Category: IGN

The developer of Palworld has said Nintendo is yet to make a complaint after The Pokémon Company said it intended to investigate amid the “Pokémon rip-off” claims earlier this year.

Palworld, dubbed ‘Pokémon with Guns,’ launched in early access form in January 2024 on PC via Steam and on Xbox as a day-one Game Pass title. It saw enormous popularity overnight, becoming one of the biggest game launches of all time. But it’s also one of the most controversial. Developer Pocketpair has said its staff has received death threats amid the Pokémon “rip-off” claims, which it has denied.

Soon after Palworld’s launch Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod, then The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” At the time, IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue.

Now, speaking to Game File, Pocketpair boss Takuro Mizobe insisted it has yet to receive any complaint from Nintendo or The Pokémon Company, even after The Pokémon Company issued its statement that it intended to launch an investigation.

“Nothing at all,” Mizobe said. “Nintendo and the Pokémon Company didn’t say anything to us. Of course I love Pokémon and respect it. I grew up with it, in my generation.”

Despite this, fans continue to compare Palworld to Pokémon, and this week’s major new update, called Sakurajima, will no-doubt fuel those comparisons. Pocketpair has also teased Palworld on PlayStation, although a Nintendo Switch version sounds unlikely. IGN’s Palworld early access review returned an 8/10. We said: “Palworld may crib quite a bit from Pokémon’s homework, but deep survival mechanics and a hilarious attitude make it hard to put down – even in early access.”

It turns out that in 2010, then student developer Mizobe created a DS game while enrolled in a one-year Nintendo Game Seminar in Tokyo. Game File asked if he learned any lessons from working with Nintendo that stuck with him years later.

“Kind of,” Mizobe replied, reportedly with a laugh. “I always think: to make new things is very hard. In game development, of course, sometimes we have to do it, but, as much as possible, I try to avoid creating new things.”

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.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has issued a new patch for the PC and PlayStation 5 co-op shooter that fixes the Spear after a previous update caused crash problems.

Last week’s update 1.000.402 included a fix for the Spear not targeting several entities (spawners, compound objects, etc). This change was welcomed by fans because, it was hoped, it would finally make the Spear weapon more reliable out on the battlefield.

However, players soon found that the Spear, the very weapon Arrowhead had sought to fix, caused crashes, resulting in a fresh recommendation not to use it. Now, patch 01.000.403 includes a fix for Spear-related crashes. Fingers crossed that’s now the end of the Spear’s tumultuous time in Helldivers 2.

Elsewhere, there are more fixes for a variety of relatively minor problems, and an updated list of issues Arrowhead is working on.

Helldivers 2 is the fastest-selling PlayStation game of all time, having shifted an incredible 12 million copies in just 12 weeks since going on sale earlier this year. Amid the huge revenue Helldivers 2 has generated, Arrowhead itself has suffered a number of crises, including launch server problems and, most recently, a battle with Sony itself over the console maker’s controversial attempt to force Steam players to account link to PlayStation Network.

Arrowhead recently revealed it was in the process of setting the studio up so it could “make more and better stuff” in the long-term. In an introductory post on reddit, new CEO Shams Jorjani, who recently replaced previous Arrowhead CEO and now current Chief Creative Officer Johan Pilestedt, said the studio has had to adjust to the enormous success Helldivers 2 has brought to the company.

Helldivers 2 update 01.000.403 patch notes:

Overview

For this patch, we have made improvements and changes to the following areas:

• Crash fix related to the FAF-14 Spear
• General fixes

General

• Japanese language voice-overs are now available globally on PS5 (also on PC).

Fixes

Crashes

• Fix for crash happening when players with unique hellpod patterns leave during hellpod launch cutscenes
• Crash fix while aiming with the FAF-14 Spear

Misc fixes

• Fixed corrupted text showing “?” for some characters when having Traditional Chinese language selected
• Fix for Plasma Punisher being unable to shoot out of the SH-32 Shield Generator Pack and the FX-12 Shield Generator
• Fixed so the Quasar Cannon has the correct change to its heat when on hot and cold planets
• Fixed issue where Spore Spewer would appear purple on certain planets
• Fixed some cases where pink question marks would appear in missions on various planets
• Fixed Peak Physique armor passive not properly affecting weapon ergonomics
• Fixed issue where available Operations were reset after player reconnected from getting kicked due to inactivity

Known Issues

These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.

