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BioWare Confirms More Dragon Age: The Veilguard Details Ahead of Gameplay Reveal

BioWare has confirmed more information on Dragon Age: The Veilguard ahead of the RPG’s hotly anticipated gameplay reveal today, June 11.

As spotted by Dragon Age YouTuber Jackdaw, BioWare posted a number of comments in the chat of the gameplay video on YouTube responding to questions from fans. One comment confirmed The Veilguard will give players six factions to choose from when creating their character, all with “deep roots in Thedas.” Three examples were provided: Antivan Crows, Gray Wardens, and Shadow Dragons.

These examples harken back to previous Dragon Age games, with mention of the Gray Wardens in particular rekindling memories of the much-loved first Dragon Age game, subtitled Origins. In that 2009 RPG, the player character is recruited into the Grey Wardens, an ancient order that fights the Darkspawn. Some fans are now speculating that The Veilguard will let players play through their faction’s backstory, as Origins did to great effect, but this is unconfirmed for now.

Elsewhere, BioWare confirmed players can customize their Inquisitor from the Dragon Age: Inquisition story in the Veilguard character creator, and “make a few key decisions that will impact how The Veilguard begins.” This suggests Dragon Age fans’ Inquisitor will make an appearance in The Veilguard in some capacity.

And finally, it is confirmed that fan-favorite character Scout Harding is a romance option. This comes as little surprise given Harding is one of seven companions in The Veilguard.

These details follow yesterday’s release of 20 seconds of gameplay, below. In it, we see Rook, the name for the playable protagonist in The Veilguard, with Dragon Age mainstay Varric. This gameplay release followed a mixed reception to The Veilguard’s debut trailer, shown off during Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase.

BioWare also recently confirmed that The Veilguard will let you play as a human, elf, dwarf, or qunari. while you wait for the gameplay video, check out IGN’s exclusive interview with BioWare general manager Gary McKay where he explains, among other things, why the developer changed the name of the fourth Dragon Age game from Dreadwolf to The Veilguard. And for everything that was announced during Xbox Showcase, check out our roundup.

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.

Nintendo Switch Update 18.1.0 Pulls X/Twitter Support, Bringing It In-Line With PlayStation and Xbox

As Nintendo had announced, it has now pulled X/Twitter support from the Switch via a new firmware update.

Nintendo Switch update 18.1.0, out now, discontinues X/Twitter integration, which means a number of previously available social media sharing options are gone. Elsewhere, our old friend “General system stability” has seen improvements “to enhance the user’s experience.”

The removal of X/Twitter integration from the Switch means all three major video game consoles now lack the sharing functionality they launched with, with Sony and Microsoft going first for PlayStation and Xbox in 2023. The decisions to remove support came after Elon Musk’s social media platform began charging more for business use of its API, the interface used by third-party developers to access Twitter data.

Nintendo didn’t give an explicit reason for the removal of support, but big companies like it, Sony, and Microsoft could be charged around $42,000 a month to uphold integration, according to Wired. It notably continued to support Facebook, however, which does not charge for using its API.

At the time Nintendo announced its plan to pull the integration from Switch, X/Twitter itself responded, insisting it was dedicated to enhancing the gaming community’s experience on the social media platform and that it still has a strong relationship with Nintendo.

“The gaming community is one of the largest and most vibrant communities on our platform, and we are dedicated to enhancing and supporting gaming-related features,” X/Twitter said in its own, now-deleted post.

“Our partnership with Nintendo remains strong, and we are working together to ensure a smooth transition for all users. We will continue collaborating with partners to bring new and exciting experiences to our global gaming community.”

X/Twitter’s API changes arrived in March 2023 and Microsoft disabled Xbox integration in May that year. Sony removed X/Twitter integration from PlayStation in November, though like Nintendo, neither company referenced the API changes as a reason for doing so.

Nintendo Switch update 18.1.0 patch notes:

  • The following updates were made for the discontinuation of X (formerly Twitter) integration:
    • The option to “Post to Twitter” when sharing from the Album in the Nintendo Switch HOME Menu was removed.
    • The ability to post Super Smash Bros. Ultimate screenshots from the Album in the Nintendo Switch HOME Menu to Smash World in the Nintendo Switch Online smart device app was removed.
    • The option to link X (formerly Twitter) from “Settings” > “User Settings” > “Posting to Social Media” was removed.
  • The option to link social media accounts from “My Page” > “Friend Suggestions” was removed.
  • General system stability improvements to enhance the user’s experience.

