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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Performance Review

It was always going to be a tall order for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League to emerge from the shadow of the mighty Arkham series. From an architectural perspective the game has moved from Unreal Engine 3 to 4, while from an art and style perspective think more multi-coloured Marvel comics than a dark DC tome. From the bright sunshine across Gotham City and vibrant greens, reds and purples, each character and enemy stand in stark contrast to the subtle and muted tones of Rocksteady’s prior games. The same wide-open city is available to you early on, and each of the 4 playable characters have their own unique and fast means of travel. However, this presents one of our biggest issues when it comes to performance.

Available only on current generation consoles and PC, the game comes with a single performance mode on all platforms, aside from separate settings for motion blur, FoV, and other post effects. Thankfully that one mode targets 60fps on all platforms, but the level of success on that front largely depends on the console and area of play, while PC is an entirely different story. Starting with the Series S, performance is good in the earlier, limited sections, with a close-enough 60fps readout as you play, but the game struggles with streaming, decompression, and general memory management once you get into the open city and moving fast with any character. This gives us some low 50s at points and even some 50+ms spikes at times, which cause minor but noticeable pauses. The shift from gameplay to realtime cinematics and back is as seamless as the Arkham games, and generally these run very well at that 60fps target.

The Series X and PS5 are similar but not perfect, again holding a close lock on 60fps but both can still drop frames and stutter into the low 50s. Of the two, Series X is slightly worse, with it having more streaming stutter and hiccups over the PS5. That said, the PS5 can still drop frames, but it tends to hold a higher, albeit largely invisible, level of performance of approximately 10% in like for like sections. Anyone with a variable refresh rate screen will benefit when these areas arise on all formats but the long stutters will still be noticed.

Console Performance

Visually the Series X and PS5 are a close match to the PC version running at the maximum High settings, though with shadows and LoD down a rung and without the ray-traced reflections that PC offers. Both output a full 4K target, but the actual geometry maxes out at a counted 1800p level on both with a low of 2240x1260p, highlighting that DRS is enabled here. The choice between TAA or DLSS is only available on PC, pointing to the fact that PS5 and Series X are likely using TAA also. This does present a far cleaner and sharper image than the Series S, although the huge hike in pixel counts and texture quality is a big reason for that. They both suffer from dithering artefacts and ghosting in the TAA which is why I am inclined to think that they use TAA and DRS. While the Series S relies on a fixed 900p base (from all counts) using FSR1 back to 1080p.

Textures on the Series S are of a lower quality than both bigger consoles, level of detail is paired back significantly in medium to long views, as is the shadow map cascade and resolution. Screen space reflections are also disabled, which removes dynamic reflections and means less light bounce with darker shade to most surfaces along with reduced volumetrics. Overall, the Series S looks closer to a mix of Low and Medium settings when compared to PC. And comparing it to Series X and PS5 it does suffer, with a big degradation in image quality and slightly worse performance. Series X does run with a higher resolution on average – in one long shot across the city, for example, it was a flat 1440p on PS5 and 1620p on Series X. This is more an academic difference than something you would actually notice, but shows that the wider GPU of the Series X is being used to push more pixels.

PC Performance

PC is not such a positive tale of performance, with options that enable a limited level of tweaking. Ray-traced reflections are a welcome but minor boost over consoles, however they are broken on my AMD RX 6800 machine. DLSS will remain the default choice for Nvidia players and the best balance of performance versus image quality. On AMD or Steam Deck you have the choice of TAA or AMD’s FSR1, which means the lower the base resolution the worse the image quality will become. With my RX 6800 and Zen 2 5600x at 4K TAA DRS High settings to match consoles, we see a game that can hold a decent level of 60fps in those smaller battles and is often a full 4K.

With Ray Traced reflections on, the increased BVH management, traversal and data impacts CPU and bandwidth. On this machine, and likely even more powerful ones, it causes horrible performance. As such, I simply cannot recommend ray tracing at all. With mid-30s and large 150+ms spikes when travelling and fighting through the city, and due to the engine trying to improve performance, heavier resolution drops do happen, just as we see on the console version. The GPU utilisation can drop very low and in general any recommendations are moot as the game’s performance appears to be more impacted by the code than the hardware, aside from disabling ray tracing, which helps the worst cases seen here.

