increased from 0 to 95%
• Cooldown reduced from 150 to 100 sec

GL-52 De-Escalator

• Slight increase in stun value applied to enemies

Boosters

Firebomb Hellpod

• Now affects the Hellpods default explosion as well
• Stagger strength decreased from 80 to 15 to prevent ragdolling players
• Demolition strength decreased from 40 to 20 because we now correctly also additively apply the normal Hellpod explosion

Stun Pods

• Now affects the Hellpods default explosion as well
• Stagger strength decreased from 80 to 15 to prevent ragdolling players
• Demolition strength decreased from 40 to 20 because we now correctly also additively apply the normal Hellpod explosion

Enemies

General

• It’s now easier to put Large to Massive sized enemies on fire

Terminids

Warrior

• Damage needed to gib Warriors increased from 500 to 750 damage
• This is how much damage is needed to explode the body without leaving a corpse behind

Automatons

Scout strider

• Legs armor decreased from 3 to 2
• Legs durable resistance has been increased

Illuminates

Overseer variants

• Unarmored Torso healthzone armor decreased from 2 to 1

🔧 Fixes

Weapons Stratagems & Boosters

• Fixed an issue with the R-2124 Constitution playing audio during the wrong instances
• Fixed an issue with the draw and holster speed with the Gunslinger Armor Passive
• Fixed an issue with ranged weapon grips after dropping the Entrenchment Tool

Enemies

• Fixed an issue where status effect damage were attempting to apply more times than intended

Missions

• Fixed an issue that prevented stratagems from working correctly on Terminate Illegal Broadcast objectives
• Fixed an issue with bad enemy pathing on military uplink objectives
• Fixed an issue for the terminal and drop off point, where they became inaccessible during the Retrieve Recon Craft Intel objective

Miscellaneous Fixes

• Fixed an issue in first person view where some armors resulted in visible obstructions around the shoulder while using a high Field Of View
• Fixed an issue during map generation that could result in missing terrain features
• Fixed fall animations occasionally playing before victory poses
• Extended some fonts to handle Bengali characters in player names
• Fixed an error that caused some enemy models to appear in lower quality
• Fixed an issue to prevent accidentally triggering jump packs or climbing on supply pods while using the interact button on controller
• Fixed an issue where exiting the chat was leaving players unarmed
• Fixed an issue with aiming during the draw emote
• Fixed issues when exiting First Person View using emotes

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The only officially licensed John Wick video game is being removed from sale just six years after launch.

Bithell Games’ well-received John Wick Hex launched in October 2019. It’s a fast-paced, action-oriented strategy game “that makes you think and strike like John Wick.” John Wick, of course, is the hugely popular action hero made famous by Keanu Reeves.

Fast forward six years and John Wick Hex is set for the digital scrapheap. In an update directed at the game’s community, publisher Big Fan Games (which is part of Devolver Digital) said John Wick Hex will be removed from sale on all platforms beginning July 17, 2025.

After July 17, existing owners of John Wick Hex will still be able to access the game via their digital libraries across PC and console, and of course physical copies will continue to work on console. However, new purchases of John Wick Hex will not be possible, regardless of platform or storefront.

Big Fan Games failed to say why John Wick Hex was being removed from sale, but it seems likely it’s the result of the expiration of its licence with John Wick rights holder Lionsgate Entertainment. IGN has asked Big Fan for comment.

The expiration of a licence is one of the main reasons video games end up being pulled from storefronts; you see it most often with video games that have licensed music. It happened to Alan Wake, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake trailers, and Spec Ops: The Line, to name but a few. Video game preservationists often call for video game companies to do more to keep their products alive when this happens. Back in 2018, Rockstar replaced Grand Theft Auto IV song licenses that had expired after the end of a 10-year deal.

As for Bithell Games, it released Tron: Catalyst last month. The game was developed in collaboration with Disney and Pixar Games, and is set within the world of Tron.