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.

Gears 6 Devs Promise Return to Horror From the Original Games

The Coalition is taking fans back to where it all started with Gears of War: E-Day, and that means revisiting the horrors of Emergence Day and the Locust horde.

Brand Director Nicole Fawcette and Creative Director Matt Searcy opened up about the studio’s desire to focus on the “scary” aspects of Gears during an interview with IGN. Searcy says the team wants to “capture a moment in time” and “tell a very intimate story about what happened” to the people in one of Sera’s cities.

“For us, it’s like a what-if story,” he said. “What if the ground opened up and monsters came out? Yeah, it’s set on a fictional, other planet, but there are very human reactions and stories we get to tell. To do that, we need to be able to tell a story that feels like a horror story.”

Searcy continues, explaining that Gears of War: E-Day will still have the heart and sci-fi the series is known for, but it will also focus in on this specific moment in time by telling a story that takes place over only a few days. The decision to lean in more on horror comes from The Coalition’s desire to recapture the feeling of terror many players might remember experiencing when playing through the series.

“But when people tell you what they remember playing, the things that stood out to them, the feelings, a lot of it is about these, kind of dark, almost horror-esque, scary moments.”

“We looked back at what people felt like when they played Gears of War or any of the Gears – Gears 4 included,” he said. “But when people tell you what they remember playing, the things that stood out to them, the feelings, a lot of it is about these, kind of dark, almost horror-esque, scary moments.”

Searcy continued: “So we basically took that feeling, that vision that’s in everybody’s head, and we’re like, ‘That’s the game we’re going to build.’ We’re going to build that game with all the skills we’ve learned, with all the technology we’ve built, and sort of go hard at that. So definitely part of the story is about reintroducing the locust to Gears as scary monsters from the ground come up. And then you realize as it goes on, this is not just monsters, there’s an army here and it’s bigger than anybody thinks it is.”

Fawcette elaborated on how new technology is allowing The Coalition to present the Locusts in new, horrifying ways.

“Through Unreal Engine 5, we now can show the locust at that visual fidelity that is believable as scary creatures from the subterranean,” she said. “And so, like you saw in the trailer, we’re really kind of leaning into those horror vibes as fans remember it and as time has moved on. What was scary in 2006 is very different than 2024. There’s sort of that just doubling down on how people remember how they feel about it.”

Why E-Day?

Gears of War: E-Day is detouring away from the storylines of Gears of War 4 and Gears 5, but as The Coalition explained in an Xbox Wire post, they won’t be abandoning that era of the Gears saga forever. Searcy tells us that the studio chose to go back in time for their next Gears of War game not because they were finished with the previous storyline but because revisiting Marcus and Dom’s relationship made sense for the team itself.

“For us, there is a story here, for our studio, of how we found our way to E-Day,” he explained. “It was about, sort of, reflection, and part of it is just the energy that rolls up about, this was the story we wanted to tell at this time. So, it wasn’t really about picking between these things, it was just a snowball of the stuff that was on the table and this is the one we wanted to do right now.”

“Hell yeah. We want to make this.”

Fawcette chimed in, saying that when the idea for Gears of War: E-Day came about, it was a feeling of “Hell yeah. We want to make this.”

Searcy continued: “We love those characters, and like I said, it’s really nice to have a franchise where we can tell stories of different places. When we’re at Gears 4 and 5 we tell these stories, and Tactics, that goes at a different time, and all these sorts of things. For us, it is just the one we wanted to work on now is the one that felt right.”

The Coalition revealed Gears of War: E-Day during yesterday’s Xbox Games Showcase. We’ve not seen any gameplay yet, but this first footage promised a return to the series’ roots with a touching moment that saw the return of fan-favorite character, Dom Santiago. It’s been 13 years since fans watched Dom him sacrifice himself for his fellow COG brothers in Gears of War 3, so while Fawcette and Searcy promise a horrific prequel that explores one of humanity’s darkest days, it’s sure to be an emotional journey, too.