A Work in Progress

The lighting artists did an exceptional job here in fill, point and coloured lights. Many sections use distinct hues and shadows to emphasise mood, atmosphere, or the excellent models. Even though they are a step up over Arkham and Gotham Knights, much of this comes down to material quality across all surface types, from the white dull matte paint of Harley Quinn’s face to the sub surface diffuse of Shark’s flesh. The animators also deserve huge praise, with the mixture of performance capture and key framed animation being a highlight. The exaggerated expressions, winks, and teeth gnashing of each character portrays great emotion throughout. Eyes are incredible, with rapid movement, blink, and rolling adding a great deal of realism without crossing into the uncanny valley. The cutscenes shine the most and are the highlight of the game’s visuals.

Sadly, the in-game action falls from these heights, almost as if they were managed by different teams. Compared to Arkham Knight, it does not make any big or even small leaps. The city has less activity, fewer NPCs, and worse art direction – the extensive use of purples and oranges in some sections is drab, and with the overly busy UI feels at odds with some of the more story-focused sections. Add in repetitive and samey enemies and missions that entail travelling around a city with little charm, and the game loses much of the identity that Arkham City and Knight had. Even the water is not as good. Animation cycles and blends are a mix of re-use and awkwardness, such as Harley’s gangly run and swing or Shark’s jump and strike attacks. I found little in the gameplay art or style that impressed me throughout play.

Summary

Killing the Justice League is in the title, but killing the best Batman trilogy in games is something else entirely. The game has some excellent models and humorous moments and cutscenes, but in the roughly nine years since the last Arkham game, it still hangs on to the same core engine and coattails of that great trilogy. Suicide Squad offers little new or impressive elements from a visual, audio, or even gameplay perspective. Performance is good but not great, with classic data streaming stutter, which impacts the PC version the most and is why console versions are recommended over that. Ironically, Gotham Knights also fell short of the Arkham series, but in hindsight it did many things better than this latest entry from Rocksteady.

The Search for Lost Species Board Game Review

Logical deduction games are a curious and awkward sub-genre. For the game to be interesting, they need to present a puzzle with a lot of dynamism and moving parts. However, doing so poses a significant problem because unless the players communicate their clues and instructions exactly right, the entire game can collapse. In 2020, The Search for Planet X tried to solve this problem by having an app direct players with their uncovered clues, meaning that any errors you make are yours, and yours alone. It proved very popular and now the designers are back with another, more complex, spin on the concept: The Search for Lost Species.

What’s in the Box

As an app-driven game, the box contents might look a little underwhelming at first because you’ve got an electronic gizmo to download that does most of the heavy lifting. Mandatory apps in tabletop games is a controversial issue, and some gamers loathe the reliance on a third-party digital component that might become unavailable at a later date, rendering the game useless. You’ll have to be happy with that risk if you want to get on board this title. It’s best if each player can run their own copy of the app, but it’s easy to install and smooth to use, although, oddly, it doesn’t save game state, which can be a problem playing solo.

What you do get is high-quality stuff. There’s a double-sided fold-out game board with an island hex map on each side, rendered in clear, attractive art. There are a variety of clean-cut wooden pieces, two pawns in each of four player colors, an expedition leader pawn and some mountains that highlight barriers on the board. A pad of note sheets is also included, and each player has a screen to hide their notes and a set of cardboard tokens behind. Finally, there are two small decks of cards and some timing tokens alongside a slightly bizarre but amusing boat-shaped tray to build and hold them in.

As a game with an ecological theme, The Search for Lost Species takes its green credentials seriously. There’s an information sheet included explaining how most of the materials were sourced in an environmentally-friendly way. The six lost species you can hunt for are all real animals, and all on the brink of extinction, none having been seen for several decades. The paragraphs about them at the end of the rulebook make for sobering reading.

Rules and How It Plays

The Search for Lost Species uses a time mechanism to determine turn order. Different actions you can take demand that you move your pawn forward on the time track different numbers of spaces. Whoever is furthest behind gets to take their turn, until their pawn overtakes another on the time track, and so on. So you’re always caught on the horns of choosing less impactful, faster actions against slower, more useful ones in terms of where others are on the time track.

