Happy Mother’s Day! This Sunday, all kinds of exclusive deals are now available at retailers you might not be aware of! We’ve compiled the best deals in games, tech, and more to make your Sunday as relaxing as possible. The best deals for Sunday, May 12, include Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Octopath Traveler II, Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania Edition, Dead Space, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition, and more.
Save Up to 60% Off Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the latest title in the long-running RPG series. Kiryu Kazama returns following the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, uniting with Ichiban Kasuga in a wild adventure you won’t forget anytime soon. While you should absolutely try to play through the series in order, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth can be played and enjoyed standalone.
Octopath Traveler II for $24.99
Octopath Traveler II was one of the standout RPGs of 2023. Featuring eight different characters, this HD-2D release depicts an expansive story told from the perspectives of these characters. Each traveler has unique abilities, making for a new and exciting experience with each story. This is one RPG you do not want to miss, especially for this price. You can get a free PS5 upgrade, too.
Pick Up the Dead Space Remake for $24.99
Dead Space launched last January, and this is a great time to pick up the game if you haven’t already. This remake features an impressive use of technology and a completely modernized combat system. Special attention has been put on the audio, with 3D Audio technology utilized for an immersive experience. You can expect loads of thrills and horror as you look to escape the stranded ship. The USG Ishimura has never looked better or been scarier.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for $27.99
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is available at Best Buy for just $27.99, which is one of the lower prices we’ve seen in quite some time. Set after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal Kestis has become a powerful Jedi, traveling through the galaxy to maintain peace. With new force abilities, lightsabers, and melee combat options, Survivor is an excellent sequel and a title any Star Wars fan should try out.
Save 75% Off JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R is an excellent fighting game that spans the entire JoJo series. Over 50 characters are playable, with DLC including Rudol Von Stroheim, Leone Abbacchio, Yuya Fungami, and more. If you’re a fan of the anime series or manga, All Star Battle R is an excellent title you’ll have loads of fun with, especially for just a few dollars.
Save Big on Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania Edition
If you’re a roguelite fan and haven’t checked out Dead Cells yet, do not pass up this deal. This package includes Dead Cells and the first four original DLCs in addition to the Return to Castlevania DLC. The RTC DLC includes familiar Castlevania characters like Richter and Alucard and features 14 new weapons, 3 boss fights, 20 costumes, and 51 music tracks.
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes] for $39.99
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II [Sys:Celes] is the long-awaited sequel to UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH, featuring new characters, abilities, and more! UNI2 has 24 different playable characters to choose from, with each depicted in the gorgeous pixel art style. If you’re a beginner, you can even elect to choose simple inputs to slash away and make combos a piece of cake!
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition for $20
Walmart has The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition for $20 right now. This title is the expanded and ultimate version of the massive RPG, with improved visuals, load times, and textures for Xbox Series X. The game even includes items inspired by the hit Netflix series, so you can experience the ultimate version of this beloved title.
Tekken 8 for $49.99
Tekken 8 is the latest major fighting game to be released for the current generation of consoles. Over 32 characters are already playable, far surpassing titles like Street Fighter 6 or Mortal Kombat 1. The online modes far surpass their predecessors, with good netcode and many different ways to play. In our 9/10 review, we stated Tekken 8 is ” an amazing new entry in the long-running series.”
Nintendo Switch OLED for $314.99
Woot currently has the White Joy-Con Nintendo Switch OLED Model for $314.99. If you’ve yet to pick up a Switch console, the OLED Model is the one you should aim to buy. With a gorgeous OLED screen, games on Switch pop and look vibrant. Additionally, the new reworked kickstand makes this device much easier to play in tabletop mode.
CRKD Nitro Deck with Carry Case for $59.99
The CRKD Nitro Deck is the ultimate Nintendo Switch accessory. This bundle includes both the CRKD Nitro Deck and a Carry Case for just $59.99, with six colorways available! You simply slide the console into the Nitro Deck, which then offers an ergonomic grip and feel around the system. By far, the best feature of this accessory is the Hall Effect Thumbsticks, which guarantee zero stick drift. This is easily one of the best Nintendo Switch accessories you can buy.
Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has taken to X/Twitter to seemingly share a first look at the cape design that was inspired by the review bombing on Steam following the PSN account linking fiasco.
The image, which you can see below, is only a small tease of what’s to come as we only get a look at the bottom right of the cape. However, that hasn’t stopped fans from getting very excited.
@MadeByKoobi was one of the many who can’t wait for this cape, and they shared the always-wonderful Jurassic Park meme of Dr. Ian Malcolm saying, ‘You did it. You crazy son of a bitch, you did it.”
The capes from both the community and Arrowhead are inspired by the horrifying red line of negative reviews that appeared on Steam following the announcement of this planned requirement, and it appears it will soon live forever in Helldivers 2 as a funny reminder of the rough patch for the game that has otherwise been a big hit all around.
Helldivers 2 received over 14,000 negative reviews today due to an update that will require PSN accounts next week.
Speaking of that rough patch, it also led to Helldivers 2 being pulled from 177 countries due to the PSN linking requirement, which obviously caused a huge headache for everyone inside and out of the studio.
Thankfully, Sony changed course and all is right in Helldivers 2 for the time being. Well, besides the constant threat of enemies at every turn doing their best to stop us from spreading democracy.
“Helldivers fans — we’ve heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward,” PlayStation wrote on its official account.
