Even a casual glance at the magnificent form of one of Elden Ring‘s best-known players, Let Me Solo Her, is enough to humble the strongest Tarnished, but even he struggled with one of FromSoftware’s most formidable foes, Bloodborne‘s Orphan of Kos.
In a new video, Let Me Solo Her explained that after finally giving in and picking up a PS5 in order to access the Elden Ring Nightreign playtest, he was finally able to play fan-favorite Bloodborne… and even he, a FromSoft veteran, had issues with some of Bloodborne’s most infamous boss encounters.
After coming to terms with the drop in framerate — Elden Ring is 60 frames per second (fps); Bloodborne is 30 fps — the heavy atmosphere, and dying to the werewolf in the clinic (we’ve all done it), Let Me Solo Her took us through his entire Bloodborne journey, including its DLC.
“Finally, I met the Orphan of Kos. Every Soulsborne game that has a DLC always has that final boss where they feel so overwhelmingly powerful,” he said. “We had Promised Consort Radahn for Elden Ring, Slave Knight Gael for Dark Souls 3, and Manus, Father of the Abyss for Dark Souls 1. And Orphan of Kos was that boss for Bloodborne.
“This boss took me more tries than any previous boss fights, and even had me exploring Chalice Dungeons to farm Blood Vials and bullets off stream, just to replenish them,” Let Me Solo Her added (thanks, GamesRadar+). “He’s definitely the hardest boss in Bloodborne for me.”
Also bumping up against Bloodborne’s toughest bosses and struggling to find a strat that works? Check out IGN’s Bloodborne walkthrough, which covers all main areas of the game, as well as optional areas, boss battles, shortcuts, secret items, and more… including tips on how to put the Orphan of Kos down for good.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
As the wait goes on for more Grand Theft Auto 6 news following 2023’s Trailer 1, one former Rockstar developer has said he wouldn’t release any more trailers before the game’s release date.
Rockstar released GTA 6 Trailer 1 to record-breaking viewership in December 2023, but it hasn’t released a single asset since. The year-and-a-half wait for more information has fueled increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories about when Rockstar will release GTA 6 Trailer 2.
But former Rockstar Games technical director Obbe Vermeij, who worked on the series up to 2008’s Grand Theft Auto 4 before leaving the company nine months after launch, said if it were up to him he wouldn’t release any more trailers for GTA 6.
“If it was my call I wouldn’t release any additional trailers,” he tweeted. “There is more than enough hype around VI and the element of surprise is going to make the release only bigger as an event.”
Then, in response to one user who wondered whether Rockstar might announce the GTA 6 release date and nothing else, Vermeij replied: “It would be a boss move.”
Would Rockstar actually do something like that, though? By naming the first GTA 6 trailer as GTA 6 Trailer 1, the suggestion is that more numbered trailers will follow. Plans change, of course. Perhaps this one will come right down to the wire, and Rockstar would rather focus on getting GTA 6 out the door this year than on a trailer it knows will be analyzed to within an inch of its life.
Vermeij revealed that Rockstar decided to delay GTA 4 in July 2007, just three months before its original October 16, 2007 release date, and suggested “decision day” for GTA 6 will be similar.
“Only at that time did it become clear we were going to miss the deadline,” Vermeij explained. “I’m guessing decision-day for VI will be similar. Fingers crossed for Take2’s August earnings report.”
In an interview with Bloomberg in March, Zelnick was asked straight up: why is GTA 6’s release date such a carefully held secret?
“The anticipation for that title may be the greatest anticipation I’ve ever seen for an entertainment property,” Zelnick replied. “And I’ve been around the block a few times and I’ve been in every entertainment business there is.
“We want to maintain the anticipation and the excitement. And we do have competitors who will describe their release schedule for years in advance. And we found that the better thing to do is to provide marketing materials relatively close to the release window in order to create that excitement on the one hand and balance the excitement with unmet anticipation. We don’t always get it exactly right, but that’s what we are trying to do.”
Mike York, who worked as an animator at Rockstar New England for six years helping to build Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 before leaving the company in 2017, said on his YouTube channel that Rockstar is playing up to the conspiracy theories, deliberately avoiding saying anything about the game or when Trailer 2 will be released in order to fuel even more speculation within the community.
“They’re reaching and pulling and trying to come up with these really cool theories to decipher when the next trailer will be,” he said of fans.
