The odd thing about all of this is that there isn’t officially a Quake 5… unless you count Quake Champions, a free-to-play, hero shooter take on the classic IP. It could just be a jest on MachineGames’ part.
If it’s not, though, the only developer more qualified to work on a new Quake is probably series creator id Software. In addition to bringing id’s other-other-classic-shooter-franchise-not-named-DOOM to modern audiences with their take on Wolfenstein, MachineGames also has a history of working on Quake. The studio made two expansions for the original Quake – Dimension of the Past and Dimension of the Machine – which were included in the 2021 remaster. Machinegames also developed 28 new campaign levels and a new Deathmatch level for last year’s remaster of Quake 2. If anyone besides id is going to develop a new Quake, Machinegames seems like a natural choice.
We’ve reached out to Machinegames for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
Will Borger is an IGN freelancer. You can find him on Twitter @bywillborger.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is right around the corner, and our month-long IGN First covering the game has revealed tons of new details about its incredible new monsters, systems, and vocations. In our conversations with creator Hideaki Itsuno, we also learned about a number of new features of the NPC systems in Dragon’s Dogma 2, including one that might result in NPCs fighting one another over the player character.
The first Dragon’s Dogma featured a “pawn” system, where players could customize an NPC assistant that would follow the player around the world, fight alongside them, and assist with quests. They could then flesh out their party with two additional pawns borrowed from other people playing online who would arrive with their own skills, personalities, and knowledge of quests they’d done in their respective games. When not in the player’s party, these pawns would fill out the world of Dragon’s Dogma, wandering the roads and towns available to be recruited at any time. It was a strange and unique system that helped the world feel full, if occasionally a bit robotic.
In Dragon’s Dogma 2, that system is back, says Itsuno. But Capcom has had a lot of time and tech to improve on the system since then. Itsuno says he wanted to create “properly detailed NPCs” and ended up with a “ridiculous number of people” in the world, and he’s been trying to build systems where characters behave as if they have goals and are making decisions in the world regardless of what the player is doing. One notable improvement is that now not only can NPCs have affinity for the player as they did in the previous game, they can also feel attached to other NPCs.
“For example, if you find a pair of friends, hitting one will cause the other to get mad at you too. Or if you do something nice for a child, the parent might thank you and like you more as well. That’s what I mean by relationships between NPCs.”
But the relationships between NPCs and players may also be enhanced. Itsuno notes that while the team is still finalizing this feature, it may be possible in Dragon’s Dogma 2 for NPCs to get into fights over the player if they perceive another NPC as a threat.
“A character who grows close to you might come over to your house to play, but if they meet another character there who’s done the same thing, a fight might break out,” he explains. “Personally, we just made the system because we wanted to be able to say, ‘Stop, don’t fight over me!’ It might be best if your readers play through the game while trying to avoid that kind of outcome.”
Along those same lines, we should also expect improvements in character creation and character customization, both for the player and the appearances of NPCs themselves. Itsuno tells us that the game’s character creator has been improved to allow for extremely ridiculous levels of detail and customization, thanks to improved hardware performance since the previous game.
“It’s something I was thinking even when we made the first game,” Itsuno says. “I thought that there aren’t any action RPGs that allow for proper character creation, so my initial goal was to make one that could at least allow you to create the kind of character you wanted to see. While the first game’s character creator is actually limited in a lot of different ways, and I know this might get cut, but we did go so far as to allow for profiles with extreme settings, to the point where you could make something like a character from the popular series Kaiji. Doing that ruins the character though, and so we didn’t make that available to users, but there was enough freedom in the settings to basically allow you to recreate manga characters as-is.
“It’s something we put a lot of work into for the first game, but with better hardware performance this time around, we could add as much freedom to the system as we wanted. The problem is that this means that the act of creating a cool character, or the character that you want to see, becomes no different from doing so with clay. It becomes impossible if you don’t have an understanding of art. You could have your ideal character in mind, but you’d basically need to be an artist to form that character with your own hands, so that’s where we had to begin when deciding how character creation would work.”
Itsuno goes on to talk about improvements in photogrammetry technology, which allows for scanning of real objects in 3D and then creation of in-game graphics that look real, such as with a human face. The team wanted to make use of this, allowing for heavy customization while also letting players who were less artistic make faces that looked good. Here’s the solution they came up with:
“The first idea we had was to scan nearly a hundred human faces, then use those as a base for creating characters. This real-life data acting as our base meant that it would be easy to create realistic faces so long as you don’t apply absolutely ridiculous values to them. The other thing we did was to make it easy to create the base face that you would directly edit. By picking the face that seems the most acceptable among the ones that come up, you’re then given other possibilities based around that face. By repeating this process of picking the best out of a group, you’re able to get pretty close to the kind of face that you like. From there, you can make the final adjustments yourself, which gave us a system where you can do whatever you want while not requiring everyone to be an artist. If you’re able to control truly detailed settings, a perfectionist like myself could spend hours upon hours and still not finish creating a character.”
It’s a meaty update with changes and tweaks for players across PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S. These include new items that should help some Class Skills pack a slightly bigger punch.
“It’s important to us that when a player chooses to fully invest in a Skill, the payoff is immense,” a developer note for patch 1.3.0 says. “In pursuit of this goal, several of our new Unique and Legendary items are targeting Skills that have yet to reach their full potential.”
All Classes are gaining access to the Paingorger’s Gauntlets, Aspect of Adaptability, and Juggernaut’s Aspect items. Meanwhile, the Barbarians are getting two items: Ring of the Ravenous and Aspect of the Sundered Ground. The former, for example, should help out with Rend, as it increases its duration by two-to-four seconds and adds two stacks when Brawling Skills damage enemies.
Druid players are getting the Unsung Ascetic’s Wraps item, which should buff Lightning Storm, as well as the Virulent Aspect, which reduces the cooldown for Rabies when it infects an enemy. Sorcerers can look forward to the new Starfall Coronet and Aspect of Shredding Blades items to bolster Meteor and Ice Blades.
Blizzard was pretty generous with its changes for each Class this time around, but the update also takes aim at plenty of other elements with other adjustments, too. These include increases to Glyph experience in Nightmare Tiers, improved performance, and a more streamlined Skill Tree Respec experience.
In our 9/10 Diablo 4 review, we called Blizzard’s latest a “stunning sequel with near perfect endgame and progression design that makes it absolutely excruciating to put down.” Season 3, the Season of the Construct, launches January 23.
You can see Diablo 4’s full 1.3.0 patch notes below.
CLASS UPDATES
Developer’s Note: It’s important to us that when a player chooses to fully invest in a Skill, the payoff is immense. In pursuit of this goal, several of our new Unique and Legendary items are targeting Skills that have yet to reach their full potential. We’re excited to see what players accomplish with our new Unique items for Barbarian’s Rend, Druid’s Lightning Storm, and Sorcerer’s Meteor. We’re also targeting some pressing issues for each Class. Necromancers with Cult Leader should see their Minions strike a bit harder, Barbarians shouldn’t feel that 3 Shouts are a requirement for their success, and Sorceresses applying Vulnerable with Lightning Spear should open new build opportunities. There are also Class updates to items and Skills that are underperforming, such as the Rogue’s Ranged Unique Items, and the Necromancer’s Golem.
All Classes
New Items
Paingorger’s Gauntlets – Unique Gloves
Damaging enemies with a cast Non–Basic Skill marks them for 3 seconds. When a Basic Skill first hits a marked enemy, the Basic Skill’s damage is echoed to all marked enemies, dealing 100–200%[x] increased damage.
Aspect of Adaptability – Utility
When cast below 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills generate 3 of your Primary Resource, once per cast.
When cast at or above 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills deal 40–80% increased damage.
Juggernaut’s Aspect – Defensive
Gain 0.75 –1.25 Armor, but your Evade has 100% increased Cooldown.
Item Updates
Ring of Starless Skies
The unique power has been changed.
