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Hogwarts Legacy: The Final Preview

We do not live in a world rich with great Harry Potter games. Nobody harbors warm feelings for the horde of chintzy, cynical movie tie-ins that plagued the PS2 and Xbox during the mid-2000s. So, when Portkey Games unveiled the big-budget Hogwarts Legacy in 2020, it was clear that the studio was aiming spectacularly high with its interpretation of Harry Potter. After a two-hour hands-on, I can say with confidence that the Wizarding World has rarely looked better. The lilting charm, cockeyed whimsy, and high-fantasy hijinks of Hogwarts Legacy is rendered with dogmatic servitude to the books, while the combat and exploration — the game part of this video game — is robust enough to rope in more casual fans of the fiction. Unfortunately, it’s all happening at the exact moment the world is reconsidering their lifelong ties to one of the greatest stories ever told.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the information drip, Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the late 19th century — and therefore it operates independently from some of the more familiar touchstones of Potter lore. (No Voldemort, no Dumbledore, no multitude of Weasley surnames.) You play as a fifth-year transfer student that will be built with a potent character creator; denoting complexion, hair color, eyebrow shading, and yes, body types, vocal tenor, and the choice to be referred to as either a “witch” or a “wizard.” Afterwards, you’ll quickly be implanted directly into the day-to-day scholastic rhythms of Hogwarts. My time with the game was brokered into two major sections: a treacherous story chapter where I was asked to both infiltrate and destabilize a nefarious dragon cockfighting ring, and a dulcet afternoon on the castle grounds, where I solved sidequests, played minigames, and soaked in the Persona-like splendor of simply hanging out at school.

The combat was the highlight for me, which I was not expecting. In previous Potter games, the quicksilver wizard clashes of the books are reduced to dull, rote third-person shooting galleries — Harry, Ron, and Hermione taking on an endless series of identical death eaters, who all seem to brandish magical facsimiles of shotguns and sniper rifles. Hogwarts Legacy changes the formula considerably. Despite the projectiles ricocheting back and forth across the arenas, the game functions more like a Ninja Gaiden-esque combo masher. Your character automatically locks onto wherever they’re facing, and the hocus-pocus that comes cascading out of your wand can be chained together like a screen-filling, health bar-obliterating Marvel Vs. Capcom tsunami. Game director Alan Tew compares the system to a sort-of “long-range dueling.”

The physics engine absolutely revels in your chaos — bodies fly across the map like they’ve become weightless and boneless at the mercy of your command.

Your arsenal is mapped to the face buttons, and after messing around with the controls for a few minutes, I was able to come up with some wild, improvis-ed concoctions. I’d leviosa my enemy into the air, tag them with some basic filler casts, pull them in close with an accio, before setting them aflame with the incendio. The physics engine absolutely revels in your chaos — bodies fly across the map like they’ve become weightless and boneless at the mercy of your command. Harry Potter video games have tried, and failed, to replicate the fiction’s unique take on spellcasting for decades. Portkey seems to have established a structure that will likely be aped for years to come.

My stint wandering around Hogwarts itself wasn’t quite as exciting as my trip to the dragon’s den. My character enjoyed a peaceful free-roam back at home on the back of their flying broom, (the Roach of Hogwarts Legacy,) where they poked around nooks and crannies of the castle; soaking up collectibles, deciphering basic puzzles, and completing the menial tasks assigned to me by my classmates. (One of them accidentally put a charm on her books that caused them to flutter around in the air. I Accio’d them back into her possession.) Outside, in a courtyard, I joined a round of what can only be described as “Wizard’s Curling.” My adversary and I used our wands to usher a set of leather balls down a wooden platform. The closer they got to the edge, without falling off, the more points we’d score. These distractions were pretty lightweight — Portkey didn’t allow us to delve into, say, potions class, or a meaty sidequest digression — which left me hoping that Hogwarts Legacy will include some finer character moments outside of the core campaign. Let us broker a genuine camaraderie with the other denizens of the school. A Harry Potter game can only hit its marks if, by the end of the runtime, we’re willing to lay down our lives for a kindly groundskeeper or an eccentric headmaster.