“Specifically Rockstar, they’re very secretive about what they do, and this is a really cool tactic because it creates allure and it creates mystery and it creates people talking about it without them having to do anything. The more they’re silent the better it is, because the more people will be antsy and want to talk about it and have this feeling of not knowing what’s going to happen.”
York went on to say that Rockstar is likely resisting pressure from its army of fans to announce the GTA 6 Trailer 2 release date for this exact reason.
“They could easily release the trailer date and be like, ‘Hey this is when the trailer’s coming out,’ but they don’t do it. And they don’t do it on purpose because it’s a really, really good marketing tactic. If you think about it, it creates these really cool theories.
“This brings the fans together. This is a really cool way to get fans to talk about your game when you’re not releasing anything yet, in-between the times.
“All these theories are great. They only create hype, they create talk, they create mystery behind the games.”
Zelnick’s quote also suggests that GTA 6 Trailer 2, assuming it exists, won’t be released until we’re closer to the game’s actual release date in fall 2025, assuming it’s not delayed. If that’s true, it may be some time before we get another look at the game.
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.
We still don’t have confirmation that the game based on Akira Toriyama’s fan-favorite anime and manga series is coming to Switch 2, but a now-deleted tweet from the Saudi General Authority of Media Regulation, spotted by the Gaming Leaks and Rumours subreddit, proves otherwise.
“Experience the fighting action in the latest game Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. Available on Nintendo Switch 2, featuring 3D battles and storylines that change based on your choices,” the tweet said before it was taken down, confirming it had secured a 12+ rating.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero takes the legendary gameplay of the Budokai Tenkaichi series and raises it to whole new levels, boasting “an incredible number “of playable characters, each with signature abilities, transformations, and techniques.
We gave it 7/10 in the IGN Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero review, saying: “Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is a final flash from the past, sometimes to a fault, but the feeling of traveling back to a simpler time when games didn’t have to be balanced or competitive to be fun is still a good one.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky
The Legend of Zelda may be one of Nintendo’s most storied and popular video game franchises, but did you also know there’s a vast library of books you can check out? From a wide variety of manga to lore encyclopedias, these books make the perfect gift for the Zelda fanatic in your life. Or if you just wanted to spruce up your own bookshelf, we got you covered.
Amazon’s April book sale might be over, but many of these are still available at a discount for the foreseeable future and make for great gifts.
The Legend of Zelda Manga
Penned by Akira Himekawa, the Legend of Zelda manga span almost the entire history of the games, with major manga series based on many of the mainline titles like Ocarina of Time and the Minish Cap. These are great for people new to manga wanting to dip their toes in, or die-hard fans of the games looking for deeper world building. All of these stories are available individually, but if you’re a collector, you can get some of them in various collected box sets.
The 11 volume Twilight Princess Manga has its own boxed set, which includes the complete story and a poster. Additionally, the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past manga by Shotaro Ishinomori is a great quick read that’s also available.
The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedias
If you’re in the mood for something a little more educational, the Legend of Zelda encyclopedias are the perfect place to get a deep dive into Hyrule’s lore, culture, and different races. The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia originally released in 2013 and gave fans the first officially established timeline. If you’re unfamiliar, for years fans have meticulously speculated about a branching timeline that began in Ocarina of Time — one branch where adult Link defeats Ganondorf and one where he doesn’t. It’s a pretty interesting bit of lore that explains some of the settings in later and past games.
The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia and Art & Artifacts offer even deeper looks at the universe, and include detailed breakdowns of the different items, characters, and enemies, as well as exclusive interviews with developers.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Creating a Champion is an over 400 page companion to the 2017 game. It contains countless design artwork and concept art, a look at the history of Hyrule, and interviewers with key developers.
The Legend of Zelda Guides
Thanks in part to the internet, they just don’t quite make video game strategy guides like they used to. These days, older guides from publishers like Prima Games and Brady Games have become steeply priced collector’s items. There is, however, one massive hardcover official guide for 2023’s Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that is currently available on the Nintendo Switch. This almost 500 page guide covers everything you need to know in the game, from every Korok location and cooking recipes, to dungeon solutions and boss fight strategies.
Of course, you can also find all of that information in IGN’s guide to the game, but this physical copy is a great addition to your shelf.
