Category: IGN

In the vast majority of cases, board games are inherently social gathering activities. While there are some great solo board games, many of the best, most fun-filled gaming experiences I’ve had are from consistent, larger play groups. And while it isn’t always that easy to get six players to find time to get together, that magical moment when you do is always memorable. In this list we offer some of the best six-player board games around, ranging from various age recommendations and levels of difficulty. While a full group isn’t necessary for many of these, these games shine when you do have a group of six players at the table.

TL;DR Best 6 Player Board Games

• Age of Wonders: Planetfall
• Dune
• One Night Ultimate Werewolf
• Zombicide: Black Plague
• Munchkin
• Toil and Troublez

Age of Wonders: Planetfall

Based on the sci-fi real-time strategy video game, Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a competitive resource management game played over seven rounds, and each round has players exploring a different planet. The game ends once all seven planets are explored and your precious resources are added up, earning you Empire points. The player with the most Empire points wins. Sporting a unique card drafting system and six playable unique commanders, this is perfect for ongoing gaming groups.

Dune

If your entire personality isn’t Dune in 2024, what are you even doing? Gale Force Nine’s Dune is an asymmetrical conquest and diplomacy game set on the titular desert planet Arrakis of Frank Herbert’s creation. Players take control of one of the six available factions, including the Atreides and the Harkonnens, as you fight for control of the planet and the precious spice. Played over 10 rounds, each lasting nine phases, you’ll manage resources, avoid the dreaded sandstorm, and battle opposing armies. The play time is admittedly above average, but rounds will go by in no time due to how much fun you’ll be having.

One Night Ultimate Werewolf

A fast-paced secret role game, One Night Ultimate Werewolf can be played with up to 10 players, and is a much more entertaining experience with more players involved. Each player takes a role card, noting it without telling other players, then the night begins. Throughout the night phase, each player closes their eyes, then the moderator will give specific instructions based on your role card. In the day phase, players will have conversations to determine who to kill. If a werewolf is killed, the villagers win, and if a villager is killed, the werewolves win. Each round lasts around 10 minutes, perfect for kids and parties.

Zombicide: Black Plague

Zombicide: Black Plague is a cooperative RPG board game with light campaign elements. Play is done with various miniatures and item cards, with each player taking control of one of six survivors as they work together to escape the hordes of the undead in multiple scenarios. Be warned: you will die. A lot. Luckily, with a full party of six players, breaking down doors and taking out Abominations is a much less daunting task. Featuring detailed miniatures, a robust level up and skill system, and an extensive scenario book, Zombicide is the perfect ongoing game for consistent play groups. It’s also a great board game for teens. Be sure to check out their other themes as well.

Munchkin

A silly fantasy-themed game, featuring cards like the Horny Helmet or the Peanut Butter and Orc Guts Spreader, Munchkin is a D&D-lite card game that pits players against each other as they delve into the dungeon, nab loot, and backstab their friends to level up. The first player to level 10 wins the game. Another one that’s best enjoyed with a full group, the 168 card base set offers a ton of variety for multiple rounds, with the option of eventually adding some of their numerous expansions later on.

Toil and Troublez

The ultimate test of risk and reward, Toil and Troublez is a simple card game of pressing your luck. The game determines who goes first by the players discussing who most recently ate a mushroom (yes, really!). That starts by revealing a card from the top of the deck and trying to match it up with a card from one of the three rows, referred to as the Enchanted Forest, and can either end their turn there or risk it all by continuously playing more cards. Their turn also ends if the drawn card cannot be played. Then, in clockwise order, the remaining players pick a card from the Enchanted Forest and try to create matching sets of cards to earn points, goldfish style. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

For more, check out our picks for best 3-player board games, as well as our favorite dexterity board games.

Developer Strange Scaffold’s third-person neo-noir shooter, El Paso, Elsewhere, is heading to the big screen, per Deadline.

LaKeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah, Sorry to Bother You) is currently in talks to star and produce the project alongside Lorenzo di Bonaventura’s Di Bonaventura Pictures and Colin Stark. The adaptation is said to follow protagonist James Savage as he navigates a monster-filled world in order to bring an end to his vicious ex-girlfriend and his own inner turmoil.

We finally have the first full trailer for Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game, an upcoming single-player life simulation set in the Middle-earth universe inspired by the books of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Tales of the Shire, published by Take-Two-owned Private Division and developed by Wētā Workshop Game Studio, lets you live life as a Hobbit in the idyllic town of Bywater, which is not yet established as an official village in Hobbiton. The idea of the game is to help bring the community together and achieve official village status by throwing the greatest Bywater Festival the Shire has ever seen.

Expect plenty of wholesome, Hobbit-centric gameplay, including creating and personalizing a Hobbit with an array of customisations, decorating a cosy Hobbit home, and venturing outside for cooking, fishing, foraging, gardening, and more relaxing activities in the Shire.

