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Persona 3 Reload: Episode Aigis was announced during today’s Xbox Partner Preview, featuring everyone’s favorite android in a new piece of DLC for the popular remake.
Developing….
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.
Today, Amazon is offering the powerful and high capacity Anker Prime 20,000mAh USB Power Bank for only $89.98, a hefty 31% price drop from its original $130 MSRP. This is the successor to the Anker 737 that we deemed the best Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally charger. It boasts an absolutely massive 200W of USB power delivery to charge all of your mobile devices simultaneously.
with 200W of USB Type-C Power Delivery
The Anker Prime can be used like any other power bank; it does a fine job of charging any of your standard mobile electronics. However, its main purpose is to charge more power hungry devices like laptops, portable gaming systems, and high end phones. It has two USB Type-C ports and one USB Type-A port. Each USB Type C port supports up to 100W of Power Delivery. In fact, both ports can charge 100W at the same time. If you want to charge using all three ports simultaneously, then the power distribution will be 100W (Type C), 60W (Type-C) and 40W (Type-A). The 20,000mAh is under the TSA’s 27,000mAh limit so it can be brought onto airplanes; it can charge a Nintendo Switch OLED about 4 times, iPhone 15 Pro Max about 4 times, Steam Deck about 3 times, and an ASUS ROG Ally about 7 times.
What makes the Prime unique compared to most other power banks is the LCD digital readout which displays a lot of useful real-time information like remaining battery capacity, power input, and power output from each port. The power bank measures 5″x2″x2″ and weighs in at 1.2 pounds.
The Anker Prime is an outstanding charger for the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally portable gaming handhelds. The Steam Deck accepts up to 38W of USB Power Delivery and the ASUS ROG Ally accepts up to 65W. That means the Prime can charge three Steam Decks or two ASUS ROG Allys simultaneously at their maximum charging rate. 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 for the Steam Deck and far less with the ASUS ROG Ally, which is equipped with a measly 2600mAh battery. During our Steam Deck review, we even found games like God of War or Spider-Man would tap out in under 2-hours as well. 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.
Alan Wake 2‘s hefty system requirements shocked many PC gamers when they were announced last year. The requirements noted that you needed at least an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 or an AMD Radeon RX 6600 GPU to run the game at 1080p / 30 frames per second (FPS), with no support for older GPUs such as Nvidia’s GTX 10-series. Roughly four months after its release, Remedy has released a new patch that lowers the minimum PC system requirements and allows older PC gaming rigs to run the game.
Remedy posted the new system requirements, which you can check out below, to X/Twitter alongside the release of update 1.0.16.1.
The minimum requirements now call for at least a GTX 1070 or an RX 5600 XT graphics card. As previously noted by Remedy, if you have either GPU, in addition to the other minimum specs that remain unchanged, you can run the game at 1080p / 30FPS.
As Remedy mentioned in the patch notes for Alan Wake 2 update 1.0.16.1, the developer has “optimized rendering for GPUs that don’t support mesh shaders.” The GTX-10 series lacks mesh shader support, which is a type of code that allows game developers to process polygons with more power and control, enabling things such as greater detail. This results in a detail-rich in-game environment but leaves older PC gaming rigs in the dust.
Yet, even if you don’t have an RTX 1070 and are rocking an RTX 1060, which is still one of the top five most-popular GPUs PC users are using as of a Steam February 2024 hardware survey, you will get a slightly better performance than you did at release, as Digital Foundry’s Alex Battaglia pointed out in his recent retesting of Alan Wake 2 running GTX-10 series cards. While the GTX 1060 still failed to run 30FPS, Battaglia discovered that the GTX 1060 got a performance improvement, with some demanding areas now putting out 26FPS instead of 18FPS.
In IGN’s Alan Wake 2 review, we said: “Alan Wake II is a superb survival horror sequel that makes the cult-classic original seem like little more than a rough first draft by comparison.”
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Developer Yummy Games has officially announced Project Tower, a new third-person bullet hell shooter powered by Unreal Engine 5. It’s in development for PC and PS5. Take a look at at the story-focused gameplay announcement trailer above as well as the first screenshots in the gallery below.
Yummy describes Tower as such: “In this third-person shooter that combines bullet hell and transformation abilities, use your powers to copy your enemies’ skills and solve puzzles to escape the alien tower that’s holding you prisoner.”
