Category: IGN

The final countdown to a week of game announcements, trailers, updates, in-person activities in Los Angeles, and general shenanigans is upon us. One of the major lynchpins holding it all together is Summer Game Fest, a showcase put together by Geoff Keighley with the aim of uniting the game industry around a summertime shebang of video game news. But as he does every year before this and other hosted events like Gamescom Opening Night Live and The Game Awards, Keighley is trying to temper wild fan expectations by clarifying some of the things we absolutely will not see at Summer Game Fest on Friday.

In a live question and answer session hosted on Twitch over the weekend, Keighley answered some burning questions from fans about the upcoming showcase, including a long list not just of what we should expect to see on Friday, but also what we shouldn’t.

As far as what will be there, Keighley confirmed we’ll see plenty of updates to existing games, such as Palworld and Kingdom Come 2: Deliverance. We’ll also see trailers for already-announced games, including Supermarket Simulator, Monster Hunter Wilds, Metaphor: Refantazio, Batman: Arkham VR, and Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO. He also confirmed we’ll be getting something from Blumhouse Games, and a new trailer for the Among Us animated series.

But in an interest of keeping surprises to himself, it’s no surprise that the list of what won’t be there is a bit longer:

No new GTA 6 trailer

Sorry, but anyone who was expecting another GTA trailer so soon after the last one needs to bring the expectations waaaaay down.

No Kingdom Hearts 4

Keighley said that a lot of people have been asking him about this for some reason, but that those expecting such a thing are “setting themselves up for failure.”

No The Wolf Among Us 2

No new news on this, but Keighley says it won’t be at SGF. Last we heard, it was delayed, and a collaboration with Deck Nine to work on a pre-production script for the game was cancelled. The game is still in production at Telltale, as of earlier this year.

No Def Jam game

This question came out of nowhere, but no, Keighley won’t be showing one.

No Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater

Unlikely from the jump given Keighley’s criticisms of Konami.

No Judas

We saw Ken Levine’s next game revealed at The Game Awards in 2022, but Keighley doesn’t have an update at this year’s show. If you’re hungry to see more of Judas, though, we did run an extensive gameplay overview on IGN this past March.

No Beyond Good and Evil 2

Keighley claims he doesn’t know any more than we do about where this game, announced way way way back in 2017, went. Even if it were going to be announced during this time, Ubisoft has their own show they’re almost certainly want it in.

No Five Nights at Freddy’s

Help Wanted 2 came out last year, and non-VR ports are still planned for later in June, so that’s probably the main attraction in that universe for now.

No Hollow Knight: Silksong (probably)

Keighley actually didn’t directly say this, but when it came up on stream, he chuckled and said, “I think it’s gonna be a while.” So that doesn’t sound exactly promising. Don’t get your hopes up.

Probably no Nintendo games

Keighley didn’t specifically say Nintendo wouldn’t have anything in this showcase, but he did chat briefly about Nintendo’s ongoing absence from Summer Game Fest despite historically being interested in The Game Awards, and his tone definitely points to another Nintendo no-show. Nintendo usually has some sort of digital showcase of its own in June, so while we shouldn’t expect anything at SGF, there’s probably plenty to come later this month. And SGF will almost certainly have third-party games that will be available on the Switch…or whatever its successor ends up being.

No music acts, No Josef Fares, no “one more thing”

Though not explicitly games, Keighley confirmed a few other elements SGF would not be using. There won’t be any musical acts (save that for The Game Awards), and the notorious Josef Fares won’t be showing up to make any spicy, clippable remarks. We also won’t get a “one more thing,” an industry tradition of sorts where showcases conclude with a “and now, we have one more thing to show” remark from a host followed by a massive, exciting announcement to wrap things up. Keighley doesn’t care for this trend.

So that’s what we know, leaving four days left to wildly speculate about what we don’t know. For more info on how to watch Summer Game Fest, check out our guide, as well as our guide to all the other events around Summer of Gaming.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Just Cause franchise developer Avalanche Studios is laying off 50 employees as it moves to shutter its New York and Montreal locations in what it calls an “exceptionally difficult decision.”

