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Matt P has played some of Final Fantasy 16 and is loving it so far, and Jesse and Dale are equally in love with Sons of the Forest. We also chat about the first episode of Mandalorian season 3 and spend the last section of the podcast diving into a spoiler-filled chat about Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
Got a game for us to play, or just want to tell us the weirdest thing you’ve eaten for breakfast? Drop us an email: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
Nintendo has taken the Wii U versions of Mario Kart 8, and Splatoon offline as it attempts to fix a security issue “related to online play”.
As spotted by VGC, the following maintenance post related to the Wii U games’ online functionality appeared on the Nintendo website at 4:30 GMT (8:30 PT) on Friday, March 3.
“This network service is currently unavailable due to urgent maintenance required to fix a vulnerability related to online play,” it said. “We do not yet have information on when network services can be restored. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
The security vulnerability is almost certainly ENLBufferPwn, which could allow an attacker to take over your console just by connecting to them online.
This exploit affected many of Nintendo’s games on the Switch, along with Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS.https://t.co/GWR6alQVy4
— OatmealDome (@OatmealDome) March 3, 2023
At the time of writing both games are still offline, and no timetable has been given for when the issue will be resolved.
Nintendo did not identify the cause of the security concern. However, established dataminer OatmealDome suggested in a tweet that the games could have been taken offline out of fear of a network vulnerability called ENLBufferPwn.
According to the twitter thread, the insidious vulnerability allows attackers to take over another player’s console simply by connecting to them online via multiplayer matchmaking.
OatmealDome notes that multiple Wii U, Switch. and 3DS games have been patched to protect users from attack, but that “Splatoon 1 and Mario Kart 8 did not receive any”.
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
Metroid Fusion is joining the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy Advance library next week.
Exactly when the game will arrive is a little unclear, however, as a tweet from Nintendo (below) has a March 9 release date, while a press release from the company states March 8. IGN has reached out for clarification on this release date.
Metroid Fusion will be the first additional Game Boy Advance game added to the Switch Online collection after Nintendo launched the service alongside six titles in February. As the fourth game in the 2D Metroid Saga, the entire collection will now (sort of) be available on Switch, with the exception of the original game’s remake Zero Mission.
The SA-X, an unstoppable X mimicking Samus, is on the loose, and it could be just around the corner…
Adventure to planet SR388 as interstellar bounty hunter Samus Aran in Metroid Fusion, coming to #NintendoSwitch for #NintendoSwitchOnline + Expansion Pack members on 3/9! pic.twitter.com/gJAcAaavcI
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 3, 2023
IGN awarded Metroid Fusion a 9/10 in our review, and we also placed it on our Top 25 Nintendo Game Boy Advance Games of All Time list.
“Intelligent Systems put together a fantastic adventure on the Game Boy Advance that not only will please those Samus fanatics that were itching for a continuation of her 2D adventures, it will most likely generate interest in gamers unfamiliar with the series to seek out Samus’ previous games,” we said at the time.
Users will need both Nintendo Switch Online and the Expansion Pack before they’re able to download Metroid Fusion and the rest of the Game Boy Advance Games, but all of this can be done from the Switch Online app on the console itself.
Also available in the collection is Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, WarioWare Inc.: Mega MicroGames, Kuru Kuru Kuruin, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Minecraft has revealed new details about its upcoming 1.20 update, which is now titled Trails and Tales.
The new version is set to introduce a handful of fresh features, including a new biome, a new friendly mob, and more. The developers said this expansion is “all about self-expression through representation, storytelling, and worldbuilding.”
Arguably the biggest addition is the Cherry Blossom Biome, a new biome bringing a matching colored wood set and leaves along with it. Pigs, sheep and bees will inhabit the Cherry Blossom areas.
Beyond that, Trails and Tales will introduce a new friendly mob in the form of camels. Players will be able to ride camels and use their Dash ability to cover ground quickly. Plus, two players can ride a singel camel at the same time. There’s also a brand new ancient animal called the Sniffer, which will sniff out buried seeds and help players find decorative plants.
The new items in Trails and Tales largely revolve around customization. Players will be able to create hanging signs, chiseled bookshelves, armor trims, and more to reflect their own personal style. The developers also hinted that the new archeology system could uncover “exciting hints of a forgotten past”, meaning this could be a lore-heavy expansion. Version 1.20 is set to come out sometime in 2023.
For more, check out the 10 best Minecraft house ideas to build yourself, or read our list of the 10 best survival games.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
Since her announcement in January, fans of HoyoVerse’s open world RPG Genshin Impact have eagerly awaited Dehya, the game’s latest playable character. Unfortunately, though, she hasn’t quite lived up to players’ expectations.
