It’s not a particularly exciting update — the patch notes only tell us that May 27’s update “improved the compatibility for multiplayer sessions between Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch” — but it marks the first time the relaxing sim game has had an any kind of backend refresh since November 2022.
What “improved compatibility” means, we’re not completely sure, but it’s likely a small tweak to make sure players jumping onto Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Switch 2 can still visit the islands of their friends without incident and vice-versa.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons lets you escape to a deserted island and create your own paradise as you explore, create, and customize your own private island and community. We loved our time with it, and it’s still listed on our Top 25 Best Nintendo Switch Games in 2025 list. In our review, we awarded it a 9, writing: “Animal Crossing: New Horizons is an expanded, polished, next-generation reboot of a classic Nintendo game that’s full of surprises.”
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 night looms, as Bandai Namco and FromSoftware have confirmed the global release times for Elden Ring Nightreign.
The official release date for Elden Ring Nightreign is May 30 at midnight EDT, for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S. As per usual, though, some timezone differences mean that certain regions will be able to log on and play a bit earlier. West coast players in the Pacific time zone, for example, can boot up Elden Ring Nightreign at 9pm on May 29.
Platforms also differ, too. Per Bandai Namco’s post, PC players will be able to hop in slightly ahead of everyone else in most regions. For the U.S. East Coast, PC players can start at 6pm on May 29 while console owners are stuck waiting until midnight.
Bandai Namco said pre-load is available 48 hours prior to launch time on PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. In IGN’s interview with Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki, the Nightreign lead discussed the choice to lean on solos and trios as the core experience options. When asked why there’s no option for a pair of players to drop in together without a matchmade third player, Ishizaki said it was overlooked.
“The simple answer is that this is simply something that was overlooked during development as just a two-player option, so we’re very sorry about that,” said Ishizaki. “As we said before, we set out to make this a multiplayer co-op game for three players, balanced for three players, so that was the main focus and it’s at the core of Nightreign.
“Of course, I myself as a player understand that and often want times where I’m just playing myself, so this is something that we considered from the start,” Ishizaki continued. “And so we did put a lot of effort into creating this experience that was playable for solo players in as much as the rules and new systems allowed. So in putting all our efforts into that aspect, we kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect, but this is something that we are looking at and considering for post-launch support as well.”
Indie publisher tinyBuild had their second annual tinyBuild Connect showcase today. IGN streamed the Connect live, and the showcase was packed with reveals of new games and release date announcements. Best of all, you can try almost all of the new games shown today via a playtest or demo — either now, or very soon. If you weren’t able to watch it live or just want a rundown of everything that was shown, we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything we saw during the show:
Ferocious Is a Survival FPS with Dinosaurs You Can Team Up With
The showcase opened with a brand-new look at Ferocious, where dinosaurs, mercs, and mechs clash in a lush but lethal survival FPS. The trailer teased the ability to tame apex predators and flip the food chain in your favor. The Steam playtest is live now, so it’s time to find out if you can survive the island’s deadly welcome.
New Sand Trailer Shows More Desert FPS Action
New footage rolled out featuring hulking, customizable “Trampler” walkers stomping across sun-scorched dunes, frantic PvP action, and a confirmation that the extraction shooter will be coming to consoles later this year. A fresh playtest is also on the horizon, so get your squad together and see if you’ve got what it takes to rule the sands.
Trainfort Is a Co-op Survival Game with Guns and Steam Engines
The world-premiere trailer introduced Trainfort, a co-op survival crafting game where roving dwarf nomads build and drive a steam-powered fortress across a procedurally generated wasteland. The developers are promising that a tactile first-person hand-control system will make every action from chopping trees to assembling your mobile base feel grounded and physical. The playtest for Trainfort also went live right after the show.
Hozy Is a Cozy Living Spaces Restoration Game
Hozy invites players to restore a forgotten neighborhood, one cozy room at a time. Revealed for the first time during the showcase, the debut trailer showed players scrubbing grime, slapping on fresh coats of pastel paint, and dialing in lighting to turn derelict rooms into homey sanctuaries. Hozy also dropped a public Steam playtest right after the show, so you can already get a taste for its fixer-upper gameplay.
All Will Fall Lets You Build a City That Can Collapse at Any Time
Physics-based construction meets post-apocalyptic survival in this vertical city builder where every ramshackle tower can topple like Jenga. The team confirmed an open beta for Steam Next Fest on June 9, giving players a chance to stack homes sky-high — or watch them spectacularly crumble. All Will Fall has a demo available on Steam right now.
Roguelite Kingdom Builder The King Is Watching Launches This July
CarbotAnimations’ tongue-in-cheek trailer revealed a July release window for this unique strategy title, where peasants only work under your royal gaze. Each run tasks you with juggling production, training armies, and adapting to unpredictable events. The playable demo is still available on Steam for those eager to test their royal authority.
Of Ash and Steel Shows Off Its Gothic-Coded Fantasy Open World
A sweeping world overview trailer showcased sun-bleached fortresses, misty marshlands, and brutal third-person combat that rewards stance-switching finesse. Playtest sign-ups went live alongside the trailer, inviting would-be island wanderers to chart their own, marker-free adventures.
Streets of Rogue 2 Gets a New Gameplay Trailer Where Everything Goes Wrong
A new trailer proved that everything can go wrong at any moment with this anything-goes sandbox, capping the segment with a confirmation that it hits Steam Early Access in 2025. From hijacking tractors to accident-prone heists, chaos is king in Streets of Rogue 2, and you can check out its demo on Steam right now.
Voin Unveils Its Next Major Update Called “Permafrost”
A new, action-packed devlog unveiled the upcoming “Permafrost” update, promising new frosted realms to carve through and fresh gear to master in this hack-and-slash created by a solo developer. Judging by the slicing, dashing footage, the chill won’t slow the carnage one bit. You can grab Voin with a limited-time discount during tinyBuild’s publisher sale on Steam.
SpeedRunners 2 Unveils a 64-Player Tournament Mode and Cutthroat Racing Gameplay
The cult-classic competitive platformer is turbo-charging into the new era. The latest trailer confirmed a massive 64-player tournament mode and showed more cutthroat racing gameplay across some new maps. A Steam playtest will launch this summer, and sign-ups are open now. SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed will launch on PC in 2025, with the console release to follow in 2026.
Duckside Brings Hat-Wearing, Gun-Wielding Duck Extravaganza to Consoles This August
The new trailer dove onto the screen, confirming that Duckside lands on consoles this August and showing off full-flight PvP mayhem, complete with crafting, base building, hat-wearing ducks, and of course, quack-tical base raids. The game is on sale with a limited-time discount on Steam.
Drill Core 1.0 Releases July 17, Nintendo Switch Version Coming Later This Year
Become a true Corporate Mining manager in this strategy roguelite builder game. Whether you prioritize profits or workers’ safety is up to you! The devs locked in a 1.0 launch for July 17 and surprised Switch owners with a port arriving later this year, but you can hop into the Early Access right now, as Drill Core is currently on sale on Steam.