As you can see from the trailer, in addition to the bullet hell gameplay, there’s also a heavy focus on Project Tower’s “last of humankind” narrative here, which will hopefully make for a compelling time between the copious amounts of shooting that you’ll be doing. Wishlist it on Steam if you’d like to follow its development progress.
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.
Pre-orders for an unannounced S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy have gone live in Japan, suggesting an announcement during today’s Xbox Partner Preview Event.
Gematsu reported pre-orders for the collection on PlayStation 4 went live on Japanese retailers alongside a June 27 release date. It includes S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, and marks the series’ debut on consoles.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, developed by GSC Game World and published by the now defunct THQ, launched on PC only in March 2007.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was well-received for its post-apocalyptic, alternative reality Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, as well as its non-linear storyline. Prequel Clear Sky followed in 2008, with sequel Call of Pripyat launching in 2010.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is due out in September on Xbox Series X and S and PC, and may also appear during the Xbox Partner Preview Event, which kicks off today, March 6 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK.
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 boss of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has denied a recent rumour that Sony is buying the studio.
While Helldivers 2 is published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Swedish studio Arrowhead remains an independent company. But following Helldivers 2’s explosive success across PlayStation 5 and PC, rumors have emerged that Sony has made a move to acquire Arrowhead.
Responding to a tweet from an account that reposted the rumour and even created a Sony ‘welcome to the family’ image to boost the post, Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt said: “This is fake… Unless I’ve missed something. Also, a really sh***y old logo from 2008 or so when we just started the studio.”
This is the first I hear of this… And that’s a good indication that it’s fake.
Also, very old logo.
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) March 6, 2024
Pilestedt responded to another tweet that posted the same image alongside a message hoping for the acquisition. “This is the first I hear of this,” Pilestedt said. “And that’s a good indication that it’s fake. Also, very old logo.”
Pilestedt had previously replied to a tweet to clarify that Helldivers 2 was not developed by a Sony-owned studio, saying: “We are not owned. We are independently owned!” Then: “I mean… We are owned, but only by the founders (including me) of the studio.”
I mean… We are owned, but only by the founders (including me) of the studio.
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) March 4, 2024
Last month, Sony announced a significant round of layoffs affecting around 900 staff, or about 8% of its global PlayStation workforce. The layoffs affect a number of PlayStation studios, including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Firesprite, and, most significantly, PlayStation’s London studio, which is closing entirely. Alongside the layoffs, a number of in-development games were canceled, including a Twisted Metal live-service game.
Arrowhead was founded in 2008 by a group of students who went on to release Magicka, The Showdown Effect, and Gauntlet. The first Helldivers game launched in 2015, published by Sony for PlayStation platforms and PC. Helldivers 2, however, is Arrowhead’s biggest game to date, and Sony’s biggest ever PC game launch.
There’s a lot happening in the world of Helldivers 2, including a recent new strategy that involves hugging and the game’s first balance patch. The galactic war continues, of course, as players await the arrival of mechs. This week, IGN reported on how Helldivers 2 has become one of the surprise hits of 2024 since launching in February, topping the charts on Steam and reportedly selling around three million copies. According to at least one analyst, it’s still growing. Check out IGN’s Helldivers 2 review to find out why it’s going down so well, as well as the best loadouts.
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.
Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has released its first balance update, patch 01.000.100, which nerfs the game’s best loadout among other things. The update is out now on PC and coming soon on PlayStation 5.
First up, it’s worth mentioning the patch adds planetary hazards. This means planets now have extra environmental challenges that appear at random while you’re deployed, including fire tornadoes and meteor showers. In the patch notes, Arrowhead said there are many more planetary hazards now active, so players will no-doubt have fun contending with them all.
The meat of the patch, though, is a sweeping balance pass. On this, the quickfire eradicate missions, which are used by farmers to efficiently gobble up resources before resetting operations, now require more kills and enemies spawn more often. “The time to complete the mission was previously shorter than intended and should now usually take twice as long to complete,” Arrowhead said.
As for weapons and stratagems, the Breaker, Railgun, and Shield Generator Backpack are all nerfed, among other items. These three in particular were seen as essential for high difficulties, and were a part of most of the game’s agreed upon best loadouts.