The company announced the news in a post on its website, saying that the layoffs in these areas affect nine percent of its worldwide workforce. It says the decision is “necessary to ensure a stable and sustainable future for the company.”

Xbox Game Pass is losing High on Life and more on June 15, Microsoft has announced. Revealed on the Xbox website, High on Life is one of five games leaving the platform in June in the regular rotation of games available on the subscription service. Here are some of the most notable departures.

High on Life

High on Life is a bizarre first person shooter where players take on the role of an intergalactic bounty hunter that uses living, foul-mouthed guns to fight aliens. It launched straight onto Game Pass and quickly proved popular, immediately breaking three records for the biggest launch of 2022, the biggest third-party game launch ever, and the biggest single-player launch of all time.

Rune Factory 4 Special

Rune Factory 4 Special is a very different kind of video game with farming, dungeon crawling, romance, and more. “With dozens of hours of gameplay (and the option of playing well after the story ends) Rune Factory 4 is definitely a good time,” IGN said in our 8/10 review.

Bramble: The Mountain King

Also leaving this month is Bramble: The Mountain King, which joined Game Pass in June 2023. This adventure horror game inspired by Nordic folklore sees players embark on a journey through the dark world of Bramble and encounter towering bosses along the way.

In addition to the games listed above, Xbox Game Pass is also losing Spacelines from the Far Out and The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales. Those who want to play the handful of games should therefore do so before June 15, 2024, though all Game Pass titles can be bought outright and kept for good for 20% off their normal price.

For more, check out our guide to the Xbox Game Pass plans as well as all the rest of the biggest games coming out in 2024.

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

Helldivers 2 players have succeeded in their mission to destroy a Terminid supercolony by turning its host planet into an all consuming black hole, but are now growing concerned at what might step through.

The creation of the black hole has been brewing since Helldivers 2’s first major order — large scale missions which shape the game’s overall narrative — as it saw players “liberate” a string of planets from the claws of a bug-like alien race known as the Terminids.

This mission, dubbed Operation Valiant Enclosure, allowed for the creation of a network of termicide-dispensing towers which were later activated in a March campaign that was also, seemingly, successful.

These scientists boasted about removing a whole planet from the space

But what about after that?

It was artificially created and there is High chances it’s not even a black hole!

It could be a passage or even door to endless horrors!

The planet was maybe moved not destroyed!

— Rokirtech (@Rokirtech) June 2, 2024

But the introduction of the termicide forced the aliens to evolve and create a super colony on the world of Meridian, where they reproduced at an uncontrollable rate. Super Earth’s brightest decided the only measured and reasonable way to stamp out the colony was to inject masses of weaponized “dark fluid” deep into the planet’s crust, where it would merge to transform the world into a fledgling black hole.

Many in the community have taken to social media to celebrate the the birth of their new cosmic child, but others have been left pondering if their latest win will come back to bite them in the long run. Super Earth’s campaigns have an unpleasant habit of accelerating the arrival of an ever greater, previously hidden threat, after all, and some are even questioning whether the dark expanse is even a black hole at all.

Those unsettled players have pointed out the suspected black hole is missing certain elements seen in its real life counterparts, such as a ring of glowing debris known as an accretion disk or a photon ring. Others have theorised that, black hole or n, it may even be a portal through which a new enemy could emerge.

Its impossible for anything to emerge from a black hole’s event horizon in real life, of course, but the existence of legions of murder robots, instantaneous travel between star systems, and countless other sci-fi elements have shown that developer Arrowhead Studios and its galaxy master Joel aren’t necessarily bound to realism.

The portal theory seems perfectly plausible in that regard, and even more so when considering the “dark fluid” used to create the black hole was a form of synthesised exotic matter recovered from a technologically advanced alien race called the Illuminate, who featured in the original 2015 Helldivers title but have yet to make an appearance in its sequel. Many in the Helldivers 2 community are adamant the Illuminate’s reveal is imminent after the appearance of mysterious blue beams sniping players out of nowhere (and a series of leaks revealing enemy models).

Joel only knows what will happen next, but for the time being Helldivers will likely be asked to return to Automaton controlled space to win back the planets lost last month. Super Earth scientists are working on a new and improved termicide formula in the meantime, because why learn from the mistakes of the past?