Hello Neighbor 3 Drops a New Playable Prototype
Hello Neighbor franchise creator Nikita Kolesnikov popped up in a devlog to give a first look at the eerie living sandbox town of Raven Brooks, where every NPC has its own agenda. Prototype 2 shadow-dropped during the show, so the curious (or the brave) can sneak in and test the new systems right now.
Medieval Shooter/RTS Hybrid Kingmakers Sets Early Access Release Date for October 8
Medieval England never looked so doomed: a frenetic new trailer for the shooter/RTS hybrid finally showed off four-player co-op, with assault rifles mowing through armored knights before revealing an October 8 Early Access launch on Steam and Epic Games Store. Time-travel paradoxes be damned — Kingmakers is ready to bring an attack chopper to a sword fight.
Square Enix and Disney announced Kingdom Hearts 4 at the Kingdom Hearts 20th Anniversary event in 2022, giving us a fresh new look at Sora and what he’s been up to after he left his friends for a solo adventure at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3. To no one’s surprise, there haven’t been many updates for the sequel since it was announced, but a recent spread of screenshots affirmed the game’s continued development.
To further ease our impatience for Kingdom Hearts 4, Square Enix brought the entire Kingdom Hearts series to Steam on June 13, 2024. Well, almost the entire series, including Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind DLC, and Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece — the latter of which is a bundle that released on the Nintendo Switch in cloud streaming form in 2021.
While we wait for more updates and a potential release date for Kingdom Hearts 4, we’re giving you a list of Kingdom Hearts games to play in chronological order. As convoluted as the series’ plot may be, this list should give you a clear perspective on the history of the Kingdom Hearts world, how Sora was set up to be the Keyblade’s chosen one, and how Master Xehanort keeps trying to plunge the world into darkness, hence the name of the series’ first arc: the Dark Seeker Saga.
The Kingdom Hearts series includes 13 games across multiple platforms, including the PSP and Game Boy Advance. There will also be a new game in the mainline series, which was officially announced in April 2022.
What Kingdom Hearts Game Should I Play First?
If you are new to the Kingdom Hearts series, we highly recommend starting off with Kingdom Hearts 2. When you play as Roxas in the beginning of the game, you get flashbacks of the most important scenes from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories to get you up to speed on the story of the series thus far, and give insight on how Sora and Roxas are connected in the first place.
The gameplay in Kingdom Hearts 2 is also more straightforward than Kingdom Hearts, and you don’t have to play through every Gummi Ship mission more than once even when you revisit worlds. Thank us later.
How to Play Kingdom Hearts Games in Chronological Order
Kingdom Hearts χ / Unchained χ / Union χ
Apologies for grouping all the titles in one section, but Kingdom Hearts χ [chi], initially a Japan-exclusive title for PC, had been subsequently rebranded into Unchained χ and Union χ [Cross] for mobile users worldwide during the eight years it was running online. The χ refers to the χ-blade, a coveted weapon designed by two Keyblades in an “X” shape capable of unlocking Kingdom Hearts.
Kingdom Hearts Union χ is set hundreds of years before the series’ events, in an era leading up to the Keyblade War. You control a newly minted Keyblade wielder in the 2D world of Daybreak Town who joins one of five factions and works to ensure its supremacy over the other four as they fight over the finite light available to the world. Union χ occurs shortly after Unchained χ, but in an alternate data world where the player relives the past to forget the Keyblade War. The game shut down in May 2021, but you can still watch cutscenes of it online. If gacha games are not your style, you can watch HD cutscenes of the events in the cinematic Kingdom Hearts χ Back Cover, which is included in Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue.
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road
As the title suggests, Kingdom Hearts Dark Road is the origin story of villain Master Xehanort set 70 years before the events of Birth by Sleep. As a young man, Xehanort is taken from Destiny Islands to Scala ad Caelum to train alongside Master Eraqus to become a Keyblade wielder and is tasked by Master Odin to search for the Lost Masters, triggering a chain of events that leads him to become the Seeker of Darkness.
Dark Road employed the same 2D graphics present in Kingdom Hearts χ and its subsequent rebranded titles, which aren’t very impressive, but the game still contained details integral to the entire series. You may not be able to play the game, but you can still watch cutscenes on YouTube to get the full scope.
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Set 10 years before the events of Kingdom Hearts, Birth by Sleep is told from the vantage points of Ventus, Terra, and Aqua — all Keyblade Apprentices of Master Eraqus living in the Land of Departure. Shortly after Aqua and Terra finish their Mark of Mastery exam, with the former passing and obtaining the title of Keyblade Master and the latter failing for not keeping his darkness in check, the trio go on separate journeys to find Master Xehanort, who disappeared without a trace, and defeat the Unversed, creatures created by Xehanort’s apprentice Vanitas to attack other worlds.
Birth by Sleep dives into the origin of Sora and Master Xehanort, as Ventus had part of his heart patched up by a piece of Sora’s heart. Xehanort, meanwhile, created Vanitas from the darkness he purged from Ventus’ heart, which Xehanort deemed too frail for him to use as a vessel to forge the χ-blade, forcing him to go after Terra instead. It also explores how Sora and Riku could wield the Keyblade in the first place, as Terra bestowed the power of the Keyblade to Riku, while Aqua sensed strong ties with Sora and Riku to Ventus and Terra, respectively.
Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep — A Fragmentary Passage
Although it’s safe to place A Fragmentary Passage (included in Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue) before the first Kingdom Hearts game, it acts as an epilogue to Birth by Sleep and a prologue to Kingdom Hearts 3. However, the story for this game begins shortly after the events of Dream Drop Distance because King Mickey tells the story of how he came across Aqua in the Realm of Darkness to Riku, Kairi, and Master Yen Sid.
After sacrificing herself to save Terra from the Realm of Darkness at the end of Birth by Sleep, Aqua has been wandering in darkness for 10 years, trying to find a way back to the Realm of Light. She visits the dark versions of Castle of Dreams, Dwarf Woodlands, and Enchanted Dominion to battle hordes of Heartless that form into Demon Towers, fight apparitions of Ventus and Terra, and save Terra’s heart. Meanwhile, Mickey went to the Realm of Darkness to save Riku. When he meets Aqua after using her lost Wayfinder to find her, he tells her 10 years have passed since they last met and proceeds to Destiny Islands after fighting another Demon Tower. There, the door to Kingdom Hearts is spotted, and Mickey helps Sora and Riku seal it shut, leaving Aqua to dwell in the Realm of Darkness once more.
Kingdom Hearts
In the very first entry of the series, Sora sets out on a journey with Donald and Goofy to reunite with Riku and Kairi after the Heartless destroy Destiny Islands and plunge the world into darkness. Along the way, he travels to different worlds aboard the Gummi Ship, meets various Disney and Final Fantasy characters, and helps defend their world from the Heartless by sealing Keyholes. Meanwhile, Maleficent leads a group of her fellow Disney villains to seek out the seven Princesses of Heart to unlock the last keyhole leading to Kingdom Hearts, and she employs Riku.