When it comes to licensed movie franchises entering the world of video games, very few have as storied a history as Star Wars. From hopping into an X-Wing cockpit in Rogue Squadron to making decisions that affect the fate of the galaxy in Knights of the Old Republic, George Lucas’ expansive sci-fi universe has become a creative playground for a range of talented developers over the years, and with it paved the way for some truly iconic Star Wars games.
For those looking to dive into some of these games on their Nintendo Switch, we’ve got you covered. Below, we’ve compiled every single Star Wars game available on Nintendo’s flagship console, ranging from immersive RPGs to classic first-person shooters.
How Many Star Wars Games Are on Nintendo Switch?
In total, there are 10 Star Wars games available on Nintendo Switch. The list below won’t include game bundles like the Heritage Collection or the Knights of the Old Republic bundle, although it’s worth noting that you can find most of the games below packaged together.
Every Star Wars Game on Nintendo Switch
These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
Star Wars: Dark Forces (Original Release: 1995 / Remaster Release: 2024)
The latest Star Wars game to be remastered for Switch, Dark Forces is the first official entry in what would eventually become known as the Jedi Knight series. Assuming the role of a reformed Imperial Officer named Kyle Katarn, players embark on a covert mission for the Rebel Alliance. They’ll get the chance to explore the galaxy across several missions, taking part in frantic first-person shootouts and uncovering a story set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
An arcade racer based around The Phantom Menace’s podracing sequence, Star Wars Episode 1 Racer straps players into their very own podracer and enters them into various tournaments across the galaxy. There, they’ll battle against the likes of Anakin Skywalker and Sebulba, souping up their craft with additional upgrades in an attempt to stomp out the competition and become a legend on the streets of Tatooine.
A continuation of the Star Wars Jedi Knight series, Jedi Outcast follows series’ protagonist Kyle Katarn as he re-embraces the Force and heads out on a quest for revenge. Alongside the first-person shootouts that acted as the centerpiece of earlier entries in the series, Jedi Outcast hones in on technical lightsaber dueling, with players facing off against Sith lords and their friends online in physics-based lightsaber battles.
Another classic Star Wars game repackaged and re-released for the Nintendo Switch, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a prequel to Attack of the Clones that follows notorious bounty hunter, Jango Fett. The game tracks Fett’s attempts to take down a dark Jedi known as Komari Vosa, forcing him to traverse the galaxy’s criminal underworld and battle his way through gangsters, Republic forces and other bounty hunters in an attempt to find and capture his target.
To defend against these threats, players will need to take full advantage of Fett’s powerful arsenal of weapons, using his jet pack and guns to rain down fire on enemies and capture targets. Alongside getting to control one of the prequel trilogy’s most enigmatic villains, Bounty Hunter also tells a full story that directly leads into the events of Attack of the Clones, featuring iconic characters like Jabba the Hutt, Count Dooku and Darth Sidious.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Original Release: 2003 / Remaster Release: 2021)
Often heralded as one of the most iconic RPGs ever made, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic tells a new Star Wars story set 4,000 years before the events of The Phantom Menace. Players take on the role of a Galactic Republic soldier who crash lands on the planet of Taris after their ship is attacked.
Left stranded, they undertake a daring adventure and learn the ways of the Force, rallying against the armies of the Sith and their fearsome leader, Darth Malak. Knights of the Old Republic envisions the Star Wars universe during the height of the Jedi Civil War, allowing players to choose whether to follow the path of the light or be tempted by the corrupt allure of the dark side.
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (Original Release: 2003 / Remaster Release: 2020)
Switching out long-running Star Wars Jedi Knight protagonist Kyle Katarn for a new, fully customisable lead, Jedi Academy casts you as Jayden Korr: a Padawan studying under Katarn at the Jedi Temple. Taught in the ways of the force and provided with your very own lightsaber, you explore the galaxy, undertaking new missions and battling back against Sith forces. Jedi Academy introduced several features to the Jedi Knight series, including new fighting styles and the ability to customize lightsabers.
A remaster of both the original Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars: Battlefront 2, the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection allows you to suit up as clones, stormtroopers, droids and more while taking the fight to your enemies on large scale battlefields. With maps spread across both the classic and prequel trilogies, Battlefront gives you the opportunity to relive some of the saga’s most iconic moments, including defending Hoth from Vader and the Imperial Army, taking down Separatist droids on the surface of Geonosis and the climactic battle between the Rebels and the Stormtroopers in the forests of Endor.