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

I beat Dragon is Dead’s first boss at 5 AM. I died about 3 seconds later. I thought I was in a cutscene, watching him die, and I was – for about three seconds. Then the cutscene ended, and one of his little skeleton minions whacked me in the face, and I was back to the start. But I knew I had a build that worked. I felt lucky. Twenty minutes later, he went down again, and I kept going. When I finally bought it and respawned at the Fountain of Life, I was happy to drag myself to bed… but I was also already planning the next run.

What I’m saying, then, is that Dragon is Dead is a game for sickos (complimentary), and I’m sickos. Developed by Team Suneat, who you may know as the team behind Blade Assault, Dragon is Dead is part Castlevania, part Diablo, part roguelite, all pixel art hack-n-slash glory. Throw in some unique RPG and progression elements, and Team Suneat’s latest dish is shaping up to be finger-licking good.

Let’s get it out of the way: whether you’re traipsing around the corrupted, skeleton-infested remnants of a once-sacred forest or just walking through a camp of tired, worn-down, hopeless soldiers, Dragon is Dead features absolutely stunning pixel art. You can practically hear these brittle tree branches swaying in the wind and smell the desperation of the small groups of soldiers working to keep the monsters at bay. Combine that with some excellent and atmospheric music, and Dragon is Dead is selling an aesthetic – and a mood – from the word go.

But mood, tone, and aesthetics are only part of the package. Dragon is Dead plays well, too. It’s a side-scrolling hack-n-slash with an obvious reverence for Castlevania – the Spellblade’s dodge animation is a very clear callback to Alucard’s dodge animation in Symphony of the Night – but it marries that with a Diablo-esque UI and loot system that allows you to re-roll individual stats on weapons and armor. The leveling system resembles Diablo IV’s – spells and abilities are segmented into tiers like “Basic Skills” and “Core Skills” with several options and upgrades, and spending enough skill points unlocks the next tier and its corresponding abilities. It opens up some neat build opportunities that encourage you to specialize in abilities that complement each other and build your gear around those skills.

There were two classes in the build I played: the aforementioned Spellblade, who specializes in elemental magic attacks, and the Berserker, who builds Madness by using his Basic Skills and then cashes out for big damage with his Core Skills. They play very differently: the Berserker is slower, tankier, and hits harder, but the Spellblade is faster, has a more generous dodge, and can build combos by stacking skills that use the same kind of magic. Both, however, feel fantastic, and it’s fun to build a cool combination of abilities and spells to cut through the demons infesting Dragon is Dead’s world.

But what I like most so far is the way Dragon is Dead handles death and progression. This is a roguelite. That means that when you die, everything about your character resets: your level, items, power-ups like Artifacts and Soul Gems, everything that makes your build your build, with only two exceptions: your gear, and Magic Stones, a special currency that you can use to buy gear and reroll your stats. After a few runs, you’ll have a good feel for the abilities you like and the stats you’ll want on your gear to support them. Building up your gear after a run matters, but like the best roguelites, what happens during the run is what separates a close victory from a brutal defeat.

During your run, you’ll come across Magic Stones and keys that will allow you to open special chests, which are always useful, and gold you can spend at stores for temporary power-ups or new abilities; Artifacts, which will let you carry more than one potion, upgrade your health and resource pools, boost your damage, or give you special perks like making enemies more likely to drop potions or dropping more Artifacts once you open a certain number of chests; and Soul Gems, which offer flat upgrades to your core stats.

Clearing areas gives you your choice of a pair of chests that contains one of these things, but you’ll also be able to buy them in stores and find them in certain areas. There are also special chests scattered throughout the environment that you can open with unique keys you can find or buy in the store. Artifacts also have synergy, which means that finding two or more of the same type will add bonuses so you can really dish out the hurt if you’re smart about how you build during a run. If you’re looking for depth, Dragon is Dead seems like it’ll have it, but you will have to get a little lucky, too.