“We’re still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable. Thanks again for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we’ll keep you updated on future plans.”
It’s Saturday, and plenty of deals are now available at retailers you might not be aware of! Today, we’ve compiled the best deals in games, tech, and more! The best deals for Saturday, May 11, include Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania Edition, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition, and more.
Save Up to 60% Off Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the latest title in the long-running RPG series. Kiryu Kazama returns following the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, uniting with Ichiban Kasuga in a wild adventure you won’t forget anytime soon. While you should absolutely try to play through the series in order, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth can be played and enjoyed standalone.
Save 75% Off JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R is an excellent fighting game that spans the entire JoJo series. Over 50 characters are playable, with DLC including Rudol Von Stroheim, Leone Abbacchio, Yuya Fungami, and more. If you’re a fan of the anime series or manga, All Star Battle R is an excellent title you’ll have loads of fun with, especially for just a few dollars.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for $27.99
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is available at Best Buy for just $27.99, which is one of the lower prices we’ve seen in quite some time. Set after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal Kestis has become a powerful Jedi, traveling through the galaxy to maintain peace. With new force abilities, lightsabers, and melee combat options, Survivor is an excellent sequel and a title any Star Wars fan should try out.
Save Big on Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania Edition
If you’re a roguelite fan and haven’t checked out Dead Cells yet, do not pass up this deal. This package includes Dead Cells and the first four original DLCs in addition to the Return to Castlevania DLC. The RTC DLC includes familiar Castlevania characters like Richter and Alucard and features 14 new weapons, 3 boss fights, 20 costumes, and 51 music tracks.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition for $20
Walmart has The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition for $20 right now. This title is the expanded and ultimate version of the massive RPG, with improved visuals, load times, and textures for Xbox Series X. The game even includes items inspired by the hit Netflix series, so you can experience the ultimate version of this beloved title.
Tekken 8 for $49.99
Tekken 8 is the latest major fighting game to be released for the current generation of consoles. Over 32 characters are already playable, far surpassing titles like Street Fighter 6 or Mortal Kombat 1. The online modes far surpass their predecessors, with good netcode and many different ways to play. In our 9/10 review, we stated Tekken 8 is ” an amazing new entry in the long-running series.”
Nintendo Switch OLED for $314.99
Woot currently has the White Joy-Con Nintendo Switch OLED Model for $314.99. If you’ve yet to pick up a Switch console, the OLED Model is the one you should aim to buy. With a gorgeous OLED screen, games on Switch pop and look vibrant. Additionally, the new reworked kickstand makes this device much easier to play in tabletop mode.
Though Ubisoft is not the first company to shut down servers for an online-only game, the recent closure of The Crew’s online servers has inspired one individual to push for legal and government intervention to address the ever-growing industry trend. It’s a trend that has sparked even debate in the industry after Microsoft announced the closure of Arkane Studios, the developer behind Redfall. This decision has led to the cancellation of future updates and planned DLC for this online-only game.
Although Redfall’s servers are still operational, its long-term support remains uncertain, as it remains to be seen how long Microsoft will keep the servers up and whether or not it will provide an offline mode once it finally sunsets its support for Redfall.
Aside from the obvious fact that it means that players who spent money on this game feel cheated, there are plenty of stakes for the hundreds of people who poured their creative energy into bringing it to market in the first place. Shutting down and delisting a game becomes more than a surface-level decision; it’s stripping away the creative work of the thousands, possibly millions, of people who played or developed it.
Enter Stop Killing Games.
An initiative created by YouTuber Ross Scott, Stop Killing Games aims to hold publishers accountable by ending the common practice of making games designed to be “completely unplayable” after support ends, particularly MMOs and other online-only games. The initiative itself is a new branch in an even bigger fight to preserve video games for future generations.
Scott’s strategy is simple: file public complaints. Lots of them. After Ubisoft shut down the servers for The Crew, Scott encouraged those upset and angry to file a complaint with France’s Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF) since Ubisoft is headquartered in France.
“Due to the game’s size and France’s strong consumer protection laws, this represents one of the best opportunities to hold a publisher accountable for this action,” Scott wrote on the official website for Stop Killing Games. “If we are successful in bringing charges against Ubisoft, this can have a ripple effect on the videogames industry to prevent publishers from destroying more games.”
If you REALLY think about… if The Crew franchise continues to have vehicle transfer it’s THE biggest cop out to shut the games down
“oh well we’re shutting this one down but your cars did and will import to the next games so who cares right?” pic.twitter.com/ckojJW8kGt
The Crew is shutting down next year and since it’s online-only, it will be dead for good. Looks like I was off by 2 years. It’s still one of the largest open world driving games made. What a great business model throwing all that effort into the trash.https://t.co/FzPrN9mM2t
In a statement sent to IGN, a Ubisoft spokesperson told IGN it had “no further comment” regarding The Crew’s shutdown. The spokesperson reiterated that although the news could disappoint players, “it was necessary” for Ubisoft, citing server infrastructure and “licensing constraints.”
The painful limits of online games
Scott’s efforts are an attempt to address a trend that has been going on for years now, but in recent years has only become more acute
Newzoo Senior Market Analyst Michael Wagner says that in the past, it was common for games to lose online support after a certain period, usually when the “player bases move on to other titles.” Still, extra features would keep the game playable, like a single-player campaign, local multiplayer, and the option to set up private servers. However, in recent years, the idea of online games being completely unplayable has become “a fairly new phenomenon,” Wagner explains.
