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Wizards of the Coast Unveils Dungeons & Dragons’ 50th Anniversary Plans

To mark the golden anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast is unleashing one of its most powerful monsters to destroy it all.

At GaryCon XVI in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (the hometown of D&D co-creator Gary Gygax), gaming publisher Wizards of the Coast unveiled its product plans for the 50th anniversary of the revolutionary tabletop role-playing game.

While the brand is releasing tie-in products that include fashion wear, like Converse sneakers and Hawaiian shirts by Reyn Spooner, and a partnership with Lego for D&D sets, it’s Wizards’ news gaming-centric books that really get the jubilations going.

In a press-only presentation at GaryCon, Wizards of the Coast — repped by story designers Amanda Hamon, Justice Arman, Jason Tondro, and senior story designer Chris Perkins — revealed more in-depth information about each of the new books than what’s been previously announced.

The main attraction is undoubtedly Vecna: Eve of Ruin, a high-level campaign in which players must stop the dark lich wizard Vecna. While Vecna’s origins date back to the Greyhawk setting in 1976, his name became widely known more recently through the blockbuster fourth season of Netflix’s Stranger Things.

Perkins says that all the books for D&D’s 50th anniversary “tie so closely to the past, present, and future of Dungeons & Dragons.”

IGN quickly runs down each of the new books hyped by Wizards of the Coast for D&D’s 50th-anniversary celebrations, which you can read below.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin

A new hardcover adventure at 256 pages, Vecna: Eve of Ruin is designed to take player characters from level 10 to maximum level 20. It is scheduled for release on D&D Beyond on May 7, and at retail on May 31.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin’s story opens in the Forgotten Realms, where players are recruited by three powerful known mages — Alustreil Silverhand, Tasha, and Mordenkainen — who inform them of Vecna’s plans to enact his Ritual of Remaking. If successful, all of D&D becomes Vecna’s domain.

Story designer Amanda Hamon revealed Eve of Ruin as “a journey of the multiverse.” “The player characters are made aware of a plot by Vecna to remake the multiverse,” Hamon said. “As you can imagine, that is not a good situation. Vecna is a nasty, petty, evil jerk who has permeated D&D’s fifty year history.”

She added that a key plot device is the Rod of Seven Parts, an artifact weapon from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. Players must travel to different D&D settings, including Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Eberron, Greyhawk, Avernus, and more, to assemble the Rod of Seven Parts before fighting Vecna head-on. Hamon teases these locations also house more iconic villains from D&D past who will show up in Eve of Ruin to foil their efforts.

Perkins says the return of the locations, almost all of which have been reintroduced throughout D&D’s Fifth Edition, are meant to be “subtle nods” to its history. With the inclusion of Greyhawk, Perkins teases Wizards is seeding possibilities for the future.

In addition to Eve of Ruin, Wizards of the Coast will also release the “prequel” adventure Vecna: Nest of the Eldritch Eye. Described as a “bonus adventure,” it is designed for lower-level players to acquaint themselves with Vecna as a threat through his minions, the Cult of Vecna. Nest of the Eldritch Eye will be available with all pre-orders of Eve of Ruin. It can also be purchased for $4.99 on D&D Beyond.

Quests From the Infinite Staircase

A new 224-page anthology book, Quests From the Infinite Staircase republishes six classic adventures from D&D history, all updated for Fifth Edition. It will be released for early access on July 9, and at retail on July 16.

Senior game designer Justice Arman explained that Quests From the Infinite Staircase is unified by a theme of “historical significance.” “I wanted to select adventures that were memorable, beloved, [and] had a common theme to them,” he said. These include creative innovations for D&D, such as quests that subverted hack-and-slash conventions, or defined D&D as a brand, such as adventures written by luminaries Tracy and Laura Hickman.

The revised adventures of Quests From the Infinite Staircase are as follows: The Lost City (1982), When a Star Falls (1984), Phaorah (1982), Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (1982), and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (1976).