Gears of War: E-Day is currently without a release date. For everything else you announced at the Xbox Games Showcase, you can click here.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

Xbox Just Had its Best Showcase Ever – and at the Perfect Time

Amid multiple leaks and rumors, we had a decent idea of what was going to be at this year’s Xbox Games Showcase with seemingly plenty to get excited about. But when the Showcase finally aired, Microsoft did the near-impossible for any company in a fickle social media-fueled age: they exceeded expectations and drew almost universal acclaim. Eighty-four percent of the 10,000+ voters in my X poll graded it an ‘A’ on the academic scale. Ninety-five percent gave it an ‘A’ or ‘B’.

A home run like this would be welcome at any time, but it’s an especially fortuitous one now for both Xbox fans and, no doubt, Xbox employees alike. Confidence had been shaken in recent months, with dedicated fans rankled by Microsoft’s decision to bring some previously exclusive games to other platforms. Worse, Microsoft joined the tragically long list of gaming and tech companies to lay off thousands of employees early in the year and, more recently, shut down four development studios it acquired as part of a $7.5 billion deal just four years ago. Two of those were household names in core-gaming circles: Arkane Austin, who, their recent Redfall misfire aside, had an incredibly impressive track record; and the one that really stuck in the community’s craw, Tango Gameworks. They were not only Xbox’s lone Japanese developer, but they’d had an unquestionably good run, highlighted by their most recent and arguably best game, Hi-Fi Rush.

While Xbox’s best showcase ever can’t erase the human impact on the laid-off developers nor reignite the creative embers that have been snuffed out at the shut-down studios, it is the best way for fans who remain invested in the Xbox ecosystem to move forward with confidence and excitement for the future of the platform. And my goodness did that top-to-bottom brilliant showcase give me confidence and excitement for Xbox.

Call of Duty debuted on Xbox’s stage for the first time since the Xbox 360 era, with Black Ops 6 already looking like it could be one of the biggest and best releases for the series in a half-decade – since Infinity Ward’s excellent Modern Warfare reboot in 2019. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer could barely contain his excitement on stage in announcing Doom: The Dark Ages, a bold, more melee combat-intensive prequel in id Software’s brilliantly revived and historically iconic first-person shooter franchise.

And speaking of prequels, Xbox President Sarah Bond introduced the “one more thing” game for this Showcase: the long-anticipated new entry in the Gears series, which itself was not a surprise. What shocked everyone, though – which the trailer slowly made more apparent – was that we wouldn’t be picking up Kait’s story in Gears 6, but instead we’ll be going back to Emergence Day and the formation of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago’s Delta Squad in a Gears of War prequel – complete with a most-welcome (by me, at least) restoration of the “of War” part of the name.

But the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase didn’t just start big with Black Ops 6 and Doom: The Dark Ages and end big with Gears of War: E-Day – it kept cooking for almost the entire runtime. A new gameplay trailer for Fable floored me, as not only was I not expecting to see any more of it after getting our first tiny glimpse at gameplay at last year’s Showcase, but we got to see quite a bit of Playground’s gorgeous new rendition of Albion. The cherry on top was Microsoft committing to a 2025 release window, which means we can already pencil in Doom: The Dark Ages and Fable for next year – my gut says the former will drop in the Spring, and the latter in the Fall.

Oh, but South of Midnight belongs on that 2025 list too! We got a proper gameplay trailer for Compulsion’s first game since joining the Xbox family after it was announced with a cinematic piece last year, and the art style is incredibly beautiful and wholly unique.

Meanwhile, it didn’t get a release year attached to it (meaning, assume 2026 for now), but the game that stole the fantastic show for me was Perfect Dark. The long-gestating reboot of the beloved Nintendo 64 classic (and decently liked Xbox 360 launch title) has reportedly endured a troubled development, but the co-developers at The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics blew me away by showing off a gameplay-packed trailer that showed off gadgets, first-person shooting, and parkour, leaving me optimistic that we might have a slick combination of Mirror’s Edge, Deus Ex, and the original Perfect Dark on our hands.

Even the inevitable mid-show lull that every showcase like this goes through yielded compelling reveals: the ‘90s-set adventure Mixtape feels like it was made for me specifically, Metal Gear Solid: Delta appears to be both a gorgeous and incredibly faithful remake of the classic Metal Gear Solid 3, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle only “disappointed” me with an otherwise A+ story trailer because we didn’t get a more specific release date than “2024.” But it does reaffirm that within six months I’ll be playing the next effort from MachineGames, a studio that has never missed.

The game that stole the fantastic show for me was Perfect Dark.