According to Wagner, publishers shut down games because of dwindling player bases and the need for more profitability of upkeep when newer entries are released in existing franchises, with examples including Battlefield and Call of Duty. Wagner explains how older games could threaten the newer games’ ability to turn a profit. “Players may continue with older iterations but may not spend within the game the new game. Removing functionality, in theory, means increased revenues for the new title.”
Liam Deane, principal analyst at Omdia, shares similar sentiments, noting “almost all online-only games have a finite lifespan.” While there are a few rare exceptions, most notably Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, Deane reiterates Wagner’s comments on player bases dwindling after a few years as a main reason for publishers shutting down servers.
“Almost all online-only games have a finite lifespan.”
“Until the mid-2000s or so online games typically allowed players to host private servers,” Deane explained. “But these days, the publisher usually shoulders the cost of maintaining the game servers. At some point, this is a cost which they are going to want to stop paying once a game’s player base drops below a certain level.”
With an increase in live service games and in-game purchases becoming a big source of revenue, the worrying trend of online-only games will continue for the foreseeable future. Deane explains that “across the entire industry,” 54% of revenue comes from microtransactions or in-game purchases, according to his research. The proportion is “obviously even higher” for live service games, where it’s common to have a surplus of microtransactions or in-game items purchasable for players.
When the player base dries up, so does the revenue, and with it, the chances of a game’s survival.
Nevertheless, the games industry is industry placing more and more emphasis on multiplayer games, particularly live service titles, such as Fortnite, Palworld, and Helldivers 2. These projects not only rely on a player base consistently coming back to play the game, but also on players being online to access this content. When they shut down, they take their communities with them. Friday the 13th, which will have its servers permanently turned off on December 31, 2024, is just one game suffering this fate.
Scott explains that while licensing agreements can prevent companies from selling additional companies of a game once the license expires, it does “not prevent existing buyers from continuing to use the game they have already paid for.”
Yet, the ownership of some games remains a gray area, especially in the United States, where legal precedent has significantly stripped consumers of their rights. The most significant legal case impacting this is ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenbger, which reworked U.S. Contract Law, allowing the courts to defer to End User License Agreements. Essentially, the case meant that these agreements allow publishers to be absolved of any accountability and obligation owed to consumers who purchased a product and assert authority over when their online-only games become unplayable once support ends.
“If you bought a game, if you made a game, if you love a game, technology shouldn’t get in the way.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has led the fight for ownership rights in the since 1990, with the agency mainly focusing on advocating for creators, technologists, and technology users’ digital rights. As Cory Doctorow, EFF Special Advisor, emphasizes, “If you bought a game, if you made a game, if you love a game, technology shouldn’t get in the way of that game’s ongoing existence. Instead, technology should preserve that game for players who love it today, for the people who are proud of making it, for players who come later, and for games makers of the future.”
However, the challenge is wider than the United States. In countries like Canada and the UK, there is little precedent preventing companies from revoking a purchase post-sale. In contrast, the EU and Australia need help getting a governmental examination of the issue. One common global challenge is lobbying groups’ influence, particularly in the gaming industry, which may work to maintain the status quo of an uneven balance of power between game companies and consumers.
A domino effect
Nevertheless, despite the varying degrees of laws influencing consumer rights worldwide, Scott explains that this proposed domino effect of filing complaints to the DGCCRF would still have a worldwide impact. For example, in 2014, when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sued Valve for not providing customers an option to refund games on Steam, the company had no choice but to modify its policy to allow refunds on Steam in Australia and other countries like the United States.
Ultimately, Scott and Doctorow encourage individuals to advocate for the change they want. They encourage fans to file complaints and force governments to examine the company’s behavior and practices. In the meantime, Scott’s initiative is gaining momentum in raising awareness and urging players to defend their rights and challenge this frustrating trend dictated by publishers.
“I think by taking the customer’s money, that creates an obligation for publishers to give customers a reasonable expectation to run the game in some fashion,” Scott says, “even after support ends.”
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
iFixit might be a familiar brand name for you from all of the helpful teardown videos of various electronics that they host on YouTube. Well, they also sell an awesome toolkit that helps you do the same. Amazon is offering the iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit for electronics, smartphones, gaming consoles, PCs and laptops, tablets, and more for only $59.96. It normally retails for $75 and we haven’t seen a price drop for this kit in over a year. In fact, it wasn’t even discounted on Black Friday. This is one of the very best tool kits you can buy for disassembling and repairing your electronics — including your Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck — without spending hundreds of dollars on a commercial kit.
Save 20% Off the iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit
The iFixit Pro Tech Tookit contains pretty much every tool you’ll never need to get inside your electronics. They include a 64 precision bit set that includes flathead, screwdriver, hex, torx, and star bits as well as plenty of other bits you’ve probably never seen or heard of. You also get the screwdriver handle, flex extension, tweezers, opening tools, and more, all packed in a hard shell magnetic case. iFixit also includes a generous lifetime warranty: they’ll replace any of the pieces that break, even if you caused it.
I’ve owned this toolkit for a few years and it has served me very well. I’ve changed the shells on my Joy-Con controllers, swapped the SSD in my ASUS ROG Ally, rebuilt my gaming PC quite a number of times, replaced the heatsink on my GPU, modified my keyboard, opened up my fishing reels for maintenance, and more with the help of this toolkit. Aside from the plastic spudger and opening picks (they supply quite a few), everything still looks and works as new. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another.