Previous: Casting a Core Skill reduces Resource cost of your Core Skills by 12%, up to a maximum of 40%. Resets upon using a non–Core Skill.
New: Spending resources reduces your resource costs and increases your damage by x10% for 3 seconds, up to 40%.
Offensive Aspect of the Expectant
Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.
Melted Heart of Selig
All Stats increased to 2x normal value.
Core Skill Damage changed to Movement Speed.
Damage While Healthy increased to 3x normal value.
Unique Power Changed
Previous: Gain 30 Maximum Resource. In addition, when you take damage, drain 3 resources for every 1% of life you would have lost instead.
New: Gain 60 maximum Resource. 75% of incoming damage drains 2 Resource for every 1% of Life you would have lost instead.
Overpower
Overpower attacks now gain +1% damage, down from +2%, per 1% of your Base Life you have in Fortify.
Overpower attacks now gain +1% damage, down from +2%, per 1% of your Base Life that you have in bonus life above your Base Life.
Barbarian
New Items
Ring of the Ravenous
Rend’s duration is increased by 2.0–4.0 seconds. Damaging enemies with Brawling Skills applies 2 stacks of Rend’s Bleed. This effect can only occur once every 4 seconds per enemy.
Aspect of Sundered Ground – Offensive
Every 25 seconds, Upheaval is guaranteed to Overpower and deals 10–20% increased damage. This timer is reduced by 4 seconds when Upheaval Overpowers a Boss or an Elite enemy.
Skills
Charge
Base damage increased by 900%, from 0.25 to 2.50.
Enhanced Charge terrain impact damage increased by 150%, from 0.6 to 1.5.
Power Charge no longer requires a terrain impact to reduce the cooldown of Charge, and now charging a boss will reduce the cooldown by 6 seconds.
Leap
Base damage increased by 30%.
Passives
Brute Force
Overpower damage decreased from 15% to 8% per rank.
Walking Arsenal
Duration of each weapon bonus increased from 8 to 10 seconds.
Additional damage from having all bonuses increased from 15% to 20%.
Having all bonuses now also increases attack speed by 20%.
Unconstrained
Berserking damage bonus increased from 60% to 100%.
Gushing Wounds
Bonus bleed amount increased from 115% to 140%.
Overpower explosion damage increased from 70% to 85%.
Weapon Expertise
Expertise leveling has been cut by 50%.
Paragon
Marshal Glyph
Now reduces the cooldown of every non-Shout skill by 4 seconds, instead of every other Shout skill by 1.2 seconds.
Item Updates
Resource Aspect of Echoing Fury
You now generate 6–10 Fury per second while any Shout skill is active, instead of 2–4 Fury per second for each Shout skill active.
Offensive Aspect of Limitless Rage
Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.
Veteran Brawler’s Offensive Aspect
Reduced bonus damage per stack from 15%–20% to 6%–8%, up to a reduced maximum bonus of 225%–300% to 30%–40%.
Offensive Aspect of Ancestral Charge
Reduced bonus damage from 75%–125% to 20%–30%.
Offensive Aspect of Encroaching Wrath
Reduced bonus Weapon Mastery damage from 82–100% to 40–60%.
Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.
Ring of Red Furor
Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.
Druid
New Items
Unsung Ascetic’s Wraps
Lightning Storm gains 1 additional strike each time it grows. Lightning Storm Critical Strikes cause lightning to strike twice, dealing 10–20% increased damage.
Virulent Aspect – Utility
When Rabies infects an enemy, reduce its cooldown by 0.3–0.6 seconds. This cooldown reduction is tripled when infecting Elites.
Skills
Enhanced Rabies
Maximum damage bonus increased from 30% to 60%.
Lacerate
Cooldown reduced from 45 to 35 seconds.
Prime Lacerate
Changed functionality: Lacerate hits Heal for 3% Maximum Life, increased to 6% on Critical Strikes.
Cataclysm
Twister damage increased from 23% to 46%.
Lightning damage increased from 77% to 95%.
Supreme Cataclysm
Vulnerable duration increased from 3 to 6 seconds.
Passives
Mending
Additional Healing received increased from 5% to 6% per rank.
Thick Hide
Fortify gained increased from 6.4% to 10% per rank.
Unrestrained
Control Impairing Effects duration reduction increased from 3% to 5% per rank.
Increased benefit while over 50% Fortify reduced from tripled to doubled.
Natural Fortitude
Fortify gained on Shapeshifting increased from 1.4% to 2% per rank.
Bestial Rampage
Required Shapeshift duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds.
Attack Speed bonus increased from 25% to 30%.
Spirt Boons
Prickleskin
Thorns increased from .15 to .6. (from 1,194 to 4776)
Gift of the Stag
Maximum Spirit increased from 10 to 20.
Avian Wrath
Critical Strike Damage bonus is now Multiplicative instead of Additive.
Paragon
Tectonic
Bonus Lucky Hit Chance increased from 15% to 20%.
Poise
Barrier increased from 5% of Maximum Health to 15%.
Duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds.
Wilds
Passive Companion damage bonus increased from 80% to 120%.
Item Updates
Aspect of the Blurred Beast
Previous: While dashing, Shred seeks out Nearby Poisoned enemies instantly dealing 70–100% of the Poisoning damage to them.
New: While dashing, Shred seeks out Nearby Poisoned enemies and deals 20–40%[x] increased damage to them.
Aspect of Metamorphic Stone
Boulder Spirit Cost reduced from 50 to 40.
Aspect of the Unsatiated
Spirit Generation and bonus damage increased from 20–30% to 30–40%.
Aspect of Retaliation
Bonus damage reduced from 20–40% to 20–30%.
Necromancer
New Items
Mutilator Plate
You are Blood Lanced, and when Blood Lance would deal damage to you it instead Fortifies you for 1–2% of your Maximum Life and has a 5% chance to form a Blood Orb. Blood Lance deals 10–20%[x] increased damage.
Shattered Spirit’s Aspect – Offensive
Casting Bone Spirit also launches 18 Bone Splinters in all directions, dealing 200–400%[x] increased damage and generating 6 Essence per enemy hit.
Skills
Iron Maiden
Damage increased from 0.2 to 0.3.
Horrid Iron Maiden
Bonus damage increased from 20% to 30%.
Corpse Explosion
Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 40% to 25%.
Base damage increased from 50% to 70%.
Blighted Corpse Explosion damage decreased from 110% to 95%.
Blight
Damage over time increased from 80% to 95%.
Sever
Initial damage increased from 66% to 75%.
Return damage increased from 21% to 25%.
Bone Spirit
Damage is increased by 4% per Essence spent casting Bone Spirit, up from 3%.
Dreadful Bone Spirit
Now restores 30% of your Maximum Essence, instead of a flat 30 Essence.
Acolyte’s Decompose
Previous: You and your Minions deal 10%[x] increased damage to enemies being Decomposed.
New: Every 1.5 seconds, Decompose makes enemies Vulnerable for 4 seconds.
Initiate’s Decompose
Previous: Decompose Slows enemies by 50%.
New: Decompose Slows enemies by 50%, and if you channel Decompose for at least 1.5 seconds, you gain 30%[+] Movement Speed for 5 second after ending the channel.
Dreadful Blood Mist
Previous: Blood Mist Fortifies you for 0.5% of your Maximum Life each time it hits an enemy.
New: You gain +10% Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds after Blood Mist ends.
Bone Prison
Friendly players and Minions can now freely pass through Bone Prison walls.
The functionality of Enhanced Bone Prison and Ghastly Bone Prison have been swapped.
Enhanced Bone Prison
Enemies inside of Bone Prison are Vulnerable.
Ghastly Bone Prison
If an enemy is trapped by Bone Prison, gain 25 Essence, plus an additional 5 per enemy trapped.
Dreadful Bone Prison
Previous: Fortify for 8% of your Maximum Life for each enemy trapped by Bone Prison.
New: Reduce your active cooldowns by 0.5 seconds for each enemy trapped by Bone Prison, up to 3 seconds.