• Sending friend requests via friend code in game currently does not work
• Players may be unable to be joined or invited to the game
• Players added to the Recent Players list will appear in the middle of the list
• Players may experience delays in Medals and Super Credits payouts
• Enemies that bleed out do not progress Personal Orders and Eradicate missions
• Deployed mines may sometimes become invisible (but remain active)
• Arc weapons sometimes behave inconsistently and sometimes misfire
• Most weapons shoot below the crosshair when aiming down the sights
• Stratagem beam might attach itself to an enemy but will deploy to its original location
• Hand Carts ship module does not reduce Shield Generator Pack’s cooldown
• Superior Packing Methodology ship module does not work
• Bile Titan sometimes does not take damage to the head
• Players may become stuck in the Loadout when joining a game in progress
• Reinforcement may not be available for players who join a game in progress
• Planet liberation reaches 100 % at the end of every Defend mission
• Raise Flag of Super Earth objective does not show a progress bar
• Mission count in the Career tab is being reset to zero after every game restart
• Some weapons’ descriptions are out-of-date and don’t reflect their current design

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.

Looking to increase the storage capacity of your Nintendo Switch? Amazon currently has a TEAMGROUP GO 1TB Micro SDXC card for only $63.99. For most people, this will be enough space for the entire lifespan of your Switch and at a great price. There’s only one Micro SD card slot in the Switch console so you want to make sure you get the biggest card you can afford.

1TB Micro SDXC Card (Switch Compatible) for $63.99

The Nintendo Switch is an outstanding console, but it doesn’t give you much space to install many games out of the box, especially if you purchase digital games off eShop. The Switch and Switch OLED have 32GB and 64GB of internal storage, respectively, with some of it reserved for the OS. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom uses up 16GB and Breath of the Wild about 13.5GB. If bought digitally, those two games alone would take up all of your internal storage on the OG Switch console. Fortunately, the Switch features a single memory card expansion slot. It supports up to 2TB Micro SDXC cards, but since 2TB Micro SDXC cards don’t exist in the mainsteam market, a 1TB or 1.5TB card is the maximum you can get.

The 1TB TEAMGROUP Micro SDXC card is compatible with virtually any device that accepts the Micro SDXC card standard. That includes the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, any recently released smartphone that supports expandable memory, GoPros, cameras and much more. Despite its low price, the TEAMGROUP is faster than your average Micro SDXC card. It has a U3 A1 rating and boasts transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s read and 50MB/s write. Although TEAMGROUP isn’t as well known of a brand as SanDisk or Samsung, this brand has been around for a while and is a legitimate manufacturer of flash-based storage. This particular model has plenty of good reviews on Amazon.

Need a faster speed? Choose this one instead.

The TEAMGROUP PRO PLUS 1TB Micro SDXC card is U3 A2 rated with transfer speeds up to 160MB/s read and 110MB/s write. This extra speed can’t be exploited in a Nintendo Switch, but this is a better Micro SDXC card for mobile electronics that often handle bitrate heavy files like GoPros, smartphones with 4K video recording, DSLR cameras, and PCs with an available Micro SD or SD card slot (an adapter is included).

Twitch streamer Perri Karyal has taken down two major Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree bosses using a hands free ‘mind control’ virtual controller, which decodes electrical information fed directly from her brain in real time.

Prior to Shadow of the Erdtree’s release, FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki was quoted as saying that the challenge posed by the DLC “really pushed the envelope in terms of what we think can be withstood by the player”. True to his word, the days following Shadow of the Erdtree’s June 21 launch have seen many players take to social media to lament that the new content is simply too hard, while others complained of performance issues, leading to a ‘mixed’ review on Steam.

However, its fearsome difficulty hasn’t stopped Karyal from attempting to take on the DLC using a very unconventional method of controlling her tarnished, which also proves that 90 percent of a FromSoftware boss fight plays out between the ears.

Thought I’d post a clip of what mental controls I use and how I get around

Getting to the boss is often harder than the boss😅#shadowoftheerdtree #EldenRing pic.twitter.com/RmetlwJb8h

— Perri (@perrikaryal) June 23, 2024

Karyal made headlines last year after beating Elden Ring’s base game content while using an electroencephalography (EEG) brain monitoring headset to control specific in-game actions such as attacking, and rolling. EEG technology is ordinarily used by physicians as a diagnostic tool. However, after encountering the brain-scanning headwear while studying for a masters degree in psychology she became curious as to whether the technology could be adapted to control video games as part of a virtual controller.

To that end Karyal was able to use some fancy coding to train the software that came with her commercial EEG headset to recognize patterns in her brain’s electrical activity that were brought about when she imagined a particular object, action, or emotion. Each pattern was then assigned to an input on a virtual controller, which allowed Karyal to execute actions with her mind by imagining things during gameplay. For example, by imagining herself pushing a cube forward she could execute a roll, or alternatively she could imagine a plate spinning to make her tarnished perform an attack, or simply make herself angry to heal.

