Category: IGN

Monster Hunter Wilds’ crucial update 1.021 goes live tomorrow, August 13, and ahead of that Capcom has released early patch notes alongside a message to the community apologizing for the state of the game.

Director Yuya Tokuda confirmed update 1.021 expands the endgame, adds 9★ Monsters and Talismans, and makes improvements to weapon balance, quality of life changes, and optimizations.

Of particular interest to PC players will be Capcom’s effort to improve “stability.” Monster Hunter Wilds has a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam for all reviews, but recent reviews are ‘mostly negative.’

Despite reviewing well initially, Monster Hunter Wilds’ endgame content is sorely lacking compared to past games, so the many fans who play Monster Hunter over time, with friends, are struggling. It’s also suffering from severe performance issues on PC that have yet to be fully resolved. Despite new content and seasons, fans remain unsatisfied with the state of the game, to the point where some are taking things too far and apparently harassing and threatening individual Capcom team members over it.

Last month, Capcom said it would release the endgame content expansion much sooner than expected after Monster Hunter Wilds experienced “soft sales.”

Tokuda began his message to the community by apologizing for the time it’s taking to make improvements to the game, but insisted Capcom is committed to the cause. To that end, Title Update 3 is scheduled for release at the end of September, and Title Update 4 is due out this winter. “For our fourth title update this winter, on top of new monsters, we are also considering additional weapon-related end-game features,” Capcom said.

Developer Remedy believes the release of its first self-published game and Control spin-off, FBC: Firebreak, “succeeded technically,” but acknowledged it “underperformed” on Steam, admitting that “commercially, we were unsatisfied.”

In a statement to investors, the studio reiterated Firebreak topped 1 million players. However, the majority of those players were on console — via PS Plus and Xbox Game Pass subscription — even though PC was “planned as the primary consumer sales channel.”

“The game’s initial onboarding experience and mission structure resulted in high early player drop-offs and an influx of negative reviews,” the financial statement said. “As players spent more time in the game and we released updates improving the game, sentiment in reviews turned more positive.

“Commercially, we were unsatisfied with the launch-phase consumer sales of FBC: Firebreak. Thus far, FBC: Firebreak’s commercial performance has largely been driven by the Xbox and PlayStation subscription service agreements. A considerable portion of the revenues from these agreements will still be recognized throughout the contract period.”

Remedy promised big changes last month. The pledge came after Remedy posted a candid statement shortly after Firebreak’s launch, acknowledging “not everything had gone well.”

The studio did, however, note that FBC: Firebreak was designed to evolves over time, and believes it’s a solid game “despite the rocky launch.” A larger “Major Update” scheduled for late September will be the next key step for FBC: Firebreak, which Remedy “expects to drive interest in the title.” It said it remains “committed to continuing to work on FBC: Firebreak, engaging with the community, and expanding the game.”

In its financial results for the first half of 2025 and the second quarter, Remedy reported a revenue boost during both periods, following increases in game sales and royalties. The quarter once again operated at a loss — although at $580,000, this was not as sharp as last year’s $3.7 million loss — and across the first six months of the year, revenue was up 43.4% to $35.1 million.

As for other games? The studio confirmed Control 2′s development is “on track” and meeting milestones as the focus is now on “gameplay, environments, and missions.” The Max Payne 1 & 2 remake project remains in full production as “collaboration with Rockstar Games remains close and productive.”

“FBC: Firebreak is a compelling co-op shooter that, despite its good looks, doesn’t have the depth to keep things interesting long-term,” we wrote in IGN’s FBC: Firebreak review, awarding it 6/10.

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

Ravensburger is one of the best puzzle brands out there in terms of quality, price, and overall selection. I own quite a few Ravensburger puzzles and can absolutely attest to that. The pieces are always nice and sturdy and there’s never any weird dust in the box. Unfortunately, that level of quality comes at a higher price than a lot of other brands out there.

Thankfully, Amazon is having a pretty good sale on these puzzles this week. The last time we saw discounts like this was back in May of this year, but that was for 1,000-piece puzzles only. This time around there’s a nice mix of jigsaw options for both adults and kids. If you’re a chronic puzzler like me, I definitely recommend you check out these deals while they’re available.

Ravensburger Puzzle Sale at Amazon Today

Almost all of the puzzles in this sale are considered Amazon lightning deals. That means there is a limit to how much stock each one of these has available at the discount listed. So the more popular a puzzle is, the more likely it is to have the discount fully claimed before time runs out on the sale. After covering these sales a few times, however, I’ve found that the “limit” on the discount is almost never reached.

As for what’s worth checking out in this sale, I’ve gathered all of the best options available above. There’s a nice mix of puzzles for kids here mixed in with some more adult-oriented options. The very popular Disney Toy Store 1000-piece puzzle, while not directly included in the sale, has also reached its lowest price in months. It’s filled with all kinds of details from the Pixar movies while offering a similar vibe to The Craft Cupboard puzzle Ravensburger is discounting right now too.

If you’re looking for some new puzzles to do with your kids or grandkids, there are also a few good options in this sale. For really little kids, The Animals of the World Puzzle pack is bright, fun, and comes with two 12-piece puzzles designed for three-year olds. For older kids I’d also recommend checking out the Horse Dreams 100-piece puzzle or the 150-piece Cosmic Connection.

What’s the best piece count for kids?

