Category: IGN

Team Cherry’s post-launch support of massive indie hit Hollow Knight: Silksong continues, with Patch 2 now live.

As the developer had signalled, Silksong’s second major patch (1.0.28650) focuses on a few critical issues still remaining, while also cleaning up some bugs around specific tools. The patch notes, per Team Cherry’s website, are below.

All fixes will apply retroactively, Team Cherry added, so players who’ve hit a significant bug that prevents progress should now be able to proceed.

Further fixes are currently being worked on for a third patch, the developer continued, with some additional focus around improving controller support on PC platforms. “Expect this one to come a little later, as we’re aiming to cover as many remaining issues as possible,” Team Cherry said.

Meanwhile, Team Cherry said for upcoming patches, beyond regular fixes, “our first priority remains to improve Silksong’s Simplified Chinese translation.”

This is in response to high-profile criticism of Silksong’s Simplified Chinese translation, which had led to Chinese players leaving negative Steam reviews. “The current Silksong [Chinese] translation reads like a Wuxia novel instead of conveying the game’s tone,” said one player. “This isn’t about effort, but about taste and direction, and speaking from experience likely can’t be fixed without replacing the translator.” Another said: “can you imagine as a Chinese, I need to play the game by switching in English to understand [the] translation.”

“Native Chinese speaker here. The translation uses awkwardly archaic wording that makes a lot of the content unintelligible,” added someone else. “I’m talking about word salad type of situation. On top of the anachronistic pretentiousness, it’s downright gibberish at times.”

“A new script, by a well-regarded team, is already well underway,” Team Cherry confirmed. “We’re expecting this new translation to be delivered in 3-4 weeks, with implementation to follow immediately after.

“In the meantime, for Simplified Chinese players, we’ve recently been informed that a talented group of Hollow Knight fans has already produced their own full-translation mod for Silksong! We’ve heard good things about the mod, and players may want to consider shifting over to it.”

Playing Silksong? Here are some essential guides for your journey upwards: the Silksong Interactive Map, how to grind for Rosary Beads, our ever-expanding Walkthrough with boss videos and guides, how to get your first life bar upgrade (first four mask shards), and a great guide to the Simple Keys and the doors they open.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Version 1.0.28650 patch notes:

• Added Dithering effect option in Advanced video settings (PC only). Reduces colour banding but can slightly soften the appearance of foreground assets. Defaults to ‘Off’.
• Updated Herald’s Wish achievement description to clarify that players must both complete the wish and finish the game.
• Fixed Savage Beastfly in Far Fields sometimes remaining below the lava.
• Fixed rare cases of Shrine Guardian Seth getting out of bounds during battle.
• Fixed rare case of Second Sentinel knocking the player out of bounds during battle.
• Added catch to prevent Lugoli sometimes flying off screen and not returning during battle.
• Further reduced chance of Silk Snippers getting stuck out of bounds in Chapel of the Reaper battle.
• Fixed various instances of dying to bosses while killing them causing death sequences to play messily or out of sync.
• Fixed Shaman Binding into a bottom transition causing a softlock.
• Cocoon positions in some locations updated to prevent it spawning in inaccessible areas.
• Fixed Liquid Lacquer courier delivery not being accessible in Steel Soul mode.
• Fixed some NPCs not correctly playing cursed hint dialogues in certain instances.
• Fixed Pondcatcher Reed not being able to fly away after singing.
• Fixed Verdania memory orbs sometimes replaying layered screen-edge burst effects.
• Fixed the break counter not working for certain multihitter tools eg Conchcutter.
• Fixed Volt Filament damage multiplier not applying for certain Silk Skills.
• Fixed Cogflies and Wisps inappropriately targeting Skullwings.
• Fixed Cogflies incorrectly resetting their HP to full on scene change.
• Fixed Curveclaw always breaking on the first hit after being deflected.
• Fixed Plasmium Phial and Flea Brew sometimes not restoring as intended at benches.
• Various other smaller tweaks and fixes.