It was shocking to see that one of the spells on my combat hotbar was Crucio — better known to layman as the torture spell.

It should also be said that Hogwarts Legacy appears to be swimming in the darker edges of the canon. It was shocking to see that one of the spells on my combat hotbar was Crucio — better known to layman as the torture spell — which inflicts searing, white-hot pain in its target. (In the Harry Potter universe, Crucio is one of the three “unforgivable curses.” A huge no-no!) Perhaps these are the themes Hogwarts Legacy intends to deal with; how did Crucio become unforgivable, anyways? Some of the finishing moves equipped to my character were similarly macabre. After charging up a meter and tapping the two shoulder buttons, my avatar could reduce a rival wizard into a pile of sooty Looney Tunes dust. The Harry Potter books are centered around the purity of teenaged friendship, so it is weird to watch a fifth-year take a life. Again, maybe Hogwarts Legacy intends to explore some of those questions. On first brush though, it’s pretty jarring.

Of course, anyone who chooses to play Hogwarts Legacy must contend with all sorts of contradictions — most of which are far more important than the usual dissonance we tend to find in video games. J.K. Rowling has established herself as one of the most prominent anti-trans mouthpieces on the planet. The character creator in Hogwarts Legacy offers a huge amount of gender diversity, but that cannot change the fact that the author of these books remains the proprietor of the Harry Potter intellectual property. If purchasing this video game feels like a tacit endorsement of Rowling’s retrograde worldview, nobody can say you’re wrong. I spoke with Alan Tew about these questions during my visit, and you can read the results of our conversation here — but you are not likely to find a clean answer to those concerns. It looks like we’re finally getting a good Harry Potter game. Shouldn’t it feel better than this?

Dragon Ball Z Kakarot Needs a Prequel, Not a Sequel

Dragon Ball Z Kakarot has had a steady trickle of DLC since it launched three years ago, the most recent of which tells the story of Goku’s dad, Bardock, which goes to show you there are plenty more stories to tell in that universe.

Kakarot isn’t perfect, but it’s one of the best representations of Akira Toriyama’s awesome colorful world in interactive form. All the pieces are there for a massive sequel that builds on established systems and mechanics and raises the stakes even higher, probably recounting the events of Dragon Ball Super and its various new hair colors. However, I’m strongly of the opinion that the most potential for a follow-up to Kakarot lies in Goku’s earlier years, a game that retells the original Dragon Ball.

Something that makes Dragon Ball Z so appealing is also something that also often works against it: escalation. It’s all about taking things to the next level. DBZ tackles the afterlife, alien planets, time travel, and androids. Planets get destroyed, characters get killed off, resurrected, killed again and they regularly undergo drastic transformations – in some cases multiple characters get fused together to create new characters. It’s a lot. After a certain point, everyone gets so ridiculously overpowered that it stops being impressive. DBZ is the furthest thing from what you would call “grounded.” In fact, at various points, the ground literally gets blown up, and characters are just beating each other up while floating in mid-air – and maybe that doesn’t naturally lend itself to great gameplay?

Even starting from the beginning, Dragon Ball Z Kakorot feels like you’re jumping into someone else’s save file mid-game and playing as an overpowered character who has a ton of abilities unlocked – and in a sense, it is. You still level up and unlock moves, but at the start of Z, Goku’s one of the strongest warriors on the planet. He can fly and shoot energy blasts without thinking about it, and Kakarot’s gameplay reflects that. It took Goku three episodes to form that spirit bomb he chucked at Frieza, and it’s a two-button combo?

Dragon Ball Z Kakorot feels like you’re jumping into someone else’s save file mid-game and playing as an overpowered character who has a ton of abilities unlocked

Dragon Ball, meanwhile, starts from square one with good ol’ fashioned martial arts. Early on, Goku relies primarily on his fists, feet, tail and powerpole during combat. He’ll occasionally resort to a Kamehameha wave as a last resort, but something that’s primarily ground-based melee combat could make for a solid beat-’em-up. Make those ranged attacks a special occasion. Or, maybe that’s where side characters come in? Have Bulma whip out an Uzi or make Oolong turn into a missile.