The re-release also includes fully functioning online multiplayer, which supports up to 64 players, and an expanded take on Hero Assault: the fan-favourite mode which allows all players to spawn in as hero characters.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords (Original Release 2005 / Remaster Release: 2022)
An official follow-up to Bioware’s landmark RPG, Obsidian took the reins for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords. Set five years after the events of the original game, the player takes on the role of an exiled Jedi tasked with finding the remnants of the order and uniting them against the growing Sith army.
The ensuing journey takes players across a series of iconic Star Wars planets, where they recruit a party of allies and make choices that shape their relationship with the Jedi Order, the Sith and the Force.
Moving away from lightsaber duels and tales of Jedi venturing across the galaxy, Star Wars: Republic Commando enlists players as a clone trooper, sending them to join Delta Squad as its leader: Boss. Set during the Clone Wars, players guide their unit through three first-person shooter campaigns, gunning down battle droids and other Separatist forces across iconic prequel era Star Wars locales, including Geonosis and Kashyyyk.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Original Release: 2008 / Remaster Release: 2022)
Set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and a New Hope, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed tells the tale of Starkiller: an apprentice under the tutelage of Darth Vader. Initially sent to hunt and kill the Jedi that survived Order 66, Star Killer’s story quickly spins out into a galaxy-wide adventure, as players build their Force abilities, engage in action-packed lightsaber combat and experience the power fantasy of being a Jedi Knight at the height of their powers.
Star Wars Pinball (2019)
A pinball game themed around the Star Wars saga, Star Wars Pinball is exactly what it says on the tin. It offers nineteen pinball tables with designs inspired by a spectrum of Star Wars media, ranging from The Empire Strikes Back and The Force Awakens to Rogue One and Rebels.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (2022)
Traveller’s Tales latest LEGO game for Switch, The Skywalker Saga transports all nine of the mainline Star Wars movies to the world of LEGO. From Obi-Wan and Anakin’s tragic battle above the fires of Mustafar to Luke and Vader’s legendary showdown in Bespin, The Skywalker Saga aims to be an all-encompassing recreation of the series, just with a lot more plastic bricks and minifigures.
Alongside being the biggest LEGO game to date, it also builds significantly on its predecessors, with several open-world areas to explore, more involved boss battles and new third-person shooting mechanics. It also features a stacked roster of playable Star Wars characters, with the cast including everyone from Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader to Babu Frik and Jabba the Hutt.
Making its debut on the Switch in 2024, Star Wars: Hunters is a free-to-play multiplayer arena shooter where players can pick from a range of heroes, form a team and take down opponents online.
The range of heroes on offer allow you to take charge of a host of different Star Wars units, including everything from battle droids and storm troopers to Jedis and even Jawas, each coming with their own set of unique abilities you can utilise to support your team and bring down your enemies.
Like a Mythic Dawn cultist popping out of a secret room to stab the Emperor in the back, a remaster of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has shown up out of nowhere, and it’s a dagger I’ve gladly thrown myself onto for over 80 hours (and counting) in less than a week. This Unreal-tinted glasses nostalgia trip modestly modernizes one of my all-time favorite open-world RPGs and had me teaming up with Sean Bean to close shut the jaws of Oblivion, helping the God of Madness with his, um, complicated mental health issues, rising to the top of every faction like I was angling to become Cyrodiil’s Valedictorian, and violating every single person’s personal space by getting way too close to them while talking.
I’d recently revisited the original Oblivion when rumors of its return were swirling, so with its shortcomings very clear in my mind, I found that the improved UI, revised leveling system, and especially the graphical overhaul have made this nearly 20-year-old classic massively more playable. That said, I’ve also seen a disappointingly recognizable amount of jank and poor performance, and the mostly unchanged enemy scaling apparatus hasn’t gotten less irritating with time. And yet, as someone who considers myself pretty immune to the charms of nostalgia alone when a game hasn’t aged well, I had a fantastic time returning to this adorably weird open-world adventure and will likely lose even more time to it in the coming weeks and months as I tie up loose ends in the Shivering Isles.