Arman revealed the adventures are connected by a central nexus: The Infinite Staircase, an extra-dimensional realm with a staircase that spirals, well, infinitely. Every landing opens a door that leads to one of the adventures. Inhabiting the Infinite Staircase is Nafas, a new character and noble genie whose existence comes from winds blown through Infinite Staircdase’s doorways for eternity. “He is a distant and benevolent observer that helps characters travel from place to place,” Arman said. Arman confirms that Nafas has a statblock, but cautions against fighting him.

Unlike other D&D anthology books featuring planar travels, there is no requirement for plane shift spells or spellcasters. “All that’s needed is to happen upon the right door,” Arman explained. He adds that Quests From the Infinite Staircase are “slottable” into virtually any other campaign.

“I wanted to select adventures that were memorable, beloved, [and] had a common theme to them.

While all the adventures are updated for Fifth Edition, including a cultural inclusion process, Arman says their revival is more “translation, not a transcription.”

“I like to think [that], when we update adventures, we polish the text so the best part of these can shine,” he added. “It’s about the journey, not the destination.”

Revised Core Rulebooks

2024 isn’t just the 50th anniversary for Dungeons & Dragons. It is also the tenth anniversary for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, or 5E, which Perkins confirmed at GaryCon is still the most popular iteration of D&D of all time.

To mark the occasion, Wizards of the Coast is revising the three core rulebooks: Player’s Handbook (releasing September 17), Dungeon Master’s Guide (November 12), and Monster Manual (February 18, 2025). Each will also be made available for access on D&D Beyond a few weeks earlier, on September 3, October 28, and February 18 respectively. The 2024 editions will be priced as they were in 2014.

Perkins clarified that the new revised core rulebooks, officially designated by parenthesis 2024 — e.g. Player’s Handbook (2024) — are not “burning down the game,” but “taking books that are many people’s first steps into worlds of imagination to make them more accessible, easier to reference, [its] content easier to find, [to be] more useful at the game table.”

Overall, each revised book features UX improvements, new art, and “other things people have been asking for.” Perkins didn’t say much more on that particular subject, though he did tease an upgrade to the weapons system.

Player’s Handbook (2024) is a revised and expanded edition of the 2014 original. It has the same core 12 character classes, but now with a total of 48 subclasses with new illustrations for each of them. Perkins said that art is often the invitation that leads players towards classes and subclasses, so it was critical the art feel “aspirational.”

The Dungeon Masters Guide is also updated “for better flow,” along with tips for new DMs to run “a top notch game.

Other changes include a total rearranging of how it dishes out information; Perkins confirmed that the book will first inform players how to play D&D before even creating a character. Character creation will also ask players to select a class first before their species (formerly race) and background.

In a fun twist, Perkins said the characters from the cult classic Dungeons & Dragons animated series from the 1980s appear as illustrations (and aged up, so they are no longer children). Their gear also appears in the handbook with stats.

The Dungeon Masters Guide is also updated “for better flow,” along with tips for new DMs to run “a top notch game.” The revisions are the result of several major DMs that Wizards of the Coast consulted for input; Perkins confirmed only Matthew Mercer of Critical Role and Daredevil star Deborah Ann Woll by name.

The Monster Manual is “bigger” in 2024, with “apex-level monsters” and expanded statblocks for NPCs. Statblocks also have tweaked visuals, with initiative bonuses and even a set initiative score should DMs be disinterested in rolling for them. The revised Monster Manual will not contain every new monster in D&D 5E. Rather, it contains all the monsters from the original 2014 Monster Manual — each monster having undergone mechanical “fine tuning” — plus brand new monsters. Perkins said that other monsters that have appeared in other 5E source books “are still compatible.”

The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977

The last book associated with D&D’s 50th year is not a source book, but rather a historical one. Billed as the publication of a historical document, The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977 is a thick tome (it does 1d4 bludgeoning damage, or so Perkins joked) that publishes D&D creators Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson’s original notes that created Dungeons & Dragons. It will be released on June 18.