By the time Sora reaches Hollow Bastion, Kairi’s body is found with her heart missing as it was transferred to Sora’s body during the apocalypse at Destiny Islands; Riku becomes possessed by Ansem, who was manipulating Maleficent to open Kingdom Hearts; and Kairi is revealed to be the Princess of Heart, hence the heart transfer from her to Sora, who then frees Kairi’s heart after impaling himself with Ansem’s Keyblade, turning into a Heartless in the process. Kairi manages to turn Sora back to human form by recognizing his Heartless and embracing him, and from there Sora defeats Ansem and seals the door to Kingdom Hearts with help from Riku and Mickey from the other side.
While searching for Riku and Mickey after sealing the door to Kingdom Hearts, Sora, Donald, and Goofy visit Castle Oblivion, causing them to lose their memories upon entry. They’re told by Marluxia, the lord of the castle who is revealed to be a member of Organization XIII, that the deeper they go into the castle, the more memories they’ll lose, but they’ll uncover new ones in the process. The group is given a deck of cards called “world cards” based on Sora’s memories, and they meet memory versions of the characters they met in the previous game and fight a few members of the Organization aside from Marluxia — Axel, Larxene, and Vexen — as they progress through each floor of the castle. Meanwhile, Riku is going through the basement levels of the castle, wrestling with the darkness inside him and Ansem’s attempts to control him while fighting two other members of Organization XIII: Lexaeus and Zexion.
Aside from the cards being decried as an ineffective battle system, Chain of Memories introduced new characters that became essential players in the Kingdom Hearts series, such as Naminé, whom Sora gradually remembered as being an old friend only to find out later she was manipulating Sora’s memories of Kairi by replacing them with fake ones of herself under Marluxia’s orders. After Sora fights Marluxia for his life and Naminé’s freedom, Naminé places him and his companions to sleep in pod-like machines to help them regain the memories they lost.
358/2 Days is set during the events of Chain of Memories. It explores the birth of Roxas as Sora’s Nobody when Sora turned into a Heartless during Kingdom Hearts, his daily life as the 13th member of Organization XIII, and his friendship with Axel and Xion, who mysteriously arrived as the 14th member.
As time progresses and their bond deepens, it is revealed that Xion is an artificial replica created after Sora’s memories of Kairi as a fail-safe if Sora and Roxas are proven to be useless for the Organization to achieve their goal of summoning Kingdom Hearts and becoming whole, all the while delaying Sora’s memory restoration process by absorbing them. This discovery causes Roxas to defect from Organization XIII to find himself, and later Xion, who fights to merge with him to become whole, stopping Sora from waking up. Ultimately, Roxas defeats Xion, who disintegrates into light with all the memories she absorbed returning to Sora.
Fun fact, but not precisely fun: 358/2 was dedicated to the memory of Wayne Allwine, the voice actor for Mickey Mouse, who died 12 days before the game’s release in Japan in May 2009.
The game begins in Twilight Town, where Roxas enjoys his summer vacation with Hayner, Pence, and Olette, having no memories of his time with Organization XIII nor Axel, who remembers him during their encounters while waking up with dreams of Sora, who had been asleep for a year at that point. Once Sora wakes up along with Donald and Goofy after Roxas merges with him, they set out to once again protect the worlds from the Heartless and visit new ones to stop Organization XIII from creating another Kingdom Hearts that would give the Nobodies their hearts back.
As Sora and the gang explore the concept of the heart even further, they learn that the Ansem they fought was Xehanort’s Heartless; Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, is Xehanort’s Nobody; and that Xehanort was an apprentice of the real Ansem, named Ansem the Wise, the sage-king of Radiant Garden (renamed Hollow Bastion and then Radiant Garden again) who studied the heart alongside Braig, Dilan, Even, Aeleus, Ienzo (human versions of Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion, respectively) to protect his people from darkness before he was exiled to the Realm of Darkness for corrupting them with the same darkness and taking on the new identity DiZ (Darkness in Zero). Even more shocking, they learn Roxas and Naminé are the Nobodies of Sora and Kairi, respectively.
Initially released as an episodic mobile game called “Coded” in Japan, Re:coded centers on King Mickey and a digital version of Sora as they work to repair Jiminy Cricket’s journal, which chronicles the real Sora’s adventures fighting the Heartless and Organization XIII, after it got corrupted. It was being digitized to analyze a secret message Jiminy did not write: “Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it” (originally written as “We must return to free them from their torment” in Coded). In the dataspace, Data-Sora and Mickey fight the bugs, who take the form of red-and-black blocks and Heartless, and work to decipher the message’s meaning.
Square Enix originally released eight parts of Coded and a preview to Japanese mobile users from June 2009 to January 2010, making it run almost like a full season of a television series. To make the game accessible to fans worldwide, the entire game was repackaged into Re:coded for the Nintendo DS.
To prepare for Master Xehanort’s return, Master Yen Sid proctors the Mark of Mastery exam to Sora and Riku in the most unconventional way possible: sending them back in time to unlock the keyholes of seven worlds that were left in a sleeping state after being destroyed by the Heartless, including the worlds of Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pinocchio, Tron: Legacy, and Fantasia. Though they go through a different chain of events in the same worlds, they work to defeat the “Nightmare” Dream Eaters with the help of their “Spirit” Dream Eaters and the power of Flowmotion.
Throughout the Mark of Mastery exam, they run into the younger version of Xehanort, who reveals that he, Ansem, and Xehanort, who were supposed to have been defeated, lured Sora into a trap at The World That Never Was and put him into a deep sleep (where he was protected by Ventus’ armor), and Riku has been running through Sora’s dreams as a Dream Eater the whole time. To save Sora from the darkness, Riku fights the young Xehanort, and the revived, older Master Xehanort arrives with intentions to turn Sora into his 13th vessel for the new Organization XIII, comprised of mostly his past selves from across time, and create the χ-blade by pitting the 13 seekers of darkness and the seven guardians of light against each other. Thankfully, Xehanort’s plans are foiled by King Mickey, Lea (the human version of Axel), and Riku, who ultimately passes the Mark of Mastery exam, with Sora failing for losing the power of waking, which is the ability to restore hearts.
In the final chapter of the Dark Seeker Saga, Sora sets out to reclaim the power of waking and gather the seven guardians of light to prepare for the final showdown with Organization XIII and Master Xehanort, who is hellbent on not only creating the χ-blade, but also keeping darkness and light in proper balance. Meanwhile, Kairi trains to become a Keyblade wielder with Lea, and Riku goes with King Mickey to search for the missing Keyblade wielders.
Kingdom Hearts 3 took 13 years to make, with a few trailers released between 2013 and 2018 before finally being released in 2019. To this day, it remains the best-selling Kingdom Hearts game.
Melody of Memory is a rhythm game where Sora and the other Keyblade wielders defeat the Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed, and Dream Eaters to the beat of every song in the series. It’s set against the backdrop of Kairi being in the lab at Radiant Garden, as she gives a summary of the series’ events as the narrator.