If you never played the original Oblivion, it’s your typical massive open-world fantasy RPG from the folks who would go on to bring us Skyrim (and more recently Starfield and Fallout 4), and it’s from an era where the designers at Bethesda provided fewer guardrails and wrote stronger stories. You’ll level up your character in everything from casting destructive magic to repairing your armor as you seek stronger loot, complete quests, and steal everything in sight in typical RPG fashion. Most of the stuff you’ll do, like rise up the ranks of the Mages Guild and uncover an ancient sorcerer’s plot to throw Tamriel into chaos, is incredibly enjoyable and has withstood the test of time, while other aspects, like the procedurally generated Oblivion levels you’re subjected to frequently, have fared less well and serve as glowing reminders of problems Bethesda never quite figured out how to resolve.
Oblivion’s systems allow for significantly more freedom to do wacky stuff.
The main way it sets itself apart from more recent Bethesda RPGs is that its sometimes unintuitive systems, while undoubtedly less approachable than Skyrim’s streamlined builds, allow for significantly more freedom to do wacky stuff. A great example of this is its spellcrafting system: In Skyrim you can learn to throw fireballs or turn invisible, but your options are limited to the specific magical tools you’re provided out of the box (unless you install mods, of course), while in Oblivion you’re given the option to create your own unique spells using a cocktail of effects controlled by various sliders and toggles, then just see what happens when you try and cast them.
Let’s say you combine the Demoralize spell effect, which makes characters run away from you during combat, with the Fortify Speed spell effect, which increases how quickly a character can move. Now you’ve just created a spell that you can cast on people that will make them cartoonishly run away from you at lightning speeds, to hilarious effect. Practical in any real sense? Probably not. But it’s the kind of goofy, dumb thing Oblivion’s old-school design sensibilities allow for, and which I find far more compelling than a pre-curated bag of one-note tricks. This tradeoff of greater freedom at the cost of intuitiveness and often janky execution can be found all over Oblivion’s dorky DNA, and it’s one of the reasons I really connect with this unashamedly wonky adventure.
For my money this story is some of Bethesda’s best work.
This series of massive, open-world gallivants aren’t known for having the most focused, noteworthy stories, but Oblivion actually surprises in this regard. For my money it’s some of Bethesda’s best work, especially when it comes to the all-important faction quest lines. The Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild stories in particular have lived rent-free in my head for the better part of two decades, and I was pleasantly surprised to see they’ve aged like fine wine. The Shivering Isles expansion area and quests, which throw you into an Alice in Wonderland-like world of madness, remains one of the best DLCs ever made, with a surprisingly compelling story given to such a seemingly silly character in the mad god Sheogorath. Even the main quest, which has you finding the bastard son of a slain emperor to stop an otherworldly invasion, is actually much better than I remembered it being, with Sean Bean’s Martin having a genuinely touching character arc that I found myself quite invested in. Don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing as meaningful and well-written as you’d find in a more story-focused RPG, like Red Dead Redemption 2, and there are plenty of forgettable characters with stilted dialogue to go around, but I’d still put it well above the average for this type of game.
It probably goes without saying that the graphical upgrade is Oblivion Remastered’s biggest improvement, and the efforts of the team at Virtuous that remastered Bethesda’s original are a sight to behold. While things definitely don’t look anywhere near the normal standards of a big-budget game built from the ground up today, putting this version side-by-side with its 2006 doppelganger is eyebrow-raisingly impressive. The entire map is crisp, with a draw distance my teenage-self could have only dreamed of. Lighting, shadows, and character lip syncing in particular have been overhauled so much that it’s actually kind of shocking. That said, other things bizarrely didn’t get the memo. The NPCs’ faces, for instance, are almost universally hideous and cartoonish and have about a 40% chance of being cross-eyed. (Although, honestly, being horrified by character faces might actually be part of the authentic Oblivion experience.) On balance, though, it’s still a total glow up. It’s one of those situations where everything looks like I fondly remember it instead of how it actually did back in 2006, which speaks to how the spirit and style of the original has been maintained.
Putting this version side-by-side with its 2006 doppelganger is eyebrow-raisingly impressive.