Yesterday, Dehya made her debut as a playable character with the release of Genshin’s Version 3.5, and players were quick to notice her seemingly underpowered skillset. Despite her 5-star status, Pyro Claymore wielder Dehya has some of the lowest attack stats in the game (even lower than many of her 4-star counterparts), and requires a pretty specific build and team composition to succeed.
At the end of the game’s current version, Dehya will also become obtainable at all times (unlike most of the game’s 5-star characters, who are often only available for three weeks at a time). This also means that players who wish for limited characters regularly will likely get stuck with Dehya instead, leading the community to push for improvements to her skillset.
Of course, Genshin Impact’s community has taken this to heart — Dehya’s dedicated Subreddit is now filled with many players emailing HoyoVerse to ask for a better skillset and others offering build advice to hopefully make Dehya worthwhile. Some players who main other characters with imbalanced kits have even offered their condolences and shown solidarity.
Before Dehya’s unfortunate introduction to the world of Teyvat, we gave Genshin Impact a 9 in our 2020 review, praising its jam-packed open world and element-based combat. Since the game’s launch, Genshin Impact and its community have seen a lot of changes, including the introduction of a long-awaited element, plans for an anime adaptation and the Player’s Voice Award at the Game Awards 2022. Keep up with Genshin Impact’s latest events with IGN’s 3.5 event guide, and learn more about Deyha with her new story quest.
Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.
While horror classic Resident Evil 4 is getting a big makeover this month, don’t expect the same treatment for the game’s iconic Chainsaw Controller.
The Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Controller came at a time when many gaming companies were experimenting with different types of weird controllers and peripherals. A product of the early 2000s, the gore-covered gamepad was designed for 2005’s original Resident Evil 4 on Nintendo GameCube.
The design is unforgettable from the moment you lay eyes on it. The bright yellow, bloodstained base is fitted with all the buttons you’d expect from a GameCube controller, and it’s connected to the chainsaw’s giant, bloody, purely cosmetic blade. With the Resident Evil 4 remake set to come out this month, naturally we thought it was fitting to ask Capcom about a potential return for the Chainsaw Controller.
“So first of all, thank you for remembering the controller,” Capcom producer Yoshiaki Harabayashi told IGN. “I mean, it was a great controller back in the day, but unfortunately we’re not able to recreate the Chainsaw Controller now.”
“I mean, one of the things that’s stopping us is that we’re releasing the game on so many platforms right now, so that’s a hurdle for us. And of course, the team focused a lot on the actual development of the game, so that took a lot of the time. So unfortunately, no Chainsaw Controllers as of now.”
Resident Evil 4 launched as a console exclusive on the GameCube, meaning the Chainsaw Controller only had to come in one version to match that console’s button layout. We loved its design and packaging back in the day, but its clunky control configuration and off-balance analog sticks made it less than ideal for actual play.
Resident Evil 4 is coming to PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on March 23. For more, check out our full Resident Evil 4 interview with director Yasuhiro Ampo and Capcom producer Yoshiaki Harabayashi, where we learned about parrying, new finishing moves, optional side quests, and more.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
What are the best board games to play? It’s a more complicated question than it might seem at first blush. What do we mean when we talk about an “all time” great in any medium? It’s got to be something that’s stood the test of time, like all our picks for the best classic board games. But at the same time we need to steer away from games that have become diminished by over familiarity and shift into new and exciting territory. We also want to include things that have been acclaimed as top of their particular tree at one time or another, to give some historical perspective.
That’s the thinking we’ve brought to the list below, a mixture of board games once seen as the best ever, together with some close pretenders that have earned their spot through novelty or popularity. They’re all great in one way or another, so whatever you pick you can’t go wrong. Here are the best board games to play in 2023.
Don’t have time to scroll? Here are all the games you’ll find below.
Lots of games that revolve around grabbing territory tend to involve the kind of tentative alliances and festering enmities that mimic real-world diplomacy. Back in 1977, the designers of Cosmic Encounter had a brainwave: why not get rid of the territory and cut to the chase? The result is this hilarious game of shifting alliances where every player has a game-breaking alien power to leverage in the race to win colonies on five of your opponent’s planets. Crammed with variety, tactical decisions and more dramatic reversals than a prime-time soap opera, Cosmic Encounter may be the only negotiation game you need.