Your two most common options will be to search the island, either by boat or by foot. In both cases, you choose a range of hexes and either look for empty hexes or select one of the four animal types. You put this into the app, and it’ll tell you how many of that particular animal there were in the hexes you searched. Going by boat is faster, but it’s restricted to coastal hexes and has a minimum search range of four, meaning the information you get is less useful. Knowing there’s one toad somewhere among those four isn’t terribly helpful. As a result, tapping your locations in and seeing the results has a fun frisson of excitement as you’re on tenterhooks to find out if you’ve pinned down some helpful information.

However, from the outset you’re given extra information to narrow down the location of each animal. There’s only one species per hex, and the app starts you off with a few titbits on which animals are absent from some hexes. You can configure this to give more starting clues to particular players, which is a fantastic way to give a leg-up to younger or less experienced participants. Each animal also has some fixed rules about where it lives. The four Lories – a kind of parrot – for example, always live next to each other in a fixed diamond pattern. So once you’ve found two, you can narrow down the other two are very easily.

As well as varying the location of species for each game, the app also offers additional rules about animal locations that vary between games. You can access these via the fastest action, visiting a town. This requires you to spend a town token, of which you only have one, and lets you take a card from a face up selection and do some research. The cards either improve one of the game’s actions or offer bonus points for certain conditions, while the research gives you an extra clue for whatever species you choose. So in every game you know that each of the two toads is adjacent to two empty spaces, but in your particular game you might learn that exactly one of the toads lives in the hills.

Using this drip feed of information, you can make educated guesses about what species lives in which hex. There are a lot of these clues, and piecing them together is fun and challenging. But it’s also weirdly stressful because one mistake can be disastrous. Getting one animal in the wrong hex means you’re going to make errors in following other clues, and misidentify further species, a chain reaction of chaos. But then again, making intuitive stabs based on good odds can pay dividends. The order in which you choose to pick up research or search for species can have a big impact on how your game unfolds. It’s up to you how you piece your game plan together and how much you want to rely on educated guesses.

There are a lot of these clues, and piecing them together is fun and challenging.

Every so often, all the player pawns will the expedition leader pawn on the time track. When this happens, one of several things can occur. Most often, players get to place sighting tokens, which indicate hexes where they think particular animals live. You’re allowed to check whether your sightings were correct several turns later, which is both a big source of points and of clues as to the makeup of the island. Before they’re revealed, you can use sightings to guess about what’s on the island: if they put down a token for a python in a hex you know they’ve explored for pythons, there’s a good bet that’s where the python is. They might have made a mistake, though, or even be bluffing. The latter is a high-risk tactic, however, as incorrect sightings not only lose out on the points but are punished on the time track.

Moving the leader can also result in players regaining their town tokens so they can make another visit, or also their camera trap tokens, an additional action that allows you to pinpoint the animal that lives in a particular hex. Finally, on two occasions, the leader will result in all the players getting the same research information about the lost species. This animal, of which there are numerous possible options to keep things varied, has its own placement rules like other species. But it’s so elusive that you can’t ever find it by exploration: its hex will appear to be empty. All you have to go on is elimination, from identifying other habitats, and the various rules that you’re given through research.

Guessing the location of the lost species is the game’s final, and longest, action. If you’re right, you’ll get a huge points bonus and trigger the end game. Other players can still win if they’re close to making the deduction themselves, and they have better sightings than you, but getting their first is a big boost. As a result, once the pieces begin to fall into place, this very cerebral, puzzly game acquires an extraordinary amount of tension. You’re always nervous that your neighbor is just about to declare that big search action and pinpoint the lost species, and there’s a mounting temptation to risk those intuitive leaps and see if you can get in there first. But it’s almost certainly game over if you get it wrong.

Where to Buy

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Demo Update to Address Performance Issues

The Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo update set for February 21 also addresses performance concerns with the game, Square Enix has announced.

Revealed in a post on X/Twitter, the update will upgrade Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s Performance Mode, both in the demo and the main game.

Players had raised concerns over the quality of the PlayStation 5 exclusive, with IGN’s own performance review saying Performance Mode comes with a “drastic clarity and detail reduction” compared to its Graphics Mode counterpart.

Square Enix appears to have taken this feedback on, and has implemented an update coming as early as next week, before the full game even launches on February 29. “The update to the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo scheduled for February 21 will apply improvements to the visual quality when selecting Performance Mode from the graphics options,” the post said. “The same improvements will also be applied to the full game.”