Kingdom Hearts Games in Release Order
Kingdom Hearts – September 17, 2002 (PS2)
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories – December 7, 2004 (Game Boy Advance)
Kingdom Hearts 2 – March 28, 2006 (PS2)
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days – September 29, 2009 (Nintendo DS)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep – September 7, 2010 (PSP)
Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded – January 11, 2011 (Nintendo DS)
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance – July 31, 2012 (Nintendo 3DS)
Kingdom Hearts Union χ [Cross] – April 7, 2016 (Android, iOS)
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMix – March 28, 2017 (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue – January 24, 2017 (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts 3 – January 29, 2019 (PS4, XBO, PC)
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road – June 22, 2020 (Android, iOS)
Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory – November 13, 2020 (PS4, XBO, Nintendo Switch, PC)
What’s Next for Kingdom Hearts?
Kingdom Hearts 4 was announced in 2022, though Square Enix has been quiet about KH4 since its announcement and has yet to reveal a release window. The most recent development, a series of screenshots, came out of almost nowhere, but hopefully indicates we’ll be getting our hands on Kingdom Hearts 4 sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t be surprised if the game ends up releasing on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. She has contributed her work to various publications, including Digital Trends, TheGamer, Twinfinite, Mega Visions, and The Escapist. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
The Japanese government has released a Minecraft map of the world’s largest underground flood prevention facility. Not only is it free to download, but it lets you explore one of the Tokyo area’s lesser-known iconic locations from the comfort of your home.
The Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, known as G-Cans for short, is a real-life disaster prevention facility. It is best-known for its “pressure adjustment water tank” — a huge cavernous space with 59 massive pillars. A truly epic looking, boss battle-worthy location, it is G-Can’s most iconic sight, and even has the nickname “underground temple” (chika shinden) in Japan. With bags of atmosphere, it also gets used as a location for music videos, Japanese TV dramas (like Kamen Rider) and movies.
In dry seasons, it is possible to tour G-Cans in real life, but thanks to the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), you can now explore this atmospheric facility in Minecraft too. The ministry have released a video on their official YouTube which briefly summarizes the purpose of G-Cans and shows what it looks like in the blocky world of Minecraft.
Minecraft’s free G-Cans map doesn’t just include the facility though — there is also an overground area featuring rivers, homes, and neighborhoods, giving the player a sense of how G-Cans protects people and places in real life. You can also go into the control room and try draining flood water into the shafts to see how it works for yourself.
MLIT’s recreation of G-Cans in Minecraft is designed to educate people about the facility and how it prevents disasters. Exploring it, even in Minecraft, also gives the player a sense of how absolutely huge G-Cans is. In real life, G-Cans’ concrete tunnels run for over 6km under Saitama Prefecture, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. Its five shafts capture water from flood-prone rivers during Japan’s rainy season (June) and typhoon season (usually around September), before gradually releasing it into the much bigger Edogawa River and Tokyo Bay. Completed in 2006 after over a decade of construction, G-Cans has played a huge role in combating flooding in the area ever since.
MLIT’s G-Can’s Minecraft map can be downloaded for free from the official website of the Edogawa River Office, which manages the facility. At least Version 1.21.1 of Minecraft Bedrock Edition or Version 1.21.0 of Minecraft Education Edition are required.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
Beware: The Abyss has opened and the curse of death is spreading across a world that’s falling into despair. In the free-to-play Wizardry Variants Daphne, you do everything you can to brace yourself before diving into the pit that’s the source of the curse. Expect failure, expect death, but also expect an RPG journey built around Wizardry’s hardcore dungeon-crawling legacy.
Wizardry Variants Daphne takes place in a doomed world that’s being consumed by the forces of the dead. A generational seal holding back a twisted warlock has failed, and now the warlock’s curse emanates from the depths of the Abyss.
The decay needs to be stopped, but a job like stopping a death-obsessed warlock comes with a very high body count. Wizardry Variants Daphne lets you build up a party of up to six fellow adventurers from a wide variety of classes and races. As with previous Wizardry games, your party’s balance of skills and battle chemistry is vital to your long-term success. Wizardry Variants Daphne balances tough difficulty with compelling visual design, making it a great game for established fans and a good entry point for anyone curious about Wizardry.
Wizardry fans are already familiar with the brutal bite of the monsters and traps that live in its narrow dungeon corridors. Newcomers to the series who pick up Wizardry Variants Daphne should expect a challenge that’s tough, but not insurmountable if you’re the type of person who can make observations and learn from their mistakes.
Take heart: Your manpower isn’t as low as it seems. Your right hand is capable of reversing time, allowing you to revive the skeletons of dead adventurers and restore them to their previous selves. This is the unique gacha mechanic of Wizardry Variants Daphne that allows you to recruit new characters. You’ll gather items called Adventurer’s Remains, which you can take into the Ruins and use to restore and recruit new characters. Once you’ve revived a skeleton, you’ll get info like their name, class, alignment, and stats.
Both old and new fans can appreciate the names on Wizardry Variants Daphne’s creative team. The detailed characters are designed by veteran manga artist and character designer Yusuke Kozaki, whose work has appeared in Fire Emblem Awakening, No More Heroes, AI: The Somnium Files, and dozens of other games. The bosses are designed by Katsuya Terada, an illustrator whose work goes back to previous Wizardry adaptations and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Its eerie, moody music comes from celebrated game composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, whose credits include Final Fantasy Tactics, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Dragon’s Crown, and dozens more games.
Whether you’re ready to feel Wizardry’s burn again or you’re ready to travel down its grimy corridors for the first time, Wizardry Variants Daphne is waiting for you. It’s been downloaded more than 1 million times worldwide, so it’s clearly making its mark on fans. It’s available for free on the App Store, Google Play, and Steam.
Destined Rivals is one of the best Scarlet and Violet era sets, it’s banger after banger as far as chase cards go. In our preview, we pulled 18 big card across 46 packs. This includes a load of regular ex cards, 1 hyper rare, 1 SIR, 1 ultra rare and 5 illustration rares. It’s good odds for sure, but chasing down Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex SIR or Ethan’s Ho-Oh ex SIR is likely to take a lot more than 46 booster packs.
TL;DR: The Best Destined Rivals Single Pokémon Cards
Let the cost of those booster packs sink in. Of course, you’ll probably find some cool cards, and there’s always a chance you’ll get the chase card you want, but what if you could just pay the market value of the card you wanted for less instead? Destined Rivals single card market is already booming before the official release date, which is just day’s away on May 30. To save trainers the trouble of stressing about stock and paying MSRP at big box retailers (good luck with that), here’s the best chase cards from Destined Rivals. They’re available as presale items now, then will be shipped to you on release day. Let’s get into it:
Hyper Rare
Hyper Rares have become the black sheep of the Scarlet and Violet era. They’re more of an aquired taste, but Ethan’s Ho-Oh ex looks fantastic in this style, as goes Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex. it’s also around half the price of collecting the secret art rare variants, which are supposed to be easier to get than hyper rares. Go figure.