Family game fixtures have become more and more popular over recent years, in part as a way to reclaim some fun time with family members away from the tyranny of screens. And it’s a great option: everyone has to get involved, it’s a workout for your brain, and often a tense thrill-ride to the finish if you pick the right titles. But in the ever-expanding board game scene, that can be a problem, as not all games are as fun for your pre-teen kids as they are for their grandparents as well as the generation in between.
If you want the best board games for adults, or the best board games for kids, we’ve got you covered with separate lists. Our picks here are sure to please whatever the age and skill level of the participants, as they offer a mix of strategy and luck that keeps everyone on their toes and in with a chance.
Don’t have time to scroll? These are our picks. Read on for details about each one.
My City
Legacy games, where your actions in one game carry over into the next, have been a hot item in tabletop over the last decade or so, but most of them are too complex and involved for family play. Not so My City from one of board gaming’s most prolific and acclaimed designers, Reiner Knizia. It’s a simple, zen-like tile-laying game where you’re trying to fit buildings of different shapes together onto a virgin wilderness, grouping things together to score points. But after each game, you’ll add new rules and stickers to your map, so that each individual player’s board becomes unique. This gives it a thrillingly addictive edge as you wait to unlock each tranche of new content, and means it’ll come back to the table time and time again as you work through the campaign.
Scout
Japan has a burgeoning board game scene of its own, translations from which are only slowly making their way into the west. This card game is perhaps its most engaging export yet, winning a nomination for the prestigious Spiel des Jahres award. At heart it’s a Rummy-type affair that’s easy to pick up, where you have to lay sequences of cards from your hand to get rid of them, but it has two novel catches. Firstly, if you can’t beat the sequence currently on the table, you have to pick up a card from it instead, Second, you can’t rearrange your initial hand, only insert picked-up cards where you want them. This gives each hand a fascinating long-term strategic aspect, an astonishing achievement for a fifteen-minute game that’s already highly addictive.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal
Heat was, ironically enough, one of 2022’s hottest titles, an easy to pick up racing game that still delivered a thrilling dash to the chequered flag. The core of the game is very straightforward: the higher gear you’re in, the more movement cards you can play, but all the corners on the track have a maximum gear value. Exceed it, and you’re at risk of spinning off and losing ground. This creates a tense game of push your luck and hand management, where you’re shepherding cards to maximise your movement without downshifting until the very last minute, then angling to pick up speed again down the straights. And don’t forget the value of slipstreaming behind the leader for a last-minute overtake. With a variety of tracks and fun plastic toy car pieces, it’s certain to keep you racing into the small hours.
Takenoko
Takenoko is a game about taking care of a very hungry panda. Players spend their turns watering plots of land to grow bamboo that the panda will then eat. There are lots of ways to score points, such as placing land tiles in a certain patterns and feeding the panda specific colors of bamboo.Because there is more than one way to score points, the game does not shoehorn players into one strategy. With colors that pop and towers of bamboo that reach far above the table, Takenoko is just as fun to look at as it is to play.
Cascadia
There are few games with quite the wide appeal of Cascadia. For starters, it’s got a wholesome theme of exploring the ecology of the Pacific Northwest. The mechanics are very simple, involving you picking one of four pairs of animal token and terrain hex to add to your growing map. The aim is to satisfy a random range of scoring cards by getting animals into particular patterns, and they range in difficulty from an easy family version to challenging gamer-level objectives. There’s even a fun solo campaign where you’re tasked with crossing off a range of variants and objectives. If there ever was a game for absolutely everyone, this is it.
The best way to describe King of Tokyo is “Yahtzee meets Godzilla.” In this monster mash-up, players control one of a stable of greatest-hits monsters straight out of science fiction past. The goal is to take control of Tokyo while fending off the other monsters. Attacks and special abilities are carried out through dice rolls which lends a bit of suspense to the giant-sized boxing matches. Of course, controlling Tokyo makes you a target, and no monster can stay in the city for too long without taking lots of damage. It’s up to you to recognize when to retreat and when to press the attack, but beware: other monsters are out there and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Kingdomino
Released in 2017, Kingdomino is the most recent game on this list. It also won the coveted Spiel des Jahres, the German board game of the year, cementing its place as a go-to family game for years to come. Players take turns claiming tiles to add to their kingdom, but it’s not as simple as picking a tile and moving on. The tile you choose directly affects the turn order for the next turn, so you must be careful when making your decision lest you leave a valuable tile on the table for your opponents. Your tableau is limited to a five-by-five grid, which adds a spatial awareness element to the game as well. Because of its short play time and how easy it is to learn the rules, Kingdomino is an ideal choice for your next family game night.
Tiny Towns
In Tiny Towns, players are mayors of newly developing villages and are tasked with planning and building the town’s cottages, taverns, factories and more. On a turn, the active player chooses one of the available resources, then all players take one cube of the matching resource and place it in their town. Those cubes stay there, taking up precious space, until you can match the pattern on one of the building cards. Then, you place the building in your town and gain its effect, usually in the form of end-game points based on the building’s scoring conditions. Because everyone at the table takes a resource on every turn, there’s little to no down time in Tiny Towns. Keeping players engaged while forcing them to meticulously plan their buildings makes this family game a brain burner in the best possible way.