The current king of the board gaming pile got that way through an ingenious bit of genre-blending. If you like old-fashioned dungeon crawls with a strong narrative, well, the 95-scenario campaign of fantasy adventure has you covered. If you’re a sucker for tactical combat then its cunning, card-driven face-offs against a staggering variety of foes will thrill you. But if you want heavyweight strategy then deck-building and resource gathering over the campaign plus the in-scenario exhaustion mechanic gives you plenty of meat. Truly all things to all gamers — even fans of the best solo board games — Gloomhaven deserves its staggering level of acclaim. And if the cost is a bit much, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion offers a smaller campaign at a much smaller price tag. And not for nothing, both of these iterations also made it on our best board games for adults list as well.
If combat-based narrative campaigns aren’t your thing, how about working together to purge the world of infectious diseases? Building on the success of the original Pandemic, this introduces “legacy” concepts to the game, in which components are added or removed as you progress through the game, based on your decisions, successes and failures. After a few plays, your copy will be a unique record of your group’s play. So in addition to offering a very personal tale to engage you, Pandemic: Legacy also individualizes your strategic experience. It’s a magical combination that has spawned two further seasons, creating an epic arc of story and strategy to enjoy with a gaming group or even as one of the best family board games.
Billed as a cold war simulation and with bullet-pointed rules, Twilight Struggle can appear daunting to the uninitiated. But there’s a reason it was widely acclaimed as the best game of all time after its 2009 release. Players have hands of event cards that replicate key moments from the conflict, keyed to either their side or their opponent. If you play an opponent’s card you can still make moves on the board but their event also occurs. This makes every hand a thrilling, tactical dance of play and counterplay as you try to move your plans forward while also nullifying enemy events. In addition to the superb strategic workout, you might even learn some history too with this war board game.
Another game that spent its time in the “best game ever” limelight is this unlikely game about farming. Stepping back from the theme, however, growing a family to work on a family farm is a dead ringer for the popular Worker Placement mechanism. As a result, Agricola conjures a real sense of growing and developing your humble plantation into a thriving stead, with plenty of interesting strategic bumps to navigate along the way. Its particular genius is its huge decks of cards, only a handful of which are used in each game, which ensures lots of strategic variety and allows you to tailor things like complexity and interaction to your group’s tastes.
Coming into this game of estate-building in medieval France you could be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed by the options to grow your castle. Fortunately, it’s a dice-based game where the roll each turn limits your choices of where you can take actions. But don’t be fooled into thinking this is a random game: rather, the dice are there to keep throwing you curveballs you have to dodge around as you build a strategy. A classic case of having too much to do and too little to do it with, every action of every round feels weighted with impossible priorities, keeping you stretched right up until the points are tallied.
By marrying the sensibilities of Dungeons & Dragons with the mechanics of modern board games, Lords of Waterdeep made a smash hit to last down the ages. Players take the roles of power brokers in the Forgotten Realms’ biggest city, hiring adventurers to defeat perils threatening Waterdeep while building new facilities in the town. It’s these additions that take this unusually thematic worker placement game to the next level, with the new buildings entering play ensuring that new strategies are required each time. Throw in a modicum of minor “take that” cards to spice things up and you’ve got a brilliant game with very wide appeal.
One of the few hobby board games to cross over into full mainstream sales, Ticket to Ride is a steaming success story. It’s a combination of familiar concepts with players collecting cards, like a Rummy game, in order to try and claim matching routes on a map of the US. But beware: it’s a tight board with relatively few potential connections between the cities that you’ll need in order to complete your allotted routes. And if another player gets there first, you’ll lose potential points instead of gaining them. Easy to learn and exciting to play and with a wide variety of versions and expansion maps, Ticket to Ride is great fun for all ages. It also works well as a two-player board game, or with a group.
While conquest games involving ancient Rome are ten a penny, Concordia instead has you manoeuvring a noble family to gain wealth and contacts during the height of empire. Play is conducted using a deck of action cards that you can expand, using wealth from your trades, as the game progresses, allowing you to tailor your strategy accordingly. But the kicker is that your final scoring is also depending on those cards, with different cards earning you points in different ways, from goods in your storehouse to colonist pieces on the board. This creates a fascinating, rich, wheels within wheels layer of strategy, while the resource management elements also let you mess up your opponent’s plans while advancing your own.
Collectible games wax and wane in popularity and print status, which makes even classics like Magic: the Gathering hard to include in this kind of list. Summoner Wars, however, with its clever blend of card and board-based gameplay has an evergreen sense about it and, best of all, its collectibility comes in packages. So if you tire of facing off the six included factions against one another, you can just add more to your collection. By forcing players to use cards both as units and currency, it keeps everyone making knife-edge decisions as they maneuver round the board and roll off against opposing units in their quest to kill the enemy summoner, right up until the on-board death.