There is no direct line between what piece count is good for kids vs. adults, so it really depends on the kid. The earliest age you’ll likely see on the puzzle packaging is 3+, but some kids will be ready before that. I bought a four-pack of 12-piece Spider-Man puzzles for my two-year-old nephew this year and he had no problem figuring it out on his own. So if you’re buying for a toddler that has already shown an interest, that 3+ age rating is worth looking out for. This will usually include 12- or 24-piece puzzles.

For older kids who have shown a more of an interest in puzzling already, you’ll probably want to keep the piece count at 300 or lower. If you plan on working on the puzzle with them, a higher piece count is doable, but 500 and 1,000+ puzzles are usually reserved for adults and teens.

A puzzle storage is a great gift for adults

If you’re looking for a good puzzle gift to give yourself or someone else, I would definitely recommend a dedicated table or puzzle board. Larger puzzles just flat out take longer to put together, and if you don’t have a place to leave it or the option to put it away, it can be hard to ever actually finish a puzzle. Thankfully, there are plenty of products that solve these specific problems.

I’m looking at a map of my city, Kansas City, right now, and wondering what I should do for fun this coming weekend. Should I visit the giant purple Zoroark stomping over downtown? If I want to see the Superman with the glowing red eyes in the suburbs to the south, I first have to pass Ralsei Deltarune sitting atop the highway, smoking an enormous blunt. I could go visit the Northland, but there is an enormous United Airlines plane straddling the Missouri River, which might make transit a bit confusing. Hmm. Options, options.

That probably sounded like nonsense if you’re not aware of wplace, a delightful new time waster in the form of a world map where users can draw a single pixel in a color of their choice, wherever they like, once every 30 seconds. If that sounds familiar, you’re probably thinking of one of its main inspirations: /r/place, the Reddit game with a blank canvas that let users similarly place one pixel at a time. Though /r/place closed a few years ago, wplace has rapidly gained popularly in the last few days, to the point where just about wherever you live or wherever you look, you can find detailed collaborative drawings, silly graffiti, inside jokes, and more doodled all over the map. And unshockingly, a lot of those doodles are gaming references.

Like most people, I checked out my own city first before exploring wplace more widely. Kansas City is indeed covered with gaming characters. At a glance, I can see several Pokemon, characters from Rain World, Deltarune, OneShot, Metroid, Final Fantasy, Mario, Earthbound, Among Us, Angry Birds, and plenty more can be spotted amid the city’s roadways and rivers. There are also lots of other pop culture icons, like SpongeBob and various Transformers, sprinkled in with political messages, sports team logos, various flags, location-specific graffiti, and other random doodles. Some people just wrote their names.

NVIDIA RTX Remix is a modding platform for RTX AI PCs that allows modders to remaster classic games by adding full raytracing, enhancing textures, adjusting lighting, moving environmental objects, and adding DLSS 4 to improve image quality and performance. RTX Remix released in March this year, and there are already more than 350 active projects using it and more than 100 released mods.

To showcase the improvements this technology makes possible, NVIDIA is hosting a competition featuring 23 user-created mods for a wide range of classic titles, including BioShock, Portal 2, and multiple Need for Speed, Star Wars, and Call of Duty games. These mods will face off in four categories with a grand total of $50,000 up for grabs, with winners announced at gamescom on August 18. The categories are: Community Choice RTX Mod, Most Complete RTX Mod, Best Use of RTX in a Mod, and Best Overall RTX Mod.

• Community Choice will be determined by fan vote, and the winner will get $10,000. Fan voting has concluded, but the winner will be announced on August 18.
• Most Complete is for the most fully playable remaster with high quality throughout. The winner will get $10,000.
• Best Use of RTX is for the most impressive visual improvement, using effects like atmospheric fog, smoke, shadows, and dynamic lighting. The winner will get $10,000.
• Best Overall is what it sounds like, the mod that combines everything — impressive visuals while also being an excellent playable experience — into the best package. The winner of this category will get $20,000.

The categories are not mutually exclusive, so one mod can take home multiple wins. You can see the competition listings for all 23 entries here, and we’ll include a brief description for each below. Each entry will be linked to its individual page, where you can find detailed information, images, videos, and reviews:

Call of Duty 2 RTX Remix of Carenten by tadpole3159

This is a complete remake of the Carenten map from Call of Duty 2, with basically every asset and surface redone. And creator tadpole3159 went above and beyond to do it, photo scanning real World War 2 combat clothing and kits and putting them in the game via a process called photogrammetry. You can hear him discuss the improvements he made and the process he used to accomplish them in this video. The mod also adds dynamic lighting changes as the sun moves across the sky, as well as six player-controlled weather conditions that you can change with the press of a button in the middle of a match.

Star Wars Republic Commando RTX by automata.

This is a hybrid Star Wars: Republic Commando mod that uses RTX Remix for its path-traced renderer while also modding the underlying game to expand the use of RTX Remix. Blaster bolts have become shadow-casting lights, the commandos and their arsenal have been rebuilt with 4K physical-based rendering (PBR) textures, and lighting has been redone to bring the game more in line with the look of the rest of the Star Wars universe. You can see the result of the mod team’s work in this comparison video.

Skurtyy’s Portal 2 RTX PBR Pack by skurtyyskirts

Dramatic lighting improvements are the name of the game for this mod, which updates 2011’s Portal 2 using RTX Remix’s volumetric system. The dilapidated test chambers have been enhanced with customizable fog effects, floating dust bunnies, and precisely controlled lighting. Sunbeams now shine through broken ceilings without dampening other light sources.