The book is sourced from the original documents themselves, which entered public record (and subsequently archived at the National Archives in Chicago) by Arneson’s lawsuit against TSR in the 1970s. At GaryCon, Tondro clarified that the book aims to show fans old and new just how D&D originated, without much editorializing. While the book contains commentary by D&D historian Jon Peterson, it is not a documentary nor even a “textbook.” Instead, the book is intended to act as a record that shows the precise germination of one of the world’s most influential and consequential games of all time.

”A lot of our players, quite frankly, don’t know any of this,” said Tondro. “They don’t know where the game came from. They don’t know how it evolved. I think they’d like to know.”

Eric Francisco is a freelance writer at IGN

Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game Developers Show Off the Klowns’ Wacky Weapons

Asymmetrical multiplayer action game Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game is set to hit PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on June 4. As it’s playable at PAX East this weekend, IllFonic was kind enough to send over a look at and brief description of some of the weapons and tricks for the Klowns. Note that the tricks unlock over time during a match.

Klown Weapons

  • Cotton Candy Raygun – The main weapon of the Klowns, which fires a steady ray of cotton candy energy. Used for turning humans into tasty cotton candy cocoons by keeping your aim trained on a nearby human. Can also coat escape objectives and the resurrection machine to block human progression.
  • Mallet – a classic melee weapon with a hard hitting melee combo. Klowns can change the mallet for a lunging secondary attack that stuns anyone in the area of effect.
  • Boxing Gloves – Shorties favorite gloves, these dish out quick attacks and feature a block knocking secondary charge up attack.
  • Popcorn Bazooka – A ranged weapon that fires a burst of popcorn. Humans hit are damaged and tracked for a short period of time. Use this to effectively “spot” humans for your fellow klowns to zero in on.

Klown Tricks

  • LOL – Laughter is really the best medicine for Klowns, and with the Laugh Out Loud Trick, the Klown is able to heal, and get a substantial buff for a short period of time. All klowns have this ability standard, much like the Jump trick.
  • Finger Lure – Jumbo perfected the ultimate use of the Finger lure trick to catch humans in a hypnotic trance that pulls them towards a beckoning klown. Humans can break the pull, but it requires completion of a minigame.
  • Pizza Box – Great for camouflaging and sneaking up on humans for surprise attacks. Transform into the pizza box and show the humans that heartburn and indigestion are the least of their worries seeing this little box with legs.
  • Balloon Dog – A trusty balloon dog that Spikey can whip up in no time at all! This cute little companion sniffs out humans and helps the klowns track them down. Listen for barks and follow the dogs pointing directions.

If you’re at PAX East this weekend, be sure to stop by and give Killer Klowns a try.

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.

IGN UK Podcast 741: Dragon’s Dogma 2 Has the Sauce

Cardy, Dale, and Matt are back again to talk about video games. Who would’ve thought? This week the line-up includes both Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Alone in the Dark, as well as a venture into the world of movies with a look at the first trailer for Alien: Romulus. There’s also too much chat about what constitutes a sauce.

What’s your favourite sauce? Get in touch at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast 741: Dragon’s Dogma 2 Has the Sauce

Nintendo’s Pastel Pink Joy-Cons for Princess Peach: Showtime Are Out Today

In celebration of the launch of Princess Peach: Showtime, Nintendo has released a set of eye-catching pastel pink Joy-Cons. If you’re someone who’s dying to get your hands on them, we have good news: while they’re sold out at some retailers, they’re still available at Best Buy and Walmart, for $79.99. They are definitely in danger of selling out altogether, so grab them sooner than later if you want them. See below for details.

Pastel Pink Joy-Cons for Nintendo Switch

If you’re looking to get your hands on the game itself, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered there, too. In our Princess Peach: Showtime buying guide, we’ve listed links to where you can buy the game (in both physical and digital formats) at a variety of retailers for $59.99. You can even still get the preorder bonuses at the time of this writing. And if you want to see more of this game before you pick it up, check out our Princess Peach Showtime! review.

Alongside new Nintendo games that are worth keeping on your radar, there are plenty of Nintendo-related deals to check out right now as well. In our roundup of the best Nintendo deals today, we’ve gathered together a variety of discounts, from games to SD cards. If you want to see what deals are available for other consoles, we also have roundups for PS5 deals, Xbox deals, and general video game deals.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.