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.

Since Borderlands 4 came out, developer Gearbox has released a PC-focused patch that tackles crashes, among a few other things. But players are wondering what the studio intends to do about the looter shooter’s balance, especially at a time when builds that let you one-shot bosses are doing the rounds.

Gearbox has now indicated that in the short-term, it plans to buff underperforming gear and skills rather than nerf overpowered builds. Indeed, those instakill builds you’ve seen online are safe, for now. But, Gearbox insisted, they will get nerfed eventually.

Confirmation comes from Borderlands 4 creative director Graeme Timmins, who took to social media to acknowledge the debate about what he called “builds that use unintended interactions and/or the knife.”

Here’s the statement:

“We’ve seen the discourse about builds that use unintended interactions and/or the knife. We’re not going to act on those immediately, instead, we’re looking at our first round of buffs. Those will get addressed but we’re going to start with underperforming gear/skills first.”

So, what’s all this talk about a knife? As IGN has reported, Borderlands 4 players have discovered an infinite damage build so broken it kills bosses in seconds — even on the hardest difficulty levels.

To make this build work you need the Vampiric Vivisecting Throwing Knife with the Penetrator Augment. Land a hit with this knife and subsequent damage to the target are automatic critical hits for five seconds. Add bleed stacking and each tick of the bleed effect registers as a critical hit.

Players have come up with eye-catching builds around the knife that essentially makes a Borderlands 4 boss fight a trivial experience, and thus farming for the game’s best loot a lot easier. For example, Vex’s Bloodletter passive makes your gun and skill critical hits have a chance to apply bleed, which counts as gun damage and is based on the initial damage dealt. Add Vex’s Contamination passive, which causes critical hits to increase status effect application chance up to 100% and thus ensuring the bleed re-procs infinitely, and you’ve got exponential damage. So, throw the knife, land one big shot on the boss, and watch the numbers get bigger and bigger as the bleed ticks it down.

The news that Gearbox is focusing on buffs over nerfs right now is being celebrated by the community. Borderlands 4 content creator Moxsy called it “such a huge W.”

“Massive nerfs hitting Wonderlands & BL3 on launch caused huge outrage and frustration in the community. Love to see this direction,” Moxsy said in a post on social media.

The question now is what steps Gearbox will take to nerf the knife. Will it change how it works completely, or apply slight changes to tone it down?

There’s no timeframe for Borderlands 4’s next patch, but we know some more of what the studio is working on. PC performance improvements are a “top priority,” the studio has said. A Field of View (FOV) slider is on the way to the console versions, too.

Borderlands 4 console players are also keen for a patch to address some glaring technical problems. Last week, the tech experts at Digital Foundry confirmed a gradual worsening of framerate with continuous playtime, even on PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X. As revealed in a new video published to YouTube, Digital Foundry found performance starts dipping after around 30 minutes to an hour, which it called “too intrusive on the overall experience, too regular an interruption.” Even after a completely fresh boot, the game is still prone to framerate drops.

Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford has acknowledged the problem on social media, promising incoming improvements. As a workaround, Pitchford suggested console players quit Borderlands 4 and restart. Digital Foundry’s Tom Morgan confirmed this does restore performance, but criticized the situation, saying “resetting the game every hour should really not be an expected solution for players.”

Meanwhile, Timmins has said he’s got his eye on “cricket jumping,” which lets Borderlands 4 players leap across huge chunks of the map.

If you are delving into Borderlands 4, don’t go without updated hourly SHiFT codes list. We’ve also got a huge interactive map ready to go and a badass Borderlands 4 planner tool courtesy of our buds at Maxroll. Plus check out our expert players’ choices for which character to choose (no one agreed).

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.

Hideo Kojima has discussed his upcoming PlayStation exclusive Physint during a Kojima Productions 10th Anniversary event in Japan.

