Category: IGN

One of the biggest reasons for why we remember the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games so fondly is because of the licensed soundtrack. From punk rock to hip-hop, and a new wave of hardcore with the remasters, the series forged our music tastes, and it will continue to do so with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 Remastered coming July 11 this year. In the lead up to its release, Activision is putting together the official THPS 3 + 4 playlist on Spotify and continually updating it as it reveals more and more of the song list.

The first wave of tracks have just been revealed, and here are the songs we currently know of for the THPS 3 + 4 Remastered soundtrack:

• “Ace of Spades” by Motörhead
• “Them Bones” by Alice in Chains
• “Ultimate” by Denzel Curry
• “Gang of Four” by Damaged Goods
• “96 Quite Bitter Beings” by CKY
• “Yankee and the Brave (Ep. 4)” by Run the Jewels
• “King of the Beach” by Wavves
• “Real Thing” by Turnstile
• “Not the Same” by Bodyjar
• “New Wage Salary” by End It
• “Head” by Jeff Rosenstock
• “Collard Greens” by Schoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar
• “Outta Here” by KRS-One
• “Result” by TCMF
• “Dog Years” by Urethane
• “Charlotte” by Kittie
• “Mass Appeal” by Gang Starr
• “Faster than the World” by H20
• “Roadkill” by Starcrawler
• “Amoeba” by Adolescents

Additionally, those who get the deluxe edition of the game, or access it through Xbox Game Pass, will also get a full band version of the Doom E1M1 theme song as a playable track (along with the Doom Slayer and Revenant skater skins).

Personally, I’d love to hear Guttermouth’s “I’m Destroying the World” and AFI’s “The Boy Who Destroyed the World” from THPS 3 make comebacks, as well as Bad Religion’s “Big Bang” and Flogging Molly’s “Drunken Lullabies” from THPS 4. That’s mostly because I’m a washed up old punk kid. However, it’s an opportunity to discover new music and celebrate the scene as it is today, bridging the gap between the new and old as was the case with THPS 1 + 2 Remastered from 2021.

Those who preorder THPS 3 + 4 Remastered’s deluxe or collector’s edition can access the playable demo right now which includes two parks, two skaters, and a limited soundtrack. An exclusive physical Birdhouse skate deck also comes with the collector’s edition. You’ll also be able to access the full game early on July 8, three days ahead of its official release date.

The world of Monster Hunter Wilds is big, and also pretty connected. One player set out to show just that, with a long journey from a starting zone to the peaks of its later areas.

Over on the Monster Hunter subreddit, user -BrotherPig- posted a video, below, chronicling their journey across the zones of Monster Hunter Wilds. They start out in the Windward Plains, running across the sand and dunes, all the way to the later game zones and, eventually, some of the last game areas and locales. Spoilers await, if you haven’t rolled credits on the campaign just yet.

It’s an impressively long trip, and emphasizes just how linked all the zones are. There’s only one loading screen that happens, around halfway into the trip, as the traveler heads from the Oilwell Basin into the Iceshard Cliffs. Otherwise, it’s one big run for this presumably exhausted Seikret.

Monster Hunter Wilds isn’t entirely without loading screens, of course. Aside from the one we see in the trip above, there’s also the loading screen to enter the training grounds, and those you would get from fast traveling or departing for a friend’s quest. But the connectivity is certainly fascinating to see in action, and gave me a new appreciation for all the little corridors and passages that connect the Forbidden Lands.

The secret sauce for Monster Hunter Wilds though, according to a series producer, is apparently in its story, immersion, and cross-play. I’ve personally just enjoyed seeing all the discoveries players are making with how Wilds handles the series’ systems in the open world. No matter why you’re playing, it seems like there’s still stuff to keep players occupied between now and the first Title Update in April.

To help get your Monster Hunter Wilds adventure started, take a look at what Monster Hunter Wilds doesn’t tell you, and a guide to all 14 weapon types in the game. We’ve also got a detailed Monster Hunter Wilds walkthrough in progress, a Monster Hunter Wilds multiplayer guide to explain how to play with friends, and if you’ve played one of the open betas, here’s how to transfer your Monster Hunter Wilds Beta character over.

IGN’s Monster Hunter Wilds review returned an 8/10. We said: “Monster Hunter Wilds continues to smooth off the rougher corners of the series in smart ways, making for some extremely fun fights but also lacking any real challenge.”

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

Warhammer 40,000 real-time strategy series Dawn of War has been dormant ever since Relic Entertainment ended support for its failed 2017 effort, Dawn of War 3. Still, the first two games remain much-loved by fans, who have wondered ever since whether a Dawn of War 4 or maybe even remakes of either Dawn of War 1 or 2 might be in the works.