According to Private Division, the Embracer Group-owned Middle-earth Enterprises has licensed the literary works of The Lord of the Rings series, providing Wētā Workshop Game Studio with “the broadest creative license to interpret the underlying lore of the books.”

Here’s the official blurb:

Toss your lure to catch trout from the glistening waters of Bywater Pool, gather wild mushrooms, and then use the collected ingredients to bake a succulent pie to serve for luncheon. With a full belly, stroll back outside to explore the Shire and build relationships with the Bywater locals by helping them to build a garden, sharing one of the many daily Hobbit meals, and more.

There’s also word that you’ll meet “iconic characters and familiar Hobbit families” to trade for upgrades to skills, clothes, home, and more. Private Division failed to say which characters, although the trailer shows a glimpse at a famous wizard.

Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game launches in the second half of 2024 on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

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.

In an ocean of new action-platformers, it’d be easy to overlook Tales of Kenzera: Zau, but casting it away without a second thought would be a mistake. This is a short, sweet side-scrolling action game inspired by the many, many children of Metroid and Castlevania. It’s full of crunchy combat and springy platforming, all of which is fun if not groundbreaking in a genre where others seem to raise the bar on a regular basis. But most importantly, its the touching love letter from a grieving son to their deceased father, told in clever and moving allegories about sending restless spirits to the afterlife, that helps it stand out in the pack.

The biggest first impression Tales of Kenzera makes is how great it looks. With a bold color palette and dynamic environments like lush jungles and rolling hills, finding a screenshot of this game that looks anything less than beautiful would take an act from a spiteful god. Though some of the human characters have clunky or stilted animations, the monsters you’ll fight move with a supernatural gait that is fitting for restless spirits, but also useful for clearly identifying when to attack and when to dodge.

Tales of Kenzera’s African inspirations don’t stop at its looks. Its story of a shaman named Zau that must usher restless spirits into the after life – itself being told as a story within a story about the loss of a loved one – is rich with parables about surviving through grief. This is a common refrain in much of the ancestor-worshiping mythology of Central and East African people, where death, though painful, can be a rite of passage. Besides being a solid representation of a culture that goes under-represented in fiction outside of royal cats fighting over space rocks, it’s also an extremely personal tale about a son losing his dad, inspired by director Abubakar Salim’s own relationship with his late father. The simple, delicate, and poignant way Tales of Kenzera speaks to loss is one that will stay with me long after any specific platforming sections or enemies fade from memory.

This is partially because of how well each of its three big sections entwine the actual game mechanics with those larger themes – for instance, the key ability gained during a section that involves climbing a volcanically active mountain to chase the Great Spirit of Humanity is one that lets your indomitable human will run through walls like a charging bull. But its also effective thanks to how well written and acted the sparse cast of characters is, especially Zau himself and Kalunga, the God of Death who is more wise uncle than Grim Reaper.

On the other hand, the action of this roughly six-hour adventure through the exotic land of Kenzera meets modern Metroidvania standards, but rarely exceeds them. Each zone is jam packed with platforming sequences that don’t really test your reflexes or abilities, with the exception of some optional sections that limit checkpoints and push the pace for some sort of reward. I enjoyed all of the dashing, diving, and wall jumping in Tales of Kenzera, especially a mid-game chase through a shadowy pocket dimension – but there are very few moments that stand out like this, let alone when compared to the impressive areas of contemporaries like Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

There’s a distinct lack of collectible chasing in Tales of Kenzera, too. That might bum out folks who enjoy the treasure hunting aspect of Metroidvanias, but I quite enjoyed the trade off of having to do much less backtracking through winding paths I’ve already explored. And some findables do exist like Echoes, which are voice notes for unexplored lore bits, I just didn’t feel much incentive to stick around any particular place simply to find them. Approachability seems to be the main focus here, and I think Tales of Kenzera succeeds in that regard.

Combat is simple but satisfyingly quick and impactful. Zau’s shaman masks grant him powers of the moon and the sun, which have ranged and melee focuses, respectively. You can switch back and forth between them instantly to adapt to whatever an encounter calls for, usually breaking color-coded shields to open monsters up for big damage. As a fan of Housemarque’s Outland from 2014, I was happy to see this mechanic return in an evolved and more refined form. The moon and sun also have other unique utilities, be it shooting hovering enemies or rushing down ground-based baddies.

Enemy variety is rather small, but the monsters are all pretty different from one another, and they are introduced at a gradual pace. That includes things like the tanky Ngao thats near invulnerable head on, or the bug-like Adze that drains life from all creatures in the area, friend or foe. In the later half of the campaign, the synergies between these enemies add an extra challenge that is by no means controller-breaking, but still clever enough to force tactical thinking and prioritization.

