Category: IGN

Random House Worlds is gearing up to release its latest Star Wars novel, author Mike Chen’s Star Wars Outlaws: Low Red Moon. You might assume the book showcases an earlier adventure in the life of goldhearted smuggler Kay Vess, but you’d be wrong. Instead, the book focuses on one of the most surprising figures in the game, Jaylen Vrax. The book explores how Jaylen met the fearsome bodyguard droid ND-5 and made his way through the ranks of the criminal underworld.

Ahead of its February 3 release, IGN can exclusively debut a preview of Star Wars Outlaws: Low Red Moon. This excerpt is set early in the book, just after Jaylen is rescued by ND-5 following an attack on his family’s compound. Check it out below:

The British are coming. Specifically, IGN can exclusively reveal that action man Jason Statham – star of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Hobbs and Shaw and The Meg – is coming to Fortnite today. He lent his chiselled jawline and voice to the game to promote his new movie Shelter as part of a new in-game experience.

The Stath appears as his character from Shelter, Michael Mason. In the movie Mason is a former assassin who is forced to dust off his guns (aren’t they always?) to protect himself and a girl – Jessie – that he rescued from the sea surrounding the remote Scottish island he calls home. Players can fight alongside him on a new custom map inspired by the movie, taking on waves of enemies in order to protect Jessie. If that wasn’t enough, a huge storm is on the way, which is actually pretty accurate for the Scottish highlands.

The custom map comes with some additional game features to heighten the roguelike experience the creators are going for, with a combination of permanent upgrades, random weapon loadouts and a ‘Rebirth system’ that will give you permanent buffs for resetting your progress. It’s vital to mention that the weaponry is given out by a dog.

There’ll also be a community tournament featuring top streamers that will let viewers vote on the specific conditions for the matches, like weapon restrictions or inverted controls.

The experience was created by Sawhorse and Chartis Interactive, with contributions to the design of the map from Fortnite creators like Jayth, the guy behind Fortnite’s Zombie Escape Tag.

“It’s been exciting to combine the roguelike genre—one of Fortnite’s most popular modes—with a unique film like Shelter, especially with Jason Statham involved,” he said.

The Shelter experience is available in Fortnite now – Island Code 2883-8391-6703 – and the movie, also starring Bill Nighy, will be in theaters on January 30.

Crimson Desert has gone gold, locking in its global release date of March 19, 2026. That’s across PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Mac.

Developer Pearl Abyss described going gold as a “major development milestone” for the open-world action-adventure game. It thanked fans for their continued support, acknowledging what it called “strong anticipation” that has built up over the course of the last year.

Here’s the official blurb on Crimson Desert:

Set in the vast continent of Pywel, Crimson Desert is an open-world action-adventure game that follows the journey of protagonist Kliff and his Greymane companions. The title has been praised for its realistic, high-fidelity graphics, dynamic combat, and the freedom and interactivity of its open world, delivering a heightened sense of immersion and intensity.

Earlier this month, Pearl Abyss called Crimson Desert’s open world “absolutely massive,” bigger even than that of Bethesda’s Skyrim and Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2.

Speaking on the Gaming Interviews YouTube channel, Pearl Abyss’ Will Powers said that describing the size of Crimson Desert’s world in terms of numbers doesn’t do it justice, because doing so fails to capture the scope and scale of the game. But he did go as far as to compare it to two of the biggest open world games around.

“I don’t think numbers really do it justice because, how big is that in terms of scope and scale?” he said. “But what we can say is that the world’s at least twice as big as the open world, the playable area, of Skyrim. It’s larger than the map of Red Dead Redemption 2.”

Powers went on to insist that the size of Crimson Desert’s open world won’t determine its quality. Rather, what you actually do in it is the key factor.

“The continent of Pywel is absolutely massive, but size doesn’t really matter if there’s nothing to do,” he said. “Open-world games are about doing things, having activities, having distractions. So we wanted to create a world that’s not only massive, but is also incredibly interactive.”

Unlike Skyrim and Red Dead Redemption 2, in Crimson Desert you can fly around on a dragon, so despite the size of its world, you’ll be able to get about quickly. And don’t expect RPG elements in terms of decision-making and choice and consequence as it relates to your character, either. The sheer amount of things to do in the world will facilitate the role-playing part of Crimson Desert, which players will form through “head canon.”