Speaking on-stage during the event, Kojima said development on Physint was just starting. Indeed, the legendary developer is working on the concepts by himself right now, making characters and thinking about casting. “It is just the start,” he said.

After a video message of support from Herman Hulst, CEO, Studio Business Group, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Kojima described Physint as the next stage tactical espionage action game. Kojima is of course famous for creating the Metal Gear franchise while at Konami.

The tech underpinning Physint is even more advanced than that powering Kojima’s Death Stranding games and upcoming Xbox Game Studios exclusive OD (whose debut trailer was revealed at the show), he said, because it’s due out later in the future. No release date or even release window was mentioned, but from what Kojima said, it’s OD next for Kojima Productions, then Physint, so it may be some time before we see anything meaningful on the project.

Kojima did tease the main character of the game via the first poster for Physint, below. It doesn’t tell us much, as it’s hard to make out even their face. We don’t know who’s playing the main character, either (expect a casting announcement at some point in the future, Kojima said). We do have the tagline “here comes the feeling,” although who knows what that means at this stage?

Hideo Kojima has revealed the first trailer for OD, his upcoming Xbox Game Studios project, during this morning’s Kojima Productions: Beyond the Strand livestream.

As previously announced, the mysterious game will star Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Sophia Lillis, Hunters’ Udo Kier and Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer — and today’s trailer showcased Lillis’ character in a spooky house, lighting candles before meeting a malevolent figure.

On stage, Kojima explained that the game was subtitled as OD: Knock — and indeed, a creepy knocking sound can be heard throughout the trailer. The subtitle appears to differentiate Kojima’s video game from the OD project being worked on by filmmaker Jordan Peele. “There is a different kind of fear Jordan [Peele] will do. Mine is the ‘knock’, is the fear,” Kojima said today. “I really am afraid of big knock sounds.”

KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS 10周年記念イベント
「Beyond The Strand」速報

最新作「OD」のティザー映像が公開
あわせて、本作がUnreal Engineで開発されていることも発表されました👍#KojimaProductions #KJP10th #XboxGameStudios #OD pic.twitter.com/HBSfuLDxqw

— KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS (@KojiPro2015) September 23, 2025

The trailer begins with Lillis’ character using a red card to open a locked red door. Partially redacted text hints at OD’s story taking place 10 years after a horrifying event, where something cursed has once again… done something.

On the red card lies the following text : “Light the fires to celebrate their [redacted].” In first-person, Lillis’ character then enters the room. It’s gloomy, with rain spattering the windows. But, sure enough, there is a chest with an arrangement of candles — fires — waiting to be lit.

After lighting more of the candles — a couple of which are shaped like creepy Death Stranding babies — we get our first proper shot of Lillis’ character, as she shakes in fear. Behind her, we hear a door open, and a figure approach, as a noise like a Geiger counter increases. The trailer ends with figure grabbing Lillis by the head.

As previously announced, OD is being developed using Unreal Engine, and it sounds like Xbox is assisting with Kojima Productions’ work using the technology.

“Development is well underway,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said of OD today. “Kojima is innovating in gameplay, story and player engagement. We’re collaborating closely, and we very excited for what’s next.”

“What an amazing I’d say maybe teaser, or a glimpse,” Spencer continued. “When I first saw it I saw something new, something slightly sinister, but also something that was extremely Kojima-san. OD is bold, it’s unique, and it’s unmistakably from this studio, which is just incredible. We’re deeply supporting the production, it’s our technical work on Unreal that we’re doing with the team, both with the kind of flashy what you’re seeing on the screen, but also a lot of behind the scenes work. We have one goal in mind, which is to bring Kojima-san’s vision to life for all players, everywhere, and we can’t wait for players to experience it when it is ready.”

Other details on the game remain under wraps, other than this important warning about the game’s level of horror: “It’s really scary, and you’ll probably do in your pants,” Kojima said.

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

Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions are celebrating the studio’s 10th anniversary with a big Beyond the Strand livestream that promises to “offer a glimpse into future projects” in development at the studio behind the first two Death Stranding titles.