Zau doesn’t have many skills to choose from, and the skill tree itself is limited, but after the first tier of upgrades I didn’t feel like I was truly missing out on much. You get all of his vital skills through progressing the story, such as Kabili, which lets you hover across gaps, or the Zawadi grappling hook, and a few of them have some value both in and out of fights. For example, the same cerulean spear that can freeze waterfalls into walls to kick off of can also freeze enemies and open them up to free damage.

That said, freezing enemies and then nailing them with Zau’s big spirit attacks really trivialized some encounters toward the endgame. This includes some of the bosses, who are high in spectacle but low in difficulty, with fights that end up being pretty similar to one another. I wish there were more of the Spirit Journey trials, which are sets of enemy gauntlets that were consistently the most demanding fights available, forcing me to mix all of my skills and know how to survive.

EA has made Star Wars Jedi: Survivor part of the EA Play subscription in some PlayStation regions.

IGN has confirmed Respawn’s action adventure is now part of EA Play on PlayStation in the UK. EA has yet to made an announcement, but the move comes ahead of an expected price hike for the subscription service.

Earlier in April it emerged that EA Play would get a price increase starting May 10. EA plans to increase the standard tier for EA Play from $4.99 to $5.99 per month, or for those that prefer to pay for a year in advance, the price will increase from $29.99 to $39.99. In contrast, the Pro tier of EA Play will increase from a monthly fee of $14.99 to $16.99 or $119.99 annually (a $20 increase).

Mortal Kombat 1 players have discovered a secret Brutality for all characters that developer NetherRealm appears to have stealth-dropped into the game.

All Mortal Kombat 1 characters have Brutalities — unique moves that end a match in a particularly brutal fashion. They’re triggered by doing an extra input command on top of a specific combo ender or move that wins the final round. Most of the characters in the game have six brutalities, but ever since Mortal Kombat 1 launched in September last year, players have discovered secret Brutalities, too.

As reported by EventHubs, Mortal Kombat 1 players are only now discovering a secret Brutality that works for every character in the game. It involves depleting your opponent’s health bar with a back throw that sees your character launch their hapless foe straight into the game’s camera. To trigger this match ender, hold up and back punch after performing the throw.

X / Twitter user Mortal_Kombat_Addict revealed a few examples of this secret Brutality in the clip below (warning, as with all things Mortal Kombat, the video is a gorefest!):

Secret Brutality that apparently works for all characters! 🐉🩸#MortalKombat1 pic.twitter.com/yAjnaLowyK

— 🐉Mortal_Kombat_Addict | Fatalities Daily (@MK_habit_addict) April 21, 2024

The secret Brutality was discovered after the launch of Mortal Kombat 1 Season 5: Storms, which also saw the release of DLC character Ermac for Kombat Pack owners. Speaking of Ermac, the soul-loving ninja has a new Brutality ripped straight from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Season 5: Storms revolves around the arrival of Raiden as the main boss in Invasions mode, and includes fresh challenges, story elements, boss battles, and rewards. Season 5: Storms runs until June 4. Kameo fighter Mavado is available May 2024.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Warning: spoilers for the Fallout TV show follow.

If you watched the Fallout TV show as a fan of the video games upon which it’s based, one revelation in particular will have caught your eye: who dropped the bombs first on that fateful day in 2077.

Fallout’s nuclear apocalypse was thought to have been triggered by China going first. Tim Cain, co-creator of Fallout, said in an interview last year that it was indeed China who dropped the first nuke. “The reason we got nuked is: bio-weapons were illegal and somehow China found out we were doing FEV [Forced Evolutionary Virus],” Cain explained in an interview with Fallout lore expert TKs-Mantis. “And they were like, ‘you have to stop it.’ And we went, ‘OK.’ And all we did is move it. All we did was move it over.”

But the Fallout TV show heavily suggests Vault-Tec, the evil corporate manufacturer of Fallout’s famous vaults, triggered the nuclear war by dropping bombs of its own — essentially for profit.

This megaton has sent shockwaves throughout the Fallout lore community, but there is a groundswell of opinion that Vault-Tec shooting first is a misdirection. For a start, if Vault-Tec started the war by dropping the first bomb, wouldn’t Barb, a high-up executive privy to the company’s plan, have ensured Cooper Howard and their daughter were safe within a vault and not outside at a kid’s party before pushing the big red button?

This contradiction raises the question: did Vault-Tec in-fact drop the first bomb? Or was the company caught off guard by, for example, China going first unexpectedly hours earlier? That’s the theory suggested by redditor Corpolentusmaximus2, who points to Obsidian’s 2010 game Fallout New Vegas to back up the claim. In New Vegas, antagonist Mr. House reveals he miscalculated the Great War by 20 hours. The Fallout TV show confirms Mr. House was in the room when Vault-Tec revealed its dastardly plan. Perhaps everyone was caught off guard by China going “early.”