Beyond the glossy new look, though, perhaps the thing that has had the biggest impact on gameplay in Oblivion Remastered is the simple inclusion of a sprint button. If you haven’t played Oblivion in over a decade you might be shocked to hear that, no, there was no sprinting. Wild, I know. And if you never played the original, just understand that you’ll never truly know this gift you’ve been granted from Akatosh himself. I don’t even really mind that I’m now losing stamina by sprinting (something that annoys me in RPGs where you’re literally always running around). It’s worth it, even if it does have the odd side effect of making the entire map feel smaller, especially cities and dungeons that can now be fully explored in about half the time. This change has also made me care a whole lot more about investing in skills and magical buffs that increase my stamina, since now I’m using that meter for nearly everything I do. But despite the extra fiddling that causes, moving quickly through areas I already know like the back of my hand makes for a remarkably less tedious time.
There are also a bunch of major changes to the UI, leveling system, and other minor changes to get rid of some irksome choices that existed in the original. The UI has been modernized with today’s design sensibilities, so there are lots of appreciated additions you might not even notice. The compass has moved to the top of your screen and provides way more information; the health, magicka, and stamina meters are now spaced out across the screen instead of being shoved into one corner together; and the menus are much more intuitively placed, so you can toggle between your spells and character stats a lot faster.
There are still plenty of wonky choices.
Some elements still feel pretty old-timey – like the quest log popping up right in the middle of the screen anytime you’ve reached a new milestone in one, awkwardly interrupting whatever you were doing – but most of these annoyances didn’t bother me much. The developers clearly picked their battles with what to change and what to keep mostly the same, and these little changes can be felt all over. For example, in the original version of Oblivion any time you try to harvest a resource from the world, you roll a chance to do so, meaning you end up wasting a whole bunch of time trying to grab materials to make potions and whatnot. In Oblivion Remastered, this has been revised so now anytime you reach for an ingredient, you just get it, y’know, like they weren’t intentionally trying to annoy you. There are still plenty of wonky choices, like the return of the infamous persuasion minigame that is just as boring and unintuitive as you remember it, but they’ve mostly done a good job with polishing up the worst of these rough edges.
Unfortunately, one of the areas where Oblivion needed the most improvement was its leveling system and how enemies scale with you as you progress, and while some tweaking has been done to make it feel less unfair, it remains deeply flawed. Previously, you could only level up your character by improving your primary class skills, like Destruction for a mage or Heavy Armor for a warrior – but if you focused on doing that, enemies would scale with you and beat you to a pulp with their high-level gear (since you were as unlikely to be as well-rounded or intentionally stat-ed out as they are). This made the midgame a real pain, until you eventually got over that hump and retook your place as a geared-out badass. In Oblivion Remastered, they’ve melded that leveling system with Skyrim’s version in which everything you do increases your level, and that makes for a significantly less frustrating climb against opponents that arbitrarily become more dangerous across the entire game world.
The level-scaling system is a long-standing criticism of Oblivion.
Now I didn’t feel punished for focusing on my primary skills first, boosting my level before I was properly powered for the more lethal enemies that progression brought with it. But that core problem of enemies scaling out in the world is still a bummer of a mechanic that has aged like spoiled sweet rolls. It doesn’t exactly feel great to spend 50 hours building up your character to then discover that regular-ass bandits out in the world are now rocking full sets of shiny glass armor, mostly invalidating your hard-earned progress. This is a long-standing criticism of Oblivion, and although I know it would’ve been a massive undertaking to rebalance the entire world to continue to provide challenges for high-level characters in the late game without this shortcut, I can’t help but wish the developers had devoted the resources to addressing it.
And that really is the biggest critique of this remaster, which deftly succeeds at maintaining all the things I loved and despised about Oblivion in a clear effort to keep it as close to the original vision as possible. So a lot of how much you’re likely to enjoy a playthrough is going to come down to your personal history and experience with Bethesda’s RPGs: If you’ve been gaming for a few decades already and your nostalgia is great enough to help you forgive some pretty clearly outdated game design decisions, then you’re in for an awesome trip. But if you’re new to Oblivion or simply don’t possess a natural fondness for retro-style roleplaying, then you’ll probably find yourself less enthused when, for example, you run through the 30th or 40th nearly identical Oblivion Gate.
I really love this game, even as I’m well-aware and quite incapable of overlooking its many flaws.
As for me, I find myself somewhere in the middle: I really love this game, even as I’m well-aware and quite incapable of overlooking its many flaws. Would we have been better served if Bethesda and Virtuous had thrown out the old rulebook and done a proper, ground-up remake? Maybe; maybe not. But the decision to stick as close as possible to recreating Oblivion as it existed in 2006 but prettier and slightly less irritating has certainly put a ceiling on how much this Elder Scrolls redux can really blow me away.