We’ll be covering this event live and updating this article with all the big news and reveals!

Celebrating 10 Years of Kojima Productions

Beyond the Strand began with a look back at Kojima Productions, including a timeline of the studio, which you can see below;

December 12, 2016: Kojima Productions Established

2016: Official Mascot “Ludens” Revealed

2016: New Office Established in Shinagawa

2016: Death Stranding Revealed

2019: Death Stranding Special Stage at Tokyo Game Show 2019

2019: Launch of Death Stranding

2020: Fellowship Award at the BAFTA Games Awards

2021: Launch of Death Stranding Director’s Cut

2022: Partnership with Xbox Game Studios

2022: New Office Completed

2022: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Announced

2023: Praying For a Safe Production With Microsoft at Kanada Myojin

2023: OD Announced

2024: Physint Announced

2025: Launch of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Kojima Productions Partnering With Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group On a Credit Card

Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions are collaborating with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group on a brand-new credit card that is aiming to be released in the second half of 2026. This card will also have a smart phone app and digital card to make payments and will let users accumulate points and exchange them for merch and goods. The team is working on what themed goods and merch can be used alongside game characters and themes for the card itself.

Developing…

Palworld is getting its first-ever official spin-off game from developer Pocketpair, and it’s looking just a little bit cozier than the original game. It’s called Palworld: Palfarm, and as the name implies, you and your gaggle of Pals will be farming, crafting, and living a life on the land together on an adventure that looks far more Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley than Palworld.

Pocketpair announced the game today with a brand new trailer, and a Steam page. These reveal that Palfarm will be a slice-of-life farming and crafting sim set on the Palpagos Islands where familiar Pals will join you to build a dream farm. Alongside growing plants, you can cook with Pals, shop at their stores, give them gifts, and- no, no you can’t eat them. Of course not. Not this time. They’re farming buddies. Not food.

Well, most of them. Some Pals will apparently come raid your farm, and you’ll have to fight them off. And then maybe when they die, they might drop stuff that looks like food. Okay, maybe you can kind of eat Pals in Palfarm too. Don’t think about it too hard.

While Palfarm does seem to be more focused on the cuddlier aspects of life with Pals, including allowing the player to pet Pals and even get married to other humans (with Pals matchmaking and officiating), it’s not without its edges. The trailer includes a look at a black market where you can, yes, get a gun. What would you do with a gun in a cozy game like this? Don’t think about it too hard!!

Notably, the trailer showed off a number of Pals that can join you to help on the farm, including what seems to be one unannounced new Pal, Sekhmet, that’s working with Anubis as a blacksmith. The Steam page also makes it clear that multiplayer will be an option.

Palfarm doesn’t have a release date just yet, and so far only appears to be in development for PC via Steam, though given Palworld’s trajectory it’s possible other platforms are in the cards for later on. Palworld itself is currently still in early access, but Pocketpair has said it’s planning a small update in December, and is working toward a big 1.0 launch sometime next year.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Activision and Treyarch have published a Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 multiplayer reveal trailer and deep dive blog post that shows players everything they need to know ahead of its upcoming beta test.

The developers behind Call of Duty 2025 offered a multiplayer breakdown in a new post published on the series’ website today. It comes with information about every last map, weapon, and mode fans can expect in Black Ops 7, both during the beta and at launch, while showing off a sneak peek at what it all looks like in motion with today’s trailer. You can see the Black Ops 7 multiplayer reveal trailer, with Travis Scott and Playboi Carti’s FE!N providing the musical backdrop, below.

Today’s Black Ops 7 multiplayer reveal trailer hits the highlights for those who have about two and a half minutes to spare. While players can be seen darting around corners, sliding and shooting at enemies, and even wall-jumping to reach high-up areas, the footage serves as a reminder that this year’s Call of Duty lets players take advantage of near-future technology. These can be seen in futuristic tools like the Echo Unit hologram decoy as well as Scorestreaks, such as the D.A.W.G. quadruped robot and the remote-controlled Rhino soldier.