One of the gripes about Kakarot was that the open-ish world felt empty, and while that’s true, it might not have been quite as noticeable if players explored it at a different pace. With the push of a button, Goku can blast off and zoom halfway across the map. It’s fun as hell but also makes so much of the world blur past. In Dragon Ball, Goku spends a lot of the time on foot, or riding in a variety of cool-looking vehicles – many of which are already in Kakarot. Sure, he gets the Flying Nimbus pretty early, but it’s also often out of the picture. I dunno, make Nimbus like Torrent in Elden Ring, your magical ride that sometimes totally bails on you.

Another complaint about Kakarot was that in between epic showdowns against iconic villains, a lot of time was spent fighting the same handful of enemies. Random encounters with Saibamen, pirate robots, Frieza’s henchmen happen constantly. None of these seem like they should actually pose a threat to earth’s mightiest heroes, but you’ve gotta have something to fight in between big story beats. Oh, and since so much of the travel is aerial, all the enemies need to be able to fly. In Dragon Ball, Goku constantly crosses paths with goons, thugs, henchmen, and various other run-of-the-mill bad guys. Honestly, Goku taking on the Red Ribbon army is practically a video game already: he fights his way floor by floor up Muscle Tower, beating up tons of regular grunts, and encountering a new unique boss every few levels.

Something I loved about Kakarot is how much its structure felt like the Yakuza games – the mix of epic story missions, silly side quests, and fun activities. Something the Yakuza series has proven several times over is that as long as there’s new stuff to do in a game, nobody gets too mad that the map is getting reused, and I’d love to see that approach taken here.

Given the massive global success of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super, the power creep clearly isn’t a deal breaker for a lot of fans, and for a lot of folks bigger is always better, period. Kakarot was the third best-selling Dragon Ball Z game to date, so I wouldn’t be shocked if Bandai Namco took the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” route – but we’ve gotten SO many DBZ games, it’d be nice to see the OG get some love, perhaps to commemorate some significant milestone… like say, the 40th anniversary next year? It’s not the craziest thing anyone’s wished for.

Halo Infinite: 343’s Statement Runs Against Deep Cuts in Halo Development Team

Halo developer 343 Industries says Master Chief and Cortana are staying under its roof, but reports of deep cuts to Halo’s development staff calls into question the studio’s ability to sustainably develop future Halo content.

This saga began last week, when we learned that the Halo studio was impacted by Microsoft’s plans to lay off 10,000 people. Since the news broke, speculation has run rampant about Microsoft’s plans for its flagship franchise, including rumors that Microsoft could pass Halo development to another studio entirely, leaving 343 Industries in more of a producer role. These rumors prompted 343 Industries to speak out over the weekend to put the rumblings to rest.

343 Industries’ studio head Pierre Hintze shared a message on Halo’s official Twitter account, writing, “Halo and Master Chief are here to stay. 343 Industries will continue to develop Halo now and in the future, including epic stories, multiplayer, and more of what makes Halo great.”

But for a studio that has struggled to meet Halo Infinite release dates multiple times, can the recently downsized 343 continue to handle development of a big-budget, AAA first-person shooter franchise? It’s hard to say.

IGN reached out to Xbox’s representatives, but did not receive comment ahead of publication.

‘Hit hard’

IGN has learned that significant cuts have been made to 343’s Halo development team. One former 343 employee impacted by the layoffs estimated about a quarter of 343’s staff was impacted, although that’s not a firm statistic. We’ve also learned that around 30 people were let go from 343’s art department alone, with former employees saying 343 Industries was hit “hard with positions impacted across all disciplines.”

Meanwhile, at least one senior-level source with knowledge of 343’s internal workings, but who is no longer with the studio, has claimed to IGN that it is being reduced to to publishing team. However, based on conversations that IGN has had with knowledgeable sources, the situation at 343 appears to be ongoing, and there is a growing — if unconfirmed — conviction that 343 will no longer be Halo’s sole developer when it’s settled.

Looking through LinkedIn profiles of other laid-off employees reveals hits to folks working on Halo Infinite’s engine, presentation, VFX, gameplay, game design, and more essential departments. It’s clear that 343 is a significantly different studio compared to just seven days ago. In addition, 343 Industries was already dealing with the growing pains of launching a live service game, with a whirlwind of highs and lows over the last year since Halo Infinite’s initial release.