Fans will need to wait until then to see if the changes result in a significant improvement, but Square Enix certainly has high expectations to meet for what’s arguably the most important chapter of its Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy.

The demo is available now and lets players explore the opening chapter of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, playing as either protagonist Cloud or antagonist Sephiroth in the Nibelheim chapter.

Developer Square Enix hasn’t been shy about sharing details of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth so far, releasing huge dumps of information on several occasions. It’s highlighted characters like Cait Sith and Vincent, plus iconic returning locations like Gold Saucer and Junon. The game will feature brand new locations not in the original Final Fantasy 7, too.

Square Enix has added new playable characters, plus a card game akin to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Gwent, and impressive fast travel. An ESRB rating has otherwise teased deep cleavage, pools of blood, and a clue to Aerith’s fate.

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

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Will Feature an Uncapped Frame Rate, Director Confirms

Despite what previous rumors suggested, the director of Dragon’s Dogma 2 has clarified that the upcoming action RPG will not be locked at 30 frames per second but rather will feature an uncapped frame rate.

In a post on X/Twitter, Dragon’s Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno confirmed the game would feature an unlocked frame rate and support for variable frame rate (VFR).

While Itsuno did not specify whether these features are available on all the platforms Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to release on, they should be on PC and consoles alike, as Itsuno liked a reply a fan posted when asking if uncapped frame rates and VFR were coming to the console versions, too.

Unlike variable refresh rate (VRR), variable frame rate (VFR) is when the the video display adjusts the frame rate depending on certain factors such as how much action is going on in a scene or the hardware the game is running on. In contrast, VRR is a technology that will automatically sync a display’s refresh rate to match whatever the game is outputting.

Uncapped frame rates can be a double-edged sword depending on the situation, mostly concerning the stability of a game’s performance. As Digital Foundry’s John Linneman points out, from what he has seen, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is “wildly unstable,” with hopes that there will be a Performance Mode or at least an option to lock the game at 30 frames per second.

In IGN’s final preview of Dragon’s Dogma 2, we wrote: “In the 10 hours I played, these were very compelling decisions to have to make, but the real test will be whether those decisions remain compelling or turn exhausting in hour 20 or 30 when the map has expanded dramatically, and you still have quests remaining to complete in a town you’re super far away from.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is out on March 22 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Sony Boss Says PlayStation Has ‘Room for Improvement’ When It Comes to Cutting Development Costs

Sony boss Hiroki Totoki has offered what he called his “frank impressions” of the PlayStation business, suggesting its studios can do more to cut development costs.

Rising development costs and increasing development schedules are two of the hottest topics within the video game industry right now. As huge layoffs devastate developers, the triple-A business is seen as under threat, with fears of a market crash.

The release of data stolen from Sony-owned developer Insomniac late last year revealed internal concern at the growing cost of the studio’s games. According to Kotaku’s report on the breach, Spider-Man 2 development costs ran $30 million over the original $270 million budget, and ultimately needed to sell 7.2 million units to break even. The latest sales figures suggest Spider-Man 2 has now veered into profitable territory, although Sony has yet to confirm that itself.

Responding to a question from an analyst during a financial call viewed by IGN, Totoki reflected on his four month-tenure as chairperson of Sony Interactive Entertainment, a role he took on following the announcement that previous SIE boss Jim Ryan was leaving the business.

“I’m trying to demonstrate leadership, and trying to have as many meetings as possible with the management team,” Totoki said. “Also visit studios. Everyone is working really hard to fulfill their responsibility, to try to optimize the business, and I understand that.

“But overall growth and sustainable profitability, or increasing margin, how will that translate to these goals? I don’t think people understand that deeply. I think that is the problem of the organization.

“So as far as I am concerned, I’m trying to understand what is happening in the company, in the industry, and also the perspective of analysts, and try to explain in a transparent manner so people can recognise and notice these issues, so we can have a harmonized approach going forward. That is a very general comment since I became the chairperson.

“There are concrete points, which I will not go into today.”

Totoki then went into more detail on what he called “room for improvement” at PlayStation studios, specifically calling out development costs and scheduling.

“Now, about visiting the studios, I’ve had meetings with leaders at the studios,” he said. “People who work in the studios are very highly motivated, they’re very good people, and they’re very creative people, they have great creative minds, and they also have knowledge about live streaming.

