Category: IGN

Now Starfield’s May update is out in the wild in beta form on Steam, players are getting to grips with all the new features, including the detailed maps, ship interior customization, and more. But there’s one change that flew under the radar when it was announced but is now picking up plaudits: the ability to toggle the default dialogue camera off.

Bethesda games are known for the way the camera crash zoom’s onto an NPC’s face when the player triggers dialog. Anyone who’s played the likes of Skyrim or Fallout will know how this often results in hilarious and sometimes quite unnerving sequences in which NPCs will stare at you unendingly. While Fallout 4 did away with this by keeping the camera pulled back for chats with NPCs, Starfield returned to the Bethesda NPC zoom of old.

Looking to take the strangest collaboration of 2024 crown from McDonald’s, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Hello Kitty’s team up, Tetris and the 7-Eleven convenience store chain have teamed up to create a handheld video game console.

As reported by VGC, 7-Eleven is releasing a line of officially branded Tetris merchandise which, alongside shirts, jumpers, caps, and more, includes the Slurpee + Tetris Handheld Game Device, available “soon” on 7-Eleven’s website for $30.

As the name suggests, the handheld is based on 7-Eleven’s slushy drink and is even designed to look the same with a cup-shaped body and glowing rainbow dollop on top. Able to play Tetris only, the device boasts a 1.8 inch screen “that brings the iconic shapes and colors to life” and a built-in speaker that “delivers clear, immersive sound.” Once you’ve installed three AAA batteries, of course.

“Featuring an officially licensed Tetris title, this portable Slurpee + Tetris Handheld Game Device lets you play the classic game on the go, with a full color 1.8 inch screen that brings the iconic shapes and colors to life,” reads the description.

“But that’s not all. This portable Slurpee + Tetris Handheld Game Device also comes equipped with an on/off switch to illuminate the Slurpee dollop in a rainbow of colors. And thanks to the intuitive user interface, you’ll be able to jump right in and start playing like a pro.

“Plus, the built-in speaker with volume control delivers clear, immersive sound. Powered by 3 AAA batteries or USB-C cable (not included), this portable Slurpee + Tetris Handheld Game Device is the ideal travel companion for gamers of all ages.”

Also in the running for the most unusual team up of the year is the aforementioned McDonald’s promotion, which saw Happy Meal buyers in Belgium receive Hello Kitty toys dressed up in Yu-Gi-Oh outfits.

Image Credit: 7-Eleven

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

FromSoftware boss Hidetaka Miyazaki has confirmed that Shadow of the Erdtree will be the only expansion released for beloved role-playing game Elden Ring.

As reported by GamesRadar, Miyazaki told Chinese publication Zhihu that, unlike previous FromSoftware titles such as Dark Souls 3, the developer plans to release just one chunk of downloadable content for Elden Ring due to the nature of its open world.

“[Shadow of the Erdtree] is the first and last DLC, and we have no plans to add more content to Elden Ring,” Miyazaki said, via machine translation.

“Elden Ring emphasizes exploration and adventure in a big world. In order to provide such an experience, a vast and huge setting is inevitably needed. Therefore, instead of splitting it into several parts, it was better to simply make one big [expansion]. If they were sold separately, the freedom of exploration and sense of adventure would be reduced.”

Shadow of the Erdtree, which launches June 21, 2024, may not be fans’ final taste of The Lands Between, however, as Miyazaki didn’t shut down the possibility of a full sequel. When asked about the future of the franchise, he commented that FromSoftware deliberately leaves the end of its games open to potential sequels, and it seems Elden Ring will be no exception.

Miyazaki suggested in March 2024 that FromSoftware hadn’t made a decision on a sequel yet, but similarly spoke to the desire to keep its options open. “We don’t want to say this is the end of the Elden Ring saga for now,” he told IGN.

Bethesda development chief Todd Howard has commented on the mixed reception to its expansive space game Starfield, suggesting some of the criticism stemmed from the game being different from the likes of Fallout and Skyrim.

Starfield came out in September 2023 and, boosted by its inclusion in Microsoft’s subscription service Game Pass, enjoyed more players at launch than any previous Bethesda game. It also held up better than most other Bethesda games in terms of performance.

But Starfield had a mixed reception from critics and players. IGN’s Starfield review returned a 7/10, with what we called “disjointed space travel, nonexistent maps, aggravating inventory management, and a slow rollout of essential abilities” holding it back from getting a higher score. Starfield currently has a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam, with negative reviews pointing out the extensive loading involved with space travel, empty spaces on planets, and a lack of people or enemies to encounter.