Explaining the decision to nerf the Breaker, Railgun, and Shield Generator Backpack, designer Alex K said all three “were quite strong with too little downsides, overshadowing all other options on higher difficulty levels.” However, the developer expects the changes won’t ruin the build, “but rather help the affected items find their place among the other options and stay effective in capable hands.”
Elsewhere, there are a number of fixes. The highlight here is armor rating values are now fixed, which means they should reduce damage as intended. This is fun, too: Helldivers standing next to ICBMs during launch will get properly toasty with a chance of not-so-spontaneous combustion.
There’s a lot happening in the world of Helldivers 2, including a recent new strategy that involves hugging. The galactic war continues, of course, as players await the arrival of mechs.
This week, IGN reported on how Helldivers 2 has become one of the surprise hits of 2024 since launching in February, topping the charts on Steam and reportedly selling around three million copies. According to at least one analyst, it’s still growing. Check out IGN’s Helldivers 2 review to find out why it’s going down so well, as well as the best loadouts.
Major Updates
Balancing
Primary, Secondary, & Support Weapons
Stratagems
Fixes
Known Issues
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.
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.
If you’re the type of Sonic the Hedgehog fan who prefers to play games both at home and on the go on a single platform, the Nintendo Switch is the best console to do that. Ever since the Switch arrived in the market in 2017, Sega has worked like clockwork to consistently release Sonic games for the hybrid console.
With Sonic x Shadow Generations making its way to the Switch this fall and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 coming to theaters in December, now is a good time to play through your Sonic collection or add to it in your Switch library. Here are all the Sonic the Hedgehog games you can play on the Nintendo Switch right now!
A total of 8 Sonic games have been release for Nintendo Switch. This spans from the first year of the system back in 2017 to the most recent title, Sonic Superstars, which was released in October 2023. Keep in mind that this list below does not include the games available with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
Sonic Mania was developed by PagodaWest Games and Sonic fangame community member Christian Whitehead as a love letter to the classic Sonic the Hedgehog titles released on the Sega Genesis and Sega CD platforms. Taking place after the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the game remixes eight iconic levels, including Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone, and introduces five new ones, including the glamorous Studiopolis Zone and the peaceful Press Garden Zone, and introduces a new troupe of Eggbots called the Hard-Boiled Heavies for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles to beat. Mania is considered one of the best Sonic games of the 2010s because of the experiment in allowing a group of Sonic fans to create a game other Sonic fans would love, the vivid neon graphics, and the new challenges present in every stage.
Read our review of Sonic Mania.
Sonic Forces makes Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic form a resistance against Dr. Eggman after he conquered most of the world alongside Infinite, a masked jackal who uses the Phantom Ruby to create doppelgangers and warp reality. The game switches gameplay modes between third-person Boost gameplay with Modern Sonic, side-scrolling gameplay with Classic Sonic, and a mode with the custom avatar character, which can be any animal you want, whose weapons use Wisp power-ups. Forces’ writing and lighting aren’t exactly the best in the series, but the game is still tolerable for some people.
Read our review of Sonic Forces.
Team Sonic Racing takes racing games to a whole new level by having players race with each other, not against each other. This game has a cooperative gameplay mechanic similar to Splatoon and Overwatch, using Sonic Heroes as a frame of reference, where you play in teams of three characters and work together to win each race, paying very close attention to your teammates’ performance and sharing Wisp power-ups with them to allow them to speed up and pull your ranks. Since most of the karts are sports cars, you can customize them with gold rims and paint your car any color you want West Coast Customs style.
Read our review of Team Sonic Racing.
Released a year before the real-life Tokyo Olympic Games was scheduled to begin only to be postponed to 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 brings the platform rivalry between the jolly red plumber, the speedy blue hedgehog, and their respective friends back to the world stage with new events, like surfing, skateboarding, karate, and sport climbing, and bonus features. The game includes a story mode that takes Mario and Sonic back to the Tokyo 1964 Olympics and their early 2D sprite selves, while everyone else works to help bring them back to the real world in the present day. You get the best of both eras and some history lessons about the Olympic Games in Tokyo to go with it.
Read our review of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Sonic Colors: Ultimate is the remastered version of the original Sonic Colors for the Wii and Nintendo DS developed by Blind Squirrel Games as part of Sonic’s 30th anniversary in 2021. The remaster enhanced the graphics to brighten up the colors of Eggman’s interplanetary amusement park and the character models, introduced a new Jade Ghost Wisp to help Sonic phase through walls and ceilings, replaced the traditional lives with rescues from Tails, and introduced mini races against Metal Sonic. You can also collect Park Tokens to customize Sonic with the wackiest designs for his shoes and gloves.