Secret Art Rare
Secret art rares are the absolute bangers of every Scarlet and Violet era set. Whilst Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex SIR is an eye watering $599.99, Ethan’s Ho-Oh ex SIR and Arven’s Mabosstiff ex SIR are far reasonably prices at $225 and $49.99 respectively.
Illustration Rare
The two best cards of Destined Rivals are Illustration Rares in my option, so it’s a good job I have them already! Cynthia’s Roserade’s artwork is stunning, it’s got that late 80s anime vibe and is so well-made. Ethan’s Typlosion is one of the best artworks of the entire Scarlet and Violet era so far. The movement of the artwork and blatent bond it shows between trainer and Pokémon is what Pokémon is all about for me. It’s going to take something epic to beat this cards artwork for me personally.
Destined Rivals Sealed Preorders
TCG Player is also running preorders for sealed product too. It’s market value prices, which will likely be cheaper than most big box retailers on release day. Everything, including Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Boxes are available for presale right now. Don’t sleep on this set, it’s one of the best we’ve had in the last 12 months.
This Weeks Pokémon TCG Crashers and Climbers
The Single Pokémon TCG market on the other hand is going through a grand reset right now, which is down to a few factors. The crypto bro mentally to reselling products is dying down a little and more product is becoming available thanks to reprints. We’re not out of the woods yet by any means, but this weeks Crashers and Climbers show recent cards going down in price and cards from the X and Y era shooting up in value. We’re 100% moving in the right direction.
Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of “Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior”. Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.
Dead by Daylight is just weeks away from celebrating its ninth anniversary, so developer Behaviour Interactive is rolling out the party favor fans have begged to see for years: Five Nights at Freddy’s. A Chapter based on Scott Cawthon’s legendary animatronic horror series will finally, officially arrive in Dead by Daylight June 17, marking the end of a long wait and the beginning of another year of more crossovers, quality-of-life fixes, and more. It’s a collaboration years in the making, and we got a first look at how it’s shaping up.
IGN sat down to interview Dead by Daylight Creative Director Dave Richard and Killer Designer Jason Guzzo ahead of the upcoming Chapter’s public test build (PTB), which launches today at 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET, to learn more about how this latest collaboration stays true to the looks and lore of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Alongside learning more about how the new Killer, Springtrap, uses doors, cameras, and jump scares to terrorize Survivors, our chat revealed more details about some of the other horror icons Behaviour would love to add and exactly how much Markiplier they watched to prepare for the new update.
Eager Nintendo Switch 2 fans will also be happy to know that Behaviour confirmed with IGN separately that Dead by Daylight’s startup issues on the device will be resolved by the time the new console launches next week, June 5. Meanwhile, the team has an explanation behind why they opted out of including a new Survivor this time around, but if we’re lucky, Freddy Fazbear’s time in Dead by Daylight is just getting started.
IGN: Heading into the PTB, how are you feeling about how Springtrap looks and feels to play compared to other past Killers in previous PTBs.
Dave Richard: Jason will be able to answer that in more details, because, of course, he’s the main designer on this. I feel excited. I feel confident. We know that this is the top-requested franchise and Killer. It has been for many, many years, so a little bit stressed as well. There’s a lot of hype, there’s a lot of expectation, but the team did great to be authentic and to create a very, very cool Five Nights at Freddy’s experience within the Dead by Daylight metrics.
Jason Guzzo: I mean, I think Dave put it pretty well, I have not been at behavior for 23 years and on DBD since the beginning, so I think my stress is a little higher than his. For him, it’s like, ‘Oh, this is just part of the, part of the flow.’ But for me, this is, this is my third Killer. So yes, I did Chucky and Dracula previously, but being able to kind of be trusted with FNaF on DBD was so awesome. I’m really excited about it. It takes us almost a year to do a Killer, so it’s really cool to finally be able to say, like, ‘Oh, here’s what we’re doing,’ and everybody can see it and play with it and let us know… hopefully their view on it aligns with ours, and hopefully they love it as much as we did.
Just reading over some of the details I saw beforehand, this seems so authentic to Five Nights at Freddy’s and what the gameplay is in that series, which I didn’t expect. I didn’t expect to see doors, cameras, and even jump scares. Were there discussions about playing as other animatronics, or was it always Springtrap the team had their eyes on?
Richard: Obviously, it’s not something we can answer easily on, like, all the inner workings that we have with our different partners. There were many, many iterations of what this Chapter could be, and we ended up here, and it’s great, and that’s all I can share.
This is the first time players get to play a spring trap in a video game, which I’m sure for the Five Nights at Freddy’s community is huge. Can you talk about what it’s like creating original gameplay for this character with such a limited blueprint to base things off of?
Guzzo: That’s a great question. Really, like, as you implied, the gameplay from FNaF is very different from DBD – drastically different. So really, the goal was to say, ‘What’s the experience of FNaF? What the – my favorite word in the whole world – what’s the vibe? That’s the millennial word: ‘What’s the vibe?’ So, I mean, I watched, no joke, about 70 hours of content. I won’t name names, but the king of FNaF. Everybody knows who it is.
Richard: Shoutout to Markiplier. Yeah!
Guzzo: [Laughs] I mean, I love him now. I hadn’t really watched him before, and now I’ve watched so much of his FNaF stuff, and I’m subscribed. I watch all of his new videos and stuff. It won me over. But no, it was really cool to be able to kind of see, not only just the gameplay. I’m going to be honest: I don’t love jump scares as a player. I love horror movies. Horror games with jump scares… I’m a bit of a baby about it, but it was cool to not only just watch the gameplay, but watch, of course, the streamers’ reactions and the people playing it in the community.
When you watch people playing live, you see the community interacting. Also, just seeing what people react to… because you can make a game like FNaF, and you go, ‘Oh, it’s all going to be jump scares,’ and people just kind of ignore that, and they kind of focus on something else. So, being able to watch somebody play, and watch people play, and read all the lore – because Five Nights at Freddy’s lore is crazy – and just say like, ‘Well, what are people reacting to, and how can we kind of adapt that to into the context of DBD?’ There was a lot of back and forth.
There was a lot of cooks in this kitchen on this Chapter because everybody has ideas for FNaF. It’s the big one. Everybody wanted to make sure that it was as authentic as possible, and, of course, everything went through Mr. Scott Cawthon. So, yeah, it was really cool to do all that research and take a ton of notes and say, ‘What can we mess with and what can we do, and how can we enhance DBD with a flavor – or with the vibe – and the experience of FNaF.
Richard: I have to jump back to the very start of that question, when you talk about the announcement and how people reacted. I had the chance to reveal it was Springtrap at PAX, and in that room there was almost 1000 people, and they shouted so loud that the floor was shaking. It was just… it just amazing.
It’s super exciting and a big moment for everyone right now. I spoiled it a little bit, but can you guys give me more detail about what players can expect from Springtrap in the PTB, a little more specifically? How does your version of this Killer and that new map do the character justice?