Passives
Ossified Essence
Now displays the current bonus on the tooltip.
Book of the Dead
Golem
When Golems finish casting their active ability, they will first try to target a new close enemy before reverting to their previous target.
Blood Golem and Iron Golem
Basic Attacks now hit enemies in an area around the main target.
Bone Golem
Active ability now grants the Golem Thorns equal to 70% of your Armor for the duration of the Taunt.
Bone Mage
Upgrade now Fortifies based on your Maximum Life instead of Base Life.
Skeleton Priest
Healing increased from 25% to 40% over the 8 second duration.
Paragon
Cult Leader Legendary Paragon Node
Previous: Your Minions deal 15%[x] increased damage for each Minion type you have active.
New: Your Minions deal 10%[x] increased damage for each 20%[+] of Attack Speed Bonus they have.
Golem
Additional Bonus changed from 25% Health to 25% Damage.
Item Updates
Aspect of Swelling Curse
Previous: Bone Spirit deals increased damage based on distance traveled, up to 15-25%[x].
New: Bone Spirit’s Critical Strike Chance is increased by 15–25%[+]. Your Maximum Essence is increased by 2 for each enemy hit for 15 seconds.
Torturous Aspect
Previous: Enemies afflicted by your Iron Maiden have a [15–25]% chance to be Stunned for 1 Second when they deal direct damage.
New: Iron Maiden is now also a Darkness skill and deals Shadow damage. Enemies afflicted by your Iron Maiden have a [15–25]% chance to be Stunned for 1 second when they deal direct damage.
Rotting Aspect
Chance to spawn additional corpses increased from 30–60% to 50–100%.
Hulking Aspect
Chance to reduce Golem’s active cooldown increased from 2–5% to 4–10%.
Chance to spawn a Corpse increased from 1.0–2.5% to 2%–5%.
Rogue
New Items
Beastfall Boots
When you cast an Ultimate skill, your next Core skill consumes all of your energy and deals 0.5–1.5% increased damage per Energy consumed. Using a Cooldown restores 5 energy.
Resistant Assailant’s Aspect – Defensive
Breaking Concealment grants +10% Resistance and Maximum Resist to all elements for 4 seconds. Killing an Elite enemy reduces Concealment’s cooldown by 6–10 seconds.
Skills
Blade Shift
Damage increased from 16% to 20%.
Duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
Fundamental Invigorating Strike
Vulnerable now applies while you are below 85% Energy, up from 75% Energy.
Enhanced Caltrops
Previous: Enemies takes 5%[x] increased damage from you each second they are in Caltrops.
New: Enemies in Caltrops take 10%[x] increased damage from you, increased by 5%[x] each second.
Rain of Arrows
Cast time reduced by 15%.
The first wave of arrows now hits closer to the player.
Cold Imbuement
Chill amount now increases by 5% per skill rank, up from 2.5%.
Blended Cold Imbuement
Removed the Critical Strike requirement, and increased the Lucky Hit chance from 20% to 35%.
Mixed Poison Imbuement
Previous: Lucky Hit: Poison Imbued skills have up to a 30% chance to apply double the amount of Poisoning damage over time.
New: Lucky Hit: Poison Imbued skills have up to a 30% chance to reduce Poison Imbuement’s cooldown by 2 seconds.
Forceful Arrow
Vulnerable duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds.
Enhanced Penetrating Shot
Previous: Penetrating Shot deals 10%[x] increased damage per enemy it pierces.
Now: Penetrating Shot has a 10%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance. If Penetrating Shot damages at least 3 enemies, gain 10%[+] Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds.
Improved Penetrating Shot
Previous: If Penetrating Shot damage at least 3 enemies, your next Penetrating Shot has 20%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance.
New: Penetrating Shot deals an additional 10%[x] increased damage per enemy it hits.
Passives
Close Quarters Combat
Amount of Damage vs Crowd Controlled bonus conversion percent reduced from 40% to 10%.
Attack Speed per stack increased from 10% to 15%.
Precision
Previous: Critical Strike with Marksman Skills grant you Precision. You gain 4%[x] Critical Strike Damage per stack of Precision, up to a maximum of 20%[x]. When you reach maximum Precision, your next Marksman Skill is guaranteed to Critically Strike, and deals 40%[x] increased Critical Strike Damage, then consumes all stacks of Precision.
New: Each Marksman skill cast grants 1 stack of Precision, or 2 if it has Critically Struck. When you reach 6 stacks, your next Marksman Core or Ultimate Skill is a guaranteed Critical Strike that deals x50% increased Critical Strike Damage, consuming all stacks of Precision. This damage is further increased by an amount equal to x15% of your Critical Strike Damage bonus.
Chilling Weight
Previous: Chilled enemies have their Movement speed further reduced by 10/20/30%.
New: Chilled enemies have their movement speed further reduced by up to 10/20/30%, and you gain 5/10/15%[x] increased Chill effect.
Concussive
Previous: After Knocking Back or Knocking Down an enemy, you gain 4% increased Critical Strike Chance against them for 4 seconds.
New: After Knocking Back or Knocking Down an enemy, you gain 4% increased Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds.
Paragon
Leyrana’s Instinct
Previous: When Inner Sight’s gauge becomes full, you gain 100%[+] Dodge Chance for 1.5 seconds.
New: When Inner Sight’s gauge becomes full, you gain 100%[+] Dodge Chance for 2 seconds. Your next 3 Core skills deal additional damage equal to 20%[x] of your Core Skill Damage bonus.
Item Updates
Bladedancer’s Aspect
The orbiting blades can now hit each enemy 2 times, reduced from 3.
Developer’s Note: This change was made to properly match the visuals of 2 rotations around the player.
Previous: Twisting Blades orbit for a short time after they return to you, dealing 10–15% of Twisting Blade’s return damage per hit. Based on the distance the blades returning, the orbit damage increases up to 20–30% of the return damage.
New: Twisting Blades orbit for a short time after they return to you, dealing 20–30% of Twisting Blade’s return damage per hit.
Aspect of Stolen Vigor
Previous: Each stack of Momentum Key Passive Heals you for 0.04–0.08 Life per second.
New: Each stack of Momentum Key Passive Heals you for 0.04–0.08 Life per second and grants you 5% Damage Reduction.
Icy Alchemist
Previous: Lucky Hit: Damaging a Chilled or Frozen enemy with a Shadow Imbued Skill has up to a 75% chance to release an explosion that deals 0.3–0.48 Cold damage to the target and surrounding enemies, Chilling them for 25%.
New: Lucky Hit: Shadow Imbued Skill have up to a 75% chance to release an explosion that deals 0.3–0.48 Cold damage to the target and surrounding enemies, Chilling them for 25%. If they were already Chilled or Frozen, increase this damage by 100%[x].
Toxic Alchemist
Previous: Lucky Hit: Damaging a Poisoned enemy with a Shadow Imbued Skill has up to a 75% chance to create a toxic explosion that applies 0.15–0.2 Poisoning damage over 5 seconds to the target and surrounding enemies.
New: Lucky Hit: Shadow Imbued Skills have up to a 75% chance to create a toxic explosion that applies 0.2–0.3 Poisoning damage over 5 seconds to the target and surrounding enemies. If the enemy was already Poisoned, increase this damage by 100%[x].
Windforce
Lucky Hit Chance increased from 20%–30% to 30%–40%.
Skyhunter
Inherent affix changed from Damage to Distant Enemies to Critical Strike Damage.
Critical Strike Damage affix value increased by ~100%. This does not apply to the inherent Critical Strike Damage Affix.
Effect updated to reflect changes to the Precision Key Passive.
Previous: The first direct damage you deal to an enemy is a guaranteed Critical Strike. If you had maximum stacks of the Precision Key Passive when you cast the Skill, gain 20–30 energy, this can only happen once per cast.
New: The first direct damage you deal to an enemy is a guaranteed Critical Strike. When you consume Precision casting a Skill, that Skill gains x10–30% increased Critical Strike Damage and you gain 20–40 Energy.