In an interview with Kinda Funny Games, Howard addressed the mixed reception to Starfield, or as interviewer Greg Miller put it, the “polarizing” Starfield. Howard began by pointing to Starfield’s stability at launch, which he said the studio was delighted with, as well as the reviews on the higher end of the scale. But throughout his response is the suggestion that Starfield suffered in part because it was unlike Bethesda’s previous games, Fallout and Skyrim, and he insisted: “Each of the franchises should be its own thing.”

“What’s new is it’s a new IP, so you know that we’re going to be doing some things differently than we’ve done before, and obviously we had people who love the game both on the review side and people who liked it less,” Howard said.

“I think the majority of our reviews were in the 90s, which, look, that’s great. I don’t want to ever be in a world where that is not a great place to be in terms of critical reception, particularly in a year where there were so many amazing games out.

“But obviously, look, we see the feedback, we see a lot of players saying, this is what I want out of a Bethesda game, which is to explore a world in a certain way and Starfield didn’t give me that, I prefer the way it’s done in Fallout or Elder Scrolls. And perfectly understandable right, in terms of, hey this is a different experience.”

Howard continued by discussing the “trade-offs” Bethesda was willing to make in order to realize the fantasy of landing on a huge number of planets and exploring each one in-game. Ahead of release, Bethesda touted Starfield’s 1,000 explorable planets, although many players found them to be lacking in content.

“I do think, for us, particularly me going into a science fiction game, I want to be able to land on all the planets, I want the game to say yes to us knowing that that content is going to be different than you’ve seen from us in the past when you’re exploring a landscape,” Howard said. “And that’s some of the trade-offs we’ll make to do what we think makes a science fiction game like this, that’s based in this kind of fiction and reality, to make it what it should be. Each of the franchises should be its own thing.

“Obviously, look, there are areas that… the maps or some other things, gameplay options, that we’re adding, other display modes on console that people have asked for, and we want to do all that stuff, it takes some time but we’re excited to get stuff out there.”

Howard’s comments, already much-discussed online, come as Bethesda is in the process of releasing a significant update for Starfield that makes the Xbox Series X version playable in 60fps, among many other things. It will be interesting to see if the update sparks renewed interest in the game, with the Shattered Space expansion due out in the fall.

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.

The Helldivers 2 patches are coming in thick and fast, this time with a fix for performance problems triggered by the previous update.

After this week’s release of patch 01.000.300, which tweaked a long list of weapons, stratagems, and enemies, some Helldivers 2 players experienced performance issues. Arrowhead later confirmed there was indeed a problem, and has now issued a fresh patch to deal with it.

Patch 1.000.301, out today, May 2, is much smaller than the update released earlier this week, but, crucially, makes the promised performance improvements, as well as sorts out a number of crashes.

Arrowhead has also updated its helpful ‘known issues’ list to give players an idea of what the studio is working to fix. One line of note: “Helldiver may be unable to stand up from crouching when surrounded by enemies.” And here I was thinking that was a feature, not a bug!

Yesterday, IGN reported on Arrowhead’s plan to tweak the Eruptor after a community investigation revealed a ricochet and shrapnel issue caused by this week’s patch. It doesn’t look like that fix is in place yet.

If you’re looking for more on Helldivers 2, check out IGN’s feature on the Let Me Solo Her of Helldivers 2, a player who has answered over 100 SOS Beacons as part of a mission to help others.

Helldivers 2 update 01.000.301 patch notes in full:

Overview

For this patch, we have addressed some crashes as well as performance improvements following the decline from the last patch:

• Performance improvements
• Crash fixes

Fixes

• Fix for a crash that could occur during the post mission end screen
• Fix for crash which could occur when destroying automaton tanks.

Known Issues [Unchanged since patch 1.000.300]

These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.