“You choose the type of character you want to play as in terms of your progression within the systems in the game,” Powers explained. “And then through head canon you’re having this very different experience than other players because of the scope and scale of the game. You’ll be distracted by something, you’ll go on this quest line, you’ll have an experience that’ll be radically different than someone else, even though they’re playing the same game and the same canonical storyline that you both are going through.”

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

IGN can exclusively reveal two new Frozen-themed Disney Lorcana cards from the upcoming Winterspell expansion that have exciting implications for both the lore and gameplay of the TCG, and they are Anna – Soothing Sister and the Do You Want to Build a Snowman? song card.

Disney Lorcana’s Winterspell expansion will be released at local game stores and Disney Stores on February 13 and everywhere else on February 20, and one of the Legendary cards players will be searching for is Frozen’s Anna – Soothing Sister.

To learn more about these cool (we had to do it!) cards, we spoke with members of the Disney Lorcana team.

“Anna – Soothing Sister is the first Disney Lorcana card with a 0 ink shift cost,” Lukas Litzsinger, Winterspell Game Design Lead, said. “This means that you can put together some truly impressive turns where you play another card, or two, from your hand in addition to shifting Anna. She can truly swing the momentum of the game in your favor. But that sort of power does come with a condition: a card has to have left a player’s discard this turn. Thankfully, there are several good options included in Winterspell for this to occur, including on her shift base.

“Her second ability, Warm Heart, likewise has synergy with cards in your discard. This gives players a strong direction when building the deck: not only do you want to have a card leave your discard for her shift ability, but you also want to get characters in your discard with high lore value.”

From a lore perspective, this card pairs very fittingly with Elsa – Ice Artisan, who herself is one of the leading figures of Winterspell.

“In Winterspell, we tell the story of a vine that’s growing out of control and sucking up flood ink,” Jenna Giuffrida, co-lead on narrative design for Winterspell, shared with us. “In an effort to quell its growth, the Illumineers of the realm summon powerful glimmers to help deal with it. One of them, an Elsa glimmer, accidentally freezes the whole realm in her attempt to stop the vine.

“Just as Elsa’s costume demonstrates her role as the powerful force of nature that caused the storm and froze the vine, Anna’s costume reflects the ways she balances her sister. When Elsa is in need of comfort (and thawing out, so to speak), she turns to Anna for empathy and hope, so you can see some of that in the spring theming of her character card.”

As for Do You Want to Build a Snowman?, this song brings together the sisters in a really wonderful way, but it was tough for the team as they really wanted to get it right.

“We get to see both these glimmers come together in Do You Want To Build a Snowman? and really feel the tension in the moment–Anna isn’t as upset with Elsa as perhaps she fears,” Giuffrida said. “We also knew it would be a missed opportunity in this gloriously snowy set not to provide fans with such an iconic and recognizable song card.”

“This was a difficult card for us to get right,” Litzsinger added. “We went through many iterations of what it meant to build a snowman in our game, but the breakthrough came when we took a step back and realized that it wasn’t actually about building a snowman. It was about asking someone else if they wanted to help you build a snowman. This led to a card effect where you ask that question, and also gave us a new template: you get to ask your opponent YES! or NO! and the card does something different depending on their response. We worked closely with Darla Kennerud and our editing team to make this new template happen, and the card is all the more charming for it.”

These cards are only two of the many that fans will soon be able to chase that will continue to build the Lorcana universe even larger, and the Lorcana team has been busy teasing exciting new details about Winterspell and beyond. Alongside these Frozen characters, Winterspell will also feature fan-favorite characters from Pocahontas, Angel from Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and Darkwing Duck.

Furthermore, the two Iconic cards of this set will be Moana – Curious Explorer and Pocahontas – Peacekeeper, and they will both sport a “Papercut Style” that evokes paper snowflake decorations.

Following Winterspell, Glimmers from Toy Story, The Incredibles, and Brave will join the roster in Wilds Unknown when it is released in game stores on the Ravensburger Play Hub on May 8 and everywhere else on May 15.

Lastly, Summer will bring the Attack of the Vine! set, and that will feature glimmers of Monsters, Inc.’s Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan.

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has set the world record for most Game of the Year awards, surpassing FromSoftware’s Elden Ring.