Blasting onto the scene in 2015, Codenames changed the face of party games forever. In place of trivia quizzes or trivial tasks, it challenged players to come up with clues to interlink a series of apparently unconnected words. So you might link “Trip”, “Rome” and possibly even “Embassy” with the clue “Holiday”. The concept proved so accessible and addictive that it launched an entire new genre of synonym-based word games, each giving different spins on a similar formula. But for ease of teaching and wideness of enjoyment, the original is still the best.
Looking for more ideas not covered herer? Check out our rundown of the best board games for kids.
There’s so much choice in modern board gaming that picking a game can be overwhelming, not to mention expensive! So to help winnow down the selection, here are a few things to look out for when making your picks.
Perhaps the most important one is whether it’s likely to see much play. Aspects of this are fairly obvious: whether it appeals to your friends, what’s the target age, if it’s a long game, will you have time for it, and so on. But there’s still more to these facets than may be immediately apparent. You may feel comfortable learning a very complex game, for example, but will your fellow players, and will you be able to teach it? Do you want a game to play with your partner, or your wider family, or does it need to be flexible enough to cater for both crowds?
Even then, these are often vexed questions. The play times listed on box sides are often hopelessly optimistic. Similarly, a game’s advertised player count can be very different from the ideal. A good tool to clear this up is the game information database boardgamegeek.com. If you search on a game there then, at the top of the page you’ll find, beneath the player count, a “best” suggestion for the optimal player count according to the site’s users.
There are other many other considerations. Some games take up a lot of table space, for example, which is no good if you play on a coffee or card table. Others can take a long time to set up and put away. These issues are often mentioned in a review if they’re problematic. And they can stack: you may be able to play a much longer game, for example, if you have space to pause and leave it out on the table to resume later.
Some genres of game require greater research than others. Increasingly, games are being released as lifestyle choices with a steady stream of expansions and new content. Which is great if it appeals to you, but you need to know what you’re getting into. Other games merge into miniature modelling which is a whole other hobby in it’s own right. Editions and versions are another thing worth checking out as many modern games come in standard and deluxe editions or may, in fact, be reprints of older titles.
You also need to think about how a game might fit in with your existing collection, both aesthetically and physically. For the former, consider what makes it different enough, mechanically or thematically, from games you already own to make it worthwhile. For the latter, remember that board games are big, and you’ll need to find space to store it!
Collecting and playing board games can be a very enjoyable and rewarding hobby. Good luck!
Bandai Namco sent us some of the first Elden Ring action figures, the S.H. Figuarts Festering Fingerprint Vyke and super-deformed Figuarts Minis of Melina and Raging Wolf. Vyke will run you around $75, while the Minis are both $30. A variety of toy and collectible sites have had them up for pre-order for a while, and will likely start shipping soon.
Vyke, who appears as an NPC invader in-game and whose armor is being worn by the Tarnished on Elden Ring’s box art, includes his war spear, a fire effect to recreate the frenzyflame thrust attack, and four interchangeable pairs of hands (one pair of first, one pair open, and two pairs for holding the spear at different angles.) Data-miners have dug up unused assets that suggest Vyke originally had a much larger role in Elden Ring’s story, but currently, the game’s cover model and first official action figure feature a random dude who jumps you outside an abandoned church.
Melina and Raging Wolf each include one interchangeable arm – Melina’s is outstretched, Wolf’s is holding a sword. Though the Minis are articulated, the proportions and sculpted clothing make posing pretty limited. They unclude small stands though, which are necessary for displaying purposes on account of the toys’ enormous heads.
Weirdly, these are the first FromSoft characters to get the Figuarts treatment, despite it being a Bandai Namco toy line. There are a variety of Dark Souls collectibles from other manufacturers, and Bloodborne, Sekiro and Demon’s Souls have all gotten Figma action figures. Figma and Nendoroid both have some Elden Ring figures in the works, but hopefully we see more from S.H. Figuarts as well.
Some of us, however, couldn’t wait a whole year for Elden Ring toys, and decided to take matters into our own hands before the game was even out:
Two amiibo from the Super Mario line have been reprinted and are now available to purchase again at Best Buy. You can pick up a Mario and a Peach amiibo, both of which came out a few years ago before going out of stock and into retirement. Well, they’re back, at least for the time being. Grab them if you want to add them to your collection.
The Mario amiibo was originally released on March 19, 2015. The Peach amiibo came a couple years later, on March 23, 2017. Despite their release dates being updated to 3/1/2023 in Best Buy’s listsings, the product descriptions for both still reference scanning them on your Wii U GamePad controller (RIP). Don’t worry, though — they’ll work just fine on your Nintendo Switch.