“However, having said that, when it comes to the business itself, I think there is room for improvement. And that has to do with, how do you use the money? Or about the schedule of development, or how to fulfill one’s accountability towards development. Those are my frank impressions.

“So I will continue to engage in dialogue with the people so we can find the right way to proceed.”

Following the release of the data stolen from Insomniac, files revealed Sony-owned studios were put under pressure to make staff cuts. As reported by Kotaku, the files contained meeting notes that claimed “there will be one studio closure” at PlayStation Studios. It is currently unclear if this claim remains valid. Sony and Insomniac are yet to comment.

Elsewhere, the files showed Insomniac was under pressure to make budget cuts, with 50-75 layoffs earmarked for the studio. Insomniac staff reportedly discussed how to “remove 50-75 people strategically”, as requested by Sony, with the best option supposedly to “cut deeply” into the Wolverine and Spider-Man 3 teams, and replacing staff with team members from the unannounced new Ratchet & Clank game and a new unannounced IP.

According to the leaked documents, Sony called on staff cuts across its first-party studios. Officially, we know of a number of layoffs at PlayStation Studios, including a wave of redundancies at Dreams developer Media Molecule, significant cuts at Destiny developer Bungie, and layoffs at The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog.

During the financial call, Totoki said Sony would try to improve PlayStation game margins by leaning further on non-PlayStation platforms, such as PC and mobile.

“In the past, as you all know, we wanted to popularize console and the first-party titles main purpose was to make the console popular,” Totoki said. “It is true, but there is a synergy to it. So if you have strong first-party content, not only with our console but also other platforms like computers, first-party can be grown with multiplatforms, and that can help operating profit to improve. So that is another one we want to proactively work on.

“I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margins, so I would like to go aggressive on improving our margin performance.”

Sony has already demonstrated a willingness to release its big first-party PlayStation exclusives on PC some time after they launch on console, although has so far resisted following in Microsoft’s footsteps by launching its games day-and-date across console and PC. However, it has released some of its multiplayer-focused games on console and PC at the same time. The recently released Helldivers 2, for example, launched on PS5 and PC via Steam on the same day, and has become Sony’s biggest game ever on Valve’s platform with over 200,000 peak concurrent players.

Sony has revised its PS5 sales forecast for the current financial year, down from its lofty target of 25 million consoles sold to 21 million. This despite a year-on-year increase in PS5 sales for the holiday 2023 quarter, from 7.1 million sold to 8.2 million. Elsewhere, Sony has said it will not release any major existing PlayStation franchise games before April 2025, ruling out big sequels in the God of War and Spider-Man franchises any time soon.

Image credit: Sony

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Sony Says Big PS5 Price Cut Would Be ‘Very Difficult’

Sony has said a dramatic PlayStation 5 price cut would be “very difficult” as the console enters into the second half of its life cycle.

In an investor call viewed by IGN, Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Hiroki Totoki said it’s harder to “shrink” the PS5’s die size and therefore cut console manufacturing costs compared to Sony’s ability to cheapen the PS4. “Therefore cost reduction is very difficult, simply put,” Totoki said.

One issue Sony faces as it considers the price of the PS5 during the fourth year of its life is the relatively high cost to shrink the console’s die size compared to equivalent costs during the previous generation. That leaves little room for maneuver, and suggests storage may be the only area of the console Sony could reasonably look to cut costs. All this at a time when the price of components is rising.

The original PS5 launched at $499, with a cheaper digital-only version priced $399.99. Last year’s PS5 Slim launched at $499.99, again with a cheaper digital-only version but this time priced $449.99.

In the financial call, Totoki said Sony does not want to rely on a PS5 price cut in any case. We want to make sure our business is profitable, as well we want to focus on user engagement, together with sales of units,” he said. “We need to strike a nice balance between all of those components.”

Sustaining user engagement, with the key monthly active users (MAU) metric at its core, is “the most critical thing in our business right now”, Totoki added.

To that end, Sony is doing well indeed. The company said it saw record high MAUs in December, with 123 million people playing PlayStation. Total play hours are up 13% year-on-year.

However, Sony has revised its PS5 sales forecast for the current financial year down, from its lofty target of 25 million consoles sold to 21 million. This despite a year-on-year increase in PS5 sales for the holiday 2023 quarter, from 7.1 million sold to 8.2 million.

Elsewhere, Sony has said it will not release any major existing PlayStation franchise games before April 2025, ruling out big sequels in the God of War and Spider-Man franchises any time soon.