Now, after a single photo was published to LinkedIn, Dawn of War fans have hope that something new in the series is finally on the way.

Let’s start with Relic Entertainment itself, which recently gained independence from prior owner Sega via investment from Emona Capital. Emona managing partner Dominik Dolenec published a selfie to LinkedIn showing him standing outside Games Workshop’s Nottingham headquarters and the mecca that is Warhammer World. Yes, that’s a statue of a Space Marine in the background. It’s awesome.

The foreground is more interesting, however. Dolenec is wearing a Relic Entertainment T-shirt for his trip to Games Workshop, and so it can be reasonably assumed that he’s in town representing the developer.

“Great visit to Games Workshop PLC in Nottingham,” Dolenec said. “Many thanks to Owen Rees for sharing the Warhammer magic with us! Looking forward to deepening our partnership in years to come. 💪🎮”

Owen Rees is Group Head of Licensing at Games Workshop. He’s worked on a number of Warhammer video games, and leads the licensing of video games and consumer products for all Warhammer products. It’s also worth noting those emojis at the end of Dolenec’s comment. This very much reads like a video game business meeting.

You can imagine the speculation. Dawn of War 4 is top of the wishlist, it seems, but perhaps remakes of Dawn of War 1 and / or 2 are on the cards instead. Let’s be optimistic and suggest a brand new game and remakes are all in the works. Why not?

Here’s what we know: Games Workshop is on the hunt for the next big Warhammer video game hit after the hugely successful, 5 million-selling Space Marine 2 changed everything for developer Saber Interactive.

In January, reporting results for the first half of its financial year ending December 1, 2024, Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree hailed the success of Space Marine 2, which contributed significant royalty revenue to the business.

In fact, licensing revenue from royalty income increased in the period by a whopping £18 million (approx. $21.9 million) to £30.1 million (approx. $36.7 million). Earned income, which is the key figure here, was £26.1 million (approx. $31.8 million), up from £5.9 million (approx. $7.2 million), an increase Games Workshop said was mainly from Space Marine 2. 98% of Games Workshop’s total licensing revenue came from PC and console games (Space Marine 2 launched on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S).

A win all round, then, but Rountree also expressed a degree of caution on potential future video game success, admitting hits like Space Marine 2 are few and far between.

Here’s the statement:

During the period, our licensing partners launched two new video games; Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, a third person shooter for PC and console and Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks, a combat racing game. Established games continue to contribute, alongside royalty income earned following the success of Space Marine 2. We recognise that successes like these for Warhammer are not a given in the world of video games. Clearly we are looking for the next one. We remain cautious when forecasting royalty income.

So, where could this big Warhammer video game hit come from? It seems inevitable that Saber Interactive will get the chance to continue the Space Marine story with Space Marine 3, and indeed has said it has ideas for a third game.

Warhammer 40,000 has never been bigger. Amazon’s Space Marine 2 animation, released as part of the Secret Level anthology series, went down well with fans. And there’s huge excitement about the Henry Cavill-fronted Warhammer 40,000 projects in the works for Amazon, although they’re years away. Creative Assembly is reportedly working on a Warhammer 40,000 Total War game (finally!), although it is apparently years away. Could a revival of Dawn of War scratch that strategy itch in the meantime?

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

If you’re in the market for a PS5 in 2025, the PlayStation 5 Slim Astro Bot bundle is one of the best deals available. Right now, the Disc model ($449.99) is available at Best Buy, while the Digital Edition can be found at Amazon ($399.99) with broader availability expected soon.

What makes this bundle stand out is that Astro Bot is included at no extra cost—effectively a free $70 game packed in with your console. If you needed an extra incentive to grab a PS5, this is it. Astro Bot isn’t just a throw-in; it was one of the best games of 2024, taking home Best Game at The Game Awards and cementing itself as a must-play for platforming fans.

Free-to-play 3v3 shooter Spectre Divide is being shut down six months after its initial launch in September 2024, and just weeks after its arrival on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Its developer Mountaintop Studios is also closing.

Moutaintop CEO Nate Mitchell confirmed the news in a statement published on social media today.

“Unfortunately, the Season 1 launch hasn’t achieved the level of success we needed to sustain the game and keep Mountaintop afloat,” explains the post.

The team was optimistic following the first week, reporting the game attracted around 400,000 players – with a peak concurrent count of approximately 10,000 across all platforms.

“But as time has gone on, we haven’t seen enough active players and incoming revenue to cover the day-to-day costs of Spectre and the studio,” the post continued. “Since the PC launch, we stretched our remaining capital as far as we could, but at this point, we’re out of funding to support the game.”