Despite a strong launch at the end of 2021 that included praise for both Infinite’s fresh take on a Halo campaign and the franchise’s first-ever free-to-play multiplayer, the cracks quickly started to show. Fans instantly pushed back against Infinite’s controversial multiplayer progression system, as 343 scrambled to fix the shop and battle pass.

But the problems didn’t stop there, with the cancellation of split-screen co-op, lengthy delays to Forge Mode, and long content droughts during Halo Infinite’s first Seasons. Just five months after what appeared to be the start of Halo’s big comeback, the community was out of patience.

343 rapidly saw a creative exodus after launch, with 343 founder Bonnie Ross, multiplayer creative director Tom French, and lead narrative designer Aaron Linde all leaving the company in 2022.

Patrick Wren, a former senior multiplayer designer now working on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, was unsparing in his assessment of 343’s leadership in a post on Twitter.

“The layoffs at 343 shouldn’t have happened and Halo Infinite should be in a better state. The reason for both of those things is incompetent leadership up top during Halo Infinite development causing massive stress on those working hard to make Halo the best it can be,” Wren wrote.

Along with those departures, 343 is facing another creative void at the top, with Halo Infinite director Joseph Staten leaving 343 to rejoin Xbox publishing. Staten’s return to Halo was always designed to be a temporary arrangement, but his departure is still causing concerns among the Halo faithful.

Regardless of what happens with Halo in the future, it’s clear that the initial 10-year plan for Halo Infinite isn’t playing out exactly as Microsoft had hoped. For now, Halo Infinite Season 3: Echoes Within is still set to kick off in early March, adding new maps, modes, and weapons to the game.

Additional reporting by Kat Bailey.

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.

Warhammer 40K: Darktide Console Release Delayed: ‘We Fell Short of Meeting Expectations’

Since Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s launch in November, players have issued complaints about its incomplete gameplay mechanics and unstable framerate, with just 35% of its 8,510 recent Steam reviews currently being positive. Now, Fatshark, the team behind the co-op shooter, is shifting its focus to address these complaints.

Today, Fatshark CEO Martin Wahlund addressed the game’s launch and outlined the team’s plan moving forward with an open letter published on the @Darktide40K Twitter account.

When creating Warhammer 40K: Darktide, according to the open letter, the team wanted to “create a highly engaging and stable game with a level of depth that keeps you playing for weeks, not hours.”

“We fell short of meeting those expectations,” Wahlund acknowledged.

He then moved to announce a new focus on addressing feedback, which will include “a complete crafting system, a more rewarding progression loop,” and improved “game stability and performance optimization.”

The team’s new focus will indefinitely delay the launch of the game on Xbox Series X|S, which was slated to release shortly after the game’s November PC launch but hadn’t yet received a release date at the time of the delay. Fatshark is also delaying seasonal content rollout and upcoming premium cosmetics.

Initially revealed in 2020, Warhammer 40K: Darktide faced a two month delay before its eventual release in November 2022. We gave the game an 8 in our review, praising its satisfying gameplay but docking points for its tedious progression grind and “persistent framerate dips.”

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.

Speedrunner Beats Breath of the Wild 50 Times in 24 Hours

Between hunting for weapons, fighting bosses, and completing Hyrule’s many side quests, gamers who choose to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its entirety can spend upward of 50-100 hours preparing for its final boss. Of course, some players choose to abandon the game’s guidance and instead speedrun beating the final boss without preparation, and that’s exactly what Twitch streamer Player5 did — 50 times in one day.

On January 15, Player5 managed to beat Breath of the Wild 50 times in just under 23 hours. The full stream is replayable on his Twitch channel, where they also claimed the current Any% world record for Breath of the Wild speedruns.

“I decided to do it early January, although a friend of mine TheRealNoman had the idea probably ~1 year ago,” Player5 told IGN. “I also had seen Simply run SM64 1200 star (10 120 star speedruns in a row) pretty recently, so I figured it would be a fun challenge.”