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.

Silent Hill 2 Remake Dev Responds to Controversial Combat Trailer, Insists It Was Handled by Konami

It sounds like Bloober Team and Konami’s relationship is under further strain after an interview emerged in which the developer of the Silent Hill 2 remake pointed the finger at its own publisher for a recently released and divisive gameplay trailer.

In January, after months of speculation and leaks, Blooper Team’s remake of Silent Hill 2 finally resurfaced during PlayStation’s State of Play presentation, albeit without a release date.

But the new trailer, below, was criticised by some for focusing on combat in what is meant to be a tense, horror-filled adventure. “I’m really concerned after that trailer,” wrote IGN commenter MasterChief3624. “I think Silent Hill is at its best when it uses the fixed camera angles. But even putting that aside, it looks like it has a lot more action? Maybe that was just to make the game look more enticing to people, but it seemed like action was a much bigger focus, with lots of enemies around him at various points in the trailer.

“I know you sometimes have a few enemies to contend with at a time, but this looked like it might hike up the frequency of it. It really feels like they’re sacrificing atmosphere for action, and I think Silent Hill is the absolute worst franchise you could do that to. I hope I’m wrong. But this doesn’t look good.”

Now, Bloober Team studio head Piotr Babieno has spoken out about the trailer in a video interview with inwestorzy.tv that appears to have been set to private. But Eurogamer Poland picked up on the interview and reported what was said. Eurogamer’s UK site subsequently offered a translation.

According to the site, Babieno said trailers such as the one that appeared in the State of Play are handled by Konami. “It’s not the spirit of what used to be, or what we’re creating now,” Babieno said of the trailer. According to Babieno, Bloober Team is working to “fully capture this romantic vision of a game that debuted 22 years ago,” adding that when players see more gameplay they will “judge it in a completely different way.”

This isn’t the first time Bloober Team has issued a comment that hints at a strained relationship with Konami behind the scenes. Last year it responded to fans frustrated about the silence around the Silent Hill 2 remake to point the finger at Konami, saying: “Communication is definitely part of their job.”

IGN has asked both Bloober and Konami for clarification on the latest comments. Silent Hill 2 remake is due out on PC via Steam and as a console exclusive for PlayStation 5. It does not have a release window.

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 Dev Rolls Out New Patch to Combat Matchmaking and Stability Issues

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Games Studios has rolled out a new patch to address a range of matchmaking, performance, and stability issues affecting the popular co-operative shooter.

“Recruits, help is on the way!” wrote the developer in a Twitter/X post announcing the patch. “We have issued a patch to PC and PS5 players to address general stability (crashes) and stuttering, Defend Events, and matchmaking.”

Patch 01.000.006 brings a number of fixes for cutscene-related crashes, including one that was known to occur during extraction at the very end of a mission. Other crashes linked to text-to-speech functionality and menu elements have also been addressed.

Arrowhead has also worked to improve Helldivers 2’s ‘backend connectivity’, which will hopefully make for a more seamless matchmaking experience and reduce the risk of disconnecting during missions.

Helldivers 2 update 01.000.006 patch notes are below:

Overview

  • For this patch, we have focused on the following areas:
  • Improved general game stability
  • Prepared build for upcoming server matchmaking improvements.
  • Resolving connectivity and disconnect issues.

Fixes

  • Fixed crash when application was closed shortly after start
  • Game no longer crashes during extraction cutscene.
  • User profile with too many friends no longer causes crash.
  • Fixed crash when using text-to-speech during extraction cutscene
  • Game no longer crashes when users disconnect during the joining cutscene.
  • Operation Status in Mission Summary no longer causes crash.
  • Fixed crashes caused by leftover visual effects from disconnected players.
  • Game no longer crashes when using ADS.
  • Repaired instability in game data packing that caused increased patch sizes.
  • Improved backend connectivity, reduces likelihood of disconnecting in missions.
  • Improved matchmaking experience and likelihood of success.

The February 8 launch of Helldivers 2 saw over 360,000 players concurrently attempt to login and join the effort to spread managed democracy by calling down all manner of overpowered weapons on the bug-like Termanid hordes and robotic Automaton armies. This wave of enthusiasm stressed the game’s online infrastructure, leaving many players frustrated with progression issues, and others struggling to login at all.

