The first level of PowerWash Simulator 2 is cleaning the moving van that just brought you to your fancy new office. ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore,’ say developers FuturLab, as you take in the map wall where you can select levels in an expanded PowerWash world, the open warehouse space where you can place items of furniture you buy and clean. The second level is cleaning a state-of-the-art public toilet.
This is very funny. FuturLab are aware that they can’t really move you that far; in terms of the metaphor we’re probably in Colorado. That’s okay. It and the game both have nice scenery. And despite me being glib, there are a host of small changes that add up to noticeable improvements. They’re just probably only noticeable if you were already Washmaxxed and had over a hundred hours in the first game.
When Nintendo followed up on its recently ‘Close to You’ short with another version that confirmed the presence of Pikmin, the company annoyingly kept it locked to its Nintendo Today! app.
Well, not anymore, because both versions of the film – Pikmin and invisible Pikmin – have been uploaded to YouTube in one 8-minute-long video. Nice!
Introducing No Man’s Sky: Breach, A Spooky Free Update For Existing Players
Sean Murray, Founder, Hello Games
Summary
No Man’s Sky Breach is free to existing Xbox and Game Pass players now.
Uncover the tragic fate of the lost Fireship Arcadia corvette ship in No Man’s Sky’s all-new “Breach” update.
Salvage the wreck of the long-lost Fireship Arcadia corvette and earn exclusive ship parts to use in your own ship creations.
Well, we suspected that the No Man’s Sky Voyagers update was going to cause some excitement in the universe, but never did we expect such a huge influx that we would see player numbers we’ve not seen since our launch.. nine years ago!
It was genuinely humbling to see huge number of Xbox and Game Pass travellers return to the game or pick it up for the first time and start putting their minds to creating wildly imaginative ship creations with the all-new corvette customisation feature.
The sheer joy of seeing people realise, in real-time, that they could invite their friends onto their custom-made ships and then jump out of it together to space-walk or sky-dive was incredible to witness.
Our next update is called Breach and it leans into that thrill introduced in Voyagers. It is free to download today for existing Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox and PC Game Pass players.
In Breach, players will traverse a desolate and abandoned universe and on their travels encounter the abandoned remains of ill-fated corvette ships, all ripe for scavenging ship modules to add to your corvette-building arsenal.
Among the spoils you will find an array of corvette pieces including rare vertical parts which unlock a whole new range of build configurations for the more creative designers. There is also a set of Atlas-themed parts for those wanting to demonstrate their allegiance to the all-seeing entity.
The jewel in the crown of these wreckages is the Fireship Arcadia, the fate of which you will learn as you venture through Breach. But you will have to face your fears and make a leap of faith into the black as you space-walk through these eerie systems to glean its unique remnants.
The spooky Breach Expedition embraces the darker side of the universe and will also lure the bravest Travellers towards the ominous and foreboding purple-star solar systems which players first glimpsed in Worlds Part II back in January. The planets in these systems are particularly foreboding with their deep, abyssal oceans, unearthly entities and the notoriously imposing and volatile gas giants.
The tiny No Man’s Sky team have been running on more cylinders than even I thought they had this year with barely a breath taken between Worlds Part II, Relics, Beacon and the epic Voyagers. We’re still having a lot of fun, and, from the looks of our player numbers, so are many of the Xbox community.
No Man’s Sky’s Breach Expedition is available for existing players on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and PC Game Pass today.
No Man’s Sky comes complete with all 29 major updates up to and including Worlds Part I.
Inspired by the adventure and imagination that we love from classic science-fiction, No Man’s Sky presents you with a galaxy to explore, filled with unique planets and lifeforms, and constant danger and action.
In No Man’s Sky, every star is the light of a distant sun, each orbited by planets filled with life, and you can go to any of them you choose. Fly smoothly from deep space to planetary surfaces, with no loading screens, and no limits. In this infinite procedurally generated universe, you’ll discover places and creatures that no other players have seen before – and perhaps never will again.
Embark on an epic voyage
At the centre of the galaxy lies a irresistible pulse which draws you on a journey towards it to learn the true nature of the cosmos. But, facing hostile creatures and fierce pirates, you’ll know that death comes at a cost, and survival will be down to the choices you make over how you upgrade your ship, your weapon and suit.
Find your own destiny
Your voyage through No Man’s Sky is up to you. Will you be a fighter, preying on the weak and taking their riches, or taking out pirates for their bounties? Power is yours if you upgrade your ship for speed and weaponry.