Classic Call of Duty Scorestreaks like the RC-XD, UAV, Care Package, and more are back, too, with players now able to unlock Overclock upgrades that can improve their usefulness in unique ways. The UAV, for example, has Overclock options that equip it with a flare for missile defense and lower its score cost, while the Rhino gains access to an improved radar and extended runtime.

Treyarch, of course, still has more up its sleeve, but today’s Black Ops 7 multiplayer reveal really pulls back the curtain on what players can expect when beta early access begins October 2 and at launch. While the beta will only allow access to a limited selection of the content available when Black Ops 7’s November release date arrives, we at least know which of the 18 launch maps players can try out in a few weeks.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Maps, Modes, and More

Black Ops 7 will launch with 16 Core 6v6 maps. Six from that lineup will be included in the beta, with three returning from 2012’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. You can see the full list of Core maps, as well as the two 20v20 Skirmish maps, below.

Core 6v6 Maps

• Blackheart (Beta)
• Cortex (Beta)
• Exposure (Beta)
• Imprint (Beta)
• The Forge (Beta)
• Toshin (Beta)
• Colossus
• Den
• Flagship
• Homestead
• Paranoia
• Retrieval
• Scar
• Express (Returning from Black Ops 2)
• Hijacked (Returning from Black Ops 2)
• Raid (Returning from Black Ops 2)

Skirmish Maps

• Mission: Edge
• Mission: Tide

As per usual, a new Call of Duty means fan-favorite modes have been refreshed, with new modes for players to look forward to, too. Multiplayer mainstays like Team Deathmatch, Domination, Kill Confirmed, and Hardpoint will be available to play during the beta, with Free-For-All, Gunfight, Kill Order, Control, and Search and Destroy following at launch. There are also Face Off versions of many of these modes, giving players an option to experience classic modes while tuning down the chaos thanks to disabled Scorestreaks.

The main new mode given the spotlight today is Overload. Also available during the beta, the multiplayer option will see players tasked with bringing an Overload Device to control zones. It flips respawns on as teams guard their device carrier, suggesting teamwork will be an important element in order to achieve victory.

Black Ops 7 sticks with tradition by offering new and returning modes, but there are even more gameplay-focused changes for longtime fans to learn, too. The three-Perk system, for example, is getting a facelift with a tweak called Hybrid Combat Specialties.

These are activated when pairing Perks from different categories, allowing players to flex their creative muscles by mixing and matching different Perks for unique upgrades. Some examples laid out by Treyarch include the red-and-blue Scout Specialty, which keeps players’ position temporarily concealed after a bullet elimination, as well as the blue-and-green Operative Specialty, which charges Field Upgrades with stealth kills. Treyarch’s Black Ops 7 multiplayer reveal breakdown also includes a first look at a feature that allows friends to share weapon builds with each other with Build Codes, while also granting the ability to access Gunsmith within the Firing Range in Multiplayer itself.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has a release date of November 14, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S. Those hoping to for a closer look at how Treyarch has updated its formula for this year’s Call of Duty can pre-order to play the early access beta from October 2 – 5, with the open beta following for all from October 5 – 8.

For more, you can read up on how Activision plans to tackle cheaters when Black Ops 7 launches in a few months. You can also see how skins unlocked in past entries can carry over to this year’s entry.

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

It’s difficult to say what’s more exciting, a new game with a fresh setting and approach, or one built upon the gleaming DNA of a predecessor. Star Wars: Battle of Hoth certainly owes much of its appeal to Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, but it also bears an obligation to the classic World War II board game Memoir ’44. Publisher Days of Wonder has effectively taken that 20-year-old design and used it as a retrofitted vehicle to facilitate the most iconic Star Wars land battle on film. The results of this experiment are a lithe and approachable board game focused on dramatic action and brisk play.