Richard: Jason, that’s all for you. I just want to say real quick that, going back to your previous question, you know, the task that the team had was quite challenging. To distill that vibe and to have the mechanics of a single-player experience where you’re the Survivor transformed into that duality, that you can create that fear, or you can experience it in another kind of way, in a very different kind of game. Before we jump into the mechanics of it, absolutely, we wanted jump scares. That’s part of the vibe. Absolutely we wanted to create these moments of hunting corridors and of surveillance. Then the thing I’m really happy about, and Jason, you’ll be able to describe, but that whole door thing was not an afterthought, but it was a thing that you came up with afterwards, and it made it through, and it’s absolutely brilliant.
Guzzo: Wow. The creative director, calling me brilliant [laughs].
Richard: You can end the interview now.
Guzzo: [Laughs] So, he is primarily a projectile Killer. The power kind of comes in two flavors. There’s two halves of it. I’m gonna attempt to ramble and go on tangents a little bit, but I promise I’ll get to where I need to be in a second. One of the things that I wanted to do with this one was, as mentioned, FNaF is like a Survivor game, right? In the context of DBD, you’re playing from the Survivor’s point of view. You’re sitting in the security office, and you’re managing the battery, and you are trying not to get yourself killed. So, I wanted to kind of step back and say, ‘How can we enhance the Survivor side of the gameplay for this Chapter?’ Because that’s kind of what people know from FNaF.
Obviously, we couldn’t just say, ‘Oh yeah, all four people stand still and open and close doors and manage a battery’ – that’s not DBD. What we came upon was the idea of, ‘Well, the security doors, they’re pretty iconic, and obviously the security office is super iconic.’ Where we landed was that the security office is this transitional space for both Survivors and Killers. There are doors that are spawned around the map. Each has a camera and a number. So, you know kind of which camera is which or which door is which.
Survivors, when they interact with the door, they’re given the camera view with the battery, and they see the little map of the cameras in the corner. You can flip through them, see what’s on the other side of any door. If you find a door that you like, if it looks safe on the other side, or if you’re going to save somebody, or whatever it is, you can hit our input and you get a little canned animation, almost like a cinematic. It’s not pre-rendered or anything, but it’s very hands-off. I kind of equate it to a super short theme park ride, where you see, in first-person, your Survivor walks through the security office and looks around, and it’s spooky. Then the door opens on the other end of the room, and you leave, and then now you’re on, potentially, the other side of the map. It’s basically a teleport, but it’s very thematic.
The trick here is that even though it’s a safe space – or it feels like a safe space – it is not. The Killer doesn’t have access to the cameras but can enter the doors and can look around at any of the other doors he likes and teleport to it. He gets the same thing: He gets kind of a movement through the security office, but if his path happens to cross paths with a Survivor, they get a little jump scare, and he grabs them, and he walks out of the door, carrying them. It feels really thematic, and the animation is so good. It’s so good. The anim team killed it. The first thing I said was, ‘Can we do a grab Killer?’ We have melee and M1 Killers. We have range Killers. Can we just do a Killer that’s all based around grabs? Because grabs in DBD are inherently kind of jump scares. We wanted to lean into that a little bit. Obviously, it’s not the only thing you can do – that’d be kind of boring – but we did lean into those kinds of things.
With the other half of his power is his projectile. He has a big old fire axe that he can lob. It’s a very unique arc. It’s not like anything we’ve ever done with a projectile Killer before. It’s not built for sniping. It’s not designed around sniping. It’s not balanced around sniping. It’s really to do some really gnarly trick shots, and we’ve already had some people pulling off some crazy things internally. It’s been really fun to watch. We wanted to marry those two things with the door gameplay, and ‘How can we expand on that, and how can we expand on this idea of him being the grab Killer?’ One of the things that we did is, if you hit a Survivor with your projectile, you can chase them down, and you hit M1, and really, I mean, it’s a thematic thing. We’re basically just skipping a step. Normally, they would fall down, and you would pick them up, but we’re doing that all in one shot. You get in close, and you hit your basic attack, and Springtrap very violently grabs the axe, spins you around, you get a nice little jump scare animation, and then he’s carrying you.
The axe functions in a couple of different ways: He can disable cameras and doors and get a little bit of an AoE with stuff, but that’s all my tangents to describe the whole Power. We really did our best to be as authentic as possible when it came to both sides of the aisle, so to speak, when it comes to the Survivor experience of using these cameras and sneaking through these doors and seeing the security office and still being this menacing, lumbering beast. You can’t even call him a man or a robot. He’s a monster, right? We tried to be as authentic as possible in making him feel like he’s both pretty stompy and loud, but also can show up right behind you and – Boo! You know what I mean? [laughs].
It’s going to be really interesting to see Springtrap marry Five Nights at Freddy’s into Dead by Daylight itself. When you guys were coming up with ideas for Springtrap, was the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 movie something the team had to keep in consideration? Was Behaviour able to pull any elements from that film or the first film when creating its version of its character?
Richard: Great question, and the answer is no. Actually, it was all about, for us, the classic experience of the game, especially the first titles, that we wanted to recreate. We often go for that in Dead by Daylight, as you can see. We go for the classics. What creates a little bit of nostalgia as well, and then make it more modern, or whatever it requires to be in Dead by Daylight in today’s flavor. Of course, the movie was out, the first installment, and it is also based a lot on that aspect, with some changes, but we were really focused on the games.
So, at what point during conversations with Scott Cawthon, did you both say we’ve got to get Matthew Lillard in here for this?
Richard: It actually came directly from Scott. We had discussion about the different outfits that we could create for Springtrap. It’s a discussion we have with partners all the time, like, ‘What’s your comfort level? We want to respect that. Do you want us to create new outfits like the Blight, or do you want to keep to the specific? Do we have the rights to this and that,’ etc., and he actually suggested it. We were thinking, ‘We have to stick to the games,’ and he said, ‘Oh, we absolutely need the Yellow Rabbit from the movie. That would be awesome.’ Like, f**k yeah. Yeah, it would. Then having, on top of that, Matthew Lillard’s participation and being able to – I didn’t personally hang out with him – but part of the team did, and he’s just fantastic to work with. He’s done fantastic work on making this character alive in our game. It’s just awesome.
Guzzo: I mean, he’s an icon, right?
A horror icon in the game, portraying this massive character.
Richard: Yeah, I mean, if you if you squint… maybe you’re Shaggy [laughs].
Moving over to a different topic now, I’ve seen some express disappointment that this next Chapter doesn’t come with a Survivor. Can you talk about whether there were ever conversations about including a Survivor and why you ultimately chose not to include one this time around?
Richard: Yeah, absolutely. So, in early discussion in our planning, and how we wanted to tackle this Chapter and what we had access to when we started this, having a Survivor was, for many reasons, challenging and not a perfect fit that we wanted to make happen. So, yes, I understand the disappointment, like, 100%, but in our mind, we were in the first game, where, at that point in the story, security is anyone. It’s the player. It’s you, right?
We know that this evolves in the FNaF timeline to something else, but that’s kind of the vibe we’re going for. I’d like to say… maybe we’ll get the chance to do it eventually, or do something else. I definitely think that would be really cool, especially [knowing that] FNaF is vast. It’s a large franchise, and that’s something we’ve done before, with big licenses. We’ve done more content after the first release. So, maybe that would be a possibility. That’d be cool.