Last week, IGN reported that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was once again sweeping award nominations, this time at the Game Developers Choice Awards, where it’s been nominated for all but one award, and earlier that same week, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 absolutely dominated the Annual D.I.C.E. Award Nominations along with Ghost of Yotei.

Even with with the BAFTAs, DICE, GDC Awards and more still to go, ResetEra’s Angie — who’s been keeping an eye on all the nominations and wins — reports that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has clocked up a staggering 436 awards, surpassing prior top-spot-holder, Elden Ring, which has 429. The rest of the top five is rounded out by The Last of Us Part II (326 awards), Baldur’s Gate 3 (288), and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (281).

Providing most of their workings and rationale, Angie also believes Expedition 33 has secured more Players’ Choice awards than anything else — The Last of Part II received 115, Elden Ring 97, Baldur’s Gate III has 89, while Sandfall’s record-breaking JRPG has 125 — but interestingly, when Game of the Year wins are calculated by the percentage of total awards given out during the release year, Clair Obscur takes the bronze. Though it has scooped 70% of all the awards given out this year, Street Fighter II received 80% back in 2005, and 1998’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time did even better at 87%.

Not all award years are equal, of course — the number of awards will depend upon the number of outlets/organizations publishing a Game of the Year winner (Clair Obscur was IGN’s 2025 game of the year), and this list includes awards given not just by gaming press, but also newspapers, radios, podcasts, and more — but it’s nonetheless a testament to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s impact. Hop on over to ResetEra for the full list (thanks, GamesRadar).

It’s been an incredible time for Sandfall, which has found itself thrust into the mainstream following Clair Obscur’s success. Even French president Emmanuel Macron celebrated the game for winning Game of the Year. But it’s not all positive for Sandfall when it comes to game awards, however. Last month, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was stripped of two awards from the Indie Game Awards after its alleged use of generative AI hit the headlines.

While accepting the Game of the Year award at last month’s The Game Awards, Sandfall shadow-dropped new DLC and Patch 1.5.0, which introduces new location Verso’s Drafts and some truly challenging boss fights.

IGN’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 review returned a 9/10. We said: “Wearing its inspirations on its sleeve, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 paints itself into the pantheon of great RPGs with a brilliant combat system and a gripping, harrowing story.” Here’s a Handy Guide for Beginners if you’re looking to give it a try, too.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

The creator of the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod CD Projekt recently hit with a DMCA strike has said people are now pirating it to “punish” him for breaking the developer’s terms of service.

Luke Ross, creator of the R.E.A.L. VR mods for games such as Elden Ring, Days Gone, and Far Cry, reportedly earns $20,000 a month through Patreon, which acts as a paywall for his work.

Ross extended his VR conversion framework to support Cyberpunk 2077 in February 2022. A few months later, he contacted CD Projekt to ask if the Polish studio was interested in turning the mod into an official port. It declined, Ross told IGN.

Then, on January 9, 2026, Patreon alerted Ross to CD Projekt’s DMCA notice for the removal of the mod, which it had already taken down. “I had absolutely no say in the matter, because as is the norm in these cases (at least for Patreon), the Patreon team had already complied with the request and taken down my mod of their own initiative, making it inaccessible,” Ross said.

Ross then got in touch with CD Projekt to, as he put it, “negotiate a mutually beneficial solution.” CD Projekt then replied to say Ross needed to comply with its terms of service. “No negotiation, no comments on my proposals, no interest for instance in knowing how many of their users would be affected by the sudden removal.”

The situation hit the headlines this week when Jan Rosner, VP, Business Development at CD Projekt Red, tweeted to say the company issued the DMCA strike because Cyberpunk VR was a paid mod, which violates its fan content guidelines.

“We never allow monetization of our IP without our direct permission and/or an agreement in place,” Rosner said. “We were in touch with Luke last week and informed him that he needs to make it free for everyone (with optional donations) or remove it.

“We are big fans of mods to our games — some of the work out there has been nothing short of amazing, including Luke’s mod for Cyberpunk 2077. We’d be happy to see it return as a free release. However, making a profit from our IP, in any form, always requires permission from CD Projekt Red.”

Ross responded to Rosner’s tweet to take issue with his work being characterized as fan content. Rather, Ross insisted, it is independent software and thus does not infringe on CD Projekt’s IP rights.