Azul
A game that is as beautiful as it is enjoyable, Azul is a contest of planning and opportunity. You’re a mason in 15th or 16th century Portugal, and King Manuel I has asked you to decorate his palace with strikingly colored tiles reminiscent of Spain’s Alhambra. On a turn, you choose all tiles of a single color from one of the available groups of four, and the rest get sent to a common area that can be pilfered later. You must insert your chosen tiles into rows on your player board, and when you complete a row you’ll add one tile to your palace wall. Points are scored for meeting various pattern requirements, like covering all tiles of one color on your wall, or completing an entire row or column. Filling up your display is satisfying in a way that few tile-laying games can boast, and the play time is generally short enough that multiple plays in a night are not uncommon. It’s not hard to see why Azul won Germany’s game of the year award in 2018.
Trick-taking games like Whist are well-known, but The Crew takes the concept to a new level by using it in a cooperative card game. You’ll work together over a long series of missions that require you to win tricks that meet certain objectives. One player might have to win a trick with a blue 5 in it, while another must not win any of the first 5 tricks. The catch is that you can only ever tell your fellow players about one card in your hand: the rest must be kept secret. This straightforward concept hides a surprising amount of tactical depth as you try to trump and throw-away cards to ensure the right players win the right tricks.
Downforce
In 2017, Restoration Games reproduced Wolfgang Kramer’s 1996 classic Top Race as Downforce. It’s a racing game where the winner isn’t necessarily the one whose car comes in first place. Players’ hands are filled with cards that depict various combinations of colors and numbers, and playing a card moves the corresponding cars forward that number of spaces. Throughout the race, you can bet on which cars you think will do the best, netting you a sweet bonus to your score. The game is over in about half an hour, and provides a surprisingly satisfying mix of luck and strategy, a tough balancing act for many family games. It also has custom rules for younger players.
The Isle of Cats
Who doesn’t love an adorable cat? The evil Lord Vesh, that’s who, and it’s up to you to fit as many sinuous felines on your boat as you can before sailing them away from him to safety. This is really an excuse for this great game of polyomino arrangement, with the gorgeous artwork for the sinuous felines filling the shapes. You must pack your boat as best you can, trying to cover rats, fill holds and satisfy a random assortment of scoring conditions. As a bonus, the box includes two games modes: a family one and a rather more complex and challenging full game that sees you have to buy and deploy traps and tricks to lure the cats before stashing them safely on your ship.
The Quacks of Quedlinburg
You’d never imagine that concocting phoney potions in medieval Germany would be this much fun. Each game has a different set of effects on a range of ingredients that you can add to your snake oil, and it’s down to you to sniff out the likely combos and get brewing. But there’s a catch: you do so by adding your ingredients to a bag and drawing them blindly, gradually pushing up the tally of dangerous cherry bombs. Pull one too many and your whole batch will be ruined for the round. This combination of weighted push your luck and light strategy is an absolute winner for families, bringing you both tension and tactics as you compete to drum up the best draughts.
Upcoming Family Games
Wiggles 3D, publisher of the excellent (and now sadly out of print) cooperative symbol-matching game 5-Minute Dungeon, has created a successor in the brilliant-sounding One Hit Heroes. Like its predecessor, it’s a simple conceit: each of you is a hero down to their last hit point while battling a boss monster. It’s up to you to try and keep them alive against the odds and triumph! To succeed, you’ll need a balance of attack and defence, rushing down your opponent’s health while deploying the right combos to deflect its attacks and keep your heroes alive. With some novel campaign elements across the supplied scenarios, this sounds like another cooperative family-grade winner.
At the opposite end of the feel-good spectrum, but no less fun, is Vicious Gardens which plays up the contrast between its peaceful pastime theme and its brutal gameplay, alongside some delightful nonsense characters and produce for your growing garden. Your goal is to collect sets of cards across different categories, then cultivate and harvest them, using your specialist helpers, for points. Or you could use those specialists to, y’know, go and trample all over your opponent’s plots instead. Nice or nasty, the choice is yours in the race to become the top gardener.
When Is The Best Time to Buy Board Games in 2024?
If you love board games, it can unfortunately be a rather expensive hobby. With Black Friday 2023 starting soon, you should still wait for Friday, November 17 to make any big purchases. The Amazon Black Friday sale is starting a week early and has historically been one of the best times to buy board games at a discount. After Black Friday ends, you’ll likely still be able to find board game deals on Cyber Monday and beyond.
Matt Thrower is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in tabletop games. He’s also been published in The Guardian, Dicebreaker and Senet Magazine as well as being the author and co-author of several books on board games. You can reach him on BlueSky at @mattthr.bsky.social.
This review covers the multiplayer modes of Homeworld 3. For thoughts on the multiplayer skirmish and War Games co-op mode, see the Homeworld 3 Single-Player Campaign review.
When coming up with a real-time strategy game’s multiplayer modes, a developer generally has two options: let us play with all of the toys in an all-out brawl until the other side is dead, with maybe a few minor twists thrown in, or try something new, different, and a little risky. In Homeworld 3, Blackbird Interactive has had it both ways, delivering both the bog-standard multiplayer skirmish match between Motherships and an inventive new co-op mode that, if the content continues to flow, has the potential to take on a life of its own.