And as for John Wick, he recently cameoed in spinoff Ballerina, and John Wick 5, once again starring Keanu Reeves, is in development, although we’re not sure when it will come out. Director Chad Stahelski recently said he’s still trying to work out how to make Keanu Reeves in John Wick 5 make sense given the ending of 4. Meanwhile, Keanu Reeves reportedly pays a company a few thousand dollars a month to get the likes of TikTok and Meta to take down imitators.

Lionsgate has confirmed it has a John Wick AAA video game in the works, although it has said nothing about it.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Bomb Busters was recently awarded the highest honor for board games as it was named the 2025 Spiel des Jahres in Germany, beating out Flip 7 and Krakel Orakel for the top honors this year.

The Spiel des Jahres may not be a household name in the U.S., but it’s the most prestigious and influential board game award in the world, similar to winning an Oscar for film. The Spiel des Jahres (literally “Game of the Year”) has been awarded to the best overall board game by an independent jury in Germany since 1979.

This year’s winner, Bomb Busters, is a strategic cooperative game for up to five players that requires everyone to work together to defuse a bomb by cutting the correct wires. It’s basically the tabletop equivalent of the video game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.

This is a great game for families as it’s not too difficult to learn and includes 66 unique scenarios to conquer together. Typical games take around 30 minutes, making it a quick board game to get to the table and play.

Scarlet and Violet base set prices have been anything but steady lately, with some Illustration Rares climbing fast while SIRs cool off just as quickly. I’ve been tracking a handful of cards that stood out this month, with some pulling in surprising gains and others dropping harder than expected. Here’s a quick look at which Pokémon TCG cards are crashing and climbing ahead of the final Scarlet and Violet sets release in Black Bolt and White Flare.

Pokémon TCG Crashers

Amazon’s Prime Day sale this year was pretty good overall for casual board game and puzzle enthusiasts. There were discounts on quite a few popular games and many popular jigsaw puzzle brands had all-time low prices. But if you happened to have miss all of those deals, Woot is currently having a small sale of its own that gives you a second chance at savings.

There aren’t a ton of options in this sale, but there are enough to make it noteworthy. Some of the best deals available here are on 3D puzzles and some lesser known board games, so I’d suggest checking those out first. The popular LEGO board game that was on sale during Prime Day was also included, but has already sold out.

Puzzles and Board Games on Sale Today

Following a wave of mass layoffs that impacted an estimated 9,100 employees at Microsoft, many of whom were in its Xbox gaming division, the union of employees at Xbox subsidiary ZeniMax have responded with a statement explaining the current employment status of its members.

Today, ZeniMax Online Studios United (ZOSU), which represents employees on both The Elder Scrolls Online and the cancelled unannounced MMO, issued a lengthy statement addressing the layoffs and project cancellations. Critically, ZOSU confirmed that as of today, its members are all still employed by Microsoft and receiving pay and benefits, though this is likely not to be the case forever.

Per the statement, worker representatives of the union are currently bargaining with the company over how the workers will move forward following the shuttering of the MMO. While the union acknowledges that layoffs may be in the future for some members, “as a result of our organizing, we are able to ensure that those impacted will be able to depart with dignity.”

ZOSU was formed just last December, consisting at the time of its organizing of 461 employees across ZeniMax Online Studios. This number included web developers, designers, engineers, and graphic artists at ZeniMax Online Studios working on The Elder Scrolls Online and the unannounced MMO. While ZOSU still has yet to reach a contract agreement with Microsoft, its sibling union ZeniMax Workers United, which represents ZeniMax QA workers, reached an agreement at the end of May.

ZOSU’s statement is published in full below:

Earlier this month, Microsoft indefinitely shelved an unannounced MMORPG at ZeniMax Online Studios, a shock to the 222 ZOSU-CWA developers working on the project. It has been heartening and validating to see our game mentioned in the press and by players that would have loved to see the results of our work.

Undoubtedly, a future has been stolen from many of us and our community will never experience an amazing game. However, despite discussions regarding the status of our employment, the fact is: we have not yet been laid off.