Fans are now hoping to see more of the backstory to the nuclear war in the confirmed Fallout Season 2, which we know will include one of Fallout’s iconic monsters. It seems inevitable that we’ll get more pre-war Cooper Howard, since his separation from Barb and the events leading up to Season 1’s opening go unexplained in Season 1. But there are other unanswered questions following Fallout Season 1, including about the Snake Oil Salesman’s mysterious serum.

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.

Amid the success of the Fallout TV show, Fallout video games are enjoying a resurgence in popularity. The player boost is so significant that even NexusMods is struggling to cope.

The mod site issued a warning over the weekend that increased interest in Fallout mods had caused heavy network traffic, forcing it to deploy “extra resources” to cope. Explaining the situation, NexusMods namechecked the popularity of the Fallout TV show.

“We are experiencing much more traffic than usual due to the popularity of the Fallout TV series,” NexusMods said in a statement. “We have deployed extra resources where possible and we are monitoring the uptime and performance across the network. We have staff on call at all times to deal with any problems.

“Please do be aware that this extra traffic could cause a degraded experience across the website and our applications.”

Even now, April 22, the problem continues, with a “degraded performance” warning on-site.

Perhaps it’s no surprise to see NexusMods struggling given the increase in player numbers for everything from the original Fallout to the most recent release, Fallout 76. On Steam, which tracks concurrent player numbers, Fallout 4 has seen a significant increase, resulting in a peak concurrent player count of 164,190 over the weekend. Fallout 76, meanwhile, has hit its all-time peak on Valve’s platform, with 73,368 concurrents. The actual player numbers for Fallout games will be even higher, given their availability on multiple platforms, including Game Pass.

Fallout 4 is set to get yet another shot in the arm with this week’s release of its next-gen update. As for the Fallout TV show, we know for sure Fallout will get a second season, and that it will include one of Fallout’s iconic monsters. To keep you going until Season 2, be sure to check out IGN’s wide-ranging, spoiler-filled interview with Bethesda Game Studios executive Todd Howard and executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan. Elsewhere, lore experts believe the Brotherhood of Steel airship seen in the show makes one of two Fallout 4 endings canon. There are plenty of unanswered questions following Fallout Season 1, too, including about the Snake Oil Salesman’s mysterious serum.

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.

Fallout 4 sales have skyrocketed in Europe in the past week, rising over 7,500%. Steam player charts also recently hit more than 160,000 people over a weekend, almost ten years after the game was initially released. The Fallout TV Show on Amazon Prime Video has massively influenced the resurgence of the game, with fans of the show now flocking to play Bethesda’s 2015 entry to the franchise.

Not only that, but there’s been some huge sales on the Fallout franchise since the show hit our screens, and Fallout 76 is even free to download on Xbox and PC right now as well. With all that in mind, if you’re looking to play Fallout 4 again this week ready for the ‘next-gen’ update on April 25, here are all the best deals running right now for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

Best Fallout 4 Deal

PC (Steam)

• Fallout 4 – $16.59 with code FANATICAL17
• Fallout 4 GOTY Edition – $33.19 with code: FANATICAL17

PlayStation

• Fallout 4 – $4.99 (Ends April 25)
• Play with PS Plus Extra

Xbox

• Fallout 4 – $19.99
• Play with Game Pass ($1 for 14 Days)

While some of these aren’t as cheap as the game has been in recent weeks (Fallout 4 was $5 during the Steam FPS sale), it’s worth having an idea of the best prices at the moment in case a better deal does come along and you can act swiftly in order to secure it. Plus, Fallout 4 is also available on PS Plus Extra or Game Pass, so if you have either of those subscriptions the game is available to play at no extra cost.

If you’re after even more of the post-nuclear wasteland, consider checking out our Fallout partnership on the IGN Store; featuring Fallout hoodies, TV show merch, fully functional Pip-Boy replicas, and so much more.

Otherwise, you could also consider checking out the Fallout themed AriZona x Fallout Green Tea Energy Drink for $36 on Amazon (now back in stock), alongside the Bones Coffee Company Valiant Vanilla Fallout-themed coffee for $19.99. or their Atomic Apple Flavored Coffee set for $19.99 as well. For more, you can check out Amazon’s Fallout themed storefront as well.

The Fallout TV series arrived on Prime Video on April 10 when the streaming service dropped all eight episodes from the first season concurrently. Following its debut, the series has been met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans and critics — particularly those praising Goggins for his portrayal of the gunslinging Ghoul Cooper Howard. Since its release, Prime Video officially renewed Fallout for a second season.

With the show’s success, IGN recently caught up with Bethesda Game Studios executive Todd Howard and executive producer and director Jonathan Nolan for a wide-ranging, spoiler-filled interview. In it, Nolan alluded to his plans for the future of Fallout.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.