Read our review of Sonic Colors: Ultimate.
Sonic Origins compiles the first four classic Sonic games released on the Sega Genesis and Sega CD and remasters them for modern consoles and the audience that plays on them, whether they’re veteran fans seeking a nostalgia fix or young fans who want to understand Sonic’s history. Players can experience the game in Classic Mode, which is the original format presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio, or Anniversary Mode, which replaces lives with coins and allows Sonic to use Drop Dash as he did in Sonic Mania. Each game in the compilation features new animated cutscenes at the beginning and end done by the incomparable Tyson Heese to connect all four games into a cohesive story, provided you play them in the original release order.
Sonic Frontiers is the first open-world game in the Sonic franchise — or should we say, “open-zone”? — born out of a trend of open-world games being styled after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Sonic explores the vast Starfall Islands to fight cybernetic enemies, solve various puzzles, and run through Cyber Space levels modeled after the levels from past Sonic titles in an effort to save his friends from the digitized dimension. Both veteran and new Sonic fans alike will enjoy running around the mysterious island set to a soundtrack that strikes a delicate balance between serenity and chaos.
Read our review of Sonic Frontiers.
Sonic Superstars is a collaborative effort between Sega and Arzest to bring 3D graphics to a Classic Sonic game, a move that surprised everyone at the 2023 Summer Game Fest (including this author). With Classic Sonic being a CGI character on his own for the first time and classic levels getting revamped with new music and upgraded level designs, the game allows up to four people to locally play together as Sonic and his friends throughout 11 levels across the Northstar Islands and grants new powers for every Chaos Emerald they collect to overcome obstacles. It’s a great Sonic game to play with friends at home or on the go!
Read our review of Sonic Superstars.
If you’re looking to play some classic Sonic games with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, there are a few available under the SEGA catalog. You can find more info about them below:
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. She has contributed her work to various publications, including Digital Trends, TheGamer, Twinfinite, Mega Visions, and The Escapist. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Dragon’s Dogma 2. I have Dark Arisen in my Steam library and a paltry 70 minutes of gametime that is likely going to increase in the coming weeks. But while I may be inexperienced compared to those already aware of Dogma’s greatness, I can safely say that my preview session broke my hype meter. I cannot wait to play more. After being dropped into a random save that started me in the middle of a town with the Mystic Spearhead Vocation, I wasn’t really sure of where to go. But that was the beauty of this demo. Dragon’s Dogma 2 organically gave me plenty of options for what to do next, and there’s no wrong answer. I was almost immediately greeted by a traveler asking me to find their Jadeite Orb, because if it wasn’t found, his master could have him killed. Morris, a shopkeeper, told me that his grandson Rodge had gone missing and a villager informed him he was dragged off by wolves. When I started talking to people in town, I met Folkes, who told me about a town north of Venworth that was overrun with fell beasts. All of these options were there to pursue in addition to the main storyline.
And while I was probably supposed to do the main quest, I decided to go it alone, jumping on an ox cart to the next town to see what else I could discover.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 really clicked with me because you need to constantly be on your toes. There are moments of downtime when you can just enjoy the vista or pose with a random Ogre you’ve defeated. But more often than not I was organically finding combat encounters and secrets that I wanted to investigate more. And that amazing loop was consistent as I made my journey back.
Over the course of 80 minutes I fought a Griffin that flew me into the air and dropped me to my death. I discovered the untimely fate of Rodge was affected by the fact that I decided to run off exploring the wilderness – a completely different outcome than what Mitchell encountered in his IGN First playthrough a couple months ago. I took on an Ogre that was protecting a treasure chest my Pawn had led me to. I turned down new Pawns that I met who wanted to become a part of my crew. I was ambushed by a group of bandits making camp. And all of this happened organically while I explored just a small sliver of a massive map.
Even though I was probably supposed to do the main quest, Dragon’s Dogma 2 had just provided me with a wealth of entertainment that I didn’t want to walk away from while wandering around accomplishing… nothing even related to a quest. Sorry Rodge.