As pointed out by GamesRadar+, Player5’s fastest completion time during this marathon was 24:16, with a relatively similar average time of 25:23. However, achieving this precise timing wasn’t easy.

“The hardest moment was trying not to get annoyed by the small mistakes I was making around the 18-20 hour mark,” they said. “I knew I was capable of much better, but getting tilted just makes everything worse.”

Player5 was confident in the consistency of an Any% run through Breath of the Wild, and their marathon challenge run only served to prove it.

“I guess I also learned that I’m still able to play well even after 20 hours of constant playing,” they said.

Player5’s impressive run is the latest addition to Breath of the Wild’s long history of speedruns and challenges, which includes this player who completed the game without crossing their path once and this YouTuber who opened a chest that no other player could open for four years.

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.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty: Watch the Opening Cutscene Now – IGN First

We end January’s IGN First coverage of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty by going back to the very beginning: Let’s have a look at the game’s opening cutscene. Watch it above.

In the clip, we hear a man talking about an elixir sought by the sovereigns of ancient China. This elixir could grant immortality, but its power was overwhelmingly dangerous, and the elixir became the cause of conflicts and political machinations throughout the years.

While China’s ancient leaders are known to have actually been in search of such an elixir of life, it appears that in Team Ninja’s newest action game the elixir is real.

After the first phase in the battle against Zhang Liang – the boss in last year’s Wo Long demo – he swallows the elixir and becomes a demon. It could be that the demons that curse the land of Team Ninja’s fictitious China were brought to life by the elixir. Of course, that is only speculation, but it will be interesting to see in the full game, which is set to release on March 3 for PS5/PS4/Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One/PC, as well as being available on Xbox Game Pass day one. Be sure to check out our final preview, a gameplay video of the Tianzhushan area, a high-level superplay by the devs, our Aoye boss fight video, a detailed article on the game’s weapons and an interview with the developer about designing the game’s bosses.

Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Isn’t Launching Until April at the Earliest

French games publisher Nacon, which is co-publishing Daedalic Entertainment’s upcoming action-adventure game The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, recently released an earnings report that detailed yet another delay for the Tolkein-inspired adventure.

The report lists Gollum as one of their titles that will be released in “the first half of the FY 2023-2024,” which due to Nacon’s offset fiscal calendar, places that window between April and September of this year.

Previously, Daedalic Entertainment delayed the title from its initial 2021 window to 2022, then delayed it again “by a few months,” offering no specific release date at that time, but not so far off as this new timeframe places it.

Gollum is a stealth game with a narrative focus that takes place during Bilbo’s hayday chronicled in The Hobbit books and movies, immediately after the halfling comes to possess the One Ring. IGN saw 20-minutes of last year and was not impressed, which may explain the delays.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal Board Game Review

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is something extraordinary — it’s a table-top racing game with an actual sense of breakneck speed. The designers achieve this both through the brilliant deck-building mechanics, and also with clever mechanisms that accelerate the actual process of play. In fact, Heat might be the best racing board game ever designed, surpassing recent standouts and seasoned classics alike.

The setting here is 1960s Grand Prix, and the core of the design is clever hand management. Each player secretly chooses a subset of their hand to play for movement each round. The number of cards you play is limited by your current gear. So, if you’re in second gear you play two cards, third you play three, and so on. Add up the value of the cards, and that’s the number of spaces you scoot your little car down the track. Want to move farther? Then shift into a higher gear so you can play more cards and tear up the road.

Corners gum it all up and function as speed bumps. They force you to slow your velocity and downshift. Each corner presents a number which is the maximum speed you may cross it without penalty, speed being the total number of spaces you are moving that turn.

You can push your automobile and take corners without stomping the brakes. This comes at the cost of the titular heat. Heat enters your deck when you blow through corners or when you rev your engine and boost additional spaces after a movement. These cards are functionally dead, unable to be used or even discarded once they enter your hand. Instead, you must slow down and allow your engine to cool if you want to vent them out of your deck.

It’s a table-top racing game with an actual sense of breakneck speed.