“I’m sorry but I don’t believe you are within your rights in demanding that my software needs to be free,” Ross said. “It is not ‘derivative work’ or ‘fan content’: it supports a large number of games which were built upon different engines, and it contains absolutely zero code or assets from your IP. Saying that it infringes your IP rights is equivalent to maintaining for example that RivaTuner violates game publishers’ copyrights because it intercepts the images the game is drawing on screen and it processes them in order to overlay its statistics.”

IGN followed up to ask Ross if he has plans to make the Cyberpunk VR mod free, thus complying with CD Projekt’s terms of service. Responding, Ross said that while he wouldn’t rule out doing so, it would be a lot of work.

“I do not rule out releasing the mod free for everyone,” he said. “But it would take time, because my software supports 40+ games and various completely different engines, which makes creating a version that specifically supports only Cyberpunk 2077 a non-trivial task. Also, the people who have voluntarily given their money to me in order to support my development efforts for the framework might not be happy about seeing the mod being given away all of a sudden to everyone just because I’ve been bullied into it.”

At this point, Ross said that making the mod free had become a moot point because people were now pirating it — and publishing abusive comments directed at him.

“Anyway, it’s kind of become a moot point, because following to the unexpected DMCA strike, after the mod was forcibly removed from my Patreon, people afraid of losing VR support for their favorite games have started pirating and illegally exchanging the mod all over the Internet, brazenly saying that since I was not complying with CDPR’s ToS, my work is now fair game and I should be punished by having it stolen. So in a sense CDPR already got what they wanted,” he said.

The following is a snippet of the response to the DMCA strike and Ross’ comments about it.

“Ehhh, without the game the mod is useless. I’m glad some people have found ways to pirate his shitty mods, he deserves it,” one person said on social media.

“I’m currently working on transferring this guy’s mod files to my PC. I’ll look through and do some tweaking, and then I’ll release his VR mod for Cyberpunk for free,” said another.

“What really bugs me is that instead of just releasing it for free and continuing development with donations, which Take-Two already allows and which would almost definitely still bring in the same money from the VR community, he chose to kill the mod entirely once he couldn’t sell it anymore,” added another. “That’s the part I don’t respect. He already made his money, he had options, and he still chose the nuclear one. End result is players lose the only real Cyberpunk VR experience, VR modding takes another hit, and publishers get painted as villains again even though this outcome was kind of obvious.”

The following is a comment posted on Ross’ Patreon page:

“Upon reading more about this case: they gave you a way to keep it alive, and you decided to be a greedy little bish about it so I’m cancelling my Patreon subscription to you and giving all your mods to anyone I know for free from now on (also there’s places online to find all your mods immediately after release for free, I was choosing to pay you, but now you’re being a dickhead so I’ll just steal your mods from now on and tell everyone where to find them).

“You’ve made 20k a month for years, for modding these games — they’re asking you to make ONE OF THEM free — for a game which is largely done updating and would be version locked.

“Really gross by CD Project Red, and by you — shows where your priorities are you greedy little proud man.”

It seems unlikely that CD Projekt will back down here, which leaves Ross with a decision to make: ditch the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod for good, or release it for free, as CD Projekt requests.

Ross restated to IGN that he is open to finding “creative solutions,” and that his work to make AAA games playable in VR fills a void, but he has yet to confirm plans to release the Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod for free.

“I do not modify the content of the games, or try to sell an experience which is in competition with what the IP creators are producing,” he continued. “To play in VR you always need to own the original game, and the only thing that changes is that the experience is more immersive, visceral and memorable, which can only benefit the IP owners. In the end, when gamers are playing for example Cyberpunk in VR, they are not playing my mod. They are playing Cyberpunk, and loving it. How this could ever hurt the publisher and trigger free-or-kill reactions still baffles me.”

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Arc Raiders developer Embark Studios has said players who spawn late don’t realize they “economically profit way more” than players who don’t.

In an interview with GamesRadar, design lead Virgil Watkins discussed the extraction shooter’s divisive late spawn system, which can see players join games with around 20 minutes left to go. The feeling from some is that this can be a frustrating experience because it gives late joiners less time to complete objectives, and there isn’t as much loot around. But Watkins suggested the data tells a different story.