Or a trader? Find rich resources on forgotten worlds and exploit them for the highest prices. Invest in more cargo space and you’ll reap huge rewards.
Or perhaps an explorer? Go beyond the known frontier and discover places and things that no one has ever seen before. Upgrade your engines to jump ever farther, and strengthen your suit for survival in toxic environments that would kill the unwary.
Share your journey
The galaxy is a living, breathing place. Trade convoys travel between stars, factions vie for territory, pirates hunt the unwary, and the police are ever watching. Every other player lives in the same galaxy, and you can choose to share your discoveries with them on a map that spans known space. Perhaps you will see the results of their actions as well as your own…
A little over a month ago, the tiny No Man’s Sky team held its breath as we pushed the button on the super ambitious Voyagers update. We poured a lot of love into it for over a year but didn’t know what to expect. It has been incredible for the team to watch the reaction and see us hit our highest player numbers since launch over nine years ago. I genuinely never thought that would happen, what a journey it’s been.
It has provided some of my favourite moments of these last nine years. Standing in the Nexus and seeing these beautiful, creative, sci-fi ships that other players have built. And just floating in space outside of your ship, has really resonated with players and provides these tranquil moments of calm that I love. It has made us instantly excited to work on a new update!
Today, with our latest update, Breach, we’re introducing space wrecks to explore, leaning into that thrill of spacewalking, and giving players more excuse to enjoy it. Salvaging these wrecks unlocks a huge array of new ship building parts which has been greatly requested. We’ve also improved and expanded ship building in response to watching players spend so much time in the workshop designing their dream ships.
In Breach, there is also an expedition launching – where players will traverse a desolate and abandoned universe to discover what happened to a mysterious abandoned wreck. Voyaging to the edge of space will be required if you are to salvage from the wreckage of the ill-fated ship and add unique parts and modules to your ship-building workshop.
Many such wrecks have begun to appear throughout the far reaches of space, and there are rewards for the bravest of Travellers prepared to scavenge from them, including new vertical and structural parts which allow players to build colossal ships and rare, glowing Atlas-themed wings, engines and features.
The Breach expedition also brings players together to explore the strange and rare purple-star solar systems. The planets in these systems are particularly fun to explore with their deeper oceans, incredible terrains and volatile gas giants. It guides players towards the new space wrecks, is a great way to salvage some new rare ship parts, while uncovering a spooky story – suitable for the Halloween season!
It has been a crazy year for the No Man’s Sky team and we’re so proud and pleased to be able to continue working on this game we all love so much nine years after launch. Seeing so many folks enjoying Voyagers has really inspired us, and we can’t wait for you to see what we have in store in future.
Hello Games has released yet another No Man’s Sky update, this time adding space wrecks to explore. The patch notes, courtesy of the No Man’s Sky website, are below.
Hello Games has also improved and expanded ship building “in response to watching players spend so much time in the workshop designing their dream ships,” Hello Games chief Sean Murray said.
There’s also a new expedition where players will traverse a desolate and abandoned universe to discover what happened to a mysterious abandoned wreck. “Voyaging to the edge of space will be required if you are to salvage from the wreckage of the ill-fated ship and add unique parts and modules to your ship-building workshop,” Murray teased.
“The Breach expedition also brings players together to explore the strange and rare purple-star solar systems,” he continued. “The planets in these systems are particularly fun to explore with their deeper oceans, incredible terrains and volatile gas giants. It guides players towards the new space wrecks, is a great way to salvage some new rare ship parts, while uncovering a spooky story – suitable for the Halloween season!
“It has been a crazy year for the No Man’s Sky team and we’re so proud and pleased to be able to continue working on this game we all love so much nine years after launch.Seeing so many folks enjoying Voyagers has really inspired us, and we can’t wait for you to see what we have in store in future.”
No Man’s Sky continues to receive free updates even now, years after launch. And it’s clearly keeping players interested. No Man’s Sky launched in August 2016 on PS4 and PC to tens of thousands of negative reviews on Steam, with players complaining about broken promises and a lack of meaningful content, particularly on the multiplayer side. The game quickly settled on the dreaded ‘overwhelmingly negative’ Steam user review rating, a clear sign to anyone who visited its Steam page that something was very wrong.