Capcom Addresses Dragon’s Dogma 2 Steam Backlash: ‘We Sincerely Apologize for Any Inconvenience’

Capcom has responded to disgruntled Dragon’s Dogma 2 PC players, and addressed the backlash to the game’s controversial microtransactions and performance problems that have resulted in a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Valve’s platform.

As IGN has reported, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is currently embroiled in a vociferous debate about its day-one microtransactions, which let players pay real-world money for useful items in the $70 single-player action role-playing game.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has also run up against performance problems, even on powerful PCs, with frame-rate a particular issue.

Now, in a message directly addressing Dragon’s Dogma 2 players on Steam, Capcom has responded to this backlash, saying: “We would like to update you on the status of the following items, about which we have received numerous comments from the community. To all those looking forward to this game, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.”

In its note to PC players, Capcom listed all the items that can be obtained in-game or as paid DLC items:

  • Art of Metamorphosis – Character Editor
  • Ambivalent Rift Incense – Change Pawn Inclinations
  • Portcrystal – Warp Location Marker
  • Wakestone – Restore the dead to life!
  • 500 Rift Crystals / 1500 Rift Crystals / 2500 Rift Crystals – Points to Spend Beyond the Rift
  • Makeshift Gaol Key – Escape from gaol!
  • Harpysnare Smoke Beacons – Harpy Lure Item

In doing this, Capcom is making the point that these items can be obtained through normal gameplay — a point some players have already expressed in defending Dragon’s Dogma 2’s monetisation.

Meanwhile, Capcom addressed PC performance problems, and reiterated a warning about Dragon’s Dogma 2 putting CPUs under extreme pressure when numerous characters appear at the same time. Capcom said it’s investigating and fixing critical problems such as crashes and freezing, starting with the highest priority in patches to be released soon.

Interestingly, Capcom said it’s looking into adding the option of starting a new game to the Steam version. “We are looking at adding a feature to the Steam version of the game that will allow players that are already playing to restart the game,” Capcom said. “We will announce more details as soon as we can.”

Capcom then issued the same statement it gave to IGN earlier this week about Dragon’s Dogma 2’s frame-rate: “A large amount of CPU usage is allocated to each character and calculating the impact of their physical presence in various areas. In certain situations where numerous characters appear simultaneously, the CPU usage can be very high and may affect the frame rate. We are aware that in such situations, settings that reduce GPU load may currently have a limited effect; however, we are looking into ways to improve performance in the future.”

As IGN has reported, this statement convinced some Dragon’s Dogma 2 players to plan an NPC murder spree in a bid to boost the game’s frame-rate.

If you’re getting stuck in to Dragon’s Dogma 2, be sure to check out Which Vocation to Choose, Things to Do First, Things Dragon’s Dogma 2 Doesn’t Tell You, and our Walkthrough hub.

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.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Breaks Capcom Steam Records Amid Microtransactions Furore

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has enjoyed a huge day-one on PC, but it has also sparked a vociferous debate about microtransactions.

The fantasy action adventure game has 21 separate microtransactions available day-one, ranging in price from $0.99 to $4.99. Offerings include an Explorer’s Camping Kit for $2.99, a gaol key that lets you escape from gaol for $0.99, a Portcrystal warp location marker for $2.99, and Wakestones that restore the dead to life for $0.99 each.

These microtransactions have sparked a controversy not just for the sheer number available day-one, but because they make parts of the game deliberately designed to challenge players in certain ways either easier, less frustrating, or quicker. Players have already pointed out that these microtransactions help with fast-travel. Dragon’s Dogma 2 and its predecessor are unique in that they do not allow unrestricted fast-travel. Both games require expensive and rare Ferrystones to teleport to designated Portcrystals. Dragon’s Dogma 2 lets players buy a Portcrystal with real money. This can be set at a destination of your choice, and you then use a Ferrystone to instantly transport your party to the Portcrystal’s location. (For more, here’s How Fast Travel Works and How to Get Ferrystones.)