Eaglehorn
Previous: Penetrating Shot has a 30–80% chance to fire an arrow that bounced off walls and scenery. Damaging 5 enemies with Penetrating Shot will cause your next cast to make enemies hit Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
New: Penetrating Shot makes enemies Vulnerable for 3 seconds. Every 4th cast bounces off walls and scenery and deals 20%–40%[x] bonus damage.
Sorcerer
New Items
Starfall Coronet
Meteor now has 2 charges and a 11–6 second Charge Cooldown instead of a Mana cost and drops 3 additional meteors around the target. Meteor’s Enchantment effect and Enhanced Meteor drop 1 additional meteor.
Aspect of Shredding Blades – Offensive
Ice Blades’ chance to apply Vulnerable is increased by 20%[+] and the Vulnerable duration is increased by 4 seconds. You gain 15–25%[x] Vulnerable Damage.
Skills
Ball Lightning
Enhanced Ball Lightning changed to have its attack rate increase with attack speed, up to 25%.
Blizzard
Mage’s Blizzard condition to be cast while over 50 mana has been removed.
Lightning Spear
Critical Strikes now apply Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
Paragon
Searing Heat
Fixed an issue where the Critical Strike Chance bonus was not properly applying.
Critical Strike Chance bonus increased from +10% to 12%.
Elemental Summoner
Conjuration damage bonus increased from x3% to x5% of the total amount of your Bonus Damage with Fire, Lightning, and Cold.
Burning Instinct
Amount of Intelligence required to gain x1% bonus Burning Damage reduced from 75 to 25.
Item Updates
Offensive Aspect of Shattered Stars
Meteorite damage has been changed to be 20–30% of the casted Meteor’s damage.
Staff of Lam Esen
Increased Charged Bolt chance to be attracted to enemies from 30–50% to 40–60%.
Iceheart Brais
Chance to unleash a Frost Nova when enemies die increased from 11–20% to 21–30%.
GAMEPLAY
End-Game Activities
Helltide will now be active every hour on the hour, with a 5-minute gap in between. Helltide will be active 55 minutes of every hour.
So players can more consistently acquire Distilled Fear, we’ve reworked how Distilled Fear is collected from Nightmare Dungeons.
Players will always gain a Distilled Fear after completing a Nightmare Dungeon of at least Tier 30.
Every 10 Tiers after Tier 30 there’s an increasing chance for additional Distilled Fears to be rewarded.
Completing Tier 90 Nightmare Dungeons and beyond will always grant 3 Distilled Fears.
The Purified Sigil reward for completing a Nightmare Dungeon will now always grant a Sigil 1 Tier greater than the Nightmare Dungeon just completed.
Items
Scrolls of Escape
Now will populate in the lost items stash if the player missed one that was dropped.
Stack limit increased from 20 to 99.
Appear as Legendary so that they are harder to miss when dropped on the ground.
The chance for Scattered Prisms to drop when defeating an Elite Monster has been reduced.
Scattered Prisms can now be acquired from Legion Event Chests.
The Material cap has been increased from 99,999 to 999,999.
Treasure Goblins spawned while fighting Avarice now have the same loot potential as normally encountered treasure goblins.
World Tier III and IV World Boss weekly caches can now drop Unique Items.
The increased cap for Item Power on drops from World Bosses has been adjusted.
Previous: +100 to min, +100 to max
New: +65 to min, +25 to max
Developer’s Note: World Bosses are intended to reward powerful loot for your level. With this change, at a high level, players will see maximum Item Power gear from World Bosses at higher levels.
The Item Power ranges for items dropped by end-game bosses, such as Varshan and Zir, have been decreased for Rare and Legendary Items. Unique Item Power has not been changed. Examples (note that the current range for Unique Items was previously the range for all items):
Varshan in WT3 (Level 55)
Unique Item Power Range: 675-750
Rare/Legendary Range: 650-725
Grigoire in WT4 (Level 75)
Unique Item Power Range: 850-925
Rare/Legendary Range: 800-875
Beast in the Ice (Level 85)
Unique Item Power Range: 900-925
Rare/Legendary Range: 850-925
Duriel remains unchanged (always drops 925)
Nightmare Dungeon Item Power scaling has been adjusted to more consistently drop high Item Power loot in high Tier Nightmare Dungeons. Examples:
Monsters at level 100
Legendary Item Power Range
Previous: 820-925
New: 845-925
Rare Item Power Range
Previous: 785-925
New: 810-925
Monsters at level 125
Legendary Item Power Range
Previous: 845-925
New: 910-925
Rare Item Power Range
Previous: 810-925
New: 885-925
All monsters above Level 144 (Nightmare Dungeon Tier 90+) now are guaranteed to drop 925 Item Power gear.
Miscellaneous
Potion count will no longer be reset after dying and being revived by another player.
The Hatred’s Chosen syphon effect is no longer based on Lucky Hit.
The Greed Shrine effect also now will drop additional Gold after the effect expires. The amount of Gold dropped is determined by how many enemies were killed while the Shrine buff was active.
Uber-Unique Items can now be unlocked as transmogs.
User Interface and User Experience
New settings have been added to allow navigation in the world with full Keyboard controls—including movement using the W-A-S-D keys—instead of your mouse.
Bonuses from keywords, such as Berserking, now also denote whether any associated damage bonus is additive or multiplicative.
Event Timers are now displayed on the world map.
The visual effect for being Chilled will now visually increase in intensity to denote how close the Chilled character is to being Frozen.
The default button bindings for Mount actions have been adjusted to be more intuitive on controller.
An additional stash tab is now available to be purchased in-game with Gold. Maximum stash tabs available are now 6.
The icons for the Helltide Chest of Mysteries and Living Steel Chest have been updated to make them more visually distinctive from the other chest icons.
The button for confirming Gold amount in the trade interface on controller has been changed to Yor Triangle on console. This will allow pressing A or X on console to bring up the virtual keyboard to manually enter Gold amounts when trading.
We have introduced a new way for players to approach reworking their Skill Tree.
Players can now refund whole paths orSkill clumps whilst seeing a preview of it all.
Players can also see how many Skill points will be refunded to them and how much Gold it will cost in advance.
Developer’s Note: he new Respec options allows players to easily refund or re-add their Skills in a flexible way. Our goal with these additionsis to make purchasing and refunding Nodes less time consuming while encouraging players to experiment more.
BUG FIXES
Accessibility
Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader did not read the quantity of a consumable in the action wheel.
Fixed an issue where subtitles for dialogue and lorebooks could not be turned off.
Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader could malfunction when repeatedly opening a vendor’s services menu.
Gameplay
Fixed an issue where player attacks could still be suppressed when some of their character’s body was outside a Suppressor Field.
Fixed an issue where effects that increased Max Life by a percentage (such as an Elixir of Fortitude) did not account for certain other Max Life bonuses, such as granted by an Affix on equipment.
Fixed an issue where the Drowned Sea Hag could spawn an excessive number of minions.
Fixed an issue where the Echo of Lilith could still attack the player after being defeated during the second phase of the encounter.
Fixed an issue where the Umbral aspect could grant large amounts of resources when using crowd control Skills on Structure enemies.
Fixed an issue where various Skills and effects, such as Devouring Blaze, did not consider Staggered bosses as Crowd Controlled.
Fixed an issue where the Butcher could stand in place if the player stood near a Resplendent chest.
Barbarian
Fixed an issue where the Bone Breaker legendary paragon node didn’t have a buff indicator.
Fixed an issue where the guaranteed overpower from the Earthstriker aspect could trigger on Basic attacks.
Fixed an issue where Charge cast by Ancients spawned by the Aspect of Ancestral Charge did not trigger explosions from the Brawler’s aspect.
Fixed an issue where Hammer of the Ancients was dealing more damage than intended due to the bonus from the Violent upgrade also being applied even if the Furious upgrade was chosen.
Druid
Fixed an issue where the tooltip for Envenom displayed its damage bonus as additive, when it was multiplicative.