Fallout: New Vegas RTX by skurtyyskirts

This is a full graphical overhaul of 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas with full raytracing, PBR materials, and enhanced assets without sacrificing the game’s original aesthetic. Everything from the desert sun to the neon-soaked New Vegas Strip to interiors of abandoned Vaults have been redone to provide accurate shadows, reflections, and global illumination. Weapons, armor, and terminals have been remastered, and there are new high-fidelity details like irradiated water puddles.

Need for Speed: Underground RTX by alessandro893

One of two mods on this list for the Need for Speed: Underground series, this one is a transformative reimagining of the original. A lot went into this one, including a full rework of China Town and the Lock Up sprint race track. There are 500 new textures, 30 new high-poly 3D models, 26 original meshes, new vegetation, and terrain smoothing. You can see the improvements in action in this video.

Manhunt Remixed by gabdeg

This mod remasters all 20 levels of 2003’s Manhunt, adding fully path-traced lighting and high-resolution environmental and character textures. Since the original game’s lights weren’t compatible with path-tracing, they were all removed and manually replaced. Emissive graphic effects and reflections have also been added on things like windows, monitors, and signs. You can see what a difference these made in the mod’s release trailer.

Need for Speed: Underground 2 Remix by UncleBurrito and team

This is a massive overhaul of 2004’s Need for Speed: Underground 2, with everything handmade by the mod’s creator. That includes new models for vehicles, extensive texture replacements, remade traffic signals and street signs, tons of lighting changes, and a completely remade skybox. The most recent video details the latest updates and shows the progress mod creator UncleBurrito and their team have made.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines – RTX Remaster by Safemilk

This is Part 1 of what will be a full, asset-by-asset remodel of 2004’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. That means everything is being re-created, all the way down to carpets and the labels of snacks on store shelves. And that’s in addition to sweeping changes to the lighting and reflective surfaces. It’s a huge undertaking.

Painkiller RTX Remix by Binq_Adams and team

This mod retextures, relights, and rebuilds large portions of 2004’s Painkiller from the ground up while keeping its original gothic horror aesthetic. Lighting effects have been dramatically improved, textures of surfaces look much more detailed, and 2D environmental objects have been replaced with detailed 3D models. The latest trailer shows off how much improvement has been made in the mod’s most recent update.

Black Mesa Remixed – POC – Inbound by xoxor4d and team

2020’s Black Mesa originally started as a fan-made remake of Half Life, so what better way to update it than with a fan-made mod? This features dramatic improvements to lighting and textures, particularly on the inbound tram ride. There are also more than 40 materials built from the ground up and 100 materials created from the original colormap. The trailer shows off these improvements, and the level of detail is impressive.

Codename Atlantis RTX by xoxor4d

This mod shakes things up a bit by essentially adding a new minigame to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in addition to custom-made weapons and interactable objects. The standout new custom weapon has a built-in eye that looks around realistically, and the new minigame tasks you with finding 20 Suzannes (named for the Blender “mascot”) before time runs out while water slowly rises. The water effects are new additions and can slow you down and decrease gravity depending on how high the water has risen. You can see the new weapon and gameplay from the minigame in this video.

Max Payne: Remix by Noodle

The current version of this mod is the first step in a larger plan to fully modernize 2001’s Max Payne. As of now, Roscoe Street Station has been remodeled with hand-crafted PBR materials, and hand-placed RTX lighting has been added to most of the game. In the future, it is expected to expand the PBR materials to the rest of the game, improve models and assets, and fix bugs.

SCP Containment Breach RTX Remaster by Inward 3D and team

A visual remaster of 2012 indie horror game SCP – Containment Breach, this mod adds raytraced lighting, shadows, and PBR materials. Rooms have been relit, there are AI upscaled and remastered textures, and character models have been improved. You can see the improved look and updated character models in this video, which features more than 8 minutes of gameplay.

BioShock RTX by skurtyyskirts and team

A ground-up restoration of the 2007 classic BioShock made by two people, this mod adds full real-time path tracing and a total PBR asset revamp. More impressively, it also solves engine issues that plagued the original game, making everything run more smoothly while also looking prettier.

Morro RTX by 3DNomad

This mod updates 2002’s Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, improving light sources in the Imperial prison ship, Seyda Neen, and Balmora. It also adds PBR materials based on the original textures and updates the geometry of more than 300 models. You can get details on these improvements from the mod’s creator, 3DNomad, in this summary video.

DuoPrincess Remixed by Etokapa and team

Perhaps the most niche title on the list, this mod remixes the textures, lighting, and meshes of every level in 2003’s Duo Princess. Every 3D texture has been upscaled and retouched, and the lighting has been completely redone. The original lights have been replaced, new lights have been added, and there are new emission maps and dust particles. This video summarizes the improvements and shows some side-by-side gameplay with RTX on and off so you can see the difference.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein QHD by LuciansDiner

This mod shows some love to 2001’s Return to Castle Wolfenstein, improving weapon models, lighting, and textures. High-res texture replacements take advantage of the displacement provided by parallax occlusion mapping, while emissive lighting has been added to torches, light bulbs, and stage lights. You can see those enhancements in this video.

UnrealRTX by mstewart401

This mod modernizes the 1998 classic Unreal with improved lighting, PBR materials, and environmental models. It adds full raytraced global illumination, dynamic shadows, volumetric lighting, and emissive effects. Vegetation has been replaced and grass added to outdoor areas to enhance fidelity, and surfaces now respond to light. This video gives you nearly an hour of gameplay to see the mod in action.

Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast RTX REMIX by ArjaanAuinger

This mod is listed as a tech demo for Jedi Knight II with one playable level. That level has been relit, its textures have been upscaled, and there’s a mix of generated and hand-crafted PBR materials. The lightsaber has also been improved and now actually emits light. This video shows several minutes of gameplay, along with commentary from creator ArjaanAuinger, who walks you through the mod’s features and how to install it.

I-Ninja Remixed by g.i.george333

Platformer I-Ninja gets a facelift with this mod that’s designed to enhance the visuals while keeping the original stylized look. There are a total of 2,000 new textures, thanks to a combination of newly created ones and upscaled originals. Volumetric fog and dust particles have been added, and surfaces have been updated with added geometric detail. The mod’s trailer includes gameplay and video comparing scenes with RTX on and off, and the difference is obvious.

Sonic Adventure RTX Legacy Version by Ver11

This mod is an update to Sonic Adventure DX: Director’s Cut, the enhanced port of the original Dreamcast game Sonic Adventure. It adds brand-new lighting, remastered PBR materials, new water effects, and grass to almost all levels. This video includes 10 minutes of gameplay that showcases the improved look.

Colin McRae Rally 3 RTX Remix Mod by budgiegamesindie

This mod is largely focused on UK Special Stage 1 and the Ford Focus car in 2002’s Colin McRae Rally 3. Retopology has been used on the car’s windows, wheels, and hood, and its textures have been upscaled with AI. The stage has new lighting, a new skybox, volumetric fog, and higher-quality trees. This trailer shows the massive difference this mod makes when RTX is on vs. off.

Star Wars: Republic Commando RTX by Chaos007

Not to be confused with the previous mod of Star Wars: Republic Commando, this one is an early demo build that covers the intro cinematic, prologue, and first level of the Geonosis campaign. It introduces full raytraced lighting, enhanced textures, upgraded models, new structures, particle improvements, and UI enhancements. This video showcases just how significant the improvements are.

Through its (near-)consistent excellence, innovation, and longevity, Resident Evil games have earned their crown as the king of survival horror. Capcom debuted its world of mutants and mercenaries in 1996 and has since grown Resident Evil into a multimedia franchise that spans over two dozen console games, six films, two recent Netflix series, novels, comics, and even stage plays.

It can be an exciting franchise to explore given the amount of content it houses, though for the same reason, it can be an equally daunting series to approach in 2025. With the upcoming launch of Resident Evil 9, this article focuses exclusively on video games and cuts out the convolution by presenting two ways to play only the most narratively significant and accessible Resident Evil games in order.

Jump to:

• How to play in chronological order
• How to play by release order

How Many Resident Evil Games Are There?

There are 10 core Resident Evil games: RE 0-7, Village, and Code: Veronica. However, the total number of Resident Evil console games — including spinoffs and remakes — sits around 30. That number rises near 60 when accounting for mobile and pachinko games.

Which Resident Evil Game Should You Play First?

Our overall suggestion for where to begin is with Resident Evil 4 Remake. It’s the most visually/technically impressive RE remake to date and, thanks to its masterful mix of action and horror, arguably the best overall Resident Evil game in the franchise’s nearly 30-year history. It’s a largely self-contained story that doesn’t require you to play each game that came before it.

However, if you prefer first-person horror, we recommend starting with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. It’s the beginning of the Ethan Winters storyline and an excellent game that uses the more immersive first-person camera to heighten the horror.

How to Play the Resident Evil Games in Chronological Order

For this list, we’re focusing on 12 Resident Evil games: all 10 core entries and the two Revelations spinoffs. While many others are considered canon, this is not an exhaustive chronology, but rather an approachable guide to entering and enjoying the world of Resident Evil video games.

Missing from this list are mobile and pachinko games, light gun and Wii shooters (Resident Evil Survivor, Survivor 2, Dead Aim, Umbrella Chronicles, Darkside Chronicles), and non-canonical/non-consequential/difficult to access spinoffs (Resident Evil Gaiden, Outbreak, Outbreak: File #2, Mercenaries 3D, Operation Raccoon City, Resistance, Umbrella Corps, Re:Verse)

With series newcomers in mind, the brief plot synopses below contain only mild spoilers such as broad plot points and character introductions.

1. Resident Evil 0

Resident Evil 0 is the fifth game released in the series but the first chronologically. It takes place just before the events of Resident Evil, with Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) medic Rebecca Chambers and former marine Billy Coen discovering a train full of zombies in the Arklay Mountains (home to the Spencer Mansion). Billy and Rebecca uncover valuable information related to series villains Albert Wesker and William Birkin. We also learn more about the origins of the sinister Umbrella Corporation and its deadly T-Virus. The game wraps with Rebecca headed toward the mansion, where she’d serve as a supporting character in RE 1.

2. Resident Evil

The first Resident Evil came to PlayStation in 1996, though for those coming to the franchise in 2022, you’ll want to play the 2002 remake (or its more recent HD remaster), as it improves gameplay and expands on the story.

RE 1 picks up right after RE 0. You play as one of two S.T.A.R.S. agents — Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine — who come to the Spencer Mansion while investigating a series of murders in the woodlands outside of Raccoon City. Chris/Jill encounters the murderous, mutated victims of the T-Virus and uncovers key information about Umbrella and its biological experimentation.