While we understand that for most of us something like a layoff is inevitable, last December both the teams behind The Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) and the unannounced project voted overwhelmingly to form a union and establish ZeniMax Online Studios United-CWA (ZOSU-CWA). Worker-volunteers elected to represent the interests of our union are currently bargaining with Microsoft for the benefit of our impacted teammates.

While Microsoft and ZOSU-CWA bargain over how we move forward following the project closure, the developers behind the unannounced project remain employees of ZeniMax Online Studios with full pay and benefits.

On July 2nd, our lives were upended without prior notice or communication from Microsoft leadership and without clear understanding about the status of our employment. In light of this, our union came together with urgency, gathering and distributing information and resources to our affected members.

Where Microsoft has failed to support the talented craftspeople who have generated billions in revenue, our union has stepped up to provide clarity and support.

It is true that a layoff may be in the future for some of our members. However, as a result of our organizing, we are able to ensure that those impacted will be able to depart with dignity.

More importantly, the work of ZOSU-CWA will continue so that our remaining teammates — the stalwart developers of ESO — can follow in the footsteps of our colleagues across other departments and studios at Microsoft, including our union siblings at ZeniMax Workers United (ZWU-CWA). We look forward to other units who will soon ratify fair contracts that will guarantee the rights we all deserve.

The impact of the massive Microsoft layoffs earlier this month on Xbox specifically was wide, and remains not fully understood. We’ve since learned that Everwild and Perfect Dark are no longer being developed, and The Initiative has shut down.

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.

The director of the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza has acknowledged some “performance” issues, while saying the team prioritized “fun and playability” during development.

In an interview with La Vanguardia, director Kazuya Takahashi responded to performance issues noticed by a journalist whilst previewing the game.

“There are several factors to consider,” Takahashi said when asked about the issues. “First, we intentionally used effects like hit-stop and slow motion to emphasize impacts. Second, because we use voxel technology, there are times when there are major changes and destruction in the environment.

“We’re aware that performance may drop slightly at these times,” Takahashi added. “However, as [the journalist says], overall the game is smooth, and at points where large-scale changes occur, we prioritized fun and playability.”

“I think Bananza is on track to be one of the most gorgeous Nintendo games I’ve seen,” we wrote in IGN’s Donkey Kong Bananza preview. “It really does take advantage of Switch 2’s hardware – the environments are beautiful and DK’s animations are wonderfully expressive, and I left feeling like the next generation of first-party Nintendo games had truly arrived.”

Donkey Kong Bananza is out later this week on July 17 for $69.99 exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2. If you’re looking to stay spoiler-free, now may be a good time to mute words on social media, as Donkey Kong Bananza spoilers are being spread online after early copies of the game have turned up in the hands of several fans.

For more, we have a selection of stories in which we spoke to the development team about a number of topics related to Bananza, including how the game was first conceived and the necessity of releasing on the Nintendo Switch 2. You can read our entire interview in full right here.

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.

Before I sat down to play about three hours of Mafia: The Old Country, Hangar 13 president Nick Baynes repeatedly mentioned his team’s desire for players to finish this prequel’s story. And so with that goal in mind, the latest Mafia game turns back the clock both chronologically – it’s set in the early 1900s in Sicily – and in game design as well. Mafia 3, though very good, went full open-world, and the developers seemed to feel similarly about it in hindsight as players did: it just didn’t fit Mafia well. The first two Mafias were gorgeous, narrative-driven, linear games set against the backdrop of a stunning and highly detailed world that, while explorable, really only existed as a beautiful backdrop for your main mission, rather than trying to keep you busy with menial tasks and sidequests. In fact, Baynes seemed to suggest that the positive reception to 2020’s remake of the first game (Mafia: Definitive Edition) served as something of an inspiration to and north star for this fourth entry in the mainline series.

I’m pleased to report that after playing through Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of The Old Country, the development team has seemingly succeeded in returning Mafia to its gameplay roots. This is, like Mafia 1 and 2, a story-first, not-open-world action-adventure. And interestingly, your primary, upgradeable weapon isn’t a gun – though they are certainly here – but rather, your knife. Stealth is fully supported, and even better, it’s only going to be $50 at launch, or as I like to call it, the Reverse Randy Pitchford price tag.