Fixed an issue where Enhanced Ravens wasn’t increasing Critical Strike Chance to enemies hit.
Fixed an issue where the Dire Wolf’s Aspect did not specify that it also made Grizzly Rage function as a Werewolf skill.
Necromancer
Fixed an issue where the bonus from the Ring of Starless Skies could get removed when the Aspect of Gore Quills was activated.
Fixed an issue where Shadow and Bone mages did not cast Blizzard when the Coldbringer aspect was equipped.
Fixed an issue where Blood Mist could fail to activate while under the effect of a Bandit’s Smoke Bomb.
Fixed an issue where the Splintering Aspect would scale more than 2x when used on a two-handed weapon.
Rogue
Fixed an issue where Tibault’s Will increased the cap for combo points.
Fixed an issue where returning Twisting Blades while using the Bladedancer’s aspect were applying full Poison Imbue Damage, instead of the expected percentage of damage detailed in the Aspect’s description.
Fixed an issue where the Paragon Glyph Snare did not benefit Smoke Grenade when it is considered a Trap Skill by the Explosive Verve aspect.
Fixed an issue where Gorger enemies could still target Rogue players under the effect of Concealment with their stun attack.
Sorcerer
Fixed an issue where various powers and effects that are granted by evading, such as the unique powers of Esu’s Heirloom and Flickerstep, did not work properly when using the Teleport Enchantment.
Fixed an issue where the bonus evade charges granted by The Oculus didn’t increase when upgrading the Weapon at the Blacksmith.
Fixed an issue where Ball Lightning was dealing far more damage than intended.
Developer’s Note: Ball Lightning was dealing an unintended amount of damage because of its Enhanced upgrade. This bug fix returns the amount of damage done by this Skill to intended quantities.
Fixed an issue where the Static Surge legendary node would trigger from automatic casts of skills, such as the Chain Lightning enchantment.
Fixed an issue where Ice Spikes would instantly explode when casting Deep Freeze with the Frozen Tundra aspect equipped.
Fixed an issue where the buff from the Battle Caster’s aspect could unexpectedly fall off.
Fixed an issue where the Protection passive did not take into account any bonuses to Barrier generation.
User Interface and User Experience
Fixed an issue in the Season Journey menu where hovering over aspects rewarded for completing a chapter of the Season Journey could sometimes not display the name of the Aspect.
Fixed an issue where the minimap icon for indicating the Stash has new items (i.e. recovered lost items) only displayed when close to the Stash.
Fixed an issue where the Creatures of Night incense had an incorrect tooltip.
Fixed an issue where certain stats would not display for all Classes in the character details window, such as Damage with 2-handed slashing weapons would not display for Necromancers.
Fixed an issue where pressing X or Square on console would confirm the salvage of a Legendary or Unique Item.
Fixed an issue where controller navigation in the Vendor buyback menu could malfunction.
Fixed various instances where the minimap was inaccurate.
Fixed various instances where Quest Pins and Objectives were inaccurate.
Quests and Dungeons
Fixed an issue where progression through the Flooded Depths could get broken if a ladder traversal was skipped with Teleport.
Fixed an issue where the Animus Urn in the Bastion of Faith could be skipped by using Leap or Teleport.
Fixed an issue where progression could be blocked in Uldur’s Cave if all enemies were killed before destroying the second barricade.
Fixed an issue where some enemies were not marked on the minimap during the Slay All Enemies objective in Nostrava Deepwood.
Fixed an issue where elites encountered that transformed from initially harmless people could respawn after being defeated.
Fixed an issue where the Tomb Lord boss in the Shifting City could teleport outside of the boss arena, which would cause the fight to restart.
Fixed an issue where there was no Healing Well in the Conclave.
Fixed an issue where the Battle Hardened nightmare dungeon affix could grant Damage Reduction even if the player was above 90% life.
Fixed an issue where the Sealed Penitent’s Cache quest didn’t properly grant rewards for completion.
Fixed multiple instances where the Final Straw quest could not be completed properly.
Fixed an issue where the Quest Objective wouldn’t update when entering the Cellar during the Acts of Atonement quest.
Miscellaneous
Fixed an issue where upgrading a damaged item at the Blacksmithwould further lower the item’s durability.
Various stability, visual, and performance improvements.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
So, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person game. This has come as a bit of a surprise to some people, who likely were expecting a third-person perspective thanks to not just the Great Circle’s movie roots but also Indiana Jones’ influence on the video game industry. But do you really want another Uncharted game where the only significant difference is that your sarcastic hero now wears a hat? After six Uncharted games, a reboot trilogy of Tomb Raiders, and uncountable third-person adventures going back to the dawn of the medium, I think developer MachineGames has made a wise move in making Indiana Jones first-person.
MachineGames’ DNA is coded in first-person. Most of its 15-year existence has been spent working on the critically-acclaimed Wolfenstein FPS games. And before that the developer’s founders worked at Starbreeze Studios, which also had great success with first-person games The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.
But as game director Jerk Gustafsson explained to Lucasfilm, the decision to make Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as a first-person game comes from more than just relying on studio tradition: “It also separates our game from many other action-adventure titles, making it a unique experience that you cannot find anywhere else.” And, at least on the surface, that’s true – have you played anything in the last few years that looks like what was shown at Xbox’s Developer Direct?
The perspective ensures that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t just an Uncharted clone. First-person games operate in very different ways to those in third-person. It’s not just that there’s a different vibe; the camera position affects level, encounter, and puzzle design. It can provide a more claustrophobic feel than a zoomed-out, third-person camera, which is perfect for those tight and winding tombs that Indy constantly finds himself in. And, as demonstrated by games such as Portal and The Talos Principle, first-person puzzling is a unique experience – often through its use of the perspective and its relative controls, and always in its feel. We can already see that in the trailer’s single shot of Indy slotting a wheel into an ancient mechanism – the perspective really forges a sense of direct connection to the puzzle’s solution.
We can be confident that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle won’t be the Uncharted replica that so many expected by default.
That immersive closeness is clearly being used to great effect across the project. There’s a real sense of being anchored to the world in the shot where Indy brushes away overgrowth to reveal a mysterious pattern engraved in a wall, and when he strikes up his lighter to illuminate skulls in a catacomb. And, of course, the up-close-and-personal effect really looks like it will come into its own when punching Nazis – as Wolfenstein proved, there’s nothing quite like seeing the lights in a Fascist’s eyes fade away just inches from your face.
For me, though, the trailer’s most striking image is that of Indy sliding his hand into a dark, narrow void – only for a tarantula to crawl out from the shadow and up his arm. It’s a sequence that reflects a similar skin-crawling scene from The Temple of Doom. But when seen from first-person, the moment is even more unsettling. The perspective really does half-convince your brain that this digital hand is your hand.
But what can we expect from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s perspective beyond just the immersion that it brings? The trailer hints at some exciting things and there’s a lot of Wolfenstein here. The dig site shown at the trailer’s mid-point features a labyrinth of elevated walkways and stairs, and acts as a rustic reflection of Wolfenstein’s industrial Nazi bases. Similar to B.J. Blazkowicz, it appears that Indy will be able to use stealth to get the drop on Hitler’s gangs – in the trailer we see an archaeology tool being flung at an unaware soldier, and in the Developer Direct we were shown how Indy’s whip can be used to distract and confuse foes. This level and encounter design is also reminiscent of MachineGames’ more distant past too, with echoes of Escape from Butcher Bay.
We can see more of Starbreeze Studios in Indy’s whip too. Gustafsson worked on The Darkness, in which players used supernatural tentacles to flick enemies into the air and tear them apart. This was all done from the first-person perspective, which not only provided a very immediate and visceral thrill to the violence but also both looked and played unlike anything else back in 2007. Whips are not an easy thing to convincingly animate from this perspective, which may explain why we’ve rarely seen one in a FPS since. But from the many, many whip-cracks shown in the trailer, I think MachineGames’ wants to shout loud and clear that The Darkness’ tentacles are back and better than ever.