The Mystic Spearhand Vocation was interesting, but as it was my first time playing Dragon’s Dogma 2 I wasn’t able to showcase all of the abilities. Still, the focus of the provided build was clearly all about the spear and your character’s ability to teleport to foes and deliver devastating blows. The recent Vocation trailer also teased a wealth of exciting options, like the ability to teleport directly on top of enemies before plunging your spear into their back, and an ability that teleports between status-afflicted foes to deliver a crushing blow. Getting to see what was possible just makes me want to go back and play even more.
And if this isn’t to your liking, Dragon’s Dogma 2 has other Vocations available. They include the Fighter, Archer, Mage, Thief, Warrior, Sorcerer, Mystic Spearhand, Magik Archer, Warfarer and Trickster that we previewed as part of our IGN First coverage. You are free to switch between each of these on the fly by simply talking to a vendor, and taking a peek at the options available makes it clear that each has a lot more depth than expected. The second Vocation I had the chance to try was the Magik Archer. Diving into the combat options, the sheer amount of choices at your disposal is incredibly exciting. My Archer had nine Weapon Skills to choose from with Flamefang Arrow, Ricochet Hunter, Frosthunter Bolt and Recovery arrow selected. Flamefang Arrow, at least in the build I played, seems incredibly overpowered. If each Vocation has this amount of customization it’ll be a lot of fun to discover the strengths of each.
When the time came to jump over and play this second Vocation, I began by being ambushed at a tavern in town, only to make quick work of my opponent by stunlocking them with Ricochet Hunter and Frosthunter Bolt. It was an incredibly powerful combination – so powerful that the Griffen we encountered later never stood a chance. Flamefang Arrow and my powerful Pawns simply devastated everything with ease.
While the gameplay was amazing and I can’t wait to get back to play more, there was one concern I’ve seen the community curious about: the uncapped framerate on console. When looking at this it should be noted that I’m playing a version which Capcom clearly states is “still in development, and is not equivalent to the final product.” But in this build on PlayStation 5, Dragon’s Dogma 2 was averaging around 31 frames per second with dips during heavy moments of action while playing with the PS5 set to output at 4K. I did not get to test at lower base revolutions or VRR during my time to see if that had a positive impact on performance however, if I had one hope, it would be that Capcom added more options in the framerate department including, at minimum a capped 30 frames per second mode.
That said, the gameplay was so fun that it was hard to walk away focused on anything other than my genuine excitement to play more.
My demo ended in the dead of night trying to help a character navigate the spirits, Zombies, and monsters waiting for me in the darkness. But after playing almost two and a half hours, there’s no denying that Dragon’s Dogma 2 had me hooked. I cannot wait to play more on March 22nd.
Warner Bros. Games wants to further invest in live service even after Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League failed to impress.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO and President of Streaming and Games J.B. Perrette spoke about the company’s strategy during a recent Morgan Stanley event. He acknowledges the success of projects like the single-player Hogwarts Legacy, which managed to be last year’s best-selling game in the U.S., but says the business of AAA console releases can be “volatile.”
“That’s a great business when you have a hit like (Hogwarts Legacy). It makes the year look amazing,” Perrette said. “Unfortunately, we also have disappointments — we just released Suicide Squad this quarter, which was not as strong. It just makes it very volatile.”
He explains that Warner Bros. is looking at its four major franchises — Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and DC — and is hoping to expand in the mobile and multiplatform free-to-play space. It will take some time for Warner Bros.’ efforts to come to fruition, with Perrette estimating we’ll see the impact between 2025 and 2027. He does say, though, that the company will release more mobile free-to-play titles later this year.
“Within the studio segment, we’re doubling down on games as an area where we think there is a lot more growth opportunity that we can tap into with the IP that we have and some of the capabilities on the studio side, where we’re uniquely positioned as both a publisher and a developer of games,” he says.
This pivot will see the company emphasizing its live-service offerings, too. Perrette is interested, for example, in creating an ongoing project set in the world of Harry Potter.
“Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example, Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live service where people can live and work and build and play in that world on an ongoing basis?” he said.
It’s a strategy that will see Warner Bros. leaning on its billion-dollar IP in a way that is meant to create consistent revenue streams. The goal is to create “meaningful growth” in games “over the next couple of years.”
Meanwhile, many already view the company’s Suicide Squad game as a live-service project even though its developer, Rocksteady Games, seems uninterested in using that label. As for the Harry Potter universe, Warner Bros. has been clear that it wants to create more adventures in that universe, including a Quidditch game.
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.