Ahead of the game’s release, director Hideaki Itsuno told IGN why the development team wanted players to travel normally and experience the world around them. “Just give it a try. Travel is boring? That’s not true. It’s only an issue because your game is boring. All you have to do is make travel fun,” Itsuno said.

“That’s why you place things in the right location for players to discover, or come up with enemy appearance methods that create different experiences each time, or force players into blind situations where they don’t know whether it’s safe or not ten meters in front of them.”

“We’ve put a lot of work into designing a game where you can stumble across someone and something will happen, so while it’s fine if it does have fast travel, we decided to design the map in a way that the journey [itself] could be enjoyed. In the same kind of way [in real life] that you may deliberately choose to go by bike or on foot when traveling [instead of taking faster options].”

The Explorer’s Camping Kit microtransaction has also raised eyebrows. In Dragon’s Dogma 2, camping kits are used to make camp while out exploring, and offer you and your party brief respite from combat to recover and prepare. Elsewhere, the $1.99 Art of Metamorphosis lets players edit their character’s appearance or the appearance of a pawn. It can be used only once when visiting a barberie. You can edit character appearance in Dragon’s Dogma 2 without buying this microtransaction, but it costs a sizeable chunk of in-game currency.

Exacerbating matters is the fact Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a $70 single-player RPG (it’s Capcom’s first $70 game), with some questioning whether it should have microtransactions such as these at all.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has launched with a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam after an initial ‘mostly negative’ rating, with most of the negative reviews hitting out at the monetisation. However, there are players defending the microtransactions, explaining that the items you can buy are available to obtain in the game itself through gameplay. It’s also worth pointing out that each microtransaction is limited to one purchase only. Here’s a snippet of the reaction:

Despite the row over microtransactions, Dragon’s Dogma 2 has launched big on PC (console player stats are unavailable). According to official figures, Dragon’s Dogma 2 hit a peak of 184,724 concurrent players on Steam on launch day, breaking Capcom’s highest concurrent user peak record for a single-player game and beating out both Resident Evil 4 and Village. That number will no-doubt increase over the weekend as more people log in to play.

PC players are also reporting performance issues, even on powerful rigs. Capcom told IGN that performance issues with the PC version of Dragon’s Dogma 2 may be linked to the heavy amount of CPU demanded from NPCs in the game. In response, some fans planned an NPC murder spree in a bid to boost the game’s frame-rate.

If you’re getting stuck in to Dragon’s Dogma 2, be sure to check out Which Vocation to Choose, Things to Do First, Things Dragon’s Dogma 2 Doesn’t Tell You, and our Walkthrough hub.

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.

Princess Peach: Showtime’s Director, Developer Have Finally Been Revealed

Nintendo has a history of being unusually tight-lipped about disclosing the names of actors, developers, and directors behind its games until after their official release. This tradition of sorts also includes its upcoming Peach-centric action-adventure romp, Princess Peach: Showtime, which releases on the Nintendo Switch on March 22.

But, after rolling the credits on Princess Peach: Showtime (read our review!), IGN has confirmed that Goemon designer Etsunobu Ebisu is credited as its producer and director and Good-Feel served as the game’s developer.

As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Ebisu’s involvement in Princess Peach: Showtime marks the first time in over 25 years that he’s directed a video game. The last game Ebisu directed was 1997’s Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon for the Nintendo 64. Aside from serving as the director for a bulk of the Goemon series, Ebisu also worked as a programmer and game designer for Konami on Castlevania and Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness before becoming the CEO of Good-Feel in 2005. Good-Feel was the developer behind Nintendo games like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Wooly World, and Wario Land: Shake It, to name a few.

In any other circumstance, Ebisu and Game-Feel’s illustrious assortment of gaming credits would warrant a mention in the announcement or reveal trailer of Princess Peach: Showtime to drum up hype for players —
familiar or otherwise — with their previous works. However, Nintendo instead opted to keep this piece of information a secret — going so far as to embargo information from Princess Peach: Showtime’s credits and preventing anyone reviewing the game from revealing its co-creators in their reviews — until after the game’s launch.