WE DID IT

Shadow of the Erdtree, first boss, COMPLETED with mind control, and ZERO HANDS

I can’t believe it. This was the hardest thing ever. We’ve come SO FAR! Let’s gooooooo pic.twitter.com/INrwrgOH0Y

— Perri (@perrikaryal) June 22, 2024

WE DID IT AGAIN

Shadow of the Erdtree, SECOND boss, Renalla, DEFEATED with mind control, and ZERO HANDS. Absolutely INSANE

Let’s gooooooooooo

If you have any questions, look at the full VOD below – I do set-up, training, and troubleshooting all LIVE pic.twitter.com/H0UpxUj8hz

— Perri (@perrikaryal) June 23, 2024

During the 2023 Elden Ring runthrough Karyal had still been beholden to a physical Xbox controller to dictate the movement of her tarnished warrier. However, for Shadow of the Erdtree, the streamer opted to attempt a completely hands-free run, by using eye-tracking software to track the movement of her head to control her character’s movement, and voice prompts to trigger more nuanced actions, including saying “I choose you” to summon a spirit ash. Navigating to bosses also required a completely different command setup to the one used during the climactic fights themselves, adding another layer of mental gymnastics to the process.

Impressively, Karyal has already managed to use her mind-control approach to take down two challenging early DLC bosses in the Divine Beast Dancing Lion, and Rellana, the Twin Moon Knight. Of course this isn’t the first time that FromSoftware fans have employed a non-traditional controller to shame Elden Ring bosses. Just last year Twitch streamer MissMikkaa managed to beat two Malenias simultaneously in two separate instances of the game while using a Dance Pad and a PS5 DualSense. Another FromSoftware challenge runner by the name Dr. Decomposing was also able to complete a no-damage run while using a modified electric saxophone as a controller.

Be sure to check out IGN’s interactive map and comprehensive guide for all the tips, tricks, and walkthroughs that you need to get the most out of your time in the Land of Shadow, or read up on how modders are already finding ways to make the game easier on PC.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Good news, From Software fans: Future Press is set to release Bloodborne Complete Guide: 25th Anniversary Edition on September 30. You can preorder it now at Amazon for $59.99. This officially licensed guide is a hefty tome, ringing in at 736 full-color pages. It gets into the nitty gritty, covering the main game of Bloodborne, plus The Old Hunters expansion. It also has lots of behind-the-scenes info we’ll dive into below.

Preorder Bloodborne Complete Guide 25th Anniversary Edition

The Bloodborne Complete Guide has all the resources you need to get the very most out of the game. It reveals all the secrets and hidden areas for you to fully explore Yarnham. It’s an excellent resource for all the items, weapons, and characters found in the game. It also dives deep into the game’s lore, much of which you might have missed in previous play-throughs.

Plus, it contains a good deal of bonus material. There’s a new, exclusive interview with Bloodborne creator Hidetaka Miyazaki. It includes a 20-page concept artwork gallery, and a dedicated Lore Index to help you tell your Vilebloods from your Scourge Beasts.

If you’re doing the math to figure out just how long ago Bloodborne came out (it was released in 2015 as a PS4 exclusive), you’re not losing your mind. The 25th anniversary in the book’s title is how long Future Press has been printing books.

Our critic gave Bloodborne a 9.1 in the review, and the game was a runner up for IGN’s Game of the Year 2015.

This isn’t Future Press’s first rodeo giving such thorough coverage to From Software’s games. The publisher released the beautiful Official Strategy Guides for Elden Ring (Vol.1 & Vol. 2), which are currently down to $44.99 at Amazon. It also released an incredibly popular Dark Souls Trilogy guide.

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

Dungeons & Dragons players will finally be able to drink potions as a Bonus Action in One D&D, meaning the popular homebrew and Baldur’s Gate 3 mechanic is becoming an official rule in the next iteration of the game.

As reported by Comic Book, a video from D&D game designers Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins walked fans through some changes to the Player’s Handbook, which will be refreshed for the first time in more than a decade in 2024, including the long-requested ability to have a cheeky heal as a Bonus Action.

Crawford specifically said that health potions can be used as a Bonus Action in One D&D — which arrives beginning September 17, 2024 with the Player’s Handbook but won’t launch fully until the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual arrive on November 12, 2024 and February 18, 2025 respectively — but it’s unclear if the rule change will apply to other potions too.

As a health potion can theoretically be drank at the same speed as any other kind of potion, however, it would certainly make sense for the Bonus Action rule to affect all of the magic smoothies. The current 5th Edition of D&D forces players to use a potion as a full Action, meaning players miss a turn of doing potentially more interesting things if they need to heal.

Using potions as a Bonus Action has long been a popular mechanic in players’ homebrew or home rules though, and even Baldur’s Gate 3, the hit D&D video game which follows most of 5th Edition’s rules, let players drink them as a Bonus Action.