Arrowhead has since deployed a number of “rapid fixes” to remedy the most prevalent issues, though one such update had to be partially rolled back after players reported a degredation in performance on PC. The developers have since apologised to affected customers, and promised to hold an ‘increased reward event’ to compensate the community for any lost progression.

Technical issues aside, Helldivers 2 is a hit with players, with many lauding the game’s dynamic enemy encounters, and generally being goodwilled when it comes to the inevitable friendly fire events that come hand in hand with high explosive orbital bombardments. Some members of the community are even working to establish rules of etiquette that players can adhere to in order to ensure that everyone has an enjoyable time, and no-one finds themselves on the wrong end of a descending Hellpod.

Earlier today Helldivers 2 hit another engagement milestone, as over 200,000 players consecutively logged in to play on PC. Helldivers 2 is Sony’s biggest game ever on PC, beating the likes of God of War.

If you’re thinking about donning the Helldivers cape and joining the fight, then be sure to check out IGN’s Helldivers 2 review in progress, and to avail yourselves of our guides on how to defeat some of the apex lifeforms terrorising democracy.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 Swings Past 10 Million Sold

Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has hit another sales milestone: it’s now up to 10 million copies sold as of February 4, 2024.

Sony said previously Spider-Man 2 was the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game over a 24-hour period when the PlayStation 5 exclusive sold more than 2.5 million copies in a day. That sales milestone put Spider-Man 2 ahead of Sony Santa Monica’s God of War Ragnarok at the top of the PlayStation day-one launch sales chart.

Spider-Man 2 went on to sell five million after just 11 days on sale. And now, Sony has confirmed it’s sold 10 million after 107 days on sale. To put that into more context, Marvel’s Spider-Man, which launched on PlayStation 4 in 2018, sold nine million copies after 80 days on sale, and 13.2 million after 325 days on sale.

The release of data stolen from Insomniac late last year revealed internal concern at the growing cost of the developer’s games. According to Kotaku’s report on the breach, Spider-Man 2 development costs ran $30 million over the original $270 million budget, and ultimately needed to sell 7.2 million units to break even. The latest sales figures suggest Spider-Man 2 has now veered into profitable territory, although Sony has yet to confirm that itself.

While Spider-Man 2 appears to have been successful for Sony, the company signaled a sparse year for big first-party exclusives. Sony said it will not release any major existing PlayStation franchise games before April 2025, ruling out big new sequels in the likes of its God of War and Spider-Man series.

What’s next for Insomniac? Spider-Man 2 gets its long-awaited update in March, and is working on a Wolverine game for PS5.

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.

Hollow Knight: Silksong – Everything We Know About the 2D Metroidvania Sequel

Team Cherry is years into development on Hollow Knight: Silksong, a sequel to its acclaimed 2D action-adventure game that IGN crowned the all-time best Metroidvania (that isn’t a Metroid or Castlevania game).

In anticipation of the sequel to Hollow Knight, we’ve put together this breakdown of everything you need to know about Hollow Knight: Silksong as of February 2024.

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Hollow Knight: Silksong Release Date

There is no official release date or window for Hollow Knight: Silksong. A 2024 release seems most likely given it was previously slated for the first half of 2023, though there’s been no official word from developer Team Cherry.

Last May, Team Cherry delayed Silksong beyond its initial First Half 2023 release window, saying: “We had planned to release in the 1st half of 2023, but development is still continuing. We’re excited by how the game is shaping up, and it’s gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can. Expect more details from us once we get closer to release.”

As of mid-February 2024, Team Cherry has not shared further details on the release date.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Platforms and Price

Hollow Knight: Silksong will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. It’ll be available day and date on Xbox Game Pass. The official PlayStation account tweeted Silksong is coming to PS4 as well, though the platform is absent from the game’s official website and press kit.

A price has not been announced for Silksong. The first Hollow Knight retailed for $15, though there’s no guarantee the sequel will cost the same.

If you were one of the 2,158 people who backed the original Hollow Knight on Kickstarter, you’ll receive a copy of Silksong for free, according to Team Cherry.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Gameplay

Team Cherry has purposely been quiet about Silksong’s gameplay details. “Discovery is a huge part of Hollow Knight so we don’t want to spoil all the new systems and surprises,” it said. However, from two trailers and a handful of blog posts, we’ve learned a bit about what you can expect gameplay-wise.