That means that you’ll probably have to alter your build on the fly if, say, you’re a Spellblade playing with a lighting build and you get an Artifact that boosts fire damage. Luckily, it’s easy to do… provided you have the coin. Naturally, environments also change each time you go through them, so no two runs are alike, which is good, because you’re probably going to die. A lot. At least initially.

At the start of each run, you can only carry one potion, and whether or not you’ll find another one or the ability to carry more than one at a time is largely luck. Sometimes, a run just isn’t going to work out in your favor, and you’re going to die. Because your gear – and your ability to buy more gear, reroll a stat on any piece of gear you have, and the keys to those special chests – carries over between runs, you’re always progressing, even if it may not feel that way. But once you come back to the opening town after a particularly close run and replace your Magic items with Rares, and see how fast stuff dies as a result? You really feel it.

And once you get into the groove of Dragon is Dead’s combat, it feels incredible. Like any roguelite, a lot of learning to deal with any given enemy is just practice. At first, you might not know what an enemy does or how to deal with them. The first time I fought Longmore, a three-headed tree that serves as the game’s first boss and the guy that kept me up until 5 in the morning, I had no idea how to deal with the insane number of flaming, demonic skulls he was sending at me, and when I got to him, I barely had any health left to learn. Needless to say, I died real fast.

The last time? I was cutting down the enemies standing between me and him like they were barely there, and when I made it to the fight, the skulls barely hit me. I was wearing items with more dodge, so I was avoiding some of them automatically, but I was also better at dodging them manually. I barely got hit. In my time with it, Dragon is Dead’s progression rewarded me for creating a build over time and being smart with my gear, but it also rewarded me for getting better as a player. It’s a hard line to walk, but Dragon is Dead seems like it’s on the right path.

I do have a couple of minor concerns. First, while Dragon is Dead’s lore is cool, its writing is a little flat. Characters announce who they are, what they do, how they feel, and then dispense lore without much flavor or personality. It’s a small qualm, but when everything else looks and feels so good, it does stand out. The other is that the UI, especially in shops, doesn’t always give you a good idea of how many resources of each type you have. But it’s early days, and Team Suneat has plenty of time to iron this stuff out.

Usually, when I finish previewing a game, it’s because I’ve done everything I want to do. With Dragon is Dead, I had to stop because I needed to sleep. In a world where I didn’t have to type this up, dear reader, I’m still playing Dragon is Dead. So far, it’s beautiful, feels wonderful to play, has interesting and unique progression systems that reward long-term planning and player skill, and every run feels unique. If Team Suneat can keep this up, well… the sky’s the limit. For now, I’m left thinking of the next run. In another world, I’m past Longmore, past that cave, cutting down demons and slinging spells like the daylight is never coming. Unfortunately, previews don’t write themselves. But tonight? I’m diving right back in. I have a dragon to kill.

The Last of Us and Uncharted developer Naughty Dog has “multiple single player projects” in the works, studio head Neil Druckmann has said.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Druckmann didn’t mention what projects the PlayStation studio was working on or if any had entered full development, but did suggest it was looking to break away from being predominantly associated with The Last of Us.

“I promise you, we will not be The Last of Us studio forever,” Druckmann said, speaking of Naughty Dog’s beloved post-apocalyptic franchise that debuted in 2013 and received its “Part 2” sequel in 2020. The studio is otherwise best known for creating the Uncharted franchise, though this was put to bed with 2016’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and smaller follow-up The Lost Legacy a year later.

Naughty Dog hasn’t released a game since The Last of Us: Part 2 beyond remasters, remakes, and collections, and while the studio confirmed it had decided on its next major title in March 2023, nothing is known about it externally.

Druckmann’s comments suggest it may not be a new The Last of Us game, however, if he’s certain Naughty Dog won’t be predominantly known for the franchise in the future. It’s also entirely possible The Last of Us is just one of these “multiple single player projects” in the works at Naughty Dog. Only time will tell.

Druckmann didn’t say these projects were all in development either, but simply being worked on, meaning several, if not all, could still be in early conceptual phases and far from being worked on proper, never mind released. Projects this early in development are also regularly cancelled or drastically changed.

Regardless, Druckmann did say Naughty Dog’s incoming games would follow the same principles as the studio’s previous. “We create experiences that are steeped in story and character, especially relationships,” he said. “The stories have some sort of philosophical core that everything is going to revolve around and feed into.”