Last year, Nintendo inversely created an air of secrecy surrounding Mario’s new voice actor following the retirement of long-time Mario voice actor Charles Martinet. The company was also cagey about revealing the developers behind the highly-anticipated remake of Super Mario RPG.

In our review, we wrote “Princess Peach: Showtime! is a simple, cheery romp with a variety of neat styles and a fun theater-inspired setting.”

Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.

Resident Evil Director, Hi-Fi Rush Producer Shinji Mikami has Seemingly Started Another New Studio

Shinji Mikami has seemingly started his own studio called Kamuy Inc. Mikami left Tango Gameworks back in February 2023, a studio he founded in 2010.

This info comes from the official website for Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered. Under the “Creators” tab, an image of Mikami is shown alongside a short biography. The last sentence of it reads, “After leaving Tango Gameworks, he established KAMUY Inc.”

Mikami has not officially revealed what his next plans are following his departure from Tango Gameworks. However, he teased his return to game development back in October 2023, stating that his non-compete clause had ended.

Mikami first gained prominence in the video game industry while at Capcom, where he was the director for the original Resident Evil in 1996. He directed a number of other games during his stint at Capcom (including Dino Crisis, Resident Evil 4, and God Hand) and was producer for a string of other Resident Evil games, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series, and the original Devil May Cry. Between leaving Capcom and founding Tango Gameworks, Mikami also directed Vanquish for PlatinumGames.

As the founder of Tango Gameworks, he directed The Evil Within, as well as produced The Evil Within 2, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Hi-Fi Rush.

Mikami was the creative producer for Shadows of the Damned, which was released in 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The remaster, officially titled Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered, is set to launch later in 2024 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

Path of Exile 2’s Ranger Class Benefits Greatly from Recent Control Changes

After dying several times to an introductory worm boss that Path of Exile 2 had me face, I started to wonder if I was missing something while playing as the Ranger class. The grind to this early-level boss hadn’t unlocked a ton of Skill Gems for me, and the few I had slotted weren’t combining together to make a power combo like I had become accustomed to during the Affliction League that’s currently ongoing in Path of Exile. Speaking with other, much better players than myself who I met at the event it turned out I wasn’t the only one that took a try or two on the boss. It was time to get back to the grind and come back at it with better gear.

So far I had unlocked Lightning Arrow and Escape Shot thinking that the AoE ice projectile from escape shot would help me get out of any tricky situation I had found myself in. But it felt like I had made a mistake pairing this with Lightning Arrow which arced to 2 additional enemies near my target. I was also too slow, and the mouse controls made it difficult to stand in place and use my bow without walking into a pile of enemies. So I committed and made the change to WASD controls and that’s when this class really opened up.

The Ranger is very powerful, and being able to precisely move is a gift I didn’t realize I wanted from this action RPG. It made me nearly unstoppable, even in missions I’d tackle later in the day where I was definitely underleveled. WASD controls give you complete control of how your character moves on the screen in a PC game, and while I hadn’t used it before, it may now have become my favorite control scheme. At least for this particular class. An archer needs to have complete control over their movement, and as Jonathan Rogers said during his opening speech it helps sell the fantasy they’re trying to deliver: that’s you’re Legolas from Lord of the Rings, in complete control of every arrow you release from your quiver.

Being able to precisely move is a gift I didn’t realize I wanted from this action RPG.

The first thing I’d do is start working toward my Honed Instinct passive skill which would increase my Attack speed for the Ranger. While on the journey, I also acquired the first piece of gear that would help my build come together. A ring that gave me plus 24 Maximum Mana. Then, I’d find a Fire Arrow Quiver which added 3 to 5 fire damage to my attacks. A nice passive boost of damage can go a long way in a fight. This alone would be enough to defeat the Devourer Worm that had given me trouble and finally get me to level 6.

The Devourer would drop Suede Bracers which added more physical damage to attacks, added a level to my melee skill gems, and most importantly gave me 2 mana per enemy killed. I had also acquired the Shortbow of the Pugilist which would give me a 45% increased stun buildup which would be extra handy against those lumbering baddies who needed a stun to be taken down quickly.