Finally, there’s solid evidence of MachineGames’ cinematic flair here too. One of the trailer’s most memorable moments is Indy leaping from one flying plane to another. Wolfenstein provided these Call of Duty-like (and, of course, Uncharted-like) moments in spades, and so we know that sense of excitement and adventure is practically guaranteed. While these big action set-pieces are a staple of the action-adventure genre, there will be something particularly white-knuckle about seeing them all through Indy’s eyes, watching your own finger-tips barely hold on…
Of course, MachineGames recognises that Indiana’s silhouette is important and so the camera will occasionally pull back into third-person for activities such as climbing and zip-lining. It will be in the cutscenes, though, that we get our best look at the studio’s handsomely-detailed digital Harrison Ford. And to look back once again to Wolfenstein, the shooter series really demonstrated that MachineGames’ is among the best in the business when it comes to storytelling through cinematics. The visual and directorial flair in The New Colossus is particularly notable and so I think we’ll still be seeing plenty of Indy’s face.
There’s another upshot to the limited use of third-person, too – a near-zero chance the Great Circle will be plagued by microtransaction skin sales. I don’t expect an in-game store to be selling The Last Crusade bundle with Henry Jones Sr.’s hat as a bonus.
An increasingly loud community opinion and a slowly decreasing number of first-person games suggests that the perspective has fallen out of favour in the AAA space, especially when it comes to narrative games. It used to be considered the gold standard for immersion, in part thanks to the groundbreaking advances made by Half-Life and Deus Ex, and the qualities those games emphasised remain true of first-person today. The value is still there, even if many people prefer the more traditionally cinematic lens of a third-person camera. It’s fantastic, then, to see MachineGames continuing to wave its first-person flag in a genre that has become so entrenched in a very specific, Sony-like viewpoint.
MachineGames is a studio responsible for some of the best FPS games of the modern age, staffed by veteran developers who have experimented with the perspective in games that are much more than just meathead shooters. It will be an absolute treat to see them blend the genre tenets of action-adventure with the strengths of first-person games. If nothing else, we can be confident that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle won’t be the Uncharted replica that so many expected by default.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
Palworld has sold over one million copies just eight hours after launch, developer Pocketpair has said.
Palworld, dubbed ‘Pokémon with guns’, launched this morning, January 19, and quickly shot to the top of Steam’s best-selling games list and broke into Steam’s top-four most-played games list by concurrent players. At the time of this article’s publication, Palworld had overtaken battle royale PUBG into third place with 365,000 concurrent players and a ‘very positive’ user review rating.
Palworld’s true concurrent player count will be much higher, with the game also available on Xbox and Windows PC via Game Pass.
The huge influx of players at launch has caused server problems, however. Pocketpair said Palworld’s servers had become unstable, which may cause connection issues. “We are working to resolve this ASAP!” Pocketpair tweeted.
“In the meantime, some users have reported success in attempting to connect 2-3 times or waiting after launching the game,” the developer continued.
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.
Since the summer of 2022, PlayStation Plus has reinvented itself into a three-tiered membership. Similar to the likes of a streaming subscription; i.e Netflix, Disney+ etc, the higher the tier you subscribe to, the more benefits you acquire along the way.
But, what do each of the PS Plus tiers offer; and which one is right for you? That’s exactly what we aim to answer in this handy guide, alongside clear answers on how to upgrade memberships, overall costs, included games, and more.
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Use these quick links to find the specific topic you’re after!
PS Plus Essential is the easiest to define, as it’s what PS Plus has always been. Essential provides access to online play, cloud saves, three free games a month, and discounts on the PS Store.
Moving up a tier, to PS Plus Extra, you’re getting new PS4 and PS5 games each month, alongside the slew of PlayStation content already available (around 400 games), and everything PS Plus Essential provides.
If you opt for the most expensive plan, PS Plus Premium, you’re gaining additional access to PS1, PS2, PSP, and PS3 titles, on top of everything else the Extra and Essential tiers provide.
In summary; interested in playing more PS4 and PS5 games? Aim for the Extra tier. Feeling nostalgic? Go all out on the Premium tier. Just want to play online? Go for Essential; it’s as simple as that. Here’s an additional breakdown as well to make it even easier to understand.
PS Plus Essential
Access online multiplayer
Cloud saves
Three rotating, downloadable games per month
PlayStation Store discounts
PS Plus Extra
All Essential tier benefits
Access and download a catalog of up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games
PS Plus Premium
All Extra and Essential tier benefits
Players can download or stream PS1, PS3 and PSP games
PS3 games are streaming-only
Players can stream these back catalog games to a PS4, PS5 or PC
Time-limited game trials
New to Premium: stream select PS5 titles from the PlayStation Plus catalog
If you’re interested in pure bang for your buck, you probably want to know what games you can access via a PS Plus subscription. For starters, PS Plus Essential members get a rotating three free games monthly, so keep an eye on updates to find out what games are up for grabs each month.
But, when it comes to PS Plus Extra and Premium, there’s a whole slew of games to get stuck into. Some highlights include Returnal, God of War, Death Stranding, Ratchet & Clank, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Bloodborne, Red Dead Redemption 2, Demon’s Souls, and plenty more as well. For a complete breakdown of what’s available, feel free to browse the Extra and Premium collections on IGN Playlist.
How Much Does PlayStation Plus Cost? (As Of January 2024)
How to Upgrade PS Plus Tiers: Essential, Extra, and Premium
If you’re already a PS Plus Essential member, you may be wondering, can I upgrade to a different tier? Yes, yes you can. It’s easy to do, simply navigate to the PS Plus page on your PlayStation console, or dedicated webpage, and select which tier you’d like to upgrade to; PS Plus Extra, or PS Plus Premium.
When you upgrade, you’ll be charged a fee to bring your current account in line with the cost of Extra or Premium. So, for example, if you’ve paid for a full year of PS Plus Essential already ($79.99), that will be discounted from the cost of upgrading to PS Plus Extra ($134.99) for a year. That means you’ll pay just $55 to upgrade your membership and so forth.
The same principles apply to upgrading to Premium as well from either the Essential or Extra tiers. Just remember you’ll then be on a new auto-renewal for your upgraded tier, so be sure to turn that off if you don’t want to be charged the full $100-$120 this time next year.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
I learned so many intriguing things about Nightingale during my visit to Inflexion Games that it’d be impossible to unpack everything in one succinct article – so I won’t, but I will hopefully shed some light on its development process, setting, and gameplay loop. Nightingale isn’t necessarily the game you’d expect from seasoned ex-Bioware devs, but the years of experience behind its ideation is evident in what I saw in more than six hours of gameplay: a stylish take on a shared-world survival crafting game.
The world of Nightingale is similar to ours in the “best of Victorian times,” as Inflexion CEO Aaryn Flynn put it, in the late 1800s. However, in this alternate reality, the Fae appeared in the 1500s to share their knowledge of magic with humans, altering the path of history and spurring the birth of the home of magical studies, the city of Nightingale. Alongside magic, the Fae also introduce humanity to the existence of small Fae Realms and the portal system that connects them.
Nightingale features characters from history, literature, and folklore – from Puck, a Fae inspired by Shakespeare; to Ada Lovelace, an English woman considered the first computer programmer – they’re fun little easter eggs for history and literature buffs. This combination of Fae, magic, and Victorian influences cements Nightingale’s genre as a gaslamp fantasy – think the fantastical, magical side of the sci-fi-inclined steampunk genre.
Why this setting? Simply because Flynn and art director Neil Thompson have done medieval fantasy (Dragon Age) and sci-fi (Mass Effect) already, so they wanted to create something unique. And Nightingale certainly takes its style seriously.
Nightingale begins with a short prologue introducing the world and setting the stage for the opening moments. A mysterious phenomenon known only as “the Pale” has foggily swept over the entirety of Earth, putting everything it touches into a state of suspended animation. The only human city left is Nightingale, but the magical portals to get there have malfunctioned, cutting off access. Actually, the entire system of portals and Fae realms have been thrown into chaos, tossing the human Realm Walkers, including you, around with it.