In fact, Xbox’s 2024 Games Showcase was so spectacular and packed with huge first-party games that I didn’t even notice that two of their biggest pillars were missing: Halo and Forza. Granted, I wasn’t expecting anything from Halo, as we’re still only 2.5 years past Halo Infinite’s release. But Forza? Surely a new Forza Horizon – arguably Xbox’s most consistently brilliant franchise – is in the works! If you’re Microsoft, you know you’ve had a heck of a showcase when Halo and Forza can stay home and nobody seems to mind.

I suppose there was one rumored thing that ended up not being included: an Xbox handheld. Fortunately, I got a chance to ask Phil Spencer about that directly afterwards, and I’d say he came as close as he could to confirming its existence without formally announcing it.

If this stellar showcase reaffirmed anything for both Microsoft and Xbox fans alike, it’s that a powerful console is great, and Xbox Game Pass offers a nice value option, but a consistent diet of top-shelf games is what matters more than anything else. More of this please, Microsoft.

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.

How Assassin’s Creed Shadows Blends New And Classic Ideas With Dual Protagonists

16th-century Japan is ripe with fascinating historical context for an Assassin’s Creed game to thrive, which is one aspect that makes the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows so enticing. The way the series bends history for its fiction has me hyped to see its version of feudal Japan, but it’s also a setting that lends itself well to the kind of combat options that have been encompassed by the entire franchise.

In a hands-off preview demo of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, I was able to see roughly 30 minutes of gameplay that showcased both Naoe and Yasuke – the two protagonists – and their combat styles in action. They represent both worlds of the series’ combat: Naoe, a stealthy shinobi wielding the iconic Hidden Blade, and Yasuke, a force of nature with pure power and masterful swordsmanship.

At the start of the demo, I saw Yasuke pulling up to a town where everyday people are squeezing out an existence under the boot of a corrupt shogunate that enforces a caste system. It’s a common dynamic in stories set in this era of Japan, but it’s also ripe for Yasuke to do right by the people who revere him. He has a commanding, respected presence, and the first combat encounter was against a group of samurai who were harassing a villager that shows off Yasuke’s swordsmanship. The challenge is to dodge or counter enemy attacks (indicated by blue and red glints on their blade) in traditional melee combat.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows doesn’t hold back when it comes to the brutality of its combat. Yasuke has finishing moves where he either slices enemies’ heads off clean or stabs them in the gut before lifting them up just to slam them back down. These finishers are also highlighted with black-and-white frame cuts with blood splattering, giving it a bit of the samurai cinematic flair. What’s just as brutal is Yasuke’s spiked club, which is a heavy blunt-force weapon that pounds armored foes. Seeing them take a swing straight to the dome brought a little, “Oooooh!” out of me. The point being that Yasuke is purely focused on melee, so while he won’t be doing a lot of climbing rooftops and jumping between buildings, he’ll hold it down by taking all his enemies head on.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows doesn’t hold back when it comes to the brutality of its combat.

After this introductory combat encounter, a cutscene shows Naoe burst onto the scene to help Yasuke by leaping onto an enemy and executing them with her Hidden Blade. Naoe and Yasuke have this sort of chummy dynamic as they decide how to take on their next mission: assassinate the daimyo at Fukuchiyama Castle. From here, you have to choose to either control Naoe or Yasuke, and this will determine your playstyle and how you navigate the mission to kill your target.

Playing as Naoe, you then have access to scaling walls, hiding in foliage, and stealthy kills. She’s not solely working with a Hidden Blade either; she has throwable kunai for ranged kills and a set of short swords to get her hands dirty up close and personal, should things go loud. But my favorite weapon of hers is the chained blade she can swing around in a circle to chop down crowds of enemies, which even slices through environmental objects. So while she is more focused on being nimble and staying out of sight, she still has some viable options as backup.

But of course, slipping past guards to nab those satisfying stealth kills seems to be worth the effort. Being able to move through the environment with tools like a grappling hook to get up on higher ground in a jiffy and assassinate unsuspecting guards almost reminded me of Tenchu, since it’s more about smartly using tools than just hiding in grass and waiting for patrol patterns to play out. Naoe channels traditional Assassin’s Creed energy, and her options definitely lean into the Splinter Cell fantasy that hasn’t really been fulfilled in the years since we last saw Sam Fisher in action.

Naoe channels traditional Assassin’s Creed energy.