In sum, this system is magnificent. It’s simple, yet it forces agonizing tactical and strategic decisions. You must assess your hand, current gear, position on the track, and even the makeup of the rest of your deck. Heat is a resource to be used as opposed to totally ignored. Pushing through a corner and tearing up your vehicle may be the correct gambit, but timing is crucial.

Once you’ve accumulated heat, there’s a constant tension as you know those cards sitting in your discard pile will make their way into your draw deck and finally your hand. Your car feels appropriately fragile, as if it could fall to pieces at any moment. At some point you will have to ease off the pedal, but you better hope like hell you can time that moment to occur near a corner so you don’t forfeit the opportunity for massive gains on a straightaway.

As you gain and release heat, the act of deck-building is fluid and gripping. Heat, functioning as a burden to be dealt with later, also obfuscates the current status of the racers in a similar way to hidden victory points in other games. Simply leading the pack does not mean a car is actually in an enviable position, particularly if their deck is clogged with heat and their competitor’s isn’t. It’s fascinating how simple and smooth the deck-management is as a tactical process.

Despite the streamlined play, Heat’s largest obstacle is the learning experience. It’s a simple enough game, but internalizing the processes can take several rounds. The flow is partially obfuscated by the player board, which offers a poor set of iconography representing the phases. However, after a single lap most drivers will be comfortable white-knuckling the steering wheel and letting loose.

Your car feels appropriately fragile, as if it could fall to pieces at any moment.

There is such a tremendous sense of momentum here. It’s illustrated through the card play but equally expressed through several physical and procedural flourishes. For instance, all of the planning for the round –including shifting gear and choosing cards to play — occurs simultaneously. This is half the game, plotted and resolved in a couple of moments with little downtime.

Another smart touch that speeds up the typical soft moments of racing games is the numbering of spaces so that you can see how far you are away from the next corner. This means you don’t need to keep counting spots on the board for planning or when actually moving your plastic car. It’s all so quick and snappy and folds into Heat’s strong pace of play to build that sense of velocity.

My biggest criticisms revolve around Heat’s lack of verisimilitude. While it nails the feel of ’60s auto racing, it lacks somewhat in simulation. This is seen with cars in higher gear moving slower than those in lower gears when the driver plays a number of reduced value cards for the round. It’s also plainly evident in the catchup mechanisms. The game just flat out gives a bonus movement to the last place car, writing it off as “adrenaline.”

Additionally, slipstreaming is a key component, allowing you to slide additional spaces if you end your turn adjacent to another vehicle. This works to model a core element of the sport, but it serves primarily to allow cars farther back to spring ahead. That may annoy some as contestants tend to cluster around each other, but it does result in dramatic moments with constant jockeying for position. It’s also not impossible to burst ahead of the pack with strong play, even if it’s uncommon.

If this was the totality of Heat, it would be enough. But it’s not. This product feels rich, not just in its ability to deftly capture Grand Prix racing, but also in its offering of content. It comes with two fold-out double sided tracks which present various tactical challenges. Several modules are also included to mix up the rules. It has weather effects, changing road conditions, and even exceptional AI controlled opponents which allow you to fill out a lower player count or even play it as a solo board game. But Heat fully realizes its potential with the championship mode.

This is league play where you embark on a three-race series. Points are earned based on finishing position, and whoever possesses the most at the conclusion of the third track is the winner. This approach mimics an abbreviated career mode in popular sports titles like Madden. You actually modify your car each race, adding new cards into your deck. The number of upgrade options is tremendous, which results in asymmetric builds and automobiles with legitimate personality and identity. Additionally, you can earn short term rewards from sponsors by showing off on the track and performing daring maneuvers. There is such a wealth of options that it feels as though Days of Wonder delivered the game with an included expansion, one that is highly effective.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is fantastic. Designers Asger Granerud and Daniel Pederson’s exceptional card system comes across as a revision of their previous hit bicycle racing title, Flamme Rouge. That is a fantastic game in its own right, but it’s not Heat. The brilliant capturing of motion at the heart of this genre is an unmitigated achievement. Pair this with such a complete and thorough product, and we have an absolute champion.