The story and setting loosely glue your overarching objectives together, but as inconsequential as the story seems to be in the grand scheme of things – Nightingale is a survival crafting game, not a narratively-driven RPG ala Bioware, after all – it still serves as a curious jumping-off point into the world and gameplay of Nightingale. It certainly provides more of an intriguing premise than washing up on a shore with nothing but your underwear, which by now is a common survival trope. And if story is what you’re after, Hope Echoes can be found scattered throughout the realms that add narrative context for those who want even more world-building and story. These are, of course, dropped by Realm Walkers who came before you.
Alongside you on your journey back to Nightingale is Puck, who explains much of the way of the world to you as you progress, accomplishing small quests he presents to you. It seems he’s helping you, but if you know much about folklore, you know the Fae aren’t always to be trusted – providing a curious seed that piqued my suspicions. Perhaps unwarrantedly.
Questing Your Way
Nightingale has been in development at Inflexion Games for nearly five years, and though it’s kept the same setting inspiration, it’s gone through an evolution from MMO to the more compact experience it is now, with up to six players able to play in a shared world at a time rather than countless.
For early access, Nightingale will have about 30 hours of content if you race through the main objectives, and this “early” game seems to have been fine-tuned to be as fun as possible. Rather than being developed in a vacuum, Nightingale has had dozens of playtests, tweaking the experience in both big and small ways. You can read more about Nightingale’s development process here.
Personally, I look for games that instill a sense of intrinsic motivation in the player. If the only objective is clear, I know I can do it, and the only reward is external, like another task and story beat, well, I can get bored. Instead of assigning small tasks one after the other over and over again to serve a story, Nightingale allows the player freedom and space to grow curious enough to ideate their own goals. It’s a not-so-uncommon trait among survival crafting games, which might be why I vibe so well with them, and it’s just one reason why Nightingale is so appealing to me.
“That was definitely a challenge: to construct a game that inspired players to go and achieve their own goals.”
“That was definitely a challenge: to construct a game that inspired players to go and achieve their own goals instead of just dictating to them what they had to go do. And that was a real mindset shift for us at the studio,” Flynn explained.
In the beginning, players need more short-term, explicit goals to help them get going as a sort of tutorial. Puck dishes out these little quests to teach you what’s what. As you follow him from realm to realm after fleeing the Pale, he instructs you to do very basic survival crafting trope tasks: Build a campfire, cook a meal, build a shelter, fight off the interdimensional horrific creatures called the Bound sicced on you by the malevolent Winter Court Fae. You know, run-of-the-mill quests you must complete to progress.
And yes, even though there is magic, the developers wanted to keep magic more grounded – you can’t just conjure stuff, like a campfire, out of thin air. Magic exists for humans in a system of enchantments. Collect materials and craft to be able to perform magic, but only while wielding the weapon with the enchantment. It’s a less whimsy sorcerer, more academic approach, inspired by the novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Fairly early on, the gameplay diverges from that model of “one quest, two quest,” and gives players more and more inspiration to go and do things on their own accord. There were even UI changes to remove the reminder of quests from the main screen, so as not to pressure anyone.
After putting down your first “cairn” to stake out a home base, you’ll find a “Site of Power” if you look around. These mini-dungeons of sorts are only unlocked if you meet the gear and hope requirements, of which you can achieve by a variety of means.
“And so the idea there was rather than have a straight narrative set of quests that just were do this and then do this, and then do this, and then do this (a game model we’re all very familiar with at the studio), we put the sites of power in to inspire players to say, ‘Oh, well, I wonder what’s in there. I’m curious about that,’” Flynn explained.
Production lead Leah Summers emphasized it’s not meant to be a massive grind, or something you need to push through.
“We’re hoping that people will take their time and just enjoy what’s there rather than rushing the progression.”
“It’s really, all these realms are now yours to keep and enjoy. Fish in them, bring them back, craft different clothes…It’s really quite neat,” Summers explained. “We’re hoping that people will take their time and just enjoy what’s there rather than rushing the progression.”
Card Games
Our reward for meeting the requirements and conquering the Site of Power included a crafting recipe for a new Realm Card.
Realm Cards, basically, are used to open portals to new realms. There are three kinds of cards:
Biome
Major
Minor
A Biome Realm Card and a Major Realm Card is needed, while the Minor Realm Card is optional. The Biome dictates the environment–Forest, Swamp, and Desert, for now; the Major Card generally dictates the difficulty of that realm; and the Minor Realm Card will affect minor things (who woulda thought), like weather or creature behavior. I’m especially looking forward to discovering what silly Minor Cards will be available at launch. One of them lets players have super-powered jumps for a limited amount of time, for example. The Minor Cards can even be deactivated and switched out at will, leading to so many creative possibilities.
The realm that’s created once you apply the cards to the portal is completely procedurally generated and uniquely yours: no one else will have the same layout for their Abeyance Forest realm. Once you’ve generated a realm, that will be the layout for that realm permanently, so once you figure out where to go to collect the resources you need, you’ll be able to return to find them easily.
You collect recipes for Major Cards from the various Sites of Power you’ll find, and Minor Cards from different subterranean mini-dungeons, too.
This is your main goal and basic progression: Unlock card recipes to unlock more difficult realms, with the goal of getting stronger and eventually reaching Nightingale. Nightingale isn’t available just yet in Early Access, but in its stead is the multiplayer hub The Watch, Apex Hunts, and the difficult Vaults, the only content intended to be completed in multiplayer.
But there are plenty of other incentives and goals, too. Conquering these little dungeons with their puzzles and combat challenges can also reward you with crafting recipes for new building pieces, so you can make the house or settlement of your dreams. Unlocking new realms helps you toward that goal, too, as each realm combination has shops with different crafting recipes. Some might carry onwards to challenge the Nightingale’s difficult Apex Creatures and Vaults, others may do so to build the best settlements to hang out with their friends, and it’s fun we’ll be able to do that together in groups with both types of players.
In most survival crafting games, I generally leave the building and town organization to others – except farming, for some reason – and I see my aim being similar in Nightingale. The Apex Creature hunts and Vaults, inspired loosely by Destiny 2’s Strikes, promise to be challenging with worthwhile rewards.
Though I didn’t play these myself, I did get to be in the room while a group of players coordinated together to conquer these. First, the Apex Creature Humbaba, a colossal dragon. I loved hearing lead designer Bjorn Taylor yelling at his teammates to remember to eat for buffs before aggroing it. It reminded me of myself before Monster Hunter hunts.
Despite their best efforts to prepare, to eat, to don the optimal equipment, to lay down a nearby respawn spot, the hunt still turned into a bit of chaos, to my delight. One person accidentally aggroed the Humbaba.
“You have to press a button to shoot, how did you do that?” is something someone said with gleeful frustration.
Meanwhile, another player was unprepared and killed by a rare and especially powerful spider monster nearby, taking them out of the fight before they could lay on a lick of damage.
Despite the setbacks, they succeeded, but once they defeated the Humbaba, Swamp Giants showed up and started conjuring giant frogs to attack them before they could even finish looting their kill.
I couldn’t help but smile and laugh along with the team. It looked like a fun time with your friends that left you with a story to tell others who couldn’t make it to game night.
Watching them play through the Vault, the cooperative endgame content, was equally amusing. The team struggled to complete a puzzle. This kind of puzzle is found in many places in Nightingale, but the layout of this Vault made it especially difficult.
To complete it, they needed to watch and listen for crystals to light up and make a sound, and then hit them in the same order. Doing it wrong causes a horde of the Bound to attack. The last crystal eluded them. Flynn hung his head in his hands and lamented as he watched.
To their credit, the Vaults are also procedurally generated, so their layout is never the same. Eventually, they succeeded, moved on, and tackled the Apex Creature at the end of the dungeon, an Apex Eoten.