But Guildford, England-based developer Hello Games has continued to update No Man’s Sky over the years, improving player sentiment to the point where it is now considered superb. It took two years to hit ‘mixed,’ then another three to hit ‘mostly positive.’ At the time, five years after launch, Tim Woodley, Head of Publishing at Hello Games, explained how hard it was to claw back Steam user reviews from such a low base.
As Hello Games continues to work on No Man’s Sky, it’s developing its next game, Light No Fire. It’s about adventure, building, survival and exploration together, set on a fantasy planet the size of Earth.
No Man’s Sky Breach update 6.10 patch notes:
BUG FIXES AND QOL
Fixed an issue that could cause the player to be ejected into space if on an internal stair in a corvette while the pulse drive was active.
Fixed an issue that prevented the corvette “current flightpath” autopilot from cancelling when the ship came into proximity of a large object such as a Space Station.
Fixed an issue that prevented exiting the corvette pilot seat in the Space Station and Space Anomaly when using the Quick Menu in VR.
Fixed an issue that prevented stairs in corvettes from being traversable using VR teleport movement.
Fixed an issue that caused weapons to be misaligned with the crosshair when flying a corvette in first person.
Fixed an issue that caused the corvette teleporter to persist after the corvette had landed on a planetary surface.
Fixed an issue that could cause water to behave erratically when teleporting from a corvette into water.
Fixed an issue that caused newly-assembled corvettes to appear at the wrong scale if another owned Corvette was docked nearby.
Fixed an issue that could cause corvette interior doorways to become blocked.
Fixed an issue that prevented the corvette Torpedo Launcher module from correctly installing the Rocket Launcher weapon.
Fixed some corvette structural modules appearing under the exterior decoration category of the build menu.
Fixed a rare issue that could cause corvette assembly data to be replaced with planetary base data.
Improved the placement of corvette-class ships when teleporting to a Settlement with a corvette as the primary ship.
Improved the behaviour of floating exotic creatures, especially in response to being offered Creature Pellets.
Fixed an issue that could prevent biological monstrosities on derelict freighters from reacting aggressively to nearby Travellers.
Fixed an issue that could prevent some varieties of hazardous flora appearing on planets.
Fixed a timing-specific issue that could cause the player’s wanted level to get stuck when using the pulse drive to exit planetary atmosphere.
Fixed an issue that caused the current primary ship’s thrusters to be used for launch fuel calculations when attempting to summon other ships from the Quick Menu.
Fixed an issue that caused refiners to reset their requested output value to the maximum when refining was started.
Fixed an issue that prevented the Personal Refiner from automatically starting when an input substance was inserted from the Inventory screen.
Improved the error messaging when attempting to install duplicate technology in the inventory.
Fixed an issue that caused rain to be audible when standing inside a corvette.
Fixed an issue that could prevent the Corvette Assembly tutorial from starting in abandoned star systems.
Fixed an issue that could cause Exosuit upgrade stations to lose their interaction prompt after a single use, especially in Abandoned Mode.
Fixed an issue that could cause misleading instructional text during missions requiring planets with extreme weather conditions.
Fixed an issue that caused some markers to persist unnecessarily in excavation and flora extermination missions from the Corvette Mission Radar.
Fixed a number of minor messaging inconsistencies in missions requiring the player to prepare ingredients in the Nutrient Processor.
ART AND VISUALS
Fixed an issue that could cause large waves to abruptly appear and disappear on the surface of water.
Improved lighting transitions when changing environments – notably when warping between solar systems, when entering or exiting planetary atmosphere, or when moving between interior and exterior locations.
Fixed a number of minor visual “seams” in lighting.
Improved the appearance of holographic previews of corvette modules during corvette assembly.
Fixed an issue that caused the Boundary Herald starship to render incorrectly.
Fixed an issue that prevented the jetpack from displaying on the Inventory screen when using first-person camera view.
Fixed an issue that prevented some varieties of aquatic creature from rendering in the Discoveries page.
Fixed a number of minor visual and collision issues with corvette modules.
Improved the appearance of corvette modules when viewed from a distance.
Improved the icons on a number of corvette modules.
Improved the collision of several planetary curiosities, such as large mushrooms.
Fixed missing collision that allowed you to walk through the back of some freighter hangars.
Fixed a number of issues that could prevent decals from being placed on Corvette modules.
INPUT
Enabled Steam Input on Mac.
Fixed a Steam-only issue that could cause controller bindings to shuffle or not respond on the first boot after the game was updated.
