Category: Video Games

Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time Remake Dev Update Shared In New “Exclusive”

“The remake has been… remade from scratch”.

A new “exclusive” from Insider Gaming journalist Tom Henderson has provided an update about Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake.

The previous update claimed the project had reached an “important” milestone and now according to this latest report, the remake of the game has been completely “remade from scratch” but is still in the early stage of development.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Epic Mickey Switch Remake Translates “Motion Controls To Analog Sticks” And Enhances Camera

Original motion controls will also be supported.

Earlier this year during a Nintendo Partner Showcase, it was announced the 2010 Wii title Epic Mickey would be making a return on the Switch this year in a brand new “faithful remake” called Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed.

GameSpot has spoken to the senior producer Pan Schröder about this project, who went into a bit more detail about what exactly this remake will feature. If you were hoping for some quality-of-life improvements, the good news is it will include camera enhancements, analog stick controls, and more:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Blizzard Games to Return to China Under New Agreement With NetEase

Blizzard has announced that its games are coming back to mainland China in summer 2024 after almost a year and a half off the market. Additionally, Microsoft (which now owns Blizzard) and NetEase have entered another separate agreement to bring NetEase games to Xbox and other platforms.

Blizzard’s games were taken offline in China in January 2023 after NetEase and Blizzard were unable to reach a new publishing deal. However, both companies have now reached one. The deal will include all of the games that Chinese players had access to from the previous agreement, including ones like Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft.

While both parties are working to relaunch the games, more details will be revealed later. Phil Spencer chimed in on Microsoft’s new partnership with NetEase, saying, “Returning Blizzard’s legendary games to players in China while exploring ways to bring more new titles to Xbox demonstrates our commitment to bringing more games to more players around the world.” However, Spencer provided no other specifics.

This new deal comes after Blizzard and NetEase had a bit of a falling out back in November 2022 when their oiriginal publishing contract was set to expire. Blizzard China and NetEase were pointing fingers at each other, where the former offered to extend services, but the latter declined it, with one NetEase executive claiming that the original deal extension fell apart because of one specific “jerk.”

Either way, Blizzard was committed to look for alternative ways to bring its games back to the Chinese market, but it finally reached a new agreement with NetEase.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 ‘Future Saga’ DLC Reveals New Playable Characters

Android 18 and Videl join the battle.

Last month, Bandai Namco announced brand new DLC called ‘Future Saga’ would be coming to the Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2.

Now, in a small update on social media, it’s lifted the lid on two new playable characters which will be available in the first of four chapters. It’s the Dragon Ball Super versions of Android 18 and Videl. Here’s a look at both in action:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Buy Two Board Games, Get a Third Free at Amazon

Starting today, Amazon is offering a new board game promotion: buy two board games, get a third one free (or “three for the price of two”). The list of eligible board games include several popular and highly rated titles like Wingspan, Azul, Splendor, Pandemic Legacy, Dead of Winter, and more. We’ve sorted out our favorite picks below.

Wingspan Board Game

Wingspan from Stonemeier Games is an incredibly good board game. It came out in 2019, but it’s still one of the best board games to play in 2024. Wingspan looks like a deceptively simple game; the endgame goal is to attract as many birds as you can to your wildlife preserve and help them proliferate. There are only four actions you can perform: draw a bird card, play a bird card, get food, and lay eggs. Sounds simple enough, right? Well let’s just say these four actions mask an incredibly complex engine-building game with which you will have to juggle between bringing new birds into the fold and keeping your existing birds well stocked and in a breeding frenzy. Wingspan is infinitely replayable, and you’ll find yourself developing and honing new strategies with every subsequent playthough.

Azul Board Game for $31.99

This is one of the best board games for beginners. With colorful plastic tiles and a simple premise – collect sets of similar tiles to score points – Azul is a great game for folks who want to dabble in the hobby of board games. The goal is to fill up a small grid, earning points by completing lines and connecting filled-in spots on your grid to each other. It’s been said before, but it rings true for Azul: It’s quick to learn, but it takes time to master and figure out strategies. This makes Azul a great addition to any existing board game player’s collection as well.

Spendor for $31.99

Splendor is a 2014 release that’s still considered one of the best board games for all experience levels. Economic engine games, where you build an increasingly powerful economy to buy stuff to build it even more, are a popular gaming sub-genre. They don’t come much simpler than this gem about… gem dealing. On your turn you take tokens to pay for gems, and each gem gives you a permanent boost to your token bank. It’s a race to engineer the most efficient economy and grab the best gems. The trouble is, everyone wants the best gems too. So every turn you pump your engine, you risk losing prime resources to other players. Throw in a variety of finicky patrons to please for bonus points and you’ve got an engine that generates as much tension as it does tactics.