• Damage-over-time effects may only apply when dealt by the host. We expect to have this fixed in the next patch.
• Reinforcement may not be available for some players who join a game in progress.
• Helldiver may be unable to stand up from crouching when surrounded by enemies.
• Game may crash if the host leaves while dead and rejoins the same play session.
• Game may crash if the player changes the text language while on a mission.
• Various issues involving friend invites and cross-play:
  • Friend Request cannot be accepted when the requesting player changed their username before the request was accepted.
  • Cross-platform friend invites might not show up in the Friend Requests tab.
  • Players cannot unfriend players befriended via friend code.
  • Players cannot unblock players that were not in their Friends list beforehand.
• Players may experience delays in Medals and Super Credits payouts.
• Enemies that bleed out do not progress Personal Orders and Eradicate missions.
• Scopes on some weapons such as the Anti-Materiel Rifle are slightly misaligned.
• Arc weapons sometimes behave inconsistently and sometimes misfire.
• Spear’s targeting is inconsistent, making it hard to lock-on to larger enemies.
• Stratagem beam might attach itself to an enemy but it will deploy to its original location.
• Explosions do not break your limbs (except for when you fly into a rock).
• Area around Automaton Detector Tower makes blue stratagems such as the Hellbomb bounce and be repelled when trying to call them down close to the tower.
• Planet liberation reaches 100% at the end of every Defend mission.

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 has signaled its intention to pull Horizon: Zero Dawn from PlayStation Plus later in May, fueling rumors the company is set to announce a PlayStation 5 remaster of the game.

Redditor Melodic_Cake_3344 spotted a new message on the PlayStation dash warning Horizon: Zero Dawn’s inclusion in the PS Plus Extra Game Catalog ends on May 21. As verified by Eurogamer, this specifically relates to Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition, which includes the Frozen Wilds expansion.

Sony’s decision to pull one of its biggest first-party games from PS Plus has only fueled rumors it is set to announce a PS5 remaster of Guerrilla’s much-loved action adventure, first released as a PlayStation 4 exclusive in 2017 before coming to PC in August 2020.

Reports of a Horizon: Zero Dawn remaster emerged in October 2022, when VGC said an updated version of Aloy’s first adventure on PS4 was set for PS5. We haven’t heard anything since, but the removal of Horizon: Zero Dawn from PS Plus may indicate the impending arrival of its remaster, possibly even shadow dropped as part of a May State of Play showcase.

According to VGC’s report, the Horizon Zero Dawn remaster features improved visuals to bring it up to par with its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, with new character models, lighting and animations. It will also have added accessibility features, graphics modes, and quality of life improvements to gameplay. Sony has yet to comment on the reports.

Following the news, some questioned the need for a Horizon Zero Dawn remaster, given the PS4 game is currently playable on PS5 with a 4K, 60 frames per second update. But it’s worth noting that Sony has form when it comes to remasters of its games, most recently releasing a remaster of Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man, a remake of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part I, and a remaster of The Last of Us Part II.

Sony has said it will not release any major existing PlayStation franchise games before April 2025, leaving ‘second-party’ exclusives such as Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2, Team Ninja’s Rise of the Ronin, and Shift Up’s Stellar Blade to plug the gaps this year. Remasters and remakes are also in-line to keep PlayStation going until a raft of significant exclusive PS5 games hit in 2025.

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.

Amazon is offering Amazon Prime members an older generation Anker PowerCore 737 25,600mAh USB Power Bank, which also includes a 65W USB PD wall charger for only $79.99 shipped. That’s a nearly 40% price drop from its original $130 MSRP. This is close to the highest capacity power bank you’re allowed to bring on airplane carry-on, and it also boasts 60W of USB power delivery to charge your Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, or ASUS ROG Ally gaming handheld.

Anker PowerCore 737 25,600mAh Power Bank for $79.99

Includes a 65W USB PD wall charger

The Anker PowerCore 737 can be used like any other power bank; it does a fine job of charging any of your standard mobile electronics. It has two USB Type-A ports and one USB Type-C port. This is one of the largest capacity power banks that can be brought onto an airplane as carry-on. It can charge a Nintendo Switch OLED over 5 times, iPhone 15 Pro Max over 5 times, Steam Deck over 4 times, and an ASUS ROG Ally over 9 times. The power bank is physically larger than smaller capacity ones and weighs in at 1.3 pounds.

The USB Type-C port supports up to 60W Power Delivery. That’s enough to charge the Steam Deck (35W) and Nintendo Switch (18W) at their maximum charging speed. It’s also very close to the maximum charging speed of the ASUS ROG Ally, which caps at 65W. The two USB Type-A ports support up to 18W of total charging, which is enough to fast charge a Nintendo Switch.

What’s unique about this deal compared to some other similar deals we’ve posted is that this one also comes with a USB Type-C wall charger that supports 65W of Power Delivery. There’s no need to buy another wall charger or scavenge one from another power bank you might have sitting around.