Fixed an issue that prevented jetpacking while the Terrain Manipulator was in Create mode.
UI
Improved the readability of several UI elements.
Fixed a UI overlap issue on the Corvette trade menu, which could cause the “Make Offer” button to be activated when selecting a part to trade.
Fixed an issue that caused markers for other players in a multiplayer session to appear at their feet instead of above their head.
Fixed an issue that prevented the display of additional recipes in the Catalogue.
Fixed a rare issue that could cause an incorrect UI to appear when absorbing a Memory Fragment to expand inventory slots.
STABILITY AND PERFORMANCE
Fixed a crash that could occur on Corvettes with a large number of attached weapons.
Fixed an issue that could cause a hang when opening the airlock door of a derelict freighter.
Fixed an issue that could cause a hang when jumping through the centre of a galaxy in a freighter.
Fixed an issue that could cause a softlock if opening the corvette parts menu while a dialog box was open.
Implemented a number of engine optimisations to improve performance, especially when rendering complex objects such as corvettes.
Implemented a number of lighting optimisations to improve performance.
Implemented a number of optimisations and performance improvements on Nintendo Switch.
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.
Former Bethesda developer Bruce Nesmith has offered his thoughts on the divisive Starfield, insisting if it has been released by any other studio “it would have been received differently.”
Speaking to FRVR, the former Starfield systems designer admitted that the sci-fi RPG is “not in the same calibre” as Bethesda’s much-loved The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises, but insisted it was still “a great game.”
“I think it’s a good game,” Nesmith, who left Bethesda around a year before Starfield came out, said. “I don’t think it’s in the same calibre as the other two, you know, Fallout or Skyrim, or Elder Scrolls rather, but I think it’s a good game. I worked on it, I’m proud of the work I did. I’m proud of the work that the people I knew did on it. I think they made a great game.”
When “the studio that gave you Skyrim and Fallout makes a space game,” Nesmith said, there are certain “expectations,” and these weren’t met. “If the same game had been released by not Bethesda, it would have been received differently,” Nesmith insisted.
Starfield launched in September 2023 as Bethesda’s first brand new IP in 25 years, but it was not as well received as the studio’s previous games in the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises, and the Shattered Space expansion, released a year later in September 2024, has a ‘mostly negative’ user review rating on Steam.
Starfield went on to reach 15 million players, but the question of whether Bethesda might walk away from the game to focus on its other franchises has been a running theme since release. In June 2024, Bethesda insisted it remained committed to supporting Starfield, and confirmed at least one other story expansion would come out following Shattered Space. And in an interview with YouTube channel MrMattyPlays, Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard said the developer was aiming to release an annual story expansion for “hopefully a very long time.”
So, what went wrong? Nesmith pointed to Starfield’s reliance on procedural generation as a problem, as opposed to the lack of real-time space travel, which he described as “inherently boring.”
“But when the planets start to feel very samey and you don’t start to feel the excitement on the planets, that’s to me where it falls apart,” he continued. “I was also disappointed when, pretty much, the only serious enemy you fought were people… there’s lots of cool alien creatures, but they’re like the wolves in Skyrim. They’re just there, they don’t contribute, you don’t have the variety of serious opponents that are story generators.”
Bethesda has confirmed plans to improve Starfield space gameplay “to make the travels there more rewarding” after datamined fragments of code suggested the developer had a more streamlined space travel experience in the works. Based on this datamine, while you may be able to travel between planets within the same system, you won’t be able to fly all the way between systems, nor fly directly from a planet’s surface into orbit, like No Man’s Sky.
In a new video discussing his career, veteran Bethesda developer Tim Lamb confirmed that the studio had been working on Starfield’s space gameplay, and that a new DLC story was still coming at some point.
“I think as it comes to Starfield, I’m really excited for players to see what the teams have been working on,” he said. “We have some cool stuff coming, including free updates and features the players have been asking for, as well as a new DLC story.
“I can’t go into all the details just yet, but I will say part of the team has been focused on space gameplay to make the travels there more rewarding. We’re also adding some new game systems, and a few other smaller delights. There’s also some really interesting stuff coming down the pipe from our verified creators. There’s some fun stuff.
“I just want to say thanks. We really appreciate the support and the enthusiasm. We can’t wait to get it into the hands of our players.”
Last month, Bethesda teased new content for Starfield — at least that’s what fans thought after they spotted a hidden message in a social media video released to celebrate the game’s two-year anniversary.
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.