Folks, it’s here! Marvel’s Spider-Man set for Magic: The Gathering made its prerelease debut last week, and with preorders starting to arrive, we’re starting to see what players are most excited about with the new web-slinging set.

The lovely folks at TCGPlayer have provided some Spectacular data on the most popular cards players are buying ahead of the full release this Friday, September 26. Here’s what to look out for when you’re opening your packs this week.

10 – Cosmic Spider-Man

Borderlands 4 players have discovered a way to skip huge chunks of the map in a technique dubbed “cricket jumping” — but a developer at Gearbox has warned action may have to be taken to patch it out of the game if it starts causing issues.

As demonstrated by streamer Bahroo, Borderlands 4 players can propel themselves across the map by using a glitch at The Prospects’ Ripper Drill site. To do this, you stand on the top of the drill, line yourself up in the direction you want to travel, with your back towards the direction you want to travel, tab out of the game, then fire. Your character hurtles through the air, which, in combination with Borderlands 4’s glide ability, lets you pass over significant areas of the map.

As noted in a social media post, cricket jumping will play a crucial role in Borderlands 4 speedrunning. But will it last? Creative Director Graeme Timmins responded on social media to say “I’ve got my eye on this.”

But it sounds like cricket jumping is here to stay, at least for now.

“My only worry is streaming issues or if this introduces instability,” Timmins continued. “Not out to ruin people’s fun, but can’t have it cause tech issues. For now tho, not going to do anything until proven issues arise.”

I’ve got my eye on this. My only worry is streaming issues or if this introduces instability. Not out to ruin people’s fun, but can’t have it cause tech issues. For now tho, not going to do anything until proven issues arise.

— Graeme Timmins (@ProdigyXL) September 20, 2025

Timmins went on to address a complaint from one Borderlands 4 player at the lack of updates for the console version of the game compared to the PC version, which has seen two post-launch patches.

“Console testing and certification is more involved than pushing out PC builds,” Timmins explained. “It just takes longer with 1st parties making sure we’re sending out good quality patches. It’s coming and we’re doing everything we can to make it happen quickly.”

Borderlands 4 console players are keen for a patch to address some glaring technical problems. Last week, the tech experts at Digital Foundry confirmed a gradual worsening of framerate with continuous playtime, even on PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X.

As revealed in a new video published to YouTube, Digital Foundry found performance starts dipping after around 30 minutes to an hour, which it called “too intrusive on the overall experience, too regular an interruption.” Even after a completely fresh boot, the game is still prone to framerate drops.

Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford has acknowledged the problem on social media, promising incoming improvements. As a workaround, Pitchford suggested console players quit Borderlands 4 and restart. Digital Foundry’s Tom Morgan confirmed this does restore performance, but criticized the situation, saying “resetting the game every hour should really not be an expected solution for players.”

The PC version, meanwhile, is still on a mixed Steam review rating, with most of the negative comments revolving around PC performance. Digital Foundry has said its initial analysis of Borderlands 4 on PC shows significant stutter problems, and have advised against running the game on its ‘Badass’ graphics setting, which suggests there are indeed problems with the Unreal Engine 5 title.

Gearbox has said addressing PC performance is a “top priority” for the studio. In the meantime, the studio pointed to a Borderlands 4 Nvidia Optimization guide on Steam, advising players how to optimize their graphics settings for “better performance and framerates” on PC with the Nvidia app, although users report mixed results.

Gearbox has also issued a piece of advice to PC gamers that to me reads like an effort to prevent players from making knee-jerk reactions to the game’s performance as soon as they’ve changed their settings: “Please note that any time you change any of your graphics settings, your shaders will need to recompile. Please keep playing for at least 15 minutes to see how your PC’s performance has changed.”

If you are delving into Borderlands 4, don’t go without updated hourly SHiFT codes list. We’ve also got a huge interactive map ready to go and a badass Borderlands 4 planner tool courtesy of our buds at Maxroll. Plus check out our expert players’ choices for which character to choose (no one agreed).

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.