“We 100% acknowledge the whole thing of, ‘Man, I came in to do that trial and now I clearly don’t have enough time to do that, and that sucks, so I’m just going to leave,’ or whatever. That aspect is definitely not great,” Watkins admitted.

“But similar to the perception of free kits versus what they do, the perception around late joining and what it affords you has been quite interesting. Players are like, ‘The loot’s all gone,’ or whatever else. But players who late join economically profit way more than people who aren’t. The session, when they are fresh, does eventually get quieter, and very often they come across the remnants of fights or can maybe take out bigger drones or hit high-ticket areas more readily than other players. So that’s been a very interesting thing to look at.”

So what is the goal behind the late join system? According to Watkins, it helps mitigate deserted raids. Indeed, Embark distributes loot in such a way so “there should be plenty of stuff for players to do” even if they join late.

It will be interesting to see if Watkins’ explanation here turns sentiment on late spawns around. Since Arc Raiders’ explosive launch, its late spawn system has come under fire from some who feel it needs to be overhauled. There’s frustration on both sides, with those who have to face late spawns having been in a game from the start also expressing concern.

“It’s crazy that my team can clear a section of Stella Montis, place traps near the popular entrances, and start looting… only to have a full team of three, heavy shield, volcano running players spawn 50 FEET AWAY from us in a random room in the corner of the area… spawning basically on top of us, at 15 MINUTES REMAINING,” said one fan last month. “There is no counter, there is no chance of winning, they bypassed our traps as they spawned in the room next to me.

“The ONLY players who should be spawning in five minutes into the raid or later are FREE LOADOUTS. Tarkov got that system down with the player Scavs, and it works very well. The initial spawn should be player loadouts only, then free loadouts come in at 25, 20, and 15 minutes remaining. Does that sound reasonable?

“I’m not crazy right? I’ve spawned literally on top of players who were looting and have gotten extremely unfair free kills because of it. Even reworking the spawning mechanic wont fix it, as you shouldn’t have to worry about a random full geared 3-man at 15 minutes remaining after 5 minutes of silence after your team wiped out 12 players.

“Spawning in a 20 with gear sucks. Most of the PVP is gone, half the loot is already extracted. It sucks for everyone else too, they are low on meds, shields are nearly broken, and now 3-9 completely fresh, geared players have arrived at unexpected locations you just cleared.”

This week, Embark released a new patch for Arc Raiders that stamped out some infamous out-of-bounds exploits – but players said “rats” still live in the walls of Stella Montis. If this has tempted you into giving Arc Raiders a try, check out our guide to the best settings, find out what skills we recommend unlocking first, and see how to earn loot by delivering field depot crates… or you can just wait for the inevitable TV show or movie adaptation, although the team says it hasn’t been swayed just yet.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Surprise! Nintendo has released an unexpected free update for Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, adding Dixie Kong and a new Turbo Attack mode for the game on both Switch and Switch 2.

The Switch 2 version of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD gets additional improvements, meanwhile, with improved loading times, higher resolution visuals, and the ability to play in co-op with a friend who doesn’t have the game themselves via GameShare.

Swapping out Diddy Kong for Dixie allows you to benefit from her higher, further jumps. Turbo Attack, meanwhile, tasks you with clearing levels at breakneck speed and within a tough time limit. In other words, Nintendo seems to have added something here for both new players and veterans.

A free update is rolling into #DonkeyKong Country Returns HD!

Swing into action as Dixie Kong in both single-player and two-player local co-op, and race through high-speed versions of each level in Turbo Attack. Plus, players on #NintendoSwitch2 can enjoy enhanced resolution,… pic.twitter.com/k66mpkhaOC

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 21, 2026

While today’s update has dropped out of the blue, Nintendo has been updating its many games originally released for Switch with fresh features, and improvements for those now playing on Switch 2. Some of these have included paid upgrades — such as last week’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons update — while Donkey Kong Country Returns HD’s new additions are free.