If you play this same mission as Yasuke, you literally bust down the front door and provoke all enemies into combat. Watching him tear through guards almost reminded me of For Honor, another Ubisoft game, for how methodical it all seemed to play, even though it isn’t quite that in depth of swordfighting. Since this is the era of Japanese history that first introduced firearms via Western import, Yasuke also wields a single-shot rifle, and it’s pretty wild to see a hulking samurai pull off headshots just before whipping out his katana to slice down the rest of the foes in front of him.

Whether you play as Naoe or Yasuke, the end result seems to be the same: you kill the daimyo and keep it moving. I’m not sure what the story implications will be depending on your choice, if any. But it’s nice to see two characters with fully realized playstyles with a number of weapons and tools so as to not get stuck into monotonous combat encounters. Granted, that will be determined by how quests are designed. Infiltrating Fukuchiyama Castle showed promise in this regard, but I would love to see if, or how, Shadows can mix and match the two protagonists in more natural ways.

I’m more curious now to get my own hands on Assassin’s Creed Shadows because I always appreciate how different weapons and gear create a distinct flow, especially for a series that’s recently been bouncing between different identities. For me, the most interesting aspects of this game will come from the creative freedom Ubisoft flexes when playing with its historical fiction. Yasuke is a fascinating figure in Japanese history and having a covert shinobi in Naoe contrast the ideals of highly regarded samurai sets my expectations quite high. At least now, I know I’ll be getting a more interesting gameplay dynamic than what I’ve seen from Assassin’s Creed’s recent past.

We’ll be able to see it all come together when Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches on November 12 this year for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Avowed Gets 30-Minute Deep Dive Revealing Third-Person Gameplay, Abilities

Obsidian Entertainment has posted a 30-minute deep dive for its upcoming fantasy action RPG Avowed, revealing an extended look at its gameplay in both first and third person.

This lengthy look at gameplay in the world of Eora comes directly from Xbox itself and goes into some of the magical tools players will have at their disposal when embarking on their adventure later this year. Game Director Carrie Patel touched on these details during the interview, but the feature that might have fans the most excited is the promise that you will have the option to play in both first and third person.

Other details touched on in the presentation include a few colorful conversations with NPCs like Yatzli and Kai. Patel also teases some of the ways the environment will change as Avowed goes from day to night, as well as the ways different NPCs will react to your character’s Godlike status.

Like other RPGs, Avowed has a selection of skills to allow players to choose how they approach encounters, and yes, you’ll be able to respec your trees if you eventually decide you don’t like the path you’ve set yourself on. We see one scenario that is handled two different ways: with combat and with stealth. Using combat to reach an important NPC could anger them, blocking the player off from certain dialogue options and potentially useful rewards. Trying stealth with the Shadowing Beyond ability, which essentially turns the player invisible, results in this same NPC allowing the player to leave with what they came for in peace.

Those who try stealth in Avowed should note that enemies have a “shout radius,” meaning you might be able to get away with dispatching a single enemy if they’re far enough away from their friends. Some of the enemies that players will be sneaking past or slashing through include tiny, blue-and-orange mushroom creatures. These odd beings come in different groups, with some able to attack from a distance while the other swarm with melee attacks.

Avowed’s deep-dive presentation follows its appearance at the Xbox Games Showcase yesterday, where Obsidian showed off additional gameplay, story details, and more from its vibrant fantasy world. It was a showing for the first- and third-person project that came and went without revealing a release date. However, just hours after the event concluded, Obsidian published – and then changed – a post announcing a release date of November 12, 2024. The date is now nowhere to be found, suggesting that Obsidian wasn’t quite ready to commit to that schedule just yet.

Avowed is officially only set to release before the end of 2024. Be sure to read up on everything else shown during the Xbox Games Showcase while we wait for Obsidian’s next RPG to launch on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Series X | S, and PC.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Releases First-Ever Gameplay Footage Ahead of Tuesday’s Reveal

Dragon Age: The Veilguard won’t have a full gameplay showcase until tomorrow, but BioWare just released a tiny sneak peek at in-game footage — its first ever — in the meantime.

You can watch the 20 seconds of gameplay below. In it, we see Rook, the name for the playable protagonist in The Veilguard, with Dragon Age mainstay Varric. “She’s the best damn detective I’ve ever met,” Varric is heard saying in the footage. “If she says she’s got a lead on Solas, I believe her.”