These comments will hopefully not be retracted like another media appearance from Druckmann was, as in a bizarre turn of events, Naughty Dog owner Sony published and then deleted an interview with him after several misquotes.

Myriad comments from Druckmann were published incorrectly, forcing him to release clarifying statements online. “We apologize to Neil for misrepresenting his words and for any negative impact this interview might have caused,” Sony said.

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

The final version of MultiVersus is missing several features present in the open beta, but developer Player First Games has now said some of these are coming back.

After close to a year long hiatus, the Warner Bros. brawler featuring Gizmo from Gremlins, Rick and Morty, Lebron James, Batman, Arya Stark, Bugs Bunny, Shaggy, Tom and Jerry, Jason, and more returned in May 2024 to many players and many complaints.

“This feels more like a beta than the beta,” complained fans who noted missing team color options, the ability to test characters before buying, leaderboards and after battle reports, and much more. This comes after MultiVersus spent a year in open beta before being taken offline as Player First Games transitioned to Unreal Engine 5 and prepared for the full release.

June is officially here, and Summer is kicking off! You can save on all sorts of products this weekend, whether you’re looking to pick up a new game or purchase a new piece of technology. The best deals for Sunday, June 2, include Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and more.

Save $200 Off Apple iPad Air (5th Gen)

Currently, Amazon has the 5th Generation Apple iPad Air on sale for $549.99. This device features a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina Display, 256GB of storage, Wi-Fi 6 capabilities, a 12MP camera on both the front and back of the iPad, and more. This is all powered by an M1 Chip, which is still a powerful chip despite its age. You can choose from five different colors, from Blue to Starlight to even Purple.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $54.99

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is on sale for the very first time. This sequel to 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake brings Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII outside of Midgar for the very first time, with Sephiroth looming and moving in on his goals. This experience offers well over 100 hours of content, with 36 sidequests and a main story over 40 hours long. If you haven’t played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, now is the time to score one of the best 2024 titles out there at a discount.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for $49.99

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is also on sale for the very first time, priced now at $49.99 with PlayStation’s Days of Play sale. Spider-Man 2 features both Peter Parker and Miles Morales as playable characters, with a whole new area of New York to explore. You can swing through the city with new suit abilities like Web Wings and take down criminals all around. You’ll need to be prepared, as both Kraven the Hunter and the symbiote Venom are prepared to take you down and rule over NYC.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R for $34.99

Star Ocean: The Second Story R is an HD-2.5D remake from Square Enix. Taking the HD-2D sprite style found in titles like Octopath Traveler II, this game adds a 3D camera and 3D environments. There are a total of 99 different endings for you to discover, which makes this adventure one that can last for dozens of hours! Explore the world with fantastic quality-of-life updates, new battle mechanics, and more in this gorgeous remake of Star Ocean 2.

Save 57% Off Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was one of the first major PlayStation 5 titles, releasing in June 2021. This title featured Rivet for the first time, another Lombax who exists in the universe. Together, Rivet and Ratchet must work to take down Doctor Nefarious and save the galaxy once again. With the classic action gameplay and new features, Rift Apart is an excellent platform you should play if you are a fan of the genre.

Final Fantasy XVI for $34.99

Final Fantasy XVI was one of the biggest releases of 2023, acting as the first mainline Final Fantasy release since 2016. This title follows Clive Rosfield on a journey to take down the Mothercrystals. FFXVI is the first Final Fantasy title to tackle Dark Fantasy, offering a grim but hopeful tale in the world of Valisthea. Additionally, action combat was prioritized for this release, with former Devil May Cry 5 Combat Designer Ryota Suzuki leading the charge for combat in FFXVI.

Rise of the Ronin for $49.99

Rise of the Ronin is one of the latest PlayStation 5 exclusives to release, with the title coming from Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo. Set in 1863 Japan, you play as the Ronin and take down those coming from the West. This action epic offers well over 70 hours of content, with an excellent dive into a history somewhat unexplored in modern gaming.