3. Resident Evil 2

Taking place two months after RE 0 and 1, Resident Evil 2 introduces two new protagonists — rookie cop Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield (Chris’s sister) — each with their own connected yet distinct campaign. RE 2 also introduces the recurring character Ada Wong and the iconic Tyrant enemy.

We learn more about William Birkin and his work on an even more threatening virus called the G-virus. Leon/Claire uncover more disturbing details about the clandestine work of Umbrella, as well as its ties to the Raccoon Police Department.

Resident Evil 2 is currently available to play for free with an Xbox Game Pass subscription.

4. Resident Evil 3

The chronology gets dicey with Resident Evil 3, but for the sake of simplicity, we recommend playing it after 2. The first part of RE 3 takes place before the events of RE 2; the second part takes place after. You could play halfway through 3, pause, play through 2, then return for the second half of 3. However, playing RE 3 after 2 won’t detract from the experience or your understanding of the story. We chose to place it fourth on this list seeing as its conclusion progresses the overall narrative beyond RE 2.

You begin RE 3 as Jill Valentine, still coping with her experience from RE 1, trying to escape from an overrun Raccoon City. For part of the game, while Jill is indisposed, control shifts to her mercenary ally Carlos Oliviera. RE 3 also introduces Nemesis and reveals the fate of Raccoon City.

Looking forward to Magic: The Gathering: Marvel’s Spider-Man on 26th September? Well Amazon has the Play Booster Box back in stock, so it’s a wise idea to get a preorder in before it does a Final Fantasy and disapears. If you’re like me and absolutley devistated at Courage the Cowardly Dog being taking off HBO, i’ve found the complete series on DVD for less than $20 too.

TL;DR: Deals For Today

LEGO Preorders are still going strong from last week, but the two sales that have stood out to me this morning is the MSI Reconditioned Monitor Sale at Woot and the Higround gaming gear sale over at Best Buy. There’s some ridiculous bargains on top tear battlestation essentials here, even solid budget options. If you need a car battery charger, a brilliant deal on a USB power bank and more, let’s get into today’s daily deals:

MTG: Spider-Man Play Booster Box Back In Stock

I’m expecting this MTG Universes Beyond expansion to web zip off shelves when it drops at the end of Feburary, so if you see a preorder like I have, just secure it. The money won’t be taken from your bank until it ships either, so it’s a no brainer. I’ve also included the listings for the rest of the set from TCG Player incase you needed a massive ripping session.

LEGO Preorders and Deals

These LEGO preorders and deals are still available from last week, so it’s 100% worth having a look through and grabbing a new project. They were amongst our best sellers last week, so make sure you’re not missing out on best selling preorders like the Spider-Man Across The Spider-Verse minifigure set.

Higround Gaming Sale

Every look at your gaming setup and think “This needs more Pokémon and Apex”?, Higround make some of the best branded keyboard, mice and deskmats around. Better yet, their range in Best Buy has had some serious price cuts, so it’s worth scoreing something unique for your gaming rig. The full sale is here.

MSI Monitor Sale

I’ve been running the MSI eSports 40″ gaming monitor since the start of this year, and it’s a fantastic monitor for the money. Getting it for $250 is an even sweeter deal, it’s a perfect 1440p monitor with no ghosting, great extra features and a lovely color balance. Fortnite and Oblivion Remastered at 140 FPS+ never looked so good. The full sale can be found here.

A Charlie Brown Christmas 60th Anniversary Zoetrope

Baseus Laptop Portable Charger 100W

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Classic Sewer Playset

BOOKOO Jump Starter 2000A for Car/Boat/Lawnmower

Courage the Cowardly Dog: The Complete Series (DVD)

Wizards of the Coast has been putting out non-cardboard Magic: The Gathering merchandise for a while now, but it’s been a little while since we’ve had new Funko Pops based on the property to collect.

We’ve already seen iconic Planeswalkers like Liliana Vess, Chandra Nalaar, Garruk Wildspeaker, and Ajani Goldmane brought to life, but that was more than a decade ago. If you’ve been looking to add to your setup, though, two new characters have been remade in plastic.

New Magic: The Gathering Funko Pops Hit Shelves Soon

The latest season of Fortnite sees you and your squad fending off insectoid alien enemies nicknamed Bugs while levelling up your battle pass — and if that sounds familiar, well, you aren’t the first to notice.

Arrowhead Game Studios, developer of Helldivers 2, another shooter where you squad up against insectoid alien enemies nicknamed Bugs, has now commented on the similarities — and suggested it was a case of imitation being a form of flattery.

“Hmmm… it’s giving ‘we have Helldivers at home,'” community manager Katherine Baskin wrote on the game’s Discord (thanks, Videogamer), before adding: “I’m not worried.”

“Fortnite is Fortnite, Helldivers is Helldivers,” Baskin continued. “If the kings of video game drip think our drip is cool enough to… inspire them… then that’s super cool. But our games couldn’t be more different from one another. There’s room for us all at the king’s table.”

When asked for his thoughts, Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani simply replied that the new Fortnite season “feels very democratic,” a reference to Helldivers’ own setting, in an era of human expansion into space dubbed the ‘Great Democratization.’

In reality, Fortnite has riffed on numerous other games, movies and overall genres in the past, with little left that it has not either offered its own version of, or collaborated to include. And, because it is Fortnite, the new season of its blockbuster battle royale also involves you fighting alongside a humanoid panda, the Power Rangers and Spartan soldiers from Halo.