Hornet, equipped with her needle and thread of silk, is described as an “acrobatic” fighter; she moves quickly and gracefully, as evidenced by the most recent gameplay trailer from 2022.

The sequel will feature tons of new enemies (165 as of late 2019). These include “beasts and hunters, assassins and kings, [and] monsters and knights.” Outside of combat, Hornet has the ability to craft weapons, traps, and “mechanisms to confound your enemies and explore new heights.”

As detailed by Team Cherry, Hornet uses silk to Bind (i.e., heal), similar to how the Knight uses soul to Focus in Hollow Knight. New for the sequel is the speed in which Hornet can Bind — “it’s lightning-fast” — and her ability to heal in mid-air. At the start of the game, one Bind will restore three masks. Bind consumes all of Hornet’s silk, and if she’s hit mid-heal, “the healing effect will be wasted and the silk will be gone.”

Upon death, Hornet will leave a cocoon, akin to how the Knight left a Shade. Each cocoon will contain a full supply of silk, creating a tactical decision for the player on when to break it open.

As with Hollow Knight’s labyrinthine Hallownest, Silksong’s world, Pharloom, must be mapped as you progress through its twisting layout. Team Cherry says the process uses the “same tools and restrictions” as the original game, though this time around, Hornet will be aided by the warrior Shakra, a master cartographer who provides charts, compasses, and other tools for navigation.

Silksong will feature Silk Soul Mode, available after you complete the game for the first time. Silk Soul Mode, like Steel Soul Mode in Hollow Knight, “spins the game into a unique, challenging experience.” Further details have not yet been announced.

We got our hands on Silksong back in 2019 and said, “It’s unmistakably Hollow Knight, but with the speed cranked up to 11 thanks to the nimble nature of its new protagonist, Hornet.”

Hollow Knight: Silksong Story

Hollow Knight: Silksong features a new protagonist and game world. In the sequel, you’ll play as Hornet, who appears as a boss-turned-ally in the original game. Dubbed the princess-protector of Halllownest, Hornet is captured and brought to the unfamiliar, haunted land of Pharloom. She embarks on a journey to discover the truth behind her capture and ascend to the kingdom’s peak. Here’s the official story synopsis from Team Cherry:

As Hornet, princess-protector of Hallownest, adventure through a whole new kingdom ruled by silk and song. Captured and brought to this unfamiliar land, Hornet must battle foes and solve mysteries as she ascends on a deadly pilgrimage to the kingdom’s peak.

One new area, as detailed by Team Cherry, is Greymoor, wasted caverns that house “many mysteries, several new friends, and [a] duel with a lethal, lunging foe.” It’s described as “one of the biggest” areas in either Hollow Knight game. Other areas include lakes of fire, coral forests, mossy grottoes, gilded cities, and misted moors.

Hornet, unlike the Knight, is voiced. “Dialogue and narrative are there for those that seek it,” said Team Cherry. “For those that don’t, you’ll be able to ignore nearly all characters and get on with your exploring, hunting, and powering up.”

Team Cherry has also revealed some of the new characters Hornet will befriend or face off against in Silksong. You can see them alongside their character descriptions in the gallery above.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Development

Hollow Knight: Silksong is being developed by Team Cherry, the Australian studio that created the original game. The development team consists of three people: Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and Jack Vine.

Silksong, announced in 2019, began development as DLC for the original game. “Almost from the very start, Hornet’s adventure was intended to take place in a new land, but as we dove in, it quickly became too large and too unique to stay a DLC, as initially planned,” Team Cherry wrote at the time of the announcement. “We do know that makes the wait a little longer, but we think the final, fresh world you’ll get to explore is worth it.”

Team Cherry is using Unity to create Silksong, as it did for the original. Composer Christopher Larkin is also back for the sequel; a two-song sample of the soundtrack is available on Larkin’s Bandcamp page.

How to Play Hollow Knight

The original game is available on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC as Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition, which bundles the base game with its four content packs: Hidden Dreams, The Grimm Troupe, Lifeblood, and Godmaster. It’s available with Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus Extra. Otherwise, it retails for $15.

In his Hollow Knight review, IGN’s Tom Marks wrote, “With such a high density of secrets to find and fun, challenging enemies to face, it’s worth spending every moment you can in Hollow Knight.”

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.