Dead of Winter for $49.61

Dead of Winter is one of the best horror board games. It’s like the board game version of The Walking Dead. The game is described as a “meta-cooperative psychological survival game,” which means that, while it is cooperative, there are elements of competition that carry through the game. Each player controls a group survivors during the zombie apocalypse, and all must work together in order to meet the shared goal. In addition, you’ll be working towards your own hidden goal as well. Sometimes that means hoarding the most medicine, or stockpiling the most ammo. Other times, you might simply want to betray the team and ruin group morale. No matter what, though, there’s no way to trust anyone at the table thanks to the group politics and interpersonal drama Dead of Winter brings.

Pandemic Legacy for $71.99

If competitive gameplay isn’t your thing, how about working together to purge the world of infectious diseases? Building on the success of the original Pandemic, the Pandemic Legacy series introduces “legacy” concepts to the game, in which components are added or removed as you progress through the game, based on your decisions, successes and failures. After a few plays, your copy will be a unique record of your group’s play. So in addition to offering a very personal tale to engage you, Pandemic: Legacy also individualizes your strategic experience. We picked the Pandemic Legacy series as one of the best cooperative board games of 2024.

Buy Two Board Games, Get One Free on Amazon

This “gamified focus tool” lets you construct your own lofi girl/boy to chill/study with

I’ve worked from home for most of the past decade, but it was during the pandemic lockdowns that I was finally indoctrinated into the world of co-working streams, pomodoro timers and lofi beats to chill/study to. I’m better now, but I absolutely see the appeal of Spirit City: Lofi Sessions, a “gamified focus tool” that just launched on Steam.

Read more

World of Warcraft Cataclysm Classic Sets Release Date and Reveals Roadmap

Blizzard has announced that a coming update to World of Warcraft: Classic re-introducing the fiery Cataclysm expansion will land on May 20.

Officially, Classic will heat up a little before that on April 30 with the pre-patch event. Cataclysm’s pre-patch back in the day was one doozy of a change, too. It introduced playable Worgen and Goblins, set the dragon Deathwing loose on Azeroth, and because of Deathwing’s escapades, transformed the entire landscape of Azeroth’s main continents.

The full expansion on May 20 will include seven new (to Classic) zones, nine new dungeons, three new raid dungeons, the Archeologu profession. Flying will be introduced to Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. Additionally, with the transformation of the main continents’ landscapes, numerous new quests will be introduces, while old ones will disappear forever. It’s a pretty drastic change to what the current map looks like: the Barrens splits in half, Thousand Needles goes underwater, and a chunk of Darkshore’s coastline is washed away.

Also, Deathwing is flying around and can randomly set entire zones on fire. Cool!

WoW Classic marches on

All of this reflects the changes to World of Warcraft initially introduced when Cataclysm was first released back in 2010, with very few exceptions. When Classic was first released, Blizzard’s goal was to give players an opportunity to experience World of Warcraft as it was when it first launched, rather than being forced to flock to player-run servers.

But with Cataclysm, the world of Azeroth begins to more closely resemble what the game looks like now — minus several expansion-specific zones. The original World of Warcraft, as it was prior to all expansions, is still available as a Classic option, and Blizzard has introduced a number of special rules servers to spice it up such as Hard Mode and Season of Discovery.

World of Warcraft: Classic is available to anyone with a World of Warcraft subscription. Currently, Classic’s main servers are in the final days of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, with all raids and dungeons from that time available, including Icecrown Citadel.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Gigantic: Rampage Edition is out now, offering a second chance to fans of the shuttered hero shooter

The original Gigantic blended MOBA and hero shooter ideas together at the height of the gold rush in both genres, but failed to carve off a large enough audience of its own and sadly shut down in 2018.

As of today, it’s back as Gigantic: Rampage Edition, with new characters, a new mode, and an upfront fee in place of its former free-to-play model.

Read more

Moon Studios Isn’t Making ‘Ori 3’ Yet But It Has “Ideas”

“Right now, we are completely focused on No Rest for the Wicked”.

Moon Studios, developer of the platforming Metroidvanias Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, is busy working on its upcoming action RPG No Rest for the Wicked. But in a new interview with Game Informer, the developer revealed that it has some “ideas” for a future Ori 3.

Talking to co-founder Gennadiy Korol and CEO and creative director Thomas Mahler, Game Informer asked about the potential for a third game in the Ori series. Korol answered first, stating that the team “were pretty happy with where it left off,” and that the two games formed “a complete story.”

Read the full article on nintendolife.com