That Old Familiar Feeling

When I first picked up the controller – playing on a high-end PC, which is where the footage you’re seeing in the video at the top of this page and directly above came from – it’s the early 1900s and late-teenager Enzo Favara has recently escaped the sulfur mines he spent his childhood laboring in and started to become his own free man while working in the vineyard of Don Torrisi, a Sicilian mafioso who protects the people and property of the region from the thieving bandits that lurk in the hills – in exchange for monthly protection payments, of course. I really like how The Old Country tries to depict Enzo’s progression from a very innocent kid into a bound-by-blood, fully vetted member of the Torrisi outfit who’s got the green light to do anything he thinks needs to be done for the good of the family. We see this play out in Chapter 3, where Enzo’s first taste of life outside the vineyard with the Torrisis comes when he’s brought along on a series of collections by Luca, the Don’s right hand man, and Cesare, another made member of the family.

Luca and Cesare are essentially the mafioso version of an angel and devil on your shoulders, where Luca preaches patience and using violence only as a last resort, while Cesare is more of a “shoot first and ask questions later” kind of guy. For example, on our first collection stop, we visited Marco, an olive farmer. Marco always pays on time, but on this occasion, he’s late. Luca gives me an unloaded gun to be used only as an intimidation tactic to get Marco to pay up, but Cesare told me, “An extra pair of hands helps jog their memory” about the late payment. Side note: I think I saw more fruit in three hours of playing Mafia: The Old Country than I’ve seen in any game ever. We might need a new Game Awards category for this. Ultimately, no bullets were fired nor punches thrown, and I got the Don’s money from Marco’s safe after finding the combination nearby. I appreciate that Hangar 13 put thought into Enzo’s journey into the Torrisi crime family here and didn’t just instantly let you become a murdering psychopath.

Things escalated slightly on our second stop, though, after we rode our horses across the Sicilian countryside to the farm of Mr. Bangalino, whose workers, led by a man named Manuele, are on strike. “We can’t have strikes around here, Manuele,” Luca told the not-working men. “You and your friends need to get back to work. This is bad for business.”

By the way, I can’t emphasize enough how much I enjoyed staring at the countryside while riding to each destination on this mission. Mafia: The Old Country ditches the proprietary engine it’s used in all three previous Mafia games and moves to Unreal Engine 5 for this installment. To be fair, the previous engine was no slouch; Mafia 2 in particular was a strikingly good-looking game at the time it came out, and Unreal maintains the series’ reputation for delivering lovely locations. The perfect blue skybox and pillowy clouds that set atop the rolling green hills and farmlands did a great job of establishing The Old Country’s Sicilian setting. I can’t wait to see more of this world in the rest of the campaign.

Anyway, Manuele pulled a knife, introducing me to what is, as I mentioned earlier, perhaps the weapon that Mafia: The Old Country puts the most importance on. You can unlock and earn new knives, and each has unique modifying properties, giving you a reason beyond the cosmetic appearance of each blade to choose a specific one that suits your combat preferences. You’ve got a lot of moves in a knife fight: thrusts, slashes, parries, and dodges (like in the Batman: Arkham games, heavy attacks can’t be parried and must instead be dodged).

And there was still one final collection errand to run in Chapter 3, and as you may have guessed by now, the cannoli hit the fan on this one. A visit to a farmer named Fichera sees him yell at us, in a reversal, because his new water pump was stolen by bandits and the protection he pays Don Torrisi handsomely for didn’t protect his valuable property. It’s finally here that the patient Luca tells Enzo that he’s got free reign to put live ammo in his gun and not be afraid to pull the trigger, as these lawless bandits were effectively putting their hands in the Don’s pocket by stealing from Fichera. This leads to a hunt up the hillside through two separate bandit camps before we finally squared off with – and shot many bullets into – the dozen or so wayward thieves that stood between us and the water pump they stole. The familiar third-person cover-based shooting gameplay will be instantly recognizable not just to Mafia series regulars but also anyone who’s played a good third-person action game in the past decade. The Old Country isn’t breaking the mold here, but the gameplay systems are comfortable, effective, and fun. Less comfortable – at least for me – was the cutscene that followed the death of the last of the bandits, when Cesare cuts off the finger of one of the bandits, takes his gold ring as a bonus payment for his troubles, and tosses the detached digit into the well.