Once upon a time, Stellar Reach developer James Miller wanted the stars to move about over the course of 4X strategy game campaigns that might stretch for hundreds of years. In reality, stars are in continual motion: our Sun, for example, orbits the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, which means that right now, you and I are technically travelling at hundreds of thousands of miles an hour in the rough direction of Vega, 25 lightyears away. Eek!
A post on the official Japanese Twitter / X account for the upcoming game Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy received a reply from none other than veteran developer Akitoshi Kawazu, who surprised users by revealing new information about the inspiration behind a Final Fantasy II character.
Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy is Square Enix’s upcoming free-to-play mobile game, slated for a 2026 release. Featuring cel-shaded graphics, Dissidia Duellum takes beloved Final Fantasy characters from throughout the RPG series’ history and transports them to modern Tokyo, where they take on monsters in 3vs3 battles. Two teams of Final Fantasy characters will race to fight their way through roaming monsters to beat the boss faster than the opposing team. The game will also feature voiced story segments.
Dissidia Duellum will not only let you put protagonists like Cloud, Squall, and Lightning in your party, but a whole host of other characters are also making a return, some in the form of special abilities. The official X account recently revealed that Minwu, a character from 1988’s Final Fantasy II, will be lending power to your party with his teleport ability.
Veteran dev Akitoshi Kawazu, battle designer for Final Fantasy I and II as well as the key creator of the SaGa series, responded to this post with some insight into Minwu’s original inspiration. In his post, Kawazu revealed that Minwu was modelled on Wu Qi, a real life military general and philosopher from China’s Warring States period. He explained that when Minwu’s name is written in kanji characters, it contains the same character for Wu as Wu Qi (rendered as 呉 in Japanese, and 吳 in traditional Chinese). For the Japanese release of Final Fantasy II, Minwu’s name was written phonetically in katakana (a script used for foreign loan words) just like the rest of the game’s cast of characters, so the reference to Wu Qi was not apparent to players.
In Final Fantasy II, Minwu is a white wizard from Mysidia who temporarily joins your party. He serves the Flynn royal family in exile as an advisor when the Palemecian Empire’s attack forces them to flee. He plays a key role in organizing rebel forces and the quest for the Ultima Tome.
Another reason Minwu’s inspiration is not readily apparent is his physical appearance. With his turban and dark skin, he does not visually resemble Wu Qi. However, his strategic role as an advisor plus his loyalty to the Flynn royal family and Princess Hilda does bear some resemblance to Wu Qi’s appointment as the head of Chu State and his fealty to King Dao. Sadly, both meet tragic ends.
Kawazu’s comment attracted many appreciative responses from other users. “It makes me extremely happy to receive new information about FFII in this day and age. Thank you,” said one commenter. Others were eager for more insight into the 37-year-old game: “I wonder if there are any behind-the-scenes revelations or inspirations for other Final Fantasy II characters?”
Dissidia Duellum is scheduled to launch on iOS and Android in 2026. Those in Canada and the U.S. can sign up for the closed beta in November to get a sneak peak at the game.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
Maybe prepare to dig out your finest gaudy suit and mountains of, er, a certain substance. A PC re-release of Radical Entertainment’s Scarface: The World Is Yours has suddenly popped up on the Epic Store and Steam. The Epic version is available already, having been “unintentionally pushed live” early due to backend issues, according to new publishers EC Digital Entertainment.
Luigi’s Mansion is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch Online library. Debuting on October 30, the GameCube classic arrives just in time for Halloween, and means the entire trilogy, along with Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Luigi’s Mansion 3, is now playable on Nintendo Switch 2.
Luigi’s Mansion released way back in 2001 and sees Luigi win a creepy old mansion. It’s all very exciting right up until his brother Mario mysteriously disappears, leaving Luigi to rid the mansion of Boos and ghouls in order to find the missing Mario.
Luigi’s won a mansion! The bad news is that it’s crawling with ghosts… 😱
As yet there’s no word on how the classic game will make use of Nintendo Switch 2‘s most hyped features, including its new mouse controls, but we do know it’ll be playable for Switch 2 owners who subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.
Nintendo Switch Online is a subscription-based online gaming service for the Nintendo Switch gaming platform. Memberships include online functionality, allowing you to compete or cooperate with friends, as well as a collection of classic Nintendo games spanning four decades, including titles from the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, and, most recently, the new GameCube library. A free seven-day trial is also available.
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.