But the next skill gem I received from Renley for defeating the Worm is what made the whole thing come together harmoniously. Lightning Rod is an arrow that you shoot into the air creating a lightning burst that will remain on the ground. When you shoot it with your lightning arrow for example, that will create beams that chain to it and cause the Lightning Rod to release another Lightning Burst. It stays there for 12 seconds, an eternity in an ARPG and it will convert 100% of physical damage to lightning damage with a burst radius of 2 meters. And if all that doesn’t sound like much, just know that you can lay down several lightning rods and absolutely melt any pack of baddies coming at you, or a boss that decided to spawn in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is deadly.

After an hour and 30 minutes of game time, what started out as a somewhat slow burn finally clicked for this class. The Ranger had its starting kit, and I felt unstoppable.

Anyone who plays a lot of ARPGs knows how good it feels to have something that works for your class after you’ve played for a bit and unlocked a few skills and abilities that pair well together. Path of Exile 2 is proving again that Grinding Gear Games understands how to mix and match different abilities together to make compelling gameplay moments that keep you coming back to get that next piece of gear to make it just a tad bit better. Jonathan Rogers demoed some of these for me back at Gamescom 2023 showcasing how the Warrior, Huntress, and Druid will mix and match their skills to give players that satisfying loop of gameplay. And Path of Exile 2 is proving, yet again, that the team gets what the player wants.

One example of this team getting it is the drastic overhaul the game has been given since Gamescom. Since August, the team at Grinding Gear Games has added WASD controls to every single character, added moving while shooting to all classes, redone many of the animations, and as Rogers said during the introductory presentation this not only improved WASD, but also had a beneficial effect to how click to move felt as well.

Path of Exile 2 is proving, yet again, that the team gets what the player wants.

To get into more specifics, we were given a hands-off demonstration of the changes to each class. For the Warrior, the new usable shield was shown alongside a one-handed weapon with a shield. By holding a button you can keep your shield up for full damage immunity including from spells. Not from the ground or sky, but still a neat option for Warrior players. There is a gauge that can fill up for this class now which will stun you out of your block animation. There are some unblockable attacks from bosses that you’ll still need to pay attention to as noted by a red flash.

Attacks for the Warrior that have changed include rolling slam which will now add a follow-up if an enemy has been hit with bone shatter which gives enemies another debuff to consider. And we also got a sneak peek at Shield Charge, which knocks down Monsters leaving them vulnerable to follow-up attacks. And you will block attacks while doing a shield charge.

The Sorceress benefits a lot from being able to move and shoot at the same time and the precision WASD offers makes the class look like one I’d consider maining for the full release. A quick demo of Flame Wall, which sets projectiles ablaze as they pass through, makes even a spark flame wall build viable according to Rogers.

While my playthrough detailed the early game in Path of Exile 2, we were given a tease of a high-level Ranger using the full swath of support gems in a fight. I already loved the basic version of Lightning Rod, as it gave me a huge boost to damage against enemies. But we were given a sneak peek at the “Multiple Projectiles Support” gem, which would create 3 arrows each time Lightning Rod is cast, just to give you an idea of one way you could build out your Ranger to do tons of damage.

Then the “Chain Support” gem will make it so your attacks chain an additional time, plus an additional time for each chain from other sources. Put it all together and you create an electric disco deathfield. And this is just a taste of the electric options the Ranger has. They also teased a vine build, poison build, and a ton of support gems you can see in the full gameplay video on IGN, or in our Path of Exile 2 wiki.

Besides the fact that they added mounts in Path of Exile 2, the most important takeaway from my nearly 3 hour play session, and the 45-minute demo of mid to late-game builds from Grinding Gear Games, is that Path of Exile 2 is improving in a lot of important ways and taking the lessons others have learned in the ARPG genre to heart. They aren’t afraid to delay their highly anticipated beta so players have a better experience. They aren’t afraid to implement entirely new systems like WASD, or moving while firing to all classes. And it’s because of this commitment to making something great that Path of Exile 2 has my attention.