Solas, as fans know, is the former companion of the protagonist in Dragon Age: Inquisition who’s actually the elven god Fen’Harel, or the Dread Wolf. As for who is it that might have a lead on him, we could already glean from yesterday’s cinematic trailer reveal that Varric may be talking about Neve, who’s referred to as “The Detective” in the showcase of companions. But if that wasn’t clear enough, the quest objective of “Find Neve Gallus” that pops up should erase any confusion.

Otherwise, it’s just a brief look at Rook and Varric descending into the city of Minrathous, complete with a moody, foreboding atmosphere. It’s quite the departure from the lively cinematic trailer that debuted yesterday during the Xbox Showcase, which had some fans worried that The Veilguard would veer too far away from the darker tone and art style of previous Dragon Age entries.

The response had some, including BioWare cinematic designer Derek Wilks, urging Dragon Age fans to wait for tomorrow’s gameplay reveal before casting judgment. The early reaction to the quick look at gameplay has largely been positive, with fans relieved that it does still indeed look like a Dragon Age game.

Information on the decade-in-the-making sequel has slowly been trickling out since yesterday’s trailer reveal, including the fact that The Veilguard will let you play as a human, elf, dwarf, or qunari. Fans will have to wait for tomorrow’s official gameplay showcase for more, though.

In the meantime, check out IGN’s exclusive interview with BioWare general manager Gary McKay where he explains, among other things, why they changed the name of the fourth Dragon Age game from Dreadwolf to The Veilguard. And for everything that was announced during yesterday’s Xbox Showcase, check out our roundup.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Bungie Teases Destiny 2 Codename Frontiers, Coming 2025

Bungie has teased Destiny 2 Codename Frontiers, coming at some point in 2025 during what will be the series’ 11th year.

Teased at the end of a new video detailing what to expect from The Final Shape expansion’s upcoming three episodes was a solitary image, below. It reveals Codename Frontiers, which we know is due out in 2025. Bungie did not say anything else about this mysterious update, but with the codename Frontiers, some fans are already speculating that it may involve taking players to planets beyond the Sol System.

Some had thought Bungie might have teased Destiny 3 based on tweets from one of its developers, but it looks like the wait for that game, should it exist, goes on.

The Final Shape brings to an end the overarching Destiny that began with the first game in 2014, but it is not the end for the series. In Year 10, as Bungie calls it, three episodes will be released, each revolving around ‘echoes’ that spark significant change across the galaxy.

The first episode is called Echoes and is set on Nessus, with a focus on the Vex acting up. Players end up unearthing the secrets of a lost civilization and face a new enemy, although Bungie kept its cards close to its chest on this.

The second episode is called Revenant and revolves around the Fallen. This episode has more dark fantasy themes, and lets the player become a Slayer Baron, aka a vampire hunter. This episode introduces a new system called Potion Crafting. This includes combat potions and loot potions.

The third and final episode is called Heresy and revolves around the Hive pantheon. Heresy brings players back to the Dreadnought, the massive Hive spaceship introduced with 2015 expansion The Taken King.

After a Destiny 2 clan completed The Final Shape raid last week, Bungie unlocked a final mission for all players that concludes the main Destiny story. In previous videos, Bungie developers have teased that The Final Shape is not the end of Destiny 2 or even the series, with the developer — now owned by Sony — also working on multiplayer game Marathon.

For now, The Final Shape is going down well with fans, despite initial server problems Bungie ended up apologizing for. Check out IGN’s The FInal Shape review in progress to find out what we think.

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.

Doom: The Dark Ages Could Be the Series’ Boldest Reinvention Yet

Doom: The Dark Ages promises a bold new take on the long-running shooter’s legacy. Revealed in a short but loud trailer as part of the Xbox Games Showcase, it features dragon riding, mech battles, and a much darker, more ‘metal’ visual palette. But those grimdark ideas aren’t the only new elements, nor are they the most significant. For in the Doom Slayer’s left hand is a shield to protect him from demons. And in his right hand is a flail, the bludgeoning chain weapon of the middle ages. Yes, Doom’s going melee.

It must have been a challenge for developer Id Software to know where to go next after it had seemingly perfected the Doom formula with the deeply smart and relentlessly energetic Doom Eternal. The answer, of course, is to do what Doom has always done: reinvent itself. And so while the medieval-like setting and melee combat of Doom: The Dark Ages was something few of us expected, it wasn’t truly a surprise. Of course Doom was going to take a wild leap for whatever came next.