Hogwarts Legacy Discussion Banned From ResetEra Forum Site Over J.K. Rowling Controversy

Discussion of Hogwarts Legacy has been banned from popular forum website ResetEra due to the controversy surrounding Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

As reported by PC Gamer, ResetEra general manager B-Dubs has released a statement from the moderation team that bans all mention of the Harry Potter-universe video game on their platform.

ResetEra had previously banned any promotional posts around the game – things like new trailers and announcements – but has now extended this to include any discussion.

“The mod team has decided to expand our prior ban on promotion for the Hogwarts game to include the game itself,” the statement read. “There will be no [off topic chat] and no discussion of this game.”

Rowling has been criticised for sharing transphobic views on social media, supporting anti-trans researcher Maya Forstater, writing an essay that included harmful statements and unsubstantiated claims about trans people (that were later debunked by experts), and more.

“After continued internal discussion, we began to start outlining the issues put forth by Rowling and the game in question and each time, and as we discussed it all, we kept coming back to the simple fact that Rowling is not only a bigot but is actively pushing, in her position as a wealthy and famous individual, for legislation that will hurt trans people,” the statement said.

Warner Bros. Games has made clear that Rowling is “not directly involved” with Hogwarts Legacy, and the game itself (which lets players create their own character and attend the school for witches and wizards) will reportedly allow for the creation of transgender characters.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Wanted: Dead – Exclusive Hands-On With This Bonkers PS2-Era Throwback

I didn’t know that I wanted to be a katana-wielding police officer in a cyberpunk version of Hong Kong who fights a giant spider tank and then eats five bowls of ramen, but that’s what I got with upcoming slasher/shooter Wanted: Dead, and I haven’t been able to put it down. Everything from its bizarre story and tone to its challenging and chaotic combat reminds me of the PS2/OG Xbox era of games from my youth, where experimentation and style was prioritized over polish. And there’s something awesome about that approach that’s captured my attention and kept me smiling ear to ear after over 15 hours with it.

One of the main ways in which Wanted: Dead nails its old school feel is in the high level of difficulty of its fantastic combat. While slashing and shooting my way through armies of enemies, death loomed constantly, as even one mistake could mean instant death for my ninja cop. Even with a squad of up to three NPCs accompanying me, I was usually outnumbered at least ten to one, as enemies shot at me from afar while their friends smacked me with melee weapons in a ruthless attempt to overwhelm me. I was forced to master the timing of my parries, dodges, and counterattacks, and to keep moving in order to avoid my immediate demise. Upgrading my skill tree along the way made things easier, thankfully, as improving my mobility options with the dodgeroll or the sliding blow made me much harder to hit, but even with two skill trees almost completely upgraded it was no walk in the park. Still, it was all worth the trouble when I finally beat a section, triggering numerous kill animations along the way that can only be described as delightfully badass.

In the many cases where I did die, though, I was reloaded back to the previous checkpoint, which, in another old-school touch, sometimes meant a brutal amount of progress lost. Luckily, learning each level and becoming more efficient at massacring my enemies was part of the fun, and I rarely found myself annoyed at having to repeat a section.

When I wasn’t turning faces into potato salad, I spent my down time doing a whole host of bizarre side activities that I still have trouble believing are a part of the same game. I wasted way too much time playing a claw machine, battled it out with my fellow cop in a contest to see who could digest the most ramen, sang karaoke, and even played a fake 1980s arcade game for some reason. These silly distractions weren’t always amazing additions, especially since ramen eating and karaoke are essentially the same minigame, but they went a long way to make me love how unflinchingly goofy it all was.

“There’s just something so odd and PS2-era about it that I couldn’t help but love it.”

There’s also a weird amount of charm to its sometimes janky presentation, which features voice acting that’s almost always stilted and character models that look a bit wonky. But then it’ll have perplexingly beautiful moments like how it occasionally seamlessly transitions to anime or even live-action cutscenes as a strange but effective way of telling its story. There’s just something so odd and PS2-era about it that I couldn’t help but love it, even when the dialogue made my eyes do a 180 in their sockets.

I’ve already played through most of Wanted: Dead, and find it hard to believe something so wonderfully old school exists in 2023. I’ll definitely be recommending it to all of my retro-loving friends when it’s released next month. Stay tuned for our full review soon.