There’s another caveat to mention, too. Although Virtuous headed up development of this remaster and did some great work, they’re not miracle workers: this is still a Bethesda game through and through, and with that comes a lot of bugs. I saw everything from broken quest objectives to Oblivion gates disappearing before my eyes, and dozens of other issues. On more than one occasion I’ve even found myself stuck underneath a rock in an area where enemies were nearby so I wasn’t able to fast travel away, meaning I had to choose between praying to Akatosh that the baddies would creep near enough for me to kill them through the environment and escape my fate, or just give up and reload to a previous checkpoint.
Beyond that, Oblivion Remastered performs increasingly worse the longer you play it, presumably because I monkeyed with the world enough to cause it trouble trying to keep track of where I left a specific piece of cheese. My Xbox Series X dropped frames and hitched with regularity, textures loaded right in front of me, and after about 40 hours I started encountering hard crashes and game freezes every few hours like clockwork. Most of this stuff didn’t deter me from sinking an ungodly amount of time into blasting daedra with fireballs, but it’s definitely a bummer to see that two decades wasn’t long enough to fix this janky fantasy world, and in some cases it appears to perform even worse than I remember the Xbox 360 doing, which is almost impressive.
If you’re looking to slay demons in Doom: The Dark Ages, add the best of the Doom and Wolfenstein franchises to your library, and make a difference in the world by donating to Direct Relief, the brand-new id & Friends Humble Bundle is the one collection you’ve been waiting for.
This id & Friends Humble Bundle, which boasts a $194 value and will stick around until April 13, allows you to pay what you want and get rewarded for doing so. We’ll detail the three different options below, but we’ll start by highlighting the 11-item bundle that gets you a 10% coupon off Doom: The Dark Ages and its Premium Edition.
For those unfamiliar, Doom: The Dark Ages is set to be released on May 15, 2025, and serves as a prequel to 2016’s Doom and Doom Eternal that sends the Doom Slayer into the dark and sinister medieval war against Hell. We’ve already had the chance to get our hands on Doom: The Dark Ages, and we said “every aspect of it looked and felt incredible.”
So, by paying at least $28 to the id & Friends Humble Bundle, you’ll unlock that 10% discount for Doom: The Dark Ages and its Premium Edition alongside the following;
Doom Eternal
Doom Eternal Year One Pass
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Doom (2016)
Doom + Doom II
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Doom 3
Doom 64
If you don’t need the coupon or aren’t ready to jump into the Doom Slayer’s latest adventure, there are other options as well! By donating at least $12, you’ll unlock the following;
Doom (2016)
Doom + Doom II
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Doom 3
Doom 64
Lastly, those who just want to donate a $5 to make a difference can do so and add Doom 3 and Doom 64 to their library.
The id & Friends Humble Bundle is all about choice and rewarding you for helping out Direct Relief, and yes, you’ll be able to redeem these codes on Steam and play the games on Windows PCs. And as we mentioned, the bundle will be available until April 13, so be sure to jump on it if you’re ready to rip and tear your way into some fantasic games.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in games has been discussed more and more lately. NieR series director Yoko Taro has weighed in too, expressing concern that it could lead to game creators losing jobs to AI.
In a recent interview at Famitsu, as translated by Automaton, several Japanese game developers known for narrative and storytelling discussed their approach to game creation. Alongside Yoko Taro, there was also Kotaro Uchikoshi (Zero Escape, AI: The Somnium Files), Kazutaka Kodaka (Danganronpa), and Jiro Ishii (428: Shibuya Scramble).
During the interview, the group was asked what the future of adventure games might be, and both Yoko and Uchikoshi discussed AI.
“There’s a lot of new games I want to create, but with AI technology evolving at such a high speed, I fear that there is a possibility that AI-generated adventure games will become mainstream,” said Uchikoshi. He went on to note that current AI struggles to achieve “outstanding writing” comparable to human creativity, and that maintaining the “human touch” would be crucial to staying ahead of the tech. Yoko, though, also expressed concerns.
“I, too, believe that game creators may lose their jobs because of AI,” said Yoko. “There’s a chance that in 50 years, game creators will be treated like bards.”