The release of the updated rules, meaning the transition from 5th Edition to One D&D, comes alongside the tabletop role-playing game’s 50th anniversary. Publisher Wizards of the Coast announced the biggest miniature booster set ever to celebrate, and has been slowly but surely sharing tidbits of information about the new set of core rulebooks.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

War Thunder developer Gaijin Entertainment has apologized after using the explosion from the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in key art for the World War 2 massively multiplayer online game.

A forum post from community manager magazine2 said Gaijin “accidentally” used the explosion as it was part of a reference pack used by its artists. The explosion, which killed all seven crew members of the Space Shuttle Challenger when the spacecraft broke apart 73 seconds after take-off, had a fairly distinct shape and was thus recognized by War Thunder players when used in the key art.

“Hey guys, we have accidentally used the explosion from the Challenger disaster in one of our key art images,” magazine2 said. “Please accept our sincere apologies for this. The picture was part of an aerial explosion reference pack used by our artists and the context was lost.

“We’ll be altering this artwork as soon as we can and will take measures to ensure that this doesn’t repeat again in the future.” Gaijin didn’t say what these changes would be and the image is still available on official channels.

This isn’t the first time controversy pertaining to real world events has surrounded War Thunder, though it’s usually in hot water due to real military documents leaking through its forums.

Documents related to the M2A2 Bradley Armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicle were posted on the forums in December 2023, for example, and while not legally classified, still contained in-depth details the military considers sensitive.

Another instance saw an image of the DTC10-125 Tungsten Penetrator alongside a technical document detailing its specifications appear in June 2022. That followed others on War Thunder’s forums that revealed classified information on British Challenger 2 and French Leclerc main battle tanks.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Square Enix has asked Final Fantasy 14 players not to spoil the highly anticipated Dawntrail expansion upon its early access launch on June 28, 2024.

A blog post from Square Enix outlined the early access period, which begins at 2am Pacific / 5am Eastern / 10am UK and is available to anyone who preorders Dawntrail, but closed with a message asking players to be considerate to those waiting for the full launch.

“During the early access period, there will be no restrictions on what content you can discuss, post, or stream while following the Material Usage License Agreement,” Square Enix said, making clear spoilers will be out in the wild.

“However, we ask that early access users please be considerate and do their best to avoid posting spoiler-related content as there are those players who may start at the official launch or play at their own pace.”

The expansion officially launches July 2, 2024, but as it includes a major extension of the Final Fantasy 14 story, a whole new map, the Viper and Pictomancer jobs, plenty of raids and dungeons, and more, it will likely be much later before many players can experience everything.

Dawntrail promises to add a difficulty spike to the long-running MMO too, while a major graphical overhaul will refresh the entire Final Fantasy 14 experience. In March, chief developer Yoshi-P joked that Square Enix had hoped to release the early access a week earlier, but… “Elden Ring DLC.”

That was a reference to Shadow of the Erdtree, which came out on June 21. “We figured everybody would be interested in playing the Elden Ring DLC… I’ll give you one week!”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

One of the developers of Steam and Xbox hit Palworld has teased the release of a PlayStation version.

Pocketpair community chief Bucky tweeted adding blue-colored hearts to Palworld’s existing black (PC), green (Xbox), and white (Mac) hearts. Blue is, of course, the color of PlayStation branding. With this context, a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 release now seems likely.

🖤💚🤍Palworld🤍💚🖤

I want to add more hearts, but not sure what colour would fit…hmm…how about….

🖤💚🤍💙Palworld💙🤍💚🖤

Looks good I think!

👀

— Bucky | Palworld (@Bucky_cm) June 22, 2024

Palworld, dubbed ‘Pokémon with Guns,’ launched in early access form in January 2024 on PC via Steam and on Xbox as a day-one Game Pass title. It saw enormous popularity overnight, becoming one of the biggest game launches of all time. But it’s also one of the most controversial. Pocketpair has said its staff has received death threats amid Pokémon “rip-off” claims, which it has denied. Soon after launch, Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod, then The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue.

Player numbers have tailed off in the last half year, but the addition of a PS5 version would certainly provide Palworld with a shot in the arm. Whether Nintendo would greenlight a release on Switch is another matter entirely, of course.

Meanwhile, Palworld gets a major new update this week, called Sakurajima. It increases the level cap, adds new Pals, a new raid, a new faction and boss, and a whole new island. This update also comes with Xbox-dedicated servers, something the game had conspicuously lacked up to this point.

IGN’s Palworld early access review returned an 8/10. We said: “Palworld may crib quite a bit from Pokémon’s homework, but deep survival mechanics and a hilarious attitude make it hard to put down – even in early access.”

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.