Microsoft have delivered a timely reminder that AI isn’t just effective at injecting ugly, soullessanti-art and nonsense robochat into your games – it also has the power to ruin your entire PC.
MS recently updated a support article explaining the ‘agentic AI’ features they plan to roll out for Windows 11, which involve creating a separate desktop instance and allowing AI ‘agents’ to perform supposedly menial tasks (like file sorting and email sending) within it. All while you kick back on your main workspace, online shopping for the third yacht that the AI revolution has surely enabled you to afford. Unfortunately, among the agents’ capabilities is the risk of installing malware.
If you’ve been spending time with Dispatch and feeling that Malevola’s practically humming with early 1990s supermodel energy, it turns out you’re absolutely right.
Talking to IGN, Adhoc art director Derek Stratton explained how a ’90s Pepsi advert starring supermodel Cindy Crawford was the inspiration for the “sexy demon lady” voiced by former IGN host, Alanah Pearce.
The iconic 1992 Pepsi commercial features Cindy Crawford in a white tank top and denim shorts, popping open a can of Pepsi by her red Lamborghini at a gas station as two awestruck young boys look on. It was a huge hit for Pepsi, and went on to cement its place in pop culture history.
“Malevola, so she represents ‘sexy demon lady,'” Stratton said in the video interview, below. “There was a commercial — it was a Pepsi commercial. Out comes Cindy Crawford in a white bodysuit and cut-off jean shorts, and high heels — everybody lost their mind. And that’s what Malevola was based off of.”
That’s not all, though. While Crawford inspired Malevola’s signature look, inspiration for her ripped body came from someone else: influencer LeanBeefPatty.
“She is Cindy Crawford from that commercial meets that sort of, like, hot rod demon lady, and the body type of LeanBeefPatty, who is an influencer who’s ripped,” Stratton explained.
As one fan lamented, responding to the story on YouTube: “Bro combined Karlach, Patty and Cindy Crawford, and didn’t give us an option to romance her?” They then appended a crying face emoji.
Dispatch — hailing from AdHoc Studio, which was founded by several former Telltale Games devs — is a superhero workplace comedy where choices matter. You manage a dysfunctional team of misfit heroes and strategize who to send to emergencies around the city, all while balancing office politics, personal relationships, and your own quest to become a hero.
It stars a solid mix of traditional Hollywood actors and video game- and streaming-adjacent talent including Aaron Paul and Laura Bailey, as well as Jeffrey Wright, Erin Yvette, Jacksepticeye, Moistcr1tikal, Alanah Pearce, Travis Willingham, Joel Haver, Lance Cantstopolis, Matthew Mercer, and Thot Squad.
IGN’s Dispatch review returned a 9/10. We said: “Dispatch is a sharp-witted workplace comedy that charms with its smart dialogue choices, great writing, and lovably aggravating cast.”
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.
Further down the page there are horrifying phrases like “makes Europa Universalis seem limited” and “every planet and moon and asteroid, all orbiting in real time”, woven through a fascinating account of a game that is sort of XCOM, but you’re organising a whole Earth’s worth of competing countries and factions to repel solar system invaders who may not even materialise for dozens of hours. But of course Hooded Horse are publishing it. This was one of their first signings, I believe. Those sickos.
Kirby Air Ride, I think it’s fair to say, didn’t receive all that warm a welcome when it launched back in 2003.
With lucky GameCubers already marinating in the delicious driving juices of Mario Kart: Double Dash and F-Zero GX, Kirby’s cute and chaotic style of racing just didn’t seem to stick with the mainstream, and, as a result, it’s become known as one of those Marmite efforts. You either gelled with its new approach to slinging yourself around tracks or you didn’t.
The director of the Marathon reveal cinematic short has expressed his disbelief that he feels forced to come out and defend the work as “not AI.”
The Marathon cinematic short, below, is over eight minutes long and sets the scene for Bungie’s upcoming extraction shooter with a voice cast that includes the likes of Elias Toufexis and Ben Starr. It was written and directed by Alberto Mielgo, who created The Witness for Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots, and won an Oscar for The Windshield Wiper in 2022.
In an Instagram post, Mielgo hit out at those who accused the Marathon cinematic of being built using generative AI, insisting it took 155 staff months to put together.
“I can’t believe we’ve reached a point where I have to clarify this, but here it goes: this is not AI,” Mielgo said. “HELLO. Everything you see in this film: paintings, animations, 2D and 3D work, compositing, and renders done with huge team — 155 incredible people and hell of hours, days, months… Yes, our Achilles’ heel: time.”
He continued: “Many of you ask me what my opinion on AI is… Honestly, I have no idea. But one thing is certain: AI will never take away my (your) urge or joy for making art and painting. That part will never be replaced.”
As technology improves, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between videos created via generative AI prompts and traditional animation efforts. And with a lack of legislation forcing generative AI disclaimers onto output, audiences are left to try to work it out themselves.
Marathon has certainly endured a troubled development. After having a September 2025 release date set (the cinematic was released when this release date was still planned), Bungie delayed the game into 2026 to make adjustments based on feedback from playtests.
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.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is getting another new class, revealed last night as the Hive Scum. They’re a suitably skull-adorned outlaw who can dual-wield guns or shivs, while indulging in a cheeky bit of chemical warfare by homebrewing stimulants and lacing their weapons with harmful chems. Basically the opposite of the space-narc Arbites class added this summer, then: they got exploding dogs, the Hive Scum gets exploding drugs.