“We pursued every avenue to keep going, including finding a publisher, additional investment, and/or an acquisition. In the end, we weren’t able to make it work. The industry is in a tough spot right now.”

Spectre Divide will be taken offline within the next 30 days, and any money spent by players since the Season 1 launch will be refunded.

The news comes contrary to reports in October 2024 that Spectre Divide “isn’t going anywhere.”

“The servers aren’t shutting down, and the updates aren’t going to stop,” said Mitchell at the time, maintaining Mountaintop had “the funds to support Spectre for a long time.”

IGN’s positive preview of Spectre Divide in August 2024 heaped praise on the tactical 3v3 shooter for coming to the table with its intriguing Duality system, which saw players controlling two characters during matches. However, the news of its rapid shutdown comes on the heels of a number of other live-service fizzers, including the failure of Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Sony’s Concord.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

Sony has announced the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for March 2025, confirming the lineup of PS5, PS4, and Classic games set to be made available to download by subscribers.

As outlined on the PlayStation Blog, PlayStation Plus Extra subscribers get eight games this month, including UFC 5, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions.

Meanwhile, PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers get four games in March: PSVR2’s Arcade Paradise VR and the original PlayStation’s FromSoftware trilogy: Armored Core, Armored Core: Project Phantasma, and Armored Core: Master of Arena.

PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium games lineup — March 2025

• UFC 5 | PS5
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | PS4, PS5
• Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions | PS4
• Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation Code Fairy | PS4, PS5
• Arcade Paradise | PS4, PS5
• Bang-On Balls: Chronicles | PS4, PS5
• You Suck at Parking | PS4, PS5
• Syberia – The World Before | PS4, PS5

PlayStation Plus Premium games lineup — March 2025

• Arcade Paradise VR | PS VR2
• Armored Core | PS4, PS5
• Armored Core: Project Phantasma | PS4, PS5
• Armored Core: Master of Arena | PS4, PS5

All games are available to play from March 18.

It’s worth noting that Sony will cut PS4 games from its PlayStation Plus Essentials monthly games and the Game Catalog from January 2026 to focus solely on PS5.

“As we shift to PS5, PS4 games will no longer be a key benefit and will only be occasionally offered for PlayStation Plus Monthly Games and Game Catalog,” Sony said. This won’t affect the monthly titles players have already obtained, though Game Catalog titles “will still be available to play until [they] leave the catalog” as part of the monthly refresh.

“We’ll continue to evolve the experience of PlayStation Plus and optimize the benefits you receive, including exclusive discounts, online multiplayer access, online game save storage, and more,” Sony added. “As we shift our focus to PS5, we look forward to adding new PS5 titles monthly for you to enjoy.”

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

Palworld developer Pocketpair is narrowing in on its big crossplay update, which is due out late March 2025.

In a post on X/Twitter, Pocketpair confirmed this update will include multiplayer across all platforms as well as add world transfer for Pals. No further details were offered, outside a promotional image showing a bunch of Palworld characters fighting a rather large Pal.

Localthunk, the developer behind breakout roguelike poker game Balatro, has stepped in to resolve a bit of a scrum in the Balatro subreddit over a mod’s statements on AI art.

It’s a bit of a wild story, so bear with me here, and thanks to Garbage Day and Rock Paper Shotgun for spotting all this. Essentially, it starts with DrTankHead, a now-former moderator of the Balatro subreddit and also current mod of a NSFW Balatro subreddit.

The moderator had expressed no issue with AI art content, both on the NSFW and main Balatro subreddits. “We will not be banning AI art here, if it is properly claimed and tagged as such,” the mod said in a post. “This has been done after discussion with the staff at Playstack.”

Localthunk posted a short reply on Bluesky, saying this is not how they, nor their publisher at Playstack, felt about AI generated imagery. Then, the developer went to the subreddit to make a full statement.

“Neither Playstack nor I condone AI ‘art’. I don’t use it in my game, I think it does real harm to artists of all kinds. The actions of this mod do not reflect how Playstack feels or how I feel on the topic. We have removed this moderator from the moderation team,” Localthunk said.

“We will not be allowing AI generated images on this subreddit from now on. We will make sure our rules and FAQ reflect this soon.”

In a follow-up, Playstack’s communications director noted that the rules around this “should have been clearer,” as a rule calling for “no unlabeled AI content” could have been interpreted as allowing or supporting the content on the subreddit. The remaining mod team is planning on clarifying this language for the future.

As for the original mod, DrTankHead posted in the aforementioned NSFW Balatro subreddit, confirming they’ve been removed as a mod of r/Balatro. They went on to say that it is “not their goal” to make the NSFW Balatro subreddit AI-centric, but they are considering a “day of the week” situation where “non-NSFW art that is made with AI can be posted.”