Dead by Daylight will let players freely run and hide around Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant. Without spoilers, can you talk about some of the details in the map that you’re proud of and excited to see players uncover in the PTB?
Richard: The map is truly amazing. It’s one of those buildings that we faithfully recreated, of course, in the metrics of Dead by Daylight. It’s comparable to [Raccoon City Police Station] as in it exists. It’s something that players already lived in some ways, without necessarily roaming around in that fashion. Being able to do so and to see that in the contemporary fashion and the DBD style is a lot of fun. We’ve packed it with surprise, and yeah, I’m not spoiling anything, but there’s a lot of you know hints about the lore of FNaF, about cool moments that happen. There are some extra jump scares in there. There’s a lot of a little surprises like this. You know, we aim to delight with this level of detail, and this one serves.
I saw Behaviour mention in another interview that it took some time to make the Five Nights at Freddy’s collaboration happen for so many different reasons. Part of what took so long involved a desire from both Cawthon and the Dead by Daylight team to establish what was important and how to please fans on both sides. Can you talk about what that process was like and which elements took the longest to nail down?
Richard: I can’t, I can’t answer this. I don’t have the knowledge of it. If [Game Director Mathieu Cote] was here, you would be able to say so. But usually, we don’t also talk about the process with partners.
This is the collaboration fans have wanted to see for so long. How do you feel about the reception so far, and what is it like for the team specifically to finally give this to players who have been asking for it?
Guzzo: What else can you say other than it’s amazing? Obviously, people are, I don’t want to say nervous, but there’s always a bit of trepidation when you work hard on something, and then you’re putting it out into the world. We all know people on the internet have opinions, but overall, we’re all really excited. We’ve been staring at this for, you know, 40-plus hours a week for almost a year, and we’ve played it to death. We’re just excited to, not necessarily even see how people feel about it, because, you know, you’re never going to make everybody happy, but more like, see how people explore it.
As a game designer, I like to approach my designs as like… I want to give you tools to play with and figure out and kind of make your own moment-to-moment. That’s a big thing that we talk about with DBD a lot – those moment-to-moment… moments. Those moments that you talk with your friends about. ‘Oh, do remember when that happened, and this happened,’ etc, etc. So, we really wanted to make sure that, like I said, with like the extra Survivor gameplay, we wanted to give players the tools to really have a lot of those super fun, cool moments and the jump scares and the laughs. That’s the best part; when we do a play test and I’m sitting and watching people play and they’re laughing and s**t-talking each other, that’s when I know I’ve succeeded, personally. As soon as people don’t talk about bugs or whatever, because, you know, bugs come up, and they’re just focused on having fun and laughing and calling each other names and everybody’s joking around… that’s when the magic happens.
It’s cool to see it internally, and then when we put it out there, go on Twitch or YouTube or whatever it is, and just watching people have those moments on kind of a much bigger scale. So yeah, the team is super excited, obviously. We’ve also been waiting to do this for 10 years, right? It’s not just the community that’s been waiting for it. We’ve been waiting to do it. So, it’s cool that we’re finally able to do it, and we can kind of bring that to the community.
Richard: I’ve been there a little bit longer, obviously, on the project, and I was talking with other colleagues yesterday, and they actually asked a similar question. They’re like, ‘Well, OK, so now you’ve done it. What’s next? Is this the top?’ Then, I was reflecting, I’m like, ‘Well, pretty much every Chapter we do in, the latest and greatest is the most important thing we’re working on.’ I understand that FNaF is huge, and it’s been highly requested, and after it, there’s going to be a new top request, and there’s still a lot of universes to explore. Either they’re original or they’re licenses, so this will happen again. We’re definitely not done.
When did Five Nights at Freddy’s first come up as a topic for you guys, where you said ‘We’d love to have this in Dead by Daylight.’
Richard: For me, I wouldn’t be able to target the year exactly, but I didn’t know Markiplier, and I was actually… this is a long story. I’m going to try and make it short. So, I wasn’t watching a lot of streamers, and a colleague just said, ‘Oh, you should look at the videos that Markiplier does. He’s really funny.’ Of course, I watched FNaF videos, and this is where I actually learned a lot about FNaF, that I was really interested in the franchise, that I learned about Markiplier. I had a lot of fun with it, and it triggered this idea, and this want. Then it really solidified when the community started asking for it.
So, it wasn’t even necessarily like everybody was clamoring for Five Nights at Freddy’s. It almost started just from organically seeing Markiplier.
Richard: I have to say that this is a very personal view on the matter. Of course, what I do on the project, I look around on anything horror to get inspired by it. So, I can’t say that when I saw Markiplier play, it was like, ‘Yes, this needs to be in DBD, and the power should be like that.’ Absolutely not because it was very early on, and DBD at that point was… what’s the word. We were less on the team, and of course, big things like FNaF were not necessarily as possible, but when it crystallized into something that we needed to do, it definitely was because the community was asking for it. Yes.
Is there a crossover that members of the Dead by Daylight team would love to see happen? NO restraints.
Richard: There’s a few that Mathieu Cote already said that we like to say because they’re kind of obvious. You know, Pennywise would be amazing. There are other kings of horror that would be amazing to have. You could guess any one of them, I’m thinking. Frankly, I just want to collect them all.
Guzzo: Dave treats DBD like Pokémon [laughs]. Just to be clear, this isn’t a hint about something that is being worked on. As far as I know, it’s not something that is being discussed above me, but my dream – and probably my favorite horror movie – is the obvious one: The Thing. I would love to get The Thing into DBD. I have been here for two and a half years, and I have been on a crusade to figure out how to get The Thing into DBD.
It has a lot of potential design problems. It’s an internal thing of trying to figure out how to make that character work, but yes, that would be my… I don’t want to say my dream Chapter because every Chapter has been a dream so far. I got to do Chucky and Dracula and Springtrap. I don’t know who on this team gets to talk about being on some of the biggest licenses on the planet, but The Thing is the one that I am on a crusade to get done at some point.
Richard: That’s really cool. Yeah, it’d be a nice one. The other ones that we always share, too… they could be mostly a joke, but I think there’s a way to make it work, especially now in the timeline: Cujo. Christine.
A popular theory floating around about an upcoming Chapter involves some faded letters on a recent roadmap you published. Have you seen this theory floating around, and is there any chance we could get you to comment on it?
Richard: I haven’t seen it. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Is there anything else you’d like to add about the upcoming PTB, Five Nights at Freddy’s, or the future of Dead by Daylight?
Richard: So many things. Jason, I’ll let you start. It’s your baby.
Guzzo: We love this game. We love the franchise. If you love FNaF, we want you to feel welcome to coming into DBD and seeing what we have to offer. I’m going to be honest: It might not be the Chapter that you think it is. I think it being so requested and so loved by the community for so long that there have been… trust me, I did the research, there is a lot of really interesting and cool community concepts on how we could have done FNaF.