“Work on the next BioShock game has been underway for several years,” noted an email to Cloud Chamber staff sent at the time by 2K president David Ismailer, and obtained by IGN. “While we’re excited about the foundational gameplay elements of the project, we’ve made the decision with studio leadership to rework certain aspects that are core to a BioShock game, and in doing so are reducing the size of the development team to focus on this work and give the game more time in development.”
A Bloomberg report confirmed that Cloud Chamber Games studio head Kelley Gilmore had been removed, amid other layoffs, while creative director Hogarth de la Plante had been shuffled into a publishing role.
The timing of Albl’s departure from the studio in August also makes sense, then, and it was reported at the time that 2K Games had been particularly critical of issues with the game’s narrative. BioShock 4’s story is now expected to be overhauled, and development will be overseen by former Gears of War head and Diablo franchise lead Rod Fergusson, who 2K has installed as the new overall boss of both Cloud Chamber and the BioShock franchise.
Prior to Cloud Chamber, Albl had served two years at Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor studio Monolith Productions working on Warner Bros.’ now-cancelled Wonder Woman game. Prior to that, Albl had worked for several years at PlayStation’s Sucker Punch studio writing Ghost of Tsushima, and at Ubisoft working on the Far Cry and Watch Dogs franchises.
As for BioShock’s original creator Ken Levine, there’s little new word on his own long-awaited next project — the BioShock-esque Judas. Despite previously being expected by March 2025, we’ve not had a fresh update now in a little while.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Battlefield 6 players are split after the new 323 cosmetic pack introduced a collection of grounded infantry skins… and a $24 price tag.
EA and Battlefield Studios published their California Resistance Season 1 update today, adding a laundry list of fixes and features alongside a fresh store update. With another free gift and more cosmetics in rotation, Battlefield 6 fans hoping to see more grounded skins were happy to find The 323 pack cosmetic pack brings exactly the kind of customization options they were looking for.
“Yes DICE, these are the skins we want!” one popular Reddit post says. The downside, though, is players will have to cough up some serious cash if they want to wear them.
“Four American soldiers from different walks of life suddenly find themselves as the only defense when Pax Armata assaults the town of Eastwood,” a description for Battlefield 6’s The 323 skin pack says. “This guerrilla unit makes do with anything on hand, and clears through urban conflict block by block.”
For 2,400 Battlefield Coins, or $24 USD, you get the Class skins seen above, as well as access to the 323 unit and a few other cosmetics. There is an in-game bundle option to purchase 2,400 Battlefield Coins for $19.99, but it’s far from enough to stop players from dropping their jaws as they see how much these otherwise well-received skins cost.
“Obviously the most beautiful (and appropriate) ones are paid for, and on the battle pass they put the colored fluorescent ones that can see you at 100km,” one popular comment says. “Rascals!”
“It’s s**t like this that makes me realize I am not the target audience of this game,” another adds. “I’m the wrong kind of financially irresponsible to pay for garbage like this lol.”
High prices now add a new wrinkle to the discourse as fans weigh the value The 323 pack adds to the Battlefield 6 experience. As fears of goofy skins have mounted, so too have comments from select players who declared they would pay for high-quality grounded skins should they ever come to multiplayer. Now that The 323 pack is here with a high price tag and pages are dominated by dissatisfaction, other Battlefield 6 fans have been quick to fire back.
“That’s what y’all were asking for lol,” one Reddit user said. “Can’t even count the number of post where people said they would be willing to just give money for grounded skins rather than do challenges or if dice added grounded skins in the shop they would give them money.
“Also tired of people acting like theirs no grounded skin options, legit every launch skin (I guess other than the mastery skins because of the orange lol) are grounded.”
Another user replied: “Maybe if they were a reasonable price, sure. But a $20+ bundle? In a game we already paid $70+ for?”
While Battlefield 6 players continue to work out their disagreements about cosmetics, others are diving into the content introduced in today’s 1.1.2.0 update. These include the new Eastwood map and new weapons, as well as a host of bug fixes for both the base game and its REDSEC offshoot. More hot topics, such as map sizes, are said to be under review as Season 1 presses on.
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).
The Switch 2 has already got a decent library of demos, but if you were hoping to see something similar for Capcom’s upcoming title Resident Evil Requiem, it supposedly won’t be happening…at least right now.
Speaking to Australian game website Stevivor recently, Requiem’s producer Masato Kumazawa revealed there is currently “no plan” to make a demo accessible to the general public “at this stage”. The team instead wants to focus its energy on “finishing off the game”, which is due out early next year.
EA has today announced that the 2026 Formula One World Championship will be coming as a paid expansion for the existing F1 25. The content update is set to reflect all the sport’s upcoming changes next year, with new cars, new drivers, and the new regulations.
The next full game in the series will be delivered in 2027. It will be “reimagined into a more expansive experience with new ways to play for fans around the world,” according to today’s statement. EA explained this plan comes as part of a “multi-year strategic investment” in the publisher’s F1 franchise.
“F1 25 has been an incredible success, fueled by the passion of fans and the energy of the sport,” said Lee Mather, Senior Creative Director at Codemasters. “With Formula 1’s momentum on and off the track, now is the perfect time for us to look ahead and build for the future. We’re fully committed to the EA Sports F1 franchise. Our multi-year plan extends this year’s excitement with the 2026 expansion and reimagines the F1 experience for 2027 to deliver even more for players at every level around the world.”
IGN’s F1 25 review described it as a far broader and better package than last year’s installment, and “comfortably the strongest the series has been since the fan favourite F1 2020.” Codemasters has been building Formula One games since F1 2009 for Wii and PSP, although EA also had its own history with the sport in the early 2000s, beginning with F1 2000 on PS1 and PC.
Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.