There are few surprises to be found in skirmish if you’ve ever played a Homeworld game before – or even if you haven’t. It’s limited to team matches or free-for-alls with up to six players or AI bots, and it doesn’t really rock the boat with its straightforward “beat the other team” objective (you can set it to kill the mothership, kill all motherships and carriers, or kill every ship). There aren’t a ton of maps right now – just six, and only one that supports six players, though that’s a void that community-made maps should fill in short order. The only other real option is to turn off harvesting in favor of resource injections every minute (or you can have both) if you don’t want to bother with pesky logistics, but it’s precisely the sort of sandbox we need to make creative use of all of the ships Homeworld 3 offers. Heck, people would be up in arms if it weren’t here, and rightfully so.
Naturally you can’t pause the action like you can in the campaign, which can be frustrating as you’re getting the hang of ordering ships around these expansive areas of 3D space. But that’s balanced out by the fact that your opponents are struggling with the same thing, so it’s not as though you’re at an inherent disadvantage – unless you’re playing against the AI, which has its own weaknesses to compensate for. Learning to spin all of these plates at once while keeping your eyes on what’s important is part of the challenge (I tend to spend a lot of time in the zoomed-out sensor view here) and I felt myself getting better at it with every match.
The Hiigarans and the Incarnate fleets aren’t wildly different in how they play.
Much like previous Homeworld games, the two playable factions – the Hiigarans and the Incarnate – aren’t wildly different in how they play. The Incarnate, for instance, have no bombers but instead have more durable assault corvettes that fill basically the same role and have the same cloaking ability, and their multi-beam frigates are roughly equivalent to the Hiigarans’ ion canon frigates. Both sides have missile frigates as well, and their carriers, destroyers, battlecruisers, and turrets have stat differences that don’t really make you think outside the box when switching from one to the other.
Certainly, faction-specific tactics for each will emerge to capitalize on those subtle advantages – as well as things like the Hiigarans having superior scouting abilities thanks to their recon ships – but the thing that seems most significant in my experience has been how repair and capturing abilities are shuffled between ships. The Hiigarans have a dedicated support frigate that does nothing but repair damaged ships, but if you want to be sneaky and attempt to capture an enemy vessel you’ll have to pull one of your resource controllers off of mining duty and use it to attempt the abduction. The Incarnate remix this by putting the repair functionality on their resource controllers and using smaller, more fragile capture corvettes to do their pilfering – and they require two to survive long enough to latch on instead of one.
Having to choose between income and repair power is a big deal for an Incarnate player. In practice, though, having support frigates in the fray against a human opponent doesn’t shift the balance too much in the Hiigarans’ favor because anyone with a brain is going to target those first, and the Incarnate’s minor firepower advantage makes up for the rest.
If you don’t change Hiigaran fighters’ stance the moment they’re built, they’re as good as dead.
There’s one other difference between the Hiigarans and Incarnate that baffles me, though: the Hiigaran ships default to neutral stance, while the Incarnate default to aggressive. That sounds thematically appropriate, certainly, but it means that the Incarnate have a real advantage when it comes to building ships – especially strike craft – while under attack. Aggressive ships will immediately scramble and go after enemy ships that come into range, but neutral ships will fire back without moving other than to turn to face their attackers. When we’re dealing with small, fragile fighters, that means they’re sitting ducks and will get picked off almost immediately (probably before you notice you’re under attack), so if you don’t manually select them and change their stance or give them attack orders the moment they’re built, they’re as good as dead. That’s not a bug like some other issues, such as a voice chiming in to announce the loss of a resource ship that was actually the enemy’s or calling a corvette a frigate, but it might as well be.
It’s impossible to know what will happen when Homeworld 3 is out in the wild and the most competitive players get hold of it, but in the matches I’ve played, the big trend has been that the Motherships are very active participants in the early fighting instead of hanging back, as they usually do in traditional Homeworld matches. Part of that is that these maps, which are largely based on those from the campaign, aren’t nearly as vast as Homeworld vets are used to, and also Homeworld 3’s Motherships are relatively quick to move and can get around easily. They’re also decently armed against fighters and corvettes, and you’ll need all the help you can get to keep the pressure off of your resource harvesters and defend them from rush attacks aimed at crippling your economy before you can tech up and unlock heavier ships. However, knowing when to pull back is crucial if you don’t want to be caught by destroyers and battlecruisers, because they’ll burn through your Mothership’s armor very quickly.
Motherships are very active participants in the early fighting.
Terrain also plays a significant role because it’s often close to resource patches, and that means you can cover it with heavy turrets (and anti-strike craft turrets to defend those) that’ll make short work of an enemy resource collector that autonomously wanders near. It’s also viable to turtle up by parking your Mothership near a floating platform, making it difficult for an enemy to get near without being bombarded by turrets and tripping over mines. Other than that, I haven’t found using terrain as cover terribly useful because it’s difficult to manage sight lines in real time for anything smaller and faster than a destroyer – but again, that doesn’t mean the community won’t find ways to do it.
Homeworld 3’s most exciting multiplayer mode, though, is War Games – I haven’t seen too many co-op modes in this vein since the Last Stand mode from Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2 – Retribution, and it’s given me thrills that remind me of those memorable battles. Alone or with up to two allies, you take control of a scaled-down fleet headed by a single carrier and build options decided by your chosen loadout; you’ll start with one focused on Hiigaran strike craft, but as you level up you’ll gain access to others that cater to bombers, missile frigates, Incarnate ships, and more. While it’s a bummer to not have access to heavy-hitting destroyers and battlecruisers, there’s a lot going on to make up for their absence, and you’ll generally want to be as mobile as possible.
