Having played Nightingale a bunch for early access review, I wasn’t entirely convinced by its mixture of survival and Destiny-esque power level grind. I also wasn’t too keen on its slew of bugs and tricksy interface. Still, the devs are hard at work fixing things, as the latest patch squashes major crashes, material losses when building, and further improves the UI.
If you’ve ever tried to stealth your way past a Terminid patrol in Helldivers 2 and found yourself somehow spotted despite your best efforts to creep silently about and remain out of sight, there might have been a very good reason for that: it turns out the horrible bugs can smell you.
During a play session with YouTuber OperatorDrewski, game director and Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt revealed there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to Helldivers 2’s terrifying Terminids.
OperatorDrewski asked about playing Helldivers 2 as a stealth game, which some players, particularly those who opt to play solo in the co-op-focused shooter, have done ever since the game’s explosive launch on PC and PlayStation 5 in February.
While Helldivers 2 very much revolves around making things go boom in increasingly over-the-top ways, stealth is viable, particularly if you want to avoid upsetting a nearby patrol. “It’s not really that we have stealth gameplay, it’s just that everything just has to make sense, like all the enemies, they have hearing, sight,” Pilestedt replied.
“They also have an approximation of smell within a close radius. If you’re in proximity of some of the units that are very sensory aware, like the Stalker, they will detect you no matter if they can see you.”
It’s a terrifying thought: some enemies in Helldivers 2 will smell you and find you if you stray too close, no matter how well you’re hiding. Stalkers are particularly annoying — they can camouflage themselves almost to the point of invisibility. Add a keen sense of smell and you’ve got one deadly melee Terminid to deal with.
🌐 THE ENEMIES OF SUPER EARTH: The Terminids 🐜
Keep your eyes open, Helldivers. Don’t let a Stalker get the drop on you. pic.twitter.com/NJ0XM0InwJ
— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) March 1, 2024
Pilestedt failed to namecheck another enemy, so we’re not sure if the Automatons can smell. Does it make sense for alien robots to be able to smell Helldivers on the battlefield? Do they have noses? Do they have a smell subroutine? Probably best to assume they do and keep your distance, just in case.
While enemies such as the Stalker remain tough opponents, Arrowhead has today released a new Helldivers 2 patch that deals with the spawn rate of heavily armored Terminid enemies the Bile Titan and the Charger, as well as the possible play against them.
Helldivers 2’s upcoming premium Warbond, dubbed Cutting Edge, launches this week, hot on the heels of the release of mechs. The Warbond includes new weapons, new armor sets, new capes, and new emotes. Meanwhile, Arrowhead has asked for the Helldivers 2 community’s help in coming up with ideas for the “hard to solve” problem of players kicking teammates who don’t have meta loadouts.
Helldivers 2 has become one of the surprise hits of 2024 since launching in February, topping the charts on Steam and reportedly selling around three million copies. According to at least one analyst, it’s still growing. Check out IGN’s Helldivers 2 review to find out why it’s going down so well.
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.
Capcom announced last night that Monster Hunter Stories, a 2016 Nintendo 3DS spin-off from their megahuge monstermashing series, is coming to PC in June. They’ve remastered it with a wee visual refresh, fully voice acting, a concept art gallery, and more. We’ve actually already had the sequel on PC, 2021’s Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings Of Ruin, so it’s nice to catch up.
Monster Hunter World is a monster hit for Capcom, selling over 25 million copies since going on sale in 2018.
Capcom made the sales milestone announcement to coincide with the Monster Hunter series’ 20th anniversary. The first Monster Hunter game launched in March 2004 on PlayStation 2. 20 years later and Monster Hunter World is easily Capcom’s best-selling game, with 2021’s Monster Hunter Rise a distant second with 14.2 million sold.
Capcom includes sales of the Monster Hunter World base game as well as the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition to achieve the 25 million sold figure. Monster Hunter World had sold 19.6 million copies as of the end of 2023, but with Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition that number hits 24.1 million as of December 31, which has now crossed over to the 25 million figure.
The Master Edition bundles together Monster Hunter World and the Iceborne expansion, which has sold an impressive 11.60 million copies since going on sale in 2019. Cumulative sales of the Monster Hunter series are now up to 97 million, Capcom added.
“With Monster Hunter World, Capcom drove the Monster Hunter series to global-brand status with a series-first worldwide simultaneous launch and international promotional activities, establishing the game as Capcom’s best-selling title of all time within a month of its release,” Capcom said.
“In the six years since the game’s launch, Capcom has continued to promote digital sales, leading Monster Hunter World to achieve a new Capcom all-time-record of 25 million cumulative units sold. Further, in December of last year Capcom revealed Monster Hunter Wilds, garnering broad attention with the announcement that the latest title in the series is scheduled for release in 2025.
“Capcom remains firmly committed to satisfying the expectations of all users by leveraging its industry-leading game development capabilities in order to create highly entertaining gameplay experiences.”
Monster Hunter Wilds was announced for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam during The Game Awards 2023. The debut trailer showed the player riding a new bird-like mount across a desert while chased by a dust storm.
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.
What could have been.
We know that another Super Mario Bros. Movie is on the way (Nintendo confirmed it’s coming in 2026, no less), but that doesn’t mean that we are quite done talking about its predecessor just yet. In fact, there’s something new to look at.