So far, at least, the new gameplay appears to be going down well. According to developer Epic Games, players have now squashed more than 250 million Bugs since their invasion into Fortnite began last week. Next up for Fortnite will be the addition of pet-like Companions, leaks suggest, which will include a turtle riding a skateboard.

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

At the Develop Conference in Brighton, MachineGames’ Design Director Jens Andersson and Audio Director Pete Ward told an audience how the Swedish studio approached making Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the well-received return of the adventuring archaeologist to the world of video games.

Their talk revealed a number of insights into the stresses of the game’s development, how it all came together pretty late in the day (as video games tend to), and the audio quirks that threw more than a few spanners in the works. But what shone throughout was just how much effort the developers put into recreating the world of Indiana Jones as authentically as possible. Everything from the iconic sound of the whip to how market stalls would have looked in the late ‘30s was fussed over in order to help create the right atmosphere for the game.

And it worked, with significant praise from critics and players alike. IGN’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review returned a 9/10. We said: “An irresistible and immersive global treasure hunt, and far and away the best Indy story this century, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle doesn’t belong in a museum; it belongs on your hard drive where you can play the heck out of it.”

DLC beckons, and questions are swirling around a potential sequel, set up by the ending of The Great Circle itself. It was with all this in mind that IGN sat down with both Andersson and Ward at Develop to follow-up on their talk, to find out more about the dramatic changes that were made in its last year, and to ask a few cheeky questions about the future.

IGN: There was something interesting that you said in the talk, which was around licensing. You said that at the start, the iconic Indiana Jones music had to be licensed. It wasn’t a given. And that surprised me, because I would’ve thought that when it’s agreed to do an Indiana Jones game with Lucasfilm, that just all comes as part of it. That there wouldn’t be subsequent things that you’d have to do for individual bits, especially something so big and important as that. So it’d be great to get some insight into the process you had to go through to get all that agreed.

Pete Ward: So for the music, I don’t actually know how all the legal framework and systems work exactly. From my perspective, I just knew that we needed to get this theme and also Marion’s Theme, and also the music from the Peru section of the level, because that’s original John Williams scoring as well.

And we didn’t want to use the original recordings because then there’s a mechanical copyright issue there as well, and we’d have to license all that too, because mechanical copyright is the scoring or composition copyright. So that’s why we recorded all of our music, again, it was re-orchestrated, we recorded so that we — by we I don’t mean MachineGames, I mean Disney — owned the mechanical copyright for those new recordings.

But we needed to make sure that we were allowed to use the Raiders March theme, which is the famous one everyone knows. And we agreed that we could use that wherever we wanted in the product. So there was an unlimited number of times that we could quote it or reference it. But then for some of the other themes like the Peru content, we agreed to use that once, and we agreed to use Marion’s Theme a handful of times. There were very specific legal rules that we had to follow, and what we could use where and when, and all that stuff had to be approved and agreed by Lucasfilm Games obviously as well.

Jens Andersson: Is this because they have on their end agreements with John Williams?

Pete Ward: I think it’s to do with that. So that had to go through our legal team and they did a really good job with that. It took a little while to get through and we had to assume that we’d be able to use it and then confirm we could during development.

Jens Andersson: And they are super careful about that stuff, which kind of makes sense. Like all the rights, it goes for fonts, it goes for everything. It needs to be by the book.

Pete Ward: The other sound example is there’s some specific Marion lines in the first level that were performed by Karen Allen. They’re recordings from the original films, and those had to be licensed properly as well. We couldn’t just take that and use it.

IGN: Some people would have liked to hear a bit more John Williams in there, but maybe that’s to do with what you’re talking about, which is it is not as simple as just having access to everything that’s ever been, and you have to almost go piecemeal with it.

Pete Ward: Well, we had really careful discussions actually with Lucasfilm Games throughout about where to first use the theme, and how it should be used. We definitely had feedback that people would like to hear The Raiders March more, but then when we’re developing it, we didn’t want to create a game where every time you punch someone heroically, you get that theme. People would get tired of it in the end.

So there was a bit of feedback and back and forth about how we should use that theme. And one of our main goals was to use it in the same way as it was used in the movies. And it gets quoted in the movies a number of times and there are some bits where it’s quite strong, but you only really hear the whole thing as far as I know — I hope I don’t get this wrong! — but you only really hear the whole thing in the credit sequence at the end. So the whole thing leads up to that and then you get the dun, dun dun dun… and it rolls out along the credits. So we were trying to emulate that basically. We wanted to use that theme where it really mattered and we needed to hear that.

IGN: One of the other interesting things you said in the talk is that the design changed quite late in the day. It didn’t sound like this was a massive surprise to anyone, more just this seems to be the way MachineGames develops games and yes, it can be stressful from what you were saying in the talk, but ultimately everyone understands the bigger picture.

Jens Andersson: Most days.

IGN: Were there any specific examples where you had to make a dramatic decision late in the day that people who played the game will recognize as being a good decision, they got something that they wouldn’t have otherwise experienced it, or maybe something that you had to say, this isn’t going to work, we’re just going to have to cut this?

Jens Andersson: It is really hard to remember to be honest, because a lot of things change a lot of the time. Luckily it becomes smaller and smaller, but at the time it feels really, really big. One thing that I remember, it was just four months before we shipped, we changed how we set up the in-game guidance system, like markers on-screen and stuff like that. Sort of really committed, this is how we do it and we had to redo the whole thing. It turned out really well…

IGN: People love the map in the game.