You’re never entirely sure what you’ll get.
Rather than simply holding out against waves of enemies, you’re given randomized objectives to complete on a series of three maps: destroy a carrier, capture some points on the map, salvage some objects, escort AI-controlled ships, that sort of thing. You’re never entirely sure what you’ll get, so you’ll have to be at least somewhat flexible with how you gear yourself to handle what’s coming. Meanwhile, the incoming fleets keep getting stronger, so once you’ve completed your objective you have to make the decision of whether to hold out and scour the map clean of resources, or hyperspace jump to the next one to avoid taking more losses than those resources can replace.
There aren’t that many objectives, though – if you play through a handful of times you’ll see them all – so what really keeps each match feeling different from the last is the randomized artifacts that you’ll collect as you go. I quickly realized that scouting for and gathering them was one of the most important things to worry about when I arrived on each map.
Scouting for and gathering artifacts is a high priority when arriving on a new map.
Each one gives you a choice of three randomized upgrades for your fleet, such as buffing your fighters’ damage and armor at the cost of speed, unlocking more powerful tactical bombers or barrage missile frigates that launch twice as many warheads per volley, increasing your frigate unit cap at the expense of your strike craft cap, or enhancing up your carrier to crank out ships faster but also reduce its armor. There are a lot of possibilities that all stack together, and I often found myself pivoting away from what I thought would be my strengths toward a series of enticing upgrades that supercharged my assault frigates. I also found it easy to make the mistake of going too far and turning my fighters into glass cannons that melted under fire faster than they could take out a target, but that’s the kind of error most people probably won’t make twice as they learn to craft builds in any roguelike.
This format works well enough playing alone (though the third and final stage can be a beast to solo) but when you’re working with a team to specialize in different directions you can coordinate so that, for instance, one of you focuses on taking out enemy strike craft while the other burns down incoming destroyers as quickly as possible. That can come together in ways more than powerful enough to overcome the Incarnate destroyers, battlecruisers, and even Motherships that’re thrown at you, but don’t worry: there are plenty of options to upgrade the challenge, so I wouldn’t expect War Games to become a pushover anytime soon.
Blackbird clearly doesn’t either, because its roadmap for updates is focused around more content for War Games. Based on what I’ve played thus far, it’s a safe bet that it’ll have legs – so long as we keep getting more new rewards to unlock than the six fleet types that’ll all be available once you hit level 20 (I made it to level 11 as of this writing after about as many hours of play).
Another thing that will certainly expand on the longevity of Homeworld 3 is mods, and there’s a handy section of the menu where you’ll be able to select them. Eventually, that is – the actual implementation of that and the release of the official mod tools has been pushed back from launch. Even so, I’m encouraged by the fact that Blackbird is giving modding the prioritization that it deserves. Homeworld has a long, proud history of mods that includes some of the finest Star Wars and Star Trek (among others) total conversions ever created, and I look forward to that tradition carrying forward.
Long-time PUBG players, you’re getting a gift this month. The original Erangel map is returning, and changes to the gunplay, map layout, and visuals are designed to give you a nostalgic blast from the past while still delivering the evolved gameplay you’ve come to expect.
For those who don’t know, PUBG first launched in Steam’s Early Access in March 2017. It became one of the most popular games of all time, shattering Steam’s record with 3.2 million concurrent players. Erangel was the game’s first battleground and is still part of the rotation, but it’s seen countless updates and changes over the years as PUBG has grown. This new update will take Erangel back to its roots.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the UI has been reverted to the Early Access version of the game. That includes the match start timer, kill/survival UI, original world map and minimap, and old-school font and graphics. As soon as you drop into your first match, you’ll feel like you stepped into a time capsule.
The layout of the map also has been changed back to its original form. Remember when you started each match by rushing to grab your favorite weapon? Well that’s back, with bench weapons reinstated on the starting island. You can also find the Tommy Gun in the Care Package, just like the good old days.
Once you get your hands on that favorite weapon, you might notice it fires a little differently too. While not an exact copy of the old-school design, many guns have reduced recoil to emulate the OG experience (these changes won’t apply to sniper rifles, handguns, or crossbows). You also might notice that it’ll take more time to knock down enemies, like it used to.
In the leadup to the throwback event, publisher Krafton has collaborated with popular PUBG streamers and influencers to celebrate. Shroud is a popular Twitch streamer with more than 10 million followers, and he established himself as one of the best PUBG players in the world early in the game’s lifespan. He became well-known enough in the community that he got to design his own in-game weapon skins.
WackyJacky101 is a PUBG player and content creator who specializes in guides, tutorials, testing, and analysis to help gamers get the most out of their PC games. He created a massive spreadsheet called PUBG Tools with detailed information — including base damage, time between shots, average bullet velocity, and bullet travel time — for every weapon in the game, and he updates it whenever a new weapon is added or changes are made to weapon balancing. It’s become an invaluable resource for players.
Shroud and WackyJacky101 teamed up for a time-traveling video to build excitement for the release of Erangel Classic, and Shroud will put together a team for a Squad Battle event on May 18. The Erangel Classic update will be live for two weeks for all players — May 14–28 on PC and May 23–June 6 on console. The classic map will replace the current Erangel map in Normal Match during those two weeks.