The Anker 737 is our pick for best Steam Deck / ASUS ROG Ally charger

We picked the newer Anker 737 as our favorite portable charger for the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally portable gaming handhelds. Both the ROG Ally and Steam Deck suffer from a short battery life when gaming on the go. For instance, when playing most games at 60 FPS, you’re likely looking at four hours of battery life, at most. We even found games like God of War or Spider-Man would tap out in under 2 hours on the Steam Deck. At the end of the day, you’ll never get the full potential out of your Steam Deck or ROG Ally if you’re not equipped with a decent portable charger.

It’s natural that everyone’s been a little antsy about Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth lately. For weeks, analysts and fans have been discussing the game’s potential underperformance compared to its predecessor, Remake, amid worries this might impact the future of the 7 Remake trilogy. Today, we got a little more data on what’s really going on here – though the jury is still out on how publisher Square Enix is looking at the numbers.

Today, Circana published its monthly video game consumer spending report for March, which offers insight on the U.S. market calculated by dollar sales. One of the more notable games in the rankings this month was Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, which reports have suggested isn’t selling as well as Square Enix would like despite critical acclaim. Without actual sales figures, it’s difficult to tell, and our analysis a few weeks ago indicated that it’s doing….eh, fine, just not gangbusters.

Today’s Circana report paints a similarly perplexing picture. Rebirth is still the fourth best-selling game this year so far, but it’s also the 14th best-selling Final Fantasy game ever – well behind Final Fantasy 15 in first place, Final Fantasy 7: Remake in second, and the original Final Fantasy 7 in third place. Granted, it’s only had two months on the market on a single platform while the others have had multiple years on multiple platforms, so we can give it some grace there.

We asked Circana analyst Mat Piscatella for a bit more context on what’s going on with Rebirth’s U.S. sales. He told us that Rebirth sales in the U.S. are down a double-digit percentage when compared to both Remake and Final Fantasy 16 over the same time in market – so that’s not great. But he also noted, again, that Remake launched “at basically the best time to launch a video game in history, and on a different installed base, with all that built up anticipation.” And he called the game’s performance “not amazing, but also nowhere near terrible.” Which is roughly what other experts have described to us before, and what U.K. sales numbers seem to suggest as well.

Still, it’s impossible to say whether “not terrible” will be enough for Square Enix. The publisher has announced it’s preparing to take a $140 million hit in “content abandonment losses” due to canceled games in the last fiscal year, and it remains unclear how much of this will impact Final Fantasy 7’s remake trilogy, if it will at all. And it’s admittedly a little jarring to see Rebirth in light of Circana’s reported sales for fellow action RPG Dragon’s Dogma 2, which pulled 11x the amount of dollar sales the original Dragon’s Dogma did, and has already surpassed the combined life-to-date sales of both Dragon’s Dogma and Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen combined. It’s only been out for a month, and it’s the second-best-selling game of the year in the US. That’s a pretty stark difference…but again, Dragon’s Dogma 2 released across three platforms: PC, Xbox, and PS5. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth is PS5 exclusive.

As for the rest of the month in video games, Helldivers 2 is still the best-selling game of the year so far and is the 7th best-selling Sony-published game of all time, after just two months. Dragon’s Dogma 2 was the best-selling game of March, followe dby Helldivers 2, MLB The Show 24, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Rise of the Ronin in order. Princess Peach: Showtime! debuted at No.6 (digital sales excluded as usual), Unicorn Overlord debuted at No.8, and WWE 2K24 debuted at No.9 (digital sales excluded). Also notably, Horizon 2: Forbidden West saw a massive jump in March from the No.107 best-selling game in February to No.14, likely thanks to its launch on PC. Stardew Valley on PC and Sifu on PS5 also saw significant player spikes in March.

In total, video game sales were up 4% year-over-year largely thanks to mobile content, while hardware sales dropped 32% year-over-year with all console platform spending down 30% or more. The PS5 remained the best-selling console in both unit and dollar sales.

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

Nintendo’s next console, dubbed the Switch 2 by fans, will feature some changes to potentially improve its battery life if new rumors are to be believed.

The latest details regarding how the Mario company might tackle its next console generation comes from a conversation between YouTube channel Moore’s Law Is Dead and content creator The Phawx on the Broken Silicon podcast. When explaining that they anticipate Xbox Series S-level ray-tracing functionality on the new tech, Moore’s Law Is Dead teased that they’ve heard that the Switch 2 will be “clocked faster than we expect” in docked mode but “undocked it’s going to be clocked crazy low.”