For more on Path of Exile 2, don’t miss our Druid class hands-on preview as well as some Warrior and Huntress gameplay. And for everything else in the world of video games, keep it locked to IGN.

Larian Started Work on Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC, Then Canceled It: ‘The Studio Was Elated’

During a talk at GDC 2024, Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke announced that Larian Studios would not be making any DLC, expansions or sequels for the highly-regarded RPG, which took home another Game of the Year award at Wednesday’s Game Developers Choice Awards. However, speaking with IGN, Vincke did say that Larian began work on DLC and even gave some thought to a potential Baldur’s Gate 4 before pivoting away to other projects.

“Because of all the success the obvious thing would have been to do a DLC, so we started on one. We started even thinking about BG4,” Vincke says. “But we hadn’t really had closure on BG3 yet and just to jump forward on something new felt wrong. We had also spent a whole bunch of time converting the system into a video game and we wanted to do new things. There are a lot of constraints on making D&D, and 5th Edition is not an easy system to put into a video game. We had all these ideas of new combat we wanted to try out and they were not compatible.”

Vincke has spoken before about the challenges about working with 5th Edition, particularly when it comes to how powerful players get when they reach Level 12 and beyond. Shortly after release, Larian Studios said that the team wanted to do new content but didn’t know what yet. To date, Larian Studios has mostly focused on adding content that wasn’t available at release, such as a new epilogue and additional endings.

When it came time to make DLC, though, Vincke says Larian was going through the motions. “You could see the team was doing it because everyone felt like we had to do it, but it wasn’t really coming from the heart, and we’re very much a studio from the heart. It’s what gotten us into misery and it’s also been the reasons for our success.”

‘They were elated’

Vincke says that he took a vacation over the Christmas holidays, and when he returned his mind was made up. ‘[I] came back and I told the team, ‘You know we’re not going to do it. We’re going to shift around and we’re going to start doing these other things that we talked about, that we planned on doing before we started on BG3.’ Those were always the plans for afterward, we have two games that we want to make, and we have lots of concepts. So let’s just have closure on BG3, it’s been great. We’ve done our job. It’s a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. So let’s pass the torch to another studio to pick up this incredible legacy.”

Asked how the studio responded, Vincke said the team was “elated.”

“I thought they were going to be angry at me because I just couldn’t muster the energy. I saw so many elated faces, which I didn’t expect, and I could tell they shared the same feelings, so we were all aligned with one another. And I’ve had so many developers come to me after and say, ‘Thank god,'” Vincke says.

“I’m always the one where it starts with the initial idea and then I give it to the team and they start iterating it and they turn it into something much better. During BG3 I pitched to them what the next game would be…If I see they’re excited, I’ll say, ‘Okay let’s do that.’ If they’re not, it’s back to the drawing board. So they were very excited about a couple of the things we were planning on doing. Then the pivot to start doing BG3 DLC was expected because it’s what you do…We didn’t have any antagonism against BG4 or DLC, but the heart wasn’t there. It was more routine work than actually being excited. Now we have the excitement back in the room and that’s a big important thing.”

Now we have the excitement back in the room and that’s a big important thing.

Vincke says the next game won’t be Divinity: Original Sin 3, and that it will be “different than what you think it is” but that it’s “still familiar.” Elsewhere, Vincke said that the new project will “dwarf” the scope of Baldur’s Gate 3, which would be quite impressive given the scope of that game.

In the meantime, Vincke has confirmed that Larian Studios is still working on more new content for Baldur’s Gate 3, including cross-platform mod support. After that, though, the future of Astarion, Karlach, and the rest of Baldur’s Gate 3’s now-beloved characters will be in the hands of Wizards of the Coast.

One way or another, Baldur’s Gate 3 leaves behind an impressive legacy. We gave it a perfect 10 in our original review and it has largely swept awards season. Even if you’ve finished it, there’s still plenty more to see so make sure to check out our complete Baldur’s Gate 3 walkthrough. As for Vincke, he reckons he’s figured out Act 1 for his next game. But if it’s anything like the development of Baldur’s Gate 3, which took some six years to complete, it may be a while before we get to play it.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.