Nintendo games often come with a hefty price tag, but that doesn’t mean Switch fans can’t find great deals. Throughout the year, there are plenty of sales on games, Switch consoles, and accessories worth checking out. Below, we’ve compiled the very best deals currently available. In particular, you can save huge on future-proof micro SD cards, select Switch OLED models, and even newer games, like Princess Peach: Showtime!. You can also follow @IGNDeals on Twitter or Threads for even more updates on the latest discounts, or check out all our handpicked Switch deals just below.
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Physical Edition) Preorder
While waiting for Nintendo’s Switch successor, you can enjoy some absolute classics with the Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition. This is a collection of over 150 challenges from 13 different NES games that’s coming exclusively to Switch on July 18, and you can preorder it today. We’ve included links to the physical edition’s preorder below, but if you’re looking for even more information on digital editions, check out our Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition preorder guide.
The best Switch SD card should be fast, reliable, and as future-proof as possible. That last one is important, especially with the Switch successor on the horizon. Therefore, you’re going to want to opt for the latest in SD card tech, which is a micro SDXC UHS-I U3 A2 V30 memory card. That’s a lot of random letters, so to save you a bit of time we’ve left our top suggestions and deals just below for your convenience. To see even more SD card deals, make sure to check out our roundup of the best SD card deals.
At the moment, there are quite a few Switch games discounted that are worth picking up. Some of our favorite deals right now are on some of last year’s biggest hits, like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and WarioWare: Move It!, but you can even get the recently-released Princess Peach: Showtime! at a slight discount at Amazon. You can find even more of our favorites listed below.
Save on Select Switch OLED Models at Woot and Walmart
Looking to save on some Switch OLED models? We have some good news for you: a few are discounted at the moment at both Walmart and Woot! At the latter, you can score a White OLED model for $314.99, while at Walmart you can get the Neon Red & Neon Blue version for $308.95 and the Mario Red version for $316.97.
When Should You Buy a Nintendo Switch?
The short answer is that you should buy a Nintendo Switch whenever there’s any kind of sale, regardless of the time of year. Amazon will likely offer the same console bundles on any other sale as it will on Black Friday, so there’s no real reason to wait if you’re in need of a Nintendo Switch.
That being said, there are sometimes some unique bundles and promotions during Black Friday that you won’t find any other time of the year. They usually includes additional games (like the infamous Mario Kart 8 bundle) or accessories for free, but quantities tend to be limited. As always, do your research into the seller before you make a purchase.
With how expensive gaming is getting in 2024, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as PlayStation and Xbox, and keep these updated daily with brand-new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.
Mind-bending puzzle metroidvania Animal Well just released yesterday, and already a community of players is tearing the game apart to find its many, many, many, many secrets. Right now, that includes a ridiculously complicated puzzle that requires at least 50 different people to participate. And just one day after launch, the community is on the cusp of completing it.
Warning: Massive spoilers for Animal Well’s “third layer” of secrets follow! If you want to get into its multi-tiered puzzle layers yourself, please shift into reverse and come back later! Read our spoiler-free review instead!
Animal Well effectively contains a three-tiered secret hunt of sorts. The first tier just involves collecting four flames and seeing the credits roll, while the second is a very literal Easter egg hunt. The third, which many players may never discover, is about collecting rabbits hidden in increasingly esoteric ways. While reviewing the game, the small Discord community of reviewers I was in managed to find a total of 12 rabbits collectively in two weeks, and we suspect there are at least 20. In the first 24 hours since the game has been out, the community has handlily pushed that total to 14, and seems to be on the cusp of working together as a group to achieve bunny 15 by participating in a bonkers group puzzle.
Early on in the game, players will pass a massive, 40×10 mural of a pixelated rabbit mid-hop. At first, it seems like this mural is just decoration, but once you enter the late-game rabbit hunt, it becomes increasingly suspicious. Poking around further in the same room reveals a control panel that lets players manipulate the mural’s tiles, and digging even deeper will give players access to a 4×4 grid of tiles similar to the ones on the rabbit mural. But taken alone, it’s not clear what the solution to this is or how the 4×4 grid factors into the big rabbit.
It turns out, every player has a different 4×4 grid of tiles, that when put together, seem to form a complete image. That means in order to finish the new image that needs to replace the existing rabbit, the community needs to work together to assemble a total of 50 unique tiles – and that’s assuming no one shows up with a duplicate. Our review Discord managed to put together almost 20 (including tile contributions from developers Billy Basso and Dan Adelman) before the game was out, but it wasn’t near enough on its own to establish anything close to a meaningful picture. However, in just the first 24 hours since release, the community has figured out the mural’s secret and contributed even more tiles. As I type this, a few intrepid secret hunters are playing around in PhotoShop, Canva, and in-game to assemble the tiles into something readable, and it looks like one in particular (Discord user CruM) might be on the verge of cracking it.
Wacky as this might sound, this is somehow not even the most absurd secret Animal Well has to offer. In the same period as the mural was being solved, players have found even more obscure hidden secrets that may lead to more rabbits or even more esoteric collectibles – and we still don’t know what all the bunnies will do when assembled. The dive into the depths of Animal Well has only begun.
If it’s not evident from my obsession with this secret hunt that I loved Animal Well, I also reviewed it for IGN and gave it a 9/10. I called it “a beautiful, multi-layered puzzle box that’s both fun to simply play around with, and an utter delight to slowly crack open, secret by secret.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