Today’s full Donkey Kong Country Returns HD patch notes lie below.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD: Ver. 1.1.0 (released January 20, 2026) patch notes:

The following updates have been made when playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch:

• You can now play as Dixie Kong. Her action when jumping is different from when Diddy Kong jumps.
  • When playing alone, as you grab a barrel, you can switch between either Diddy Kong or Dixie Kong as the character that appears.
  • When playing with two people, P2 can switch between Diddy Kong or Dixie Kong by pressing the stick (the L Stick in the case of playing with both Joy-Con 2 or Joy-Con controllers) on the world map.
• A Turbo Attack mode where you can race through the stage at high speed has been added.
  • If you clear the course once, it will appear at the same time as the Time Attack mode.
  • If you can clear it within the time limit, you will acquire a turbo medal.
• Now supports Brazilian Portuguese language.
  • You can switch the language in the “Language” setting in the “System” menu of “System Settings.”
• Several other issues have been addressed and image quality enhancements have been made to improve the gameplay experience.

The following updates have been made when playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2:

• Now supports “GameShare (Local User).”
  • You can select “GameShare (Local User)” from “2 Players” on the game start screen or the menu screen of the world map.
• Optimized for the Nintendo Switch 2 display and high-resolution TVs for improved image quality.
• The loading time is now shorter.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Any game built around gacha mechanics needs to have a certain hook to keep things interesting in the long term, especially if there’s potential to invest your hard-earned dollars into it. For all their systemic sins, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad and Persona 5: The Phantom X at least piqued my interest by expanding on already-revered lore, allowing me to intertwine myself in their beloved worlds. The much more enjoyable Zenless Zone Zero, on the other hand, pulled me in with a mix of high-octane combat, endearing character development, and Y2K flair. Arknights: Endfield is the latest competitor in this genre’s fierce attention economy, offering not only an engrossing sci-fi open world to explore, but another mechanically moreish addition: base building and automation. After approximately twenty hours of Endministrating, it’s clear there’s a lot more to uncover here beyond its sticky login loop, but crucially, I’m keen to expand my horizons in search of character motives, upgrades, and ultimately rewarding depth.

In Arknights: Endfield, you play as the Endministrator (or Endmin for short) who, after a 10-year absence and an unfortunate case of amnesia, returns to the world of the living to reinhabit the planet of Talos-II. Taming the wilds is no small task, though, and on top of trying to remember who you were before your big sleep, you’ll also face off against a range of evil entities, including leather-clad maurauders, shifting zoomorphic creatures, and other mythic, well-dressed baddies. It’s an intriguing premise, unfortunately told through an exposition-heavy opening with awkward stop-and-start pacing. Still, if you brave its dialogue-dense beginning, Arknights: Endfield eventually opens up, delivering visually enticing battles and a captivating atmosphere that help make up for it.

Your job primarily involves adventuring with your team to the surface of Talos-II to hunt for resources, solve simple environmental platforming puzzles, and eventually clear out whole areas which you can access in the metagame to build and automate machinery. To do this, you’ll use a team of up to four Operators who, under your control, fight and collect items to push the lengthy story ever onwards. Early on, you’ll have a limited pool of story-specific characters to play as, like the masked Endmin, the empathetic mission-oriented Perlica, and the spirited Chen Qianyu, though eventually you’ll be able to use a specially earned gacha currency to pull new characters, too. It’s not the most imaginative gameplay, with many of the puzzles involving finding and pressing a few buttons on a small map to find success, or trawling through the same few groups of bad guys to push through an area. Still, this is all set against a striking cyberpunk backdrop that makes it surprisingly easy to sink hours into.

As you can imagine, there is an eye-watering array of currencies to consider here — a painful staple of the genre. On top of the usual gacha pulling, which allows you to randomly unlock unique characters and weapons, there’s also a paid Battle Pass that rewards you with resources that can be filtered into systems that help speed up progression, that is, if you can figure them out. It’s hard to say from only the week I’ve spent with it so far whether this feels balanced or not, but I’ve not run into any significant roadblocks that would encourage me to pull out my wallet in the early game – though only time will tell, and based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m not overly confident I won’t eventually find a few.

While my humble crew was more than enough for me in the beginning, once I’d earned the currency needed to try out the character lottery firsthand, my feelings began to shift. In my first pull, I drew Estella, an adorable beanie-wearing warrior who compelled me with their nonchalant attitude and stylish techwear garb. Soon after that, I fell in love with Da Pan, a hungry panda whose leather jacket and belt combo gave him the aura of a dad navigating a midlife crisis. I’d like to say I stopped becoming attached to the characters as I kept pulling more. Alas, the range of unique designs, alongside their quippy one-liners, was effective enough to tug on my heartstrings. While I wouldn’t pay for currency with my own money beyond what is provided organically, I was happy to see that, if I did, developer Hypergryph has put a lot of effort into its worldbuilding and character design.