Jed Diffenderfer worked as a story developer and artist on the 2023 Illumination/Nintendo movie, and he has recently uploaded a fresh batch of concept art to his website which shows an initial vision for some of the movie’s memorable moments as well as some sections that didn’t make the cut (thanks, Nintendo Everything).
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Capcom has properly unveiled Akuma for Street Fighter 6 in a new trailer that also confirms a spring release window.
The video, below, shows a typically angry but this time older Akuma punch the head of a statue clean off its shoulders with what looks like a ghostly, red Shoryuken (Street Fighter’s iconic Dragon Punch move). An overpowered Akuma in a Street Fighter game? Well it wouldn’t be Akuma if he was balanced, would it?
Eagle-eyed fans have already noticed a glimpse of Ryu in the Akuma trailer, which suggests the two rivals will once again battle it out in a shower of fireballs. Elsewhere, the trailer is set within Akuma’s new stage, which is a riff on Akuma’s stage from Street Fighter Alpha 2. That’s all we have for now, as fans wait for the Akuma gameplay reveal.
Akuma’s reveal follows the release of fellow DLC characters Rashid, A.K.I., and Ed. Akuma rounds out the game’s first year of DLC characters, with Capcom yet to announce a second year. Here’s the official blurb on Akuma:
“The demonic Akuma joins the Street Fighter 6 roster and rounds out the list of the award-winning fighting game’s Year 1 characters when he hits the streets starting in spring 2024! Players can throw hands with Akuma across all three game modes, including Fighting Ground, World Tour, and Battle Hub. We look forward to sharing much more on Akuma soon. And stay tuned later this year for captivating announcements on Year 2 content and potentially even some fun events coming to the Battle Hub!”
Street Fighter 6 sold three million copies in the seven months after going on sale in June 2023. Street Fighter 6 got off to a strong start with one million sold over launch weekend, then hit two million copies sold after just over a month on sale.
Commenting on the two million sales milestone, Capcom said Street Fighter 6 was “generally progressing in line with our expectations”, adding it hoped positive word of mouth would fuel follow-up success.
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.
However, the focus right now is on “the new story”.
Although the Pokémon anime said goodbye to Ash and Pikachu, it seems there’s still a chance the famous duo could return.
Speaking to Variety, The Pokémon Company International executives Andy Gose and Taito Okiura are still open to Ash potentially reappearing and “anything is possible”, but for now the focus is on the new story of Liko and Roy in Pokémon Horizons, which made its debut in North America last week.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Day one for other platforms, ASAP for Switch.
Contra: Operation Galuga is out on the Nintendo Switch today and as part of this, there will be a patch update released in response to demo feedback.
While other versions of this update are locked in for 12th March, for the Switch version, this update will be applied “as soon as preparations have completed”. This “post release” patch will include bug fixes, input optimisation, and visibility improvements. Here’s the full rundown courtesy of the official Contra social media account:
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Update: Available today.
Update :
These three Game Boy titles have now been added to the Switch Online service. To play these games you will need to have an active subscription.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Three years after its release on Nintendo Switch and PC, Monster Hunter Stories 2 is headed to PlayStation… 4. Capcom announced that the turn-based spin-off of the popular monster hunting series will be releasing on PlayStation’s previous-gen console, leaving PS5 owners to play it through the console’s backwards compatibility features.
Revealed during today’s Capcom Highlights stream, which previously revealed Dragon’s Dogma 2’s character creator, Monster Hunter Stories 2 is slated to arrive on PS4 on June 14. It will be available as a special set with the remastered version of the original Monster Hunter Stories, which is slated to release the same day.
A preorder bonus includes a special Kamura Maiden outfit for Ena, with additional bonuses available by connecting it with a Monster Hunter Rise save. It will also be available in a deluxe edition featuring various costumes and other items.
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin was first released on Nintendo Switch and PC back in 2021. We called it “great” in our review, writing, “Minor oversights and frustrations certainly wore away at me over the 80+ hours I spent with Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin — during its campaign and beyond — but the journey was well worth taking despite the frequent grains of sand in my shoe.
“Its mercifully free, gacha-like monster hatching loop is always exciting, and its combat and customization are both accessible but still intricate and rewarding. Its story is enjoyable if a bit cliche, but exploring this gorgeous world from the backs of my favorite monsters is an absolute delight.”
Since its release, fans have wondered when Monster Hunter Stories 2 would be making its way to PlayStation, and now they don’t have to wonder anymore. But more than a few expressed surprise over Capcom’s decision to limit it to an exclusive PS5 release.
“PS4 still going strong I see,” one commenter quipped on social media. Another observed publishers are “holding onto these decade-old consoles til the heat death of the universe.”
Monster Hunter Stories 2 is far from the only game headed to PS4 in 2024, though. MLB The Show 24, Unicorn Overlord, and numerous other releases are still coming out on PS4, which was first released back in 2013 and has sold more than 117 million units. One way or another, Monster Hunter Stories 2 is heading to PlayStation, and you’ll still be able to play it on PS5 even if it’s technically for PS4.
As for the original Monster Hunter Stories, the former 3DS exclusive is slated to release on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC on June 14. You can read our original review right here.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