All in all, the gameplay loops of Nightingale look flexible, engrossing, and fun
All in all, the gameplay loops of Nightingale look flexible, engrossing, and fun, though I am mildly worried about how much attention the base building can keep of my crafty friends. I’m unsure of what else there is to do or maintain once it’s built the way you like. Of course, I do suppose creatures can also come wreck things and force you to build anew. Ah, the joys of survival…
Nightingale will be released in Early Access on February 22.
Casey DeFreitas is the deputy editor of guides at IGN. Catch her on Twitter @ShinyCaseyD.
‘Pokémon With Guns’ survival game Palworld is currently blowing up on Steam, where players can create and join dedicated servers that enable up to 32 players to play in the same world and create guilds together. On Xbox however, co-op is much more limited.
Speaking in the Palword Discord, developer Pocketpair said those playing on Xbox console or Xbox PC through Game Pass or the Microsoft Store cannot create or join dedicated servers, which means online co-op is limited to between two and four players.
“We’d like to have dedicated servers on Xbox but it’s unfortunately not up to us and is quite difficult to negotiate at this time!” a Pocketpair representative said. “But… we are trying!”
It’s unclear what Pocketpair means when it says the addition of dedicated servers on Xbox is “not up to us”, when other games do have dedicated servers on Xbox. IGN has asked for comment.
It’s a disappointing start for Palworld on Xbox and Windows PC, and comes as Palworld on Steam looks set to break concurrent player records heading into the weekend. At the time of this article’s publication, an incredible 318,000 accounts were flagged as playing Palword at the same time, making it the third most-popular game on Steam. The lack of dedicated servers on Xbox will likely influence platform purchasing decisions, especially from customers hoping to play the game with a large group of friends.
Meanwhile, at the launch, Xbox players will only be able to play together, not with those on Steam. “We are working to make this a possibility as soon as possible!” Pocketpair said. This also means PC Game Pass players can not play with Steam until crossplay is added.
As for a PlayStation 5 version, Pocketpair said there are no plans at the moment, but will consider it during development.
Here’s how does multiplayer works in Palworld: On Steam, you can play Palworld with up to three friends by simply starting a multiplayer game and inviting them (four-player co-op). Beyond this, you can create a dedicated server, which will allow for up to 32 players to play in the same world and create guilds together. There are also official servers managed by Pocketpair.
Xbox players, then, aren’t enjoying the same experience as Steam players, and currently cannot play with Steam users. Fingers crossed parity is achieved sooner rather than later.
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.
Sony appears to be refunding customers who own the PlayStation 4 digital version of The Last of Us 2 and who bought the PlayStation 5 remaster at full price.
A message circulating online shows the offer of a refund in that specific circumstance, pointing out the $10 upgrade path currently available. The message reassures customers they will receive any pre-order bonuses included in the original pre-order.
PlayStation Refunding The Last Of Us Part II Remastered PS5.
According to some PlayStation owners, The Last of Us 2 Remastered on the PlayStation Store appears unavailable to those who own the PS4 version, but this was not always the case, potentially leading to purchases of the PS5 version by those unaware of the upgrade.
The Last of Us 2 Remastered launches today, January 19, on PS5. In our 10/10 review of the original game, IGN said: “The Last of Us Part 2 is a masterpiece that evolves the gameplay, cinematic storytelling, and rich world design of the original in nearly every way.”
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.
Microsoft’s second (hopefully annual?) Xbox Developer Direct went, like the first, exceptionally well. While we didn’t get a shadow-dropped killer exclusive – and let’s be honest, that’s not an expectation that Team Xbox probably wants to set – we did still get the surprise of a behind-the-scenes look at Square Enix’s upcoming Visions of Mana. Better yet, we got a good look at gameplay from Obsidian’s upcoming first-person RPG Avowed, we got the Hellblade 2 release date we’ve been waiting for, and best of all, we got the proper reveal of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the new first-person (!) action/adventure/puzzler/whip-simulator that’s being executive produced by Elder Scrolls and Fallout director Todd Howard. I’m extremely pleased with Microsoft’s showing, and it helps set the tone for what should be a very good year of Xbox exclusives.
Let’s start with the unquestionable headliner of the event: Indiana Jones. It’s looking stellar on the latest version of id Software’s idTech engine, and it surprised many with the fact that it takes place primarily from the first-person perspective. In hindsight this makes a lot of sense, because not only is developer MachineGames’ entire catalog comprised of first-person games (i.e. Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, their various expansion packs, and the incredible original-Xbox exclusive the team made when they worked together at Starbreeze, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay), but quite frankly, Naughty Dog already did the whole third-person Indiana Jones thing quite well four times. If MachineGames had gone third-person, the online discourse following the reveal would be absolutely toxic, with Sony fanboys downvoting and comment-bombing the trailer, calling it an Uncharted clone. Going first-person not only leans into the studio’s expertise, it allows them to put their own spin on an Indiana Jones game.
More exciting for me was how much of the aforementioned Riddick’s DNA is plain to see in Indiana Jones. The Great Circle promises first-person melee combat, stealth, and a little bit of gunplay – a description you could also apply directly to Riddick. And let me be clear: if Indiana Jones ends up being a 2024 version of Riddick but with Indiana Jones, I would be fully on board with that. Riddick is, in my I-played-everything-on-original-Xbox opinion, one of the five best games for Microsoft’s first console. It’s that good. And if Indiana Jones delivers something of that caliber by 2024 standards then we’re all in for a treat. And speaking of a treat, The Great Circle is due out later this year!
Hellblade 2 had perhaps the next-best showing, simply because it looks absolutely stunning and has all the makings of a top-tier third-person narrative-driven action-adventure game. If it suffered in the Xbox Developer Direct, it’s only because most fans, I’d argue, are more than convinced and simply want to know when they can play it. We got that long-awaited release date, fortunately, meaning we’ve got something that has the potential to be very special to look forward to on May 21.
Avowed was the third heavy hitter in this year’s Xbox Developer Direct lineup, and it showed well, but I don’t think it knocked off nearly as many socks as Indy and Hellblade did. Don’t get me wrong: Avowed has a lot going for it. The diverse landscapes look absolutely gorgeous, the character interactions look ripe with multiple-choice potential, and the dialogue will no doubt shine, given Obsidian’s track record. The renowned RPG developer has already told us to expect a smaller-scale game than the Elder Scrolls games it might immediately resemble, but that’s OK! We can be confident the story will deliver based on the studio’s own recent smaller-scale first-person RPG, The Outer Worlds. Combat looked a little stiff, and that’s what’s dragging it down a bit for me. But I have every reason to believe that it’s going to be an RPG well worth playing.
I don’t have much to say about Ara: History Untold, as we knew going into the Direct that it would be a deeper look at a very niche PC game. And that’s perfectly OK! I would respectfully argue, though, that perhaps the Xbox Developer Direct wasn’t the best venue to showcase it, given that the event was almost certainly watched primarily by Xbox console fans rather than PC gamers.
Though Indiana Jones carried most of the weight for this year’s Xbox Developer Direct, it was nevertheless an excellent showcase
Finally, we got a surprise in the middle of the Direct: Visions of Mana, the next entry into the long-running action-JRPG series. I adore the art style here and it’s great to hear that it’s not only arriving this summer, but it will launch the same day on Xbox as it does on rival platforms. To that end, I think this unexpected appearance would’ve hit a lot harder had Visions not just been announced a month ago at The Game Awards, but this was clearly a public display by Microsoft to say, “Look Square, we really care about you and your games and we want you on our platform!” Which, quite frankly, I don’t blame Microsoft for.
All in all, though Indiana Jones carried most of the weight for this year’s Xbox Developer Direct, it was nevertheless an excellent showcase. Xbox gamers now know, here at the very start of the year, that it’s going to be a pretty solid year of exclusives: Hellblade 2 in May, STALKER 2 in September, and Indiana Jones and Avowed in the Fall. And again, it’s only January. There will no doubt be more exclusives than that hitting Xbox this year (Replaced, for instance). We’re off to a great start!
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