“It’s a medieval war against Hell,” said Hugo Martin, Studio Creative Director at Id Software, at IGN Live. “You say the word medieval and you gotta have melee weapons.” And so replacing the Doom Slayer’s chainsaw is a flail and shield, both of which appear to be integral to the reforged combat loop. The shield, a Captain America-like buckler, has revving chainsaw teeth around the circumference and can be hurled through enemy hordes. The flail, meanwhile, can strike foes from their demonic mounts. Joining them is the Doom Slayer’s own body, since his kick is as good a weapon as any mace. While guns are clearly still the key part of the toolset, it seems like close-quarters combat has been upgraded from ‘supplementary’ to ‘core’. That’s a strong new approach for the series that lives and breathes firearms.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Id Software has taken a bold step. In fact, Doom’s entire history is a series of energetic creative leaps. The 1993 original may have been built on the core tenets of Wolfenstein 3D, but Doom’s big push was the inclusion of networked multiplayer – the very mode that coined “deathmatch” as an immortal video game term. The following year’s Doom 2 was admittedly more conservative, but it brought with it the Super Shotgun; the powerful double-barrelled buckshot launcher that proved just a single weapon could reposition a whole game. The Super Shotgun is now arguably the most iconic gun to have ever existed in a video game, despite only being able to fire two shells per reload in a game that never lets up on enemies.

Doom: The Dark Ages’ flail and shield is a strong new approach for the series that lives and breathes firearms.

It was 2004’s Doom 3, though, that really proved Id Software’s guts. The vibrant reds and oranges of its formative games were exchanged for gloom and shadows as the series experimented with survival horror. While much too action packed to live comfortably alongside Silent Hill, Doom 3 was eerie and occultish in a way its predecessors weren’t. Its most fascinating mechanical innovation was a flashlight that could only be used when your weapon was holstered, forcing you to choose between seeing what horrors lurked in the pitch black and being able to blow their heads off. The system lent Doom 3 a distinct tone and unique pace, forcing you to be slower, more methodical, and more scared. It was a controversial mechanic, one that would be quickly removed by modders and officially eliminated by a 2012 re-release. But it was also emblematic of what Id believed Doom could be.

For Doom’s next regeneration, which started development in the late 2000s, the studio understandably looked to Call of Duty. The FPS behemoth’s cinematic campaigns proved alluring templates, but as production progressed the Doom 4 team recognised that none of those ideas worked for either their series or themselves. It was bold, true, but not the right flavour of bold. And so a back-to-the-drawing-board approach eventually resulted in 2016’s critically acclaimed Doom. Its name said it all: this was the definitive version of what Id Software made all those years ago. But that certainly didn’t mean it was conservative or nostalgic; this was a shooter with a huge emphasis on rhythm and speed, combining gameplay with music in a way that the developers of the ‘90s could never even dream of. The result was practically a heavy metal album with frenetic, fluid fights. Before Titanfall 2 arrived, Doom made it clear that movement was the fabric of the new generation of shooters.

If Doom’s headline feature was its speed, then its quietly revolutionary trait was how it dealt with health. The scrapped Doom 4 prototype had pilfered Call of Duty’s regenerating hit points, a system that demanded you take cover to patch yourself up. Doom 2016 rejected that idea entirely; if you wanted to heal then you had to kill in exchange. That philosophy spawned the Glory Kill executions, which tore apart enemies like pinatas to reveal the health kits inside. And in Id Software’s most recently released experiment, 2020’s Doom Eternal, this simple idea became the core.

“Ballistic resource manager” perhaps isn’t the sexiest thing to call your hyperkinetic FPS, but that’s exactly what Doom Eternal not so secretly is. Forget the financial economy, this is the bullet economy: you kill to harvest what you need to kill even more. This results in a chain of rapid slaughter where every kill is a decision – you must not only select the right weapon for the enemy you face, but also eviscerate that enemy in the manner that will produce the items required. Need armour? Then set thy foe aflame. Need bullets? Chew them up with a chainsaw. Need health? Rip and tear with your fists.

Through this approach, Id Software rethought the entire fundamentals of not just Doom, but the arcade shooter as a whole. For a series and genre that had historically been considered ‘mindless’, Eternal dials up the smarts. It rejects your wish to just kick back and blast away, forcing you to the edge of your seat with its demands of speed, precision, and forward thinking. It’s a design encapsulated by Eternal’s most polarising enemy: the Marauder, a beast that’s surely the progenitor for what comes next in Doom: The Dark Ages.