Demon’s Souls for $29.99

Demon’s Souls has hit an all-time low with the PlayStation Days of Play sale. For $29.99, you can expirence this Bluepoint Games remake of one of FromSoftware’s most memorable titles. Since this title is only on PlayStation 5, you won’t be able to play Demon’s Souls on PC or other platforms. Slay the demons and explore the world of Boletaria like never before.

Nintendo Switch for $259.99

Right now, you can save $40 off a brand-new Nintendo Switch at Woot. This is the V2 model, which features better battery life so you can play more on the go. This model will come in a repackaged brown box, so do know that you will not receive the original Nintendo Switch box. However, the console and all included accessories are brand-new. Grab a discounted Switch today and dive into the console’s incredible library this Summer!

Save 50% Off Death Stranding Director’s Cut

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is the ultimate version of Hideo Kojima’s latest title. Follow Sam Porter Bridges as he journeys throughout the United States of Amercia to reunite the country together. Along the way, he must navigate enemies that have arose as a result of the Death Stranding, a cataclysmic event that separated life and death. The Director’s Cut adds new story content, new weapons, new minigames, and so much more.

Save $500 Off Samsung 49″ Odyssey G9 Series Monitor

In case the other monitors today aren’t too appealing, Amazon has another monitor on sale – the Samsung 49″ Odyssey G9 Series. This massive monitor is 240Hz, featuring a massive field of view that will insantly immerse you. You can expect fantastic and visble picture quality, with a max brightness of 1000 nits and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition for $39.99

Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition features both the main game and DLC Burning Shores. This title follows Aloy after the events of Horizon Zero Dawn as she heads West to uncover more secrets that lie in America. Iconic locations like Las Vegas and San Francisco await as you take down loads of new enemy robots.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure for $19.99

Last but not least, Sackboy: A Big Adventure is another PlayStation Studios title on sale. This 3D platformer is fun for the whole family, with up to four player co-op available. You can race across the different levels and take down massive bosses. This entry grants Sackboy all sorts of new abilities, like a grappling hook to navigate across trenches.

June is officially here, and Summer is kicking off! You can save on all sorts of products this weekend, whether you’re looking to pick up a new game or purchase a new piece of technology. The best deals for Saturday, June 1, include Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and more.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $54.99

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is on sale for the very first time. This sequel to 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake brings Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII outside of Midgar for the very first time, with Sephiroth looming and moving in on his goals. This experience offers well over 100 hours of content, with 36 sidequests and a main story over 40 hours long. If you haven’t played Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, now is the time to score one of the best 2024 titles out there at a discount.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for $49.99

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is also on sale for the very first time, priced now at $49.99 with PlayStation’s Days of Play sale. Spider-Man 2 features both Peter Parker and Miles Morales as playable characters, with a whole new area of New York to explore. You can swing through the city with new suit abilities like Web Wings and take down criminals all around. You’ll need to be prepared, as both Kraven the Hunter and the symbiote Venom are prepared to take you down and rule over NYC.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R for $34.99

Star Ocean: The Second Story R is an HD-2.5D remake from Square Enix. Taking the HD-2D sprite style found in titles like Octopath Traveler II, this game adds a 3D camera and 3D environments. There are a total of 99 different endings for you to discover, which makes this adventure one that can last for dozens of hours! Explore the world with fantastic quality-of-life updates, new battle mechanics, and more in this gorgeous remake of Star Ocean 2.

Save 57% Off Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was one of the first major PlayStation 5 titles, releasing in June 2021. This title featured Rivet for the first time, another Lombax who exists in the universe. Together, Rivet and Ratchet must work to take down Doctor Nefarious and save the galaxy once again. With the classic action gameplay and new features, Rift Apart is an excellent platform you should play if you are a fan of the genre.

Final Fantasy XVI for $34.99

Final Fantasy XVI was one of the biggest releases of 2023, acting as the first mainline Final Fantasy release since 2016. This title follows Clive Rosfield on a journey to take down the Mothercrystals. FFXVI is the first Final Fantasy title to tackle Dark Fantasy, offering a grim but hopeful tale in the world of Valisthea. Additionally, action combat was prioritized for this release, with former Devil May Cry 5 Combat Designer Ryota Suzuki leading the charge for combat in FFXVI.