Jens Andersson: Yeah. Basically if you walk around in “lowered” mode, you see markers in the world. And that’s something we fought for a long while. We didn’t want to have markers in the world because we hate games where there are constantly markers in the world and they start looking at the markers and you go follow them.

But having that only appear in this “lowered” mode as we called it, that proved to be this good balance where it was still very much opt in for the player. But it took us a lot of iterations to get there very late into the process and obviously had a huge effect on evaluation of player guidance. And even we weren’t always sure that the player would understand this, discover this by themselves.

So a lot of these kind of things that feels like in the end it’s like, oh, when do we turn this on? When do we turn it off? That feels like it’s a small code change, but it has huge implications for how people play the game.

IGN: And that was just a few months before you shipped?

Jens Andersson: Yeah. Similar with the whole stealth UI. We have these markers on top of a more classical version. We had a completely different system six months before ship that was hub based, more like if you know Fortnite, how you see firefights. But in the end decided that it wasn’t clear enough, we were going to go back to previous design and do that.

So it’s iteration and it’s frustrating and it’s hard and at that point when the pressure is really on as well, it becomes very emotional. You invested a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of work, a lot of pride in this is what we’re doing, and you need to be absolutely convincing to the rest of the team: this is how it’s going to be in the game, this is going to be excellent. And then one month later it’s like, no.

But speaking about MachineGames in particular, I know other studios who do this completely differently, but MachineGames has a strong tradition of doing it like this. There’s a lot of fear that plays into this kind of final phase of development, where what if you make the wrong choices? And you rarely know all the consequences of the decisions you need to make. You just need to trust your gut sometimes and say this is going to make the game better, trust me. And you’ve been arguing about this for years usually, and you have all these kind of informations and all the permutations and everything, and there’s no explaining that.

So people are like, Jerk [Gustafsson], our game director, he needs to be the one saying, okay, this is what we’re going to do. I know it’s late, we are past beta, but this is the feedback, this is the data that shows we need to change. This is what we’re going with and this is what we know is going to happen when we do this. And then most of the time it’s correct.

Pete Ward: My experience of that was that Jerk would quite often come into my room and ask me what the audio consequences of a particular change would be. For example, putting an interactive moment or taking one out or something like that, he would come to me and ask me how bad would it be if we do this? And that was really nice because sometimes it was very easy for us because of how all the scenes were put together, and sometimes it would be very, very difficult and expensive.

I had the opportunity to say, to just give Jerk that information and then he could choose whether he wanted to, and why he wanted to do that. But I felt like I was listened to and my team was listened to, rather than things just happening. The big stuff we were consulted about and that was nice.

IGN: The game really came together in the last year, but it had been in development for five years?

Jens Andersson: Yeah, almost five years. But it is always hard to put a starting point on development. The first six months was just a few people, but yeah, almost five years is a good answer.

IGN: I often hear from AAA developers that this is often the case, that there’s no game at all and then all of a sudden there is a game, which must be very difficult to have to plan for because you can’t really know until right at the end if something’s working.

Pete Ward: It’s terrifying!

Jens Andersson: Yeah, it’s not a great way to work. I wish there was a different way to work.

Pete Ward: Yeah, the reason it’s terrifying for me is because there are some big things in audio, like massive tankers that take a long time to steer music. Recording on this game is one of those. If we were making a game that was not fully orchestral score and recorded, it would be easier because we can make changes later.

But when you have to commit to recording sessions and compose well in advance before you know actually how much you need, that’s a bit tricky. Lots of games have a lot of localization in as well and lots of VO, but that’s one of those things where you have to get the script locked and record it and then do the localization and there’s big processes that you can’t just change on a whim.

IGN: One of the other things that came through really strongly from the talk was how much effort went into trying to make it authentic as a period piece, which I think people really did appreciate. I’d love to get some more insight into some of the extreme lengths you went to try and make it really feel like what it would be like at that time period in all those locations around the world.

Jens Andersson: I have an anecdote that I really like personally. A lot of the game takes place in the Vatican and we had artists who went there. I remember having a conversation with one of the designers about the opening level in the Vatican where you scale the Castel Sant’Angelo. We had some player guidance problems there and everything and I asked, how about we do this and that and this? We change, we move this thing so you come up there instead of over there. And the answer is, well then it wouldn’t look like it does in real life. And I was like, what do you mean? Yeah, here are the reference photos. And they pulled up the reference photos and it looked identical, almost.

And it’s almost like an opportunity lost here because players don’t really understand how accurate it is. I proposed a developer’s commentary mode where you could pull up the photos and see the reference. That would be super cool! Who knows, one day when they do the remake in 20 years!

But it was so ingrained with the team that this is important. We had that throughout. I know they worked a lot with Sukhothai, really fought hard to dig up old photos from when they first started excavating Sukhothai and the temples around there just to find reference for how it actually looked before. Now it’s very clean and touristy with walking paths and everything. But finding good references to that. And then of course our layer on top of that, the whole thing is flooded as part of the narrative twist we have to Sukhothai. What would it look like in 1937 if it was flooded and the enemy was there doing huge excavations?

IGN: And it sounded like you found quite a character to help you recreate the whip sound? I have a picture in my head of some sort of Thor looking character wearing very little smashing trees with a whip or something. I dunno if that’s the reality?

Pete Ward: You’re not totally wrong! I think his company’s Witchcraft Whips. He’s based up in northern Sweden somewhere. He builds whips. He’s won competitions doing that as well. He was just incredibly good at consistently cracking in different locations with different methods. So yeah, it was much better than me doing it!