Forbidden Love

With all of your onboarding completed in Chapter 3, the next section of Mafia: The Old Country saw one massive mission play out, involving the Don’s daughter Isabella, who Enzo clearly has reciprocated feelings for, and Gennaro, the son of Baron Fontanella, who’s arguably an even bigger fish in the Sicilian mafioso sea than Don Torrisi is. Gennaro wants to show off his fancy new car – and he also wants to woo Isabella – so he sets up a picnic date in the nearby ruins. It starts with Enzo having to babysit the gathering and ends with a kidnapping, a car chase involving you on a horse, a trail of bodies left in Enzo’s wake, a stabbed double-crossing business partner, a happy Don Torrisi, and an even-more-smitten-with-Enzo Isabella.

It started quietly, with Gennaro driving Cesare in his car to the ruins, and Isabella insisting on riding there on horseback alongside Enzo. Yes, you’ll be able to choose and ride your own horse in Mafia: The Old Country, with each steed even having its own personality and characteristics. Based on what I played, it didn’t necessarily seem like your choice of horse would materially affect gameplay, but it was a welcome way to add a bit of life and meaning to the narrative nevertheless.

A pit stop en route showed off the camera you can take pictures of scenic spots with; unfortunately it was the only opportunity I had to use it in the three hours I played, but hopefully you get to use it semi-regularly over the course of the campaign. You’re also introduced to the driving mechanics of The Old Country after you rendezvous with Cesare and Isabella in the form of a low-stakes race around the ruins – perhaps a nod to one of Mafia 1’s most infamous missions.

But while Cesare and Enzo are messing around with Gennaro’s car during his date with Isabella, bandits – I won’t spoil their identity here – swooped in with guns blazing and kidnapped them both. They were really only after Gennaro, and having to take Isabella as well proved to be…well, as you can imagine it ended up severely complicating things for the kidnappers. I got to wield a shotgun in this segment and found that it packed a satisfying punch. There was no bringing a knife (let alone stealth chokeouts) to a gunfight here; I brought Enzo in with an itchy trigger finger.

After the aforementioned chase, I was able to run down their wagon – and gun down plenty of the kidnapping cadre – and rescue Isabella, who rewarded Enzo with a kiss (don’t tell the Don!). But while Cesare brought Isabella back home, Enzo still had to get Gennaro back, because returning without either one would leave Enzo equally dead from either father. It’s this section that allowed me to really unleash my inner Sam Fisher, as it was set up for stealth rather nicely in an open area, letting me pick my path and remain undetected. If you give me a stealth option in a game I am going to take it nine times out of ten, and Mafia: The Old Country was no different. The developers told me that they don’t expect most players to make it through the entire area – which was admittedly quite large and stocked with a ton of bad guys – without alerting anyone. I took this as a personal challenge, and while I held out for quite a while, eventually I did get spotted and had to start shooting.

But while you are in The Old Country’s stealth segments, basic Splinter Cell rules are in effect. You crouch to make less noise, throw coins (or picked-up objects like bottles) to distract bad guys, and can either knife them quickly or try to strangle them unconscious, which triggers a button-mashing QTE you’ve got to be quick about, lest they slip out of your grasp. There are even conveniently placed empty containers around that you can hide the bodies in so that they’re not discovered. The Old Country doesn’t break any new ground here, but in my experience, it does familiar stealth gameplay reasonably well. I do appreciate that there are upgradeable bead slots on your rosary that affect gameplay, like one that dampens the sound of your footsteps.