Nintendo Switch for $259.99

Right now, you can save $40 off a brand-new Nintendo Switch at Woot. This is the V2 model, which features better battery life so you can play more on the go. This model will come in a repackaged brown box, so do know that you will not receive the original Nintendo Switch box. However, the console and all included accessories are brand-new. Grab a discounted Switch today and dive into the console’s incredible library this Summer!

Save $500 Off Samsung 49″ Odyssey G9 Series Monitor

In case the other monitors today aren’t too appealing, Amazon has another monitor on sale – the Samsung 49″ Odyssey G9 Series. This massive monitor is 240Hz, featuring a massive field of view that will insantly immerse you. You can expect fantastic and visble picture quality, with a max brightness of 1000 nits and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

Like grabbing a hot drink and unwinding with a good book, Disney Dreamlight Valley makes the hours pleasantly fly by. With two beefy maps to unlock and explore, more than 30 Disney characters to befriend, and a plethora of quests to complete, this Disney-infused cozy life simulator kept me blissfully entertained for dozens of hours – even having already played a whole bunch of it during its Early Access over a year ago. But despite hitting 1.0, Dreamlight Valley still feels as unfinished as it ever has in some ways thanks to persistent bugs, a newer storyline that ends on another unsatisfying cliffhanger, and a merciless grind that not even the wonderful cast of characters can entirely compensate for. That means it still has plenty more room to grow, but this effortlessly charming town game can still feel like stepping into a therapeutic hot spring all the same.

Despite a whole lot being added since my initial Early Access review, very little has changed about the heart of Dreamlight Valley – it shrewdly puts building social links with its iconic Disney characters front and center, then places you on a nigh-endless treadmill of relaxing fetch quests to take on (preferably while covered in a pile of blankets). It doesn’t necessarily stand up to its peers in most other regards, whether that’s its village decorating, its crafting system, or the resource gathering minigames like fishing and farming, all of which are overly simplistic and occasionally monotonous on their own. But what Dreamlight Valley continues to get right is how it makes you happy to tackle those chores when you’re doing so alongside quintessential characters from your childhood, all of whom are perfectly realized and extremely well-written.

Like a Disney-laced Animal Crossing, you’ll walk around town catching fish with Scar, tending to your garden with Mickey Mouse, and upgrading both your home and the village shops by giving big sacks of gold to the ever-greedy Scrooge McDuck in lieu of Tom Nook. You’ll also buy and craft furniture to decorate your abode, and build houses for your growing roster of villagers to settle down in once you’ve completed a quest to unlock each one. But unlike Animal Crossing, Dreamlight Valley focuses a lot less on completing daily rituals to earn money and much more on running quests and telling stories with its memorable cast of characters, who may ask you to deliver flowers to their love interests or investigate the dark presence that’s corrupting the valley. Even if many of those quests require grinding out resources through mining ore or picking fruit from trees, the payoff is often worth it, and adding new pals to the village and leveling up your friendship level with them through questing is very rewarding.

There’s a whole heck of a lot of characters to recruit and build bonds with, from Rapunzel, whose giddy and erratic animations are just the best, to Woody, who will sometimes hilariously decide to play dead in the middle of the level like he’s waiting for Andy to leave. My current favorite is Gaston, who is probably the best written cast member so far. Egotistical, chauvinistic, and lacking the sense God promised a goat, this guy is just the worst… so obviously I had a blast spending a bunch of time hanging out with the dim knucklehead.

Others aren’t quite as exciting, like WALL-E and EVE, who are mostly non-speaking characters that don’t make for riveting company. Similarly, The Fairy Godmother and Merlin are both wise, old magicians who play very similar parental roles in the community, and I don’t know that we needed to pad out the roster with two zany fowls by including both Donald and Daisy Duck. Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, Vannelope from Wreck-It Ralph, and even the old school legend Oswald (who was just added to the mix recently) are all much more interesting, but with so many great options to pick from, it’s odd how many of the additions feel like repeats of one another.