In response, one user replied: “Please just get off Reddit for a week or two.”

Generative AI is one of the hottest topics within the video game and entertainment industries, which have both suffered massive layoffs in recent years. It has thus far has drawn criticism from players and creators due to a mix of ethical issues, rights issues, and AI’s struggles to produce content audiences actually enjoy. For instance, Keywords Studios attempted to create an experimental game internally using entirely AI. The game failed, with Keywords citing to investors that AI was “unable to replace talent.”

That hasn’t stopped tech companies going all in on AI, though. EA said in September that AI was “the very core” of its business, and more recently Capcom said it was experimenting with generative AI to create the “hundreds of thousands” of ideas needed for in-game environments. Activision recently admitted using generative AI for some Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 assets amid a backlash to an “AI slop” zombie Santa loading screen.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.

Two Zenless Zone Zero voice actors discovered they had been replaced when the game’s patch notes went live, they have claimed, in the latest casualty of the battle for generative AI protections.

The Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists’ (SAG-AFTRA) ongoing dispute with the video game industry revolves around the use of generative AI to replicate voice actor performances.

ZZZ, developed by Genshin Impact company HoYoverse, is not subject to the strike because it was in development before July 25, 2024, when the strike began. However, voice actors may choose not to sign new contracts in solidarity with striking union members, or in the absence of a SAG Interim Agreement.

Emeri Chase — who portrays Soldier 11 — said they were “replaced as Soldier 11 because I am unwilling to perform work not covered by a SAG Interim Agreement during a strike for AI protection, the outcome of which will determine the future of our industry.” Nicholas Thurkettle, who played Lycaon, has been similarly replaced, although Thurkettle is not a union member.

“I’d like to clarify that there’s a difference between being ‘struck’ and not being on an Interim Agreement,” Chase explained in a thread on Bluesky (thanks, Eurogamer). “Union projects that began work prior to the strike and non-union projects are not ‘struck.’ But they also do not offer the Union-enforced AI rights we are fighting for.

“Many actors are choosing to voluntarily withhold work on these categories of projects because we feel it is the best way to support the union’s fight for the protections that are critical to our continued ability to create the art we love.”

Chase added that they knew “that by withholding work it was possible” they’d be replaced, but had “hoped [developer YoHoVerse] would choose to leave her silent until I was able to return.”

“I found out the role was recast today alongside all of you,” Chase said, while Thurkettle stated: “I’m learning about this as you are, and I share your shock. Neither HoYoverse nor Sound Cadence has communicated with me since October. I’ve been fully available and recorded multiple voice jobs in that time.

“I’m not SAG but what game companies want to do with AI is an existential threat. I took a personal stand to ask for protection, and had to be willing to give up the best thing that’s ever happened in my professional life. I stand by my choice.”

IGN has asked YoHoVerse for comment.

In a similar case from December, Activision confirmed it had recast some members of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 cast after fans noticed much-loved Zombies characters with new voices in-game.

The company issued a statement to Game Developer admitting characters in Black Ops 6’s Zombies mode were recast amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

Zombies characters William Peck (Zeke Alton) and Samantha Maxis (Julie Nathanson) are currently voiced by new, unknown actors. Alton told Game Developer that he took no issue with Activision’s actions with Peck, but expressed concern “for my brand as a performer.”

“Fans of the game have reached out to me because the lack of crediting [of the replacement actor] implies that it may still be me which unfairly represents my abilities as a performer,” Alton said at the time.

For more on how the strike has, and will continue to, affect the games you play, check out our feature from last year, What the SAG-AFTRA Video Game Actors Strike Means for Gamers.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Niantic Inc. has confirmed the sale of Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom, Monster Hunter Now, and their development teams to the Saudi-owned maker of Monopoly Go! for $3.5 billion.

An additional $350 million of cash from Niantic is being distributed as part of the deal, yielding a total value of approximately $3.85 billion for Niantic equity holders.

In a note to press, Scopely, which is owned by Saudi investment company Savvy Games, said the Niantic games business has over 30 million monthly active players (MAUs), over 20 million weekly active players, and saw more than $1 billion in revenue in 2024. Pokémon Go is the jewel in the crown, ranking as a top 10 mobile game every year since its launch nearly a decade ago, with over 100 million unique players in 2024.

Niantic said its game team has “exciting long-term roadmaps that they will continue to build upon as part of Scopely.”

“This partnership ensures that our games have the long term support needed to be ‘forever games’ that will endure for future generations,” Niantic said in a blog post.

“Players can expect that the games, apps, services, and events they know and love will continue to receive Scopely’s ongoing investment, driven by the same teams that have always created these experiences.”