The single aspect that most surprised me in the new trailer was seeing the Doom Slayer parry a Hell Knight. I was instantly reminded how battles with the Marauder demanded much more precision and timing than a regular Doom shootout, with split-second dodges and perfect reactions to its telegraphing eye flash required to defeat it. This unusual switch in tempo meant many disliked how the Marauder interrupted their flow, but I relished its challenge. Doom: The Dark Ages’ use of a parry suggests that it has found a way to reinvent the fundamentals of the Marauder, using those split-second reactions to turn the tables on enemies.

What we don’t see in the trailer are any Glory Kills. And the combat itself seems much more forward-momentum heavy, rather than the enemies-from-all-sides battle arenas from the previous two games. And so it appears that The Dark Ages could be an even more significant departure from what was laid down in Doom and Doom Eternal than just the melee factor. We’ll have to wait to see exactly what all the components of this new, more grimdark iteration of the series are, but whatever they turn out to be, I’m pleased it’s more of the same; more of Doom’s insatiable appetite to reinvent itself every time.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

Microsoft ‘Is by No Means Abandoning’ the Stories Told in Gears 4 and 5, Despite Decision to Do a Prequel Next

After the announcement of Gears of War: E-Day during the Xbox Games Showcase. some fans expressed concern that Microsoft and Gears developer The Coalition were walking away from the story set out in Gears 4 and the most recent game in the series, Gears 5.

Not so, according to Microsoft. In a post on Xbox Wire, Microsoft touched on the future of Gears, insisting “this isn’t the end of other ongoing stories in the Gears series.”

“The team is content with the stories told in Gears 4 and Gears 5 and is by no means abandoning them, but the collective passion for such an iconic origin story was simply too great to ignore,” Microsoft said. ”The story of E-Day and the origins of Marcus and Dom are such powerful, pivotal events that The Coalition couldn’t wait to tell it.”

Warning: Spoilers for Gears 5 follow.

2019’s Gears 5 ends on something of a cliffhanger, with Kait telling Marcus Fenix she’s off to hunt down Queen Reyna. Beforehand, the player, aka Kait, decides to save either JD Fenix or Del, leaving Reyna to kill the other.

Gears of War: E-Day, however, is set 14 years before the events of Gears of War 1, and tells the story of Emergence Day (the day the Locust burst out from under the earth to attack Sera).

In the Xbox Wire post, The Coalition creative director Matt Searcy and brand director Nicole Fawcette discussed the decision to make a prequel next, rather than the perhaps expected Gears 6. “We’re super proud about Gears 4 and Gears 5 and the stories that were told,” Fawcette said. “We’re not retreating from that storyline in any way. But in [this] moment, we had an opportunity to write our next step, and this one just felt too good to miss.”

In a follow-up interview with IGN, Searcy expanded on the decision. “For us, there is a story here for our studio of how we found our way to E-Day that was about reflection,” Searcy explained. “And part of it is just the energy that rolls up about, this was the story we wanted to tell at this time. So it wasn’t really about picking between these things, it was just a snowball of the stuff that was on the table and this is the one we wanted to do right now.

“We love those characters. It’s really nice to have a franchise where we can tell stories in different places. For us, this is just the one we wanted to work on now, this is the one that felt right.”

The decision to go with a prequel was a topic of discussion when IGN interviewed Xbox boss Phil Spencer at IGN Live. Spencer said doing a prequel instead of Gears 6 is “a nice opportunity for that team to establish their Gears.”

“Following on Gears 5 just because of the numerical thing, I think it would just… this was an opportunity for them to take it back to an origin story that has a lot of real depth to it in terms of Emergence Day and tell that story through The Coalition as it is today,” Spencer said. “I thought, what a great opportunity. I was excited.”

The question, of course, is with Gears of War: E-Day in active development at The Coalition, it may be some time before Microsoft continues the overarching Gears storyline with a potential Gears 6. Some fans have suggested another team be handed the responsibility of continuing the story in partnership with The Coalition, but Microsoft has yet to indicate a willingness to do so.

Gears of War: E-Day is currently without a release window. For more of what Microsoft has up its sleeve, check out everything announced at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024.

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.