When it came to whether they thought AI could imitate the worlds and stories, including the twists and turns, of their works, Yoko and Ishii agreed. Kodaka, however, said that even if AI could imitate their work and styles, it wouldn’t be able to behave like a creator. He drew comparisons to David Lynch, and how creators could write a scenario in Lynch’s style, but Lynch could then change up his own style while still making it feel authentic and Lynchian.
While Yoko posed the idea of using AI to generate new scenarios, like a route in an adventure game, Kodaka noted how this personalized nature would lead to games being less of a shared experience.
Notable creators have been weighing in with their thoughts on AI, large language models, and other generative systems for a while now. Some have even been experimenting with it, including Capcom and Activision. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa recently said generative AI can be used in “creative ways,” but it would also raise issues with intellectual property rights. Microsoft and PlayStation have also weighed in on the topic.
It’s part of the premium 2,400 COD Points Cardboard Commando bundle, which turns your soldier and weapons into cardboard. Fun at first glance, and certainly in-keeping with Call of Duty’s penchant for goofy skins. But it’s the Surprise Gift emote included in the bundle that has raised more than a few eyebrows within the Call of Duty community.
That’s because the emote literally lets you hide in a cardboard box, then after a few seconds jump out for a surprise. You can imagine how this might help you out in the battlefield, like a Prop Hunt on-demand. It boggles the mind how this one was allowed into Call of Duty, especially in Warzone, which can end up being as much about hiding as it is about killing.
One player, Dr.ChubzDPT on X / Twitter, showcased some Call of Duty cardboard box abuse in a video alongside the post: “Abusing the most broken emote in Warzone history.”
The emote has more than a whiff of Metal Gear Solid about it. In Hideo Kojima’s famous single-player stealth series, Solid Snake can famously move about while inside a cardboard box, flummoxing unsuspecting guards who seem none the wiser.
In the competitive multiplayer Call of Duty series though, it’s a different story, with some saying this cardboard box has no place in the game. It’s worth pointing out that others are saying it’s all a bit of fun, and that the cardboard itself is big enough to stand out.
“Literally nobody should be falling for a giant cardboard box,” said X / Twitter user Part Timer. “But it is hilarious.” “I’m shooting every box from now on,” commented X / Twitter user SteamyTycoon.
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.
A former PlayStation narrative director is petitioning the creators of the Until Dawn movie to credit the game’s writers in the film.
As spotted by Eurogamer, Kim MacAskill’s petition is “calling upon Sony, a leader in the gaming world, to set a precedent for change by revising the Until Dawn credits” by “asking for them to revise their approach to IP crediting, particularly in transmedia adaptations.”
“I’ve just left Until Dawn where the film director, writers, etc, were all credited, but instead of [Sony] mentioning the leading game dev(s) who created this ICONIC game you’re clearly proud of, [Sony] just wrapped it as ‘based on the Sony game’,” MacAskill wrote.
“They spent years breaking their brains to make something incredible, and the world DESERVES to know their names… instead… No credit. No thanks. No honor.”
MacAskill went into more detail on a LinkedIn post, asking what the difference was between HBO’s adaptation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us — which credits both the studio itself and Neil Druckmann as both writer and director — and the Until Dawn movie.
The director said Sony execs “firmly told” her that “the IP I personally created would NEVER be credited to me as I was salaried (no royalties, no control, no ownership, no acknowledgement)”, addressing Sony directly with: “I am struggling with the difference between Neil Druckmann’s favor and that of others in your company.”
The creative director said that when she enquired about the rights to the intellectual property she created while working for Sony, a company rep told her the megacorp “understood” her position but “this is not something that [Sony] can do,” and that it was “nothing personal” — “this is not specifically for you, but this is completely firm-wide.”
“All I wanted was to be credited and to potentially have enough ownership for adaptation,” she added.
“I am asking for [Sony] to revise their approach to IP crediting, particularly in transmedia adaptations,” the director wrote on the petition. “Providing an executive producer credit or acknowledgment equivalent would honor those creators whose visions and passion have given birth to these incredible stories and design, proving transformational in the entertainment landscape.
“Let’s advocate not only for the Until Dawn creators but for the integrity of the industry. By ensuring that creative voices are properly recognized, we can continue to inspire future generations of creators who dare to dream beyond current constraints. Sign this petition to urge Sony… and stand with all game creators… demanding well-deserved recognition in transmedia narratives.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