It’s unclear why, exactly, these two amiibo have been reprinted now, though there are some possibilities. We’re approaching March 10, aka Mario Day, and these could be part of that whole celebration. There’s also the impending release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which may have something to do with it as well. In any case, these are some colorful amiibo that would look good on the shelf of any Mario and Peach fan.
These reprints raise other questions that are unanswered for the moment, as well. Will other amiibo from this series be repinted soon? Will these amiibo show up at other retailers aside from Best Buy? Who knows! If they do, we’ll add links above.
If that’s not enough for you, also take a look at our roundup of the best Nintendo gifts, and the best toy gifts. They don’t even have to be gifts for other people. Treat yourself, as they say.
Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed or on Mastodon @chrislreed.
2023 might finally be the year where 2TB PS5 SSDs might actually be worth the upgrade. Last year, prices for 1TB PS5 SSDs averaged around $150, whereas 2TB SSDs hovered closer to $300. This year, we’re seeing 1TB SSDs trickle below the $100 price point and 2TB SSDs are under $200. The reason PS5 SSD upgrades are pricey is that you can’t use any old SSD and expect it to perform well on the PS5 console. You’ll want to pick up an PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive with a rated 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive. That means, for better or for worse, picking a top-shelf SSD.
Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD. Not all SSDs listed here have pre-installed heatsinks. For the ones that do, we’ll be sure to mention it. For the ones that don’t, all you have to do is purchase your own heatsink (we recommend this one for $10) and install it yourself. It’s very easy.
Constantly going in and out of stock
Crucial’s newest M.2 SSD meets all the requirements for your PS5 SSD upgrade. It supports transfer speeds of up to 6,660MB/s which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. Yes there are faster SSDs out there, but if your intention is to put this in your PS5, then that extra speed is worthless because you’re bottlenecked by the original PS5 SSD. If you’re worried about opening up your PS5 case, don’t worry it’s very easy. Crucial has an official YouTube PS5 SSD install guide to see you through the process.
Amazon is offering a 2TB WD Black SN850X with preinstalled heatsink for only $179.99. The SN850X is the successor to the SN850 SSD. It has newer flash chips (BiCS5 vs BiCS4) and an updated firmware, which combined offer improved sequential and random read/write speeds. For PC gamers, there’s also an updated Game Mode 2.0 utility that’s designed to tune the SSD for better performance during gaming sessions.
Corsair is a very well known brand for DIY PC builders. Corsair makes some of the best gaming products on the market, and that includes solid-state memory like RAM and SSDs. The MP600 Pro is the same super-fast M.2 NVMe PCIe x4 Gen4 SSD that’s marketed for enthusiast gaming PC builds. This one is “optimized for PS5” because it includes a rugged preinstalled heatsink that is slim enough to fit in the PS5 bay without any issues. Performance wise, the MP600 Pro matches the best SSDs out there with its 7,100MB/sec sequential read and 6,800MB/sec sequential write speeds.
Amazon is offering the Patriot Viper VP4300 2TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x 4 Internal Gaming Solid State Drive, which is compatible with the PS5 console, for only $149.99. This makes it definitely the lowest price we’ve seen for a brand name 2TB PS5 SSD, especially since this one even includes a slim aluminum heatshield. The VP4300 is an M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4 solid state drive with rated transfer speeds of 7,400MB/s read and 6,800MB/s write. That makes it well above the PS5’s recommended 5,600MB/s speed requirement.
Samsung SSDs need no introduction. They’ve made some of the most popular and reliable PS5 SSDs on the market. The 980 Pro has been out for a while now, but it’s still one of Samsung’s fastest M.2 PCIe SSD, with only the newly released 990 Pro being faster. It is fully PS5 compatible in terms of form factor and performance, with blistering speeds of up to 7,100MB/s. It goes toe to toe with other well-known options like the WD Black SN850 and the Seagate Firecuda 530.
There may be other SSD deals out there, but these are the PS5 SSDs we’ve tried ourselves and highly recommend. They also double up as outstanding boot drives for your gaming PC, in case you don’t need additional storage for your PS5 console.
It’s extremely easy! Removing the case cover is completely toolless. In fact, the only screw you have to remove is the one that keeps the cover for the SSD bay in place. You don’t even put it back when you’re done. Sony has a quick and easy YouTube video guide.
Sony recommends you install an SSD that has an attached heatsink. If the SSD you purchase doesn’t include one, it’s simple enough to buy one for about $10 on Amazon and add it yourself. Most of these heatsinks are just attached using an adhesive like thermal tape.
For more deals, take a look at our daily deals for today.