It helps that a character’s personality also tends to shape how they move in battle, and throughout my time with Arknights: Endfield, the flashy combat quickly became my favourite aspect. Hits are delivered with vibrant visual payoff, so much so that even my silly mistakes looked like intentional moves. As you explore, you’ll encounter groups of various enemies camped out, like violent blobs of possessed water or sword-wielding bandits, all of which feature level indicators hovering above their heads. Once ready to engage, you run directly at them, weapons brandished, and start swiping away.

Instead of controlling the Edmin alone, you switch between all the members of your team in battle, applying button-mashing combos that feel engaging in motion. Each character has a dodge, a light attack, and a special attack that string together nicely, delivering well-choreographed combos. Once you knock back an enemy and start to juggle them, you can call in your compatriots to deliver electrifying blows that feel slick – the Endmin’s sword slashes away with golden strikes, while Da Pan delivers belly bounds and butt slams with his towering form.

Outside of combat, the rest of your time is spent investing in the infrastructure of your base. Unlike the complex, automation-based gameplay of beloved factory management simulators Factorio and Satisfactory, Arknights: Endfield’s base building is much more tame, at least early on. And, thanks to lengthy explanations delivered by NPCs, it’s a process that ensures even the most build-averse players can learn how to create a functioning base of operations.

First, you’ll plant electric pylons and connect them with relay towers to supply electricity to the area. Though soon enough, you’ll also be able to implement mining as well as machinery that can refine and process raw materials. As someone who hasn’t always enjoyed the intense, efficiency-focused approach of similar automation games, Arknights: Endfield provides a friendly alternative that’s ripe for community collaboration – something I hope develops post-launch.

There’s still so much to see before I deliver my final score, like expanding the factories, fully automating my production, and leveling up my team and gear – and that’s before I uncover the truth behind the Endmin’s amnesia. So far, though, I’ve found myself comfortable in its world, and I’m keen to get stuck in and see how far I can push before I hit an inevitably uncomfortable grind.

Fortnite appears to be getting The Office content in Chapter 7 after rumors suggested Epic Games was working on a crossover.

Fans of TV and video games were thrown for a loop earlier today when Epic shared a not-so-cryptic tease on social media. It’s the kind of thing that would seem completely nonsensical to the uninitiated, but those who are even peripherally aware of the NBC comedy will recognize “Build. Beets. Battle Royale.” as a reference to one of the most memorable quotes from The Office.

Build. Beets. Battle Royale. pic.twitter.com/erCDcS0ZSS

— Fortnite (@Fortnite) January 20, 2026

A meeting between Fortnite and The Office, though never considered to be impossible, is unexpected, but some recent rumors had players believing confirmation was only a matter of time. Popular Fortnite content creator Shiina said they heard The Office could soon show up just last week. At the time, they suggested a rumor about “a nostalgic duo from a live-action TV series” was tied to the show but neglected to share more.

Which members of the Dunder Mifflin crew could be recreated in Epic’s battle royale mega-hit remains a mystery, but references to names like Michael Scott, Dwight Schrute, Jim Halpert, and Pam Beesly seem the most likely. It’s also unclear when exactly we’ll learn more about the potential Fortnite crossover, but some fans are already taking the tease as an opportunity to share their excitement.

pic.twitter.com/4bPhs7pSXy

— Jorge_Most (@Jorge_Most) January 20, 2026

pic.twitter.com/b8LFozezOn

— FNAssist (@FN_Assist) January 20, 2026

Shiina, meanwhile, has already posted an update since the Fortnite The Office tease reared its head. Their new video comes with the suggestion that the classic workplace comedy is coming soon, with content for Regular Show and Ed, Edd n Eddy also in the works at Epic. Players may want to take all of today’s information with a grain of salt, but with Fortnite’s track record for wild crossovers in mind, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Fortnite launched into Chapter 7 in November with an Avenger-style team-up event. Crossovers added since then include skins for Kim Kardashian, Bleach, and South Park. We’ll hopefully learn more about everything included in The Office teaser in the near future.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).