And I appreciated those dampened footsteps until I reached the last man standing for the kidnappers: Messina, whose real story you’ll learn when you play the game yourself. Enzo challenged him to a knife fight, which Messina accepted by dropping his gun and engaging Enzo on his terms. I was having trouble timing my parries just right in the ensuing battle, but I kept enough blood in Enzo’s body for him to emerge as the victor in the fight. (Side note: I died a couple of times during my three hours while playing on Normal, but there are multiple difficulty levels to choose from if you want to ratchet things up or down.) And after returning to the vineyard, Don Torrisi, after hearing of Isabella’s kidnapping, tells Enzo he wants Messina alive. Whoops. Um, yeah, about that…But ultimately, I did good, the boss said. And Isabella made her feelings quite clear with the smile on her face directed at Enzo.

Home Invasion

Chapter 5 – the final one I got to play – let me again flex my stealth muscles by tasking me with infiltrating the home of the man ultimately responsible for calling for the Gennaro (and by collateral damage, Isabella) kidnapping and dragging him out of his house and back to my boss. Or, put another way, to kidnap the kidnapper. This mission could truly have been pulled straight from a Splinter Cell game, as I had my choice of ways up the hillside to the large villa at the top. I kept it quiet, stabbing my way through the human obstacles in front of me before eventually getting into the house and to my target.

I wouldn’t be so lucky on the way out, though, as by the time I walked out with my target in tow, everyone still left standing knew what was going on, and I had to shoot my way out. As to what happened to that man I brought to the Don? Well, you’ll find out.

The Old Country, the New Anticipation

I left my extended hands-on session with Mafia: The Old Country with very few concerns. In roughly three hours I played three chapters, but how many chapters are there? Whatever the number is, it didn’t feel like a story that was going to be wrapped up in a tidy six hours. I don’t know how long The Old Country ultimately is, but when factoring in the studio president’s comment about wanting everyone to see the end credits roll – as well as the $50 price tag – it’s safe to presume that this won’t be a 40- or even 30-hour game. But for my money, that’s fine. I’m a dad with a job; I’m good with Mafia: The Old Country being a game I can get through in a weekend or two.

And more importantly, I’m now quite confident I’m going to have a lot of fun playing through this one, however long it lasts. The gameplay mechanics are all solid if familiar, with enjoyable stealth, shooting, knife combat, and driving. And perhaps the most important ingredient in a Mafia game – the story – had me engaged and eager to see where it was going to go. It’ll be good to get back to a Mafia 1 and 2 vibe again. It’s been a long time.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 developer Iron Galaxy says it is “investigating” a curious “Easter egg” that some fans believe references an Activision series resigned to the trash. Literally.

Shortly after the highly-anticipated Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake went live for all players last week, players noted a familiar-looking — if “legally distinct” — box in a trash bin on the new Waterpark level. While not everyone may make the connection, you can see what appears to be a boxed copy of Guitar Hero — or ‘Banjo Champion’ as it’s been rebadged as here, albeit with all the Guitar Hero branding — stuffed into the can.

It’s a particularly curious addition given the developer of the Guitar Hero series from Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock to 2010’s Warriors of Rock was Neversoft… which also just-so-happened to have developed the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series.

As fans debated whether or not it was an Easter egg, a joke, or even dig — at Neversoft, or publisher Activision — THPS 3+4 developer Iron Galaxy promptly distanced itself, writing: “We have the utmost respect for anyone who makes games, we’re investigating how that got in there in the first place. Thank you to the community for bringing this to our attention and we’ll be removing that from the environment art in the next update.”

Some players have told Iron Galaxy not to worry as the “benign joke” was “nothing serious,” and others say it’s “edgy, like the older THPS games,” the truth is the ‘joke’ has been around for years, as ‘Banjo Champion’ references popped up in THPS 1+2, too, five years ago.

We thought the long-anticipated remake was great, slapping it with a 8 and writing in the IGN’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 review: “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 proves yet again the series’ over-the-top skateboarding formula is totally timeless, even if some of the changes to THPS4 miss the mark and the soundtrack has been fumbled.”

If you’re just getting started, check out our Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 walkthrough, where we take you through all nine levels, showing you how to get every collectible, goal, gold medal, and panda plushie en route to unlocking everything available before reaching Pro Goals in THPS 3.

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.