Richard: And we can only do one.
Guzzo: And we can only do one, and obviously I’m not just going to be like, ‘Oh, this guy, JoeSmith123 on Reddit has a really good idea, let’s just steal that.’ It might not be the Chapter you expected, but know that we went in not just to make something that, like, ‘Oh this is like the big one. We’re going to sell a million – a billion billion billion copies of this DLC,’ or whatever. We went in wanting to be as authentic as possible and, with Survivors having a little bit extra gameplay in this Chapter, we really wanted to make sure we were authentic to the franchise but also honor the community of that game, and make sure they understand that, when you come to DBD, you might recognize the faces, but you’re going to get a new experience.
I hope everybody likes it. I genuinely do. I don’t do this because it’s an easy job. I don’t do this because it’s glamorous – although I get to do an interview with IGN, I guess that’s pretty glamorous to be honest [laughs] in terms of being a game dev – but I do it because I love horror. I’ve been a horror fan my whole life. Working on a horror game is very literally a dream come true, even though, as mentioned before, I don’t really like playing scary games because I’m a big baby, but I love working on them and I love the genre. I try to watch new horror movies two or three times I week, and my wife has to also watch them, too bad for her [laughs]. Just understand that this is coming from a place of love and a place of respect as much as possible. I hope everybody loves it. I hope everybody loves playing it as much as I loved working on it. I think that’s the best way I can put it.
Richard: Good stuff.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
MindsEye developer Build A Rocket Boy has released a new trailer for the game, confirmed its $59.99 price tag, and revealed exactly what players can expect from launch in terms of content.
Build A Rocket Boy, led by former Rockstar North veteran Leslie Benzies, confirmed a June 10, 2025 release date for MindsEye for PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.
Here’s the official blurb:
Set in the near-futuristic city of Redrock, MindsEye delivers a tightly crafted linear story campaign. Players will step into the shoes of Jacob Diaz, a former soldier haunted by fragmented memories from his mysterious MindsEye neural implant, as he uncovers a conspiracy involving rogue AI, corporate greed, an unchecked military, and a threat so sinister that it endangers the very survival of humanity. The game’s story is brought to life with state-of-the-art visuals built on Unreal Engine 5.
Perhaps more interesting is MindsEye’s PC-only game creation system, which lets players build their own experiences using all the MindsEye assets.
The $59.99 price, the studio said, is “a refreshing departure from the standard $70~$80 AAA price tag.” But what, exactly, do you get for your $60?
At launch, there is of course the “tightly crafted linear story campaign,” and what’s called “single-player free roam,” but there are also a number of missions: a horde mode mission called “Destruction Site Shootout,” and two combat missions (“Honor Amongst Thieves” and “Friendly Fire”). Also at launch are six races, six checkpoint races, and three drone races. If you get the premium pass, you get an extra horde mode mission and an exotic cosmetics pack.
So, that’s launch. But what about after launch? Build A Rocket Boy said it will deliver a “constant stream” of fresh premium content monthly, “ensuring MindsEye is a living, ever-expanding player experience.” This includes new missions, challenges, and game assets. “The continuous stream of studio-developed content, combined with the very best of the community’s own beautiful creations, means that MindsEye will continue to surprise and delight its players for decades to come,” Build A Rocket Boy added.
Build A Rocket Boy also confirmed its 2025 roadmap of content. In the summer there will be community updates, new missions, in the fall new single-player modes, multiplayer, and new missions, and in the winter free roam updates and new missions. Premium pass owners get extra missions and new packs throughout.
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.
Monster Hunter Wilds director Yuya Tokuda has revealed what’s coming up in the May 28 Ver. 1.011 update, including “an abundance of new features and changes to the game including a collaboration with Street Fighter 6.”
In his latest Director’s Letter, Tokuda said the team wanted “to provide more great content for you to enjoy as well as make various adjustments to make Monster Hunter Wilds even more fun to play,” including new challenger, Street Fighter’s Akuma. You’ll get a full Arkuma armor set as well as layered armor, and whenever you have either set equipped, three items will be added to your item bar — assisted combo Akuma, Drive Impact, and Gou Hadoken (you can find out more about them on the official Monster Hunter website).
We’re also getting eight-star “challenging” monsters in Ver. 1.011 — Gore Magala, Rey Dau, Uth Duna, Nu Udra, and Jin Dahaad will become available to hunt at HR 41 and higher; this will give players options for hunting eight-star tempered monsters other than Arkveld — although they will still be available to hunt at seven-star difficulty. The eight-star versions, however, will be more resilient, with increased health, wound resistance, and “tweaks to multiplayer scaling.” Tokuda warns that Tempered Gore Magala is a “particularly tough challenge to even the best of hunters.” You can expect higher-difficulty quests and quests with multiple monsters to pop up more often, too, as your HR increases.
A slew of “player-centric balance adjustments” are also on the way in both Ver. 1.011 and Title Update 2. The Hammer, Hunting Horn, Gunlance, Light Bowgun, and Heavy Bowgun all had various adjustments made, and “certain aspects” for Gunlance Artian weapons have been increased.
“While some weapons have had certain parameters adjusted downward, other parameters have been adjusted upwards, and viewed in totality I think you will find that all weapon types have had their possibilities expanded, so I encourage you to give them a try for yourself once the update is out,” Tokuda said, adding that the Hammer and Dual Blades are additionally receiving “various improvements.”
As part of other QoL tweaks, Hunters will be able to rest in the Grand Hub and Suja, Peaks of Accord. Resting restores all destroyed Pop-up Camps, a confirmation window will no longer appear after obtaining an item when your item pouch is full (the obtained item will automatically be sent to your item box), and the visibility of the remaining time of meal effects is improved — the countdown will display 10 minutes before expiration. In fact, all notifications have been adjusted, with their frequency in locales lowered so only higher-priority targets will be displayed in the environment overview. They will also no longer block the input for opening the map.
“As mentioned in the previous director’s letter, you will be able to view individual endemic life you captured,” Tokuda added. “In the Windward Plains, select Check Endemic Life in Ecological Research to view your creatures and their names, as well as the size and weight of fish you caught. You can also favorite creatures so that they’ll be kept even if you go over the maximum storage capacity! Individual creatures can have different patterns or other unique elements, so if you find one you particularly like, be sure to use this feature to keep it around!”
You can also expect stability improvements — particularly on Steam — and with the addition of eight-star monsters, the rewards for eight-star investigations and field surveys have also been increased. Guild Point rewards for fishing have also been “rebalanced,” although how has yet to be explained.
Monster Hunter Wilds is the latest mainline installment in Capcom’s longrunning Monster Hunter series, boasting dynamic, ever-changing environments, and a story of monsters and humans in a world with two faces: one in which the lands are harsh and unforgiving, where monsters fight for scant resources and another in which the lands are vibrant and brimming with life. We gave Monster Hunters Wilds an 8 in our review, writing: “Monster Hunter Wilds continues to smooth off the rougher corners of the series in smart ways, making for some extremely fun fights but also lacking any real challenge.”
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.