So far Disney Dreamlight has two major areas to explore: Dreamlight Valley itself, and the more recently added Eternity Isle that’s available as a paid DLC. Both feature the same progression system of doing village activities like cooking and gardening to get a special material that lets you unlock new areas of the map that have more characters to recruit, all while completing quests to improve your social links with said characters and progressing through each area’s self-contained stories. In the non-DLC map, that grind is mostly paced out well, with new areas and characters unlocking just as things start to get monotonous – but in Eternity Isle, it really gets dialed up to 11, with each of the three areas on the island being divided into tiny slices of space that require tons of a currency called Mist to unlock. Even worse, you mostly get Mist by using an item called the Royal Hourglass to play a minigame where you essentially follow a compass to find an invisible point on the map. It’s not a very compelling way to spend your time, but it at least makes for a decent distraction from watering dried out plants.

Dreamlight Valley’s main story, which has you chasing down the physical embodiment of your childhood memories called The Forgetting, can now be completed in its entirety (having previously been drip fed via impressively meaty updates over its Early Access period), and deals with teenage anxiety and the joy of rediscovering childhood fancies in surprisingly poignant ways. It moves a bit slow as you go back to the grind between each major plot development, but the campaign, which took me well over 30 hours to complete, still ends up delivering a memorable tale that covers some serious topics without ever losing those essential, feel-good vibes.

Meanwhile, Eternity Isles has you repairing a ruined kingdom for a holographic Jafar who totally isn’t very clearly planning to betray you the entire time, but its story currently ends on an underwhelming cliffhanger that will presumably be wrapped up in due time like the original’s was. Where that main plot kept me interested with a central mystery that slowly revealed itself, so far Eternity Isles has played out like one of those super cliche stories where the obvious villain (who, in this case, is also literally a very recognizable villain from a Disney movie) tricks you into helping him obtain power, and I just don’t know if it’ll ever be able to pay off super well. But for right now it’s just an annoying dangling thread after hours of grinding, and at least that grinding is still as fun as it was on the mainland.

Aside from completing quests, hanging with characters, and unlocking or exploring new parts of these ever-expanding maps, you’ll also be able to visit the worlds of your real-life friends via multiplayer. While I hoped multiplayer functionality would offer a whole new way to enjoy Dreamlight Valley, it’s pretty limited in practice. You can only do very minor things while visiting, like steal your buddy’s vegetables or buy items from their shops, which might differ from your world. Having visitors or visiting someone else locks everyone’s ability to progress in the story or interact with NPCs, so the most important activities are completely gutted when you’re with a friend. For this reason, my friends and I mostly just hung out in the same Discord chat and played asynchronously, which is a bit of a bummer. It’s great that they included multiplayer at all, but its current implementation is mostly a wash.

On the other hand, a diversion that works out a little better is Scramblecoin, a board game you can play with any of the valley’s NPC residents. By placing miniatures of Disney characters onto a board and competing to see which player can gobble up the most coins, you get to wind down with a nice, little strategy game that serves as an excellent change of pace. And by accruing victories, you unlock new character pieces, each of which has its own movement patterns and special abilities with pros and cons to consider. It might not be the most challenging or sophisticated minigame, but it’s nice to be able to take a break from mindlessly fishing salmon out of the river to give your brain some exercise.

With how solid Disney Dreamlight Valley has shaped up to be in 2024, one thing that’s a little surprising is how many bugs I ran into after returning to it. It’s certainly not as bad as it was during the Early Access period, but I still stumbled into quite a few, whether it was buildings and furniture curiously disappearing during extended play periods, menus locking up until I backed out and reloaded, or even the occasional hard crash on Xbox. This still isn’t The Stablest Place on Earth™, but it’s not so bad that it ever actively knocked me out of that good vibe groove.

To that end, developer Gameloft Montreal has been steadfastly committed to supporting Dreamlight Valley with seasonal updates, regular patches and improvements, and new content (including characters) that continue to give me reasons to return to my beloved valley. They’ve teased both Mulan characters and Tiana from The Princess and the Frog in upcoming drops, and even while I was working on this review, added Mickey’s brother Oswald. They’ve also said that Eternity Isle’s currently incomplete story will get its finale sometime this summer, so it’ll be nice to hopefully get some payoff there.