Jens Andersson: We had one of those whips in the motion capture room in the basement.

IGN: Did you have a go?

Jens Andersson: Yeah, yeah, absolutely! I think everyone did at some point, walking down there and there’s no one around, trying…

IGN: But beyond just the audio, it sounds like it was quite a design challenge to make the whip because of course that’s going to be one of the central pieces of the game, but making that into a fun AND functional part of the game that doesn’t clip through things or look like it’s broken and the animations make sense. That must’ve taken years to perfect?

Jens Andersson: It took years, absolutely. And it took years because we kept changing inventory systems. Right now we have a reserved button for the whip, but that wasn’t always the case. In an earlier version you had to equip it, stuff like that. And then really the challenge was to find great opportunities in gameplay to use it. It isn’t a very natural tool for an action hero.

IGN: Or games really. You don’t really have first-person games that revolve around a whip.

Jens Andersson: No, because it’s not very effective.

IGN: It’s not a gun.

Jens Andersson: It’s not a gun. Or a flyswatter. So the traversal stuff, that was pretty clear where we needed to go with it. Scale walls and all that kind of stuff. But we tried a lot of different things, using it in puzzles and stuff like that. But I think it started to come together when we started using it as an entry point to combat, is kind of the final pitch for how it was used in combat. So you can use it to disarm, but you can also use it to pull people into what we call ‘clinch.’ So it became a good reminder to the player, here’s a good opportunity for the whip, use it to disarm, run up, punch them, rather than try to fiddle with it mid-combat. At the same time we were careful not to create a situation where you could whip people to death. It comes with certain problems…

IGN: People definitely would have tried that!

Jens Andersson: Well… they do! So all these things in conflict at the same time, you’re just trying to get a fun semi-chaotic combat experience that fits in Indiana Jones.

Pete Ward: And those little set piece moments are really fun as well. You disarm someone and pull their weapons to you, or trip them over or something, or whip them in a place where they don’t want to be whipped and they have an animation reacting to that, which is fun.

IGN: Some Indiana Jones fans really want to know if your game is canon alongside the movies. Did you ever care that much about that? Did you have to make the game make sense within the context of a Lucasfilm guided canon? You are set between two movies.

Jens Andersson: It was super important for us to create this authentic Indian Jones experience and we worked directly with Lucasfilm games on doing that. And that was in their interest too. I know the word canon… it’s the word that’s banned more or less because it comes with a lot of baggage. So it doesn’t matter, is the point. People can change things later on. It’s their IP, they can do whatever they want. What’s important is that we’re creating an authentic Indiana Jones experience with the backing of Lucasfilm, and making sure it fits into the universe. We really feel like we are extending the world. Our game is contributing to what Indiana Jones is. And I feel like we have absolutely Lucasfilm Games’ backing on that and that’s what they’ve expressed as well.

IGN: You went with the likeness of Harrison Ford and very successfully recreated his likeness, but obviously Troy Baker for the performance. Was there ever any thought about recreating Harrison Ford’s voice through whatever means, whether that be technological or with his involvement? Did you ever have any considerations of doing what I know IOI is doing with James Bond where they’re creating an original likeness of James Bond? Was it ever on the table to do either of those things?

Jens Andersson: Indiana Jones is so tied to Harrison Ford as a character, so it would be a worse Indiana Jones game if we couldn’t use this likeness. And we chose in-between Raiders and The Last Crusade intentionally because that’s Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones in his prime. That’s the one you want to be. That’s the one I want to play. So for us, that was always a given.

And as for the voice, it became very clear very quickly when we got Troy Baker on board, that was the way for us to go. I can’t speak about all the things that went on before that, but very soon when he came in, he can do it. And we were so incredibly lucky to have him and his enthusiasm, just the effort he put into creating his version of Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones. And you see that right?

IGN: Yeah. And Harrison Ford loved it!

Jens Andersson: And that was such a good moment for us as well, at The Game Awards when he came out and basically gave praise to… this is the way to do it. And that felt like, yes, that means a lot coming from him.

IGN: I’d love to talk to you about the future. You’ve got the DLC coming out obviously, and there’s been a little bit of information about what fans can expect from that. This DLC is set during the events of the game itself as opposed to continuing the story from the ending of The Great Circle.. So just to make that distinction, is it the case that this isn’t going to resolve all the teases at the end of the various endings that are in the game and all the Antarctica pointers and stuff?

Jens Andersson: It is self-contained. It is set in Rome. It does take place during the events of the main storyline. A lot of this stuff, I think we’ll talk more about Gamescom so we can’t talk too much more about it.

IGN: I’d like to ask about a potential sequel, which your ending did tease, especially the secret ending obviously. I’m not expecting anyone to confirm Indiana Jones and the Great Circle 2 or anything. But from your point of view, would you like the opportunity to pay off that tease? Is there an internal drive to want to do that? Or was it always designed to just be a sort of like, if this is the only one that can happen, that’s how you set out to make it, that’s fine and you’ll be completely happy with that? Is there a grander ambition story wise, which the game itself does suggest for you to realize at some point down the line?

Jens Andersson: Obviously we can’t talk to anything about future projects at this point. But it’s still easy to answer your question because all the individual Indiana Jones movies have self-contained stories.

IGN: They don’t have secret endings though that suggest future destinations that players might be able to experience at a later time!

Jens Andersson: There are so many storylines in the game, right? So you can do whatever. But yeah, no comment!

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