Category: Video Games

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer admits that Microsoft’s $67.8 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has been a learning experience, but he remains confident in it going through.

Speaking with IGN, Spencer said he “didn’t know anything” about this type of acquisition when it was announced in January 2022, but having undergone the process and having conversations with key players, he’s more confident now than he was last year.

“The fact that I have more insight, more knowledge about what it means to work with the different regulatory boards, I’m more confident now than I was a year ago, simply based on the information I have and the discussions that we’ve been having,” Spencer said.

“When we announced a year ago, we talked about an 18-month timeframe. We’re 12 months into that. I think we continue to stay focused on getting the deal closed.”

Spencer would have plenty reason to be a little shaken, however, as several government bodies have moved to challenge the deal in the past few months including the United States’ Federal Trade Commission and UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority. The European Union is also reportedly preparing a statement of objections.

The deal, which would see Xbox own several prolific game franchises including Call of Duty and Overwatch, has also been criticised by various U.S. senators, the city of New York, and the U.S. Justice Department. Despite this, Spencer said his “confidence remains high”.

He continued: “We’re actively working with the regulatory boards around the world that need to approve for this, and it’s been a learning experience for me. A lot of time spent, a lot of travel, a lot of conversations, but they’re conversations where I get to talk about our industry and the work that we do and why we do it.

“I think more regulators that are informed about what gaming is, how the business runs, who the players are, and what our aspiration is as Team Xbox is just a good thing for the industry itself.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

In an interview with Buzzfeed, Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann confidently said the studio is “Moving on” from the Uncharted series saying, “Uncharted was insanely successful — Uncharted 4 was one of our best selling games — and we’re able to put our final brushstroke on that story and say that we’re done.”

If Naughty Dog is done with the Uncharted series, they ended it about as perfect as they could have. After decades of exploring, Nathan Drake settles down with the love of his life, and together with their daughter, can enjoy peace and retirement. Only, why does it feel like there’s a missed opportunity still?

In the first Uncharted game, Nathan Drake was the charismatic treasure hunter with a joke on his tongue and a song in his heart. Drake’s Fortune was a perfect vehicle to showcase the PlayStation 3’s graphical prowess, rendering incredibly detailed jungles and providing exceptional shooting and seamless parkour. However, somewhere along the way the gorgeous vistas and beautiful locales got sucked into the black hole of Nathan Drake’s various mid-life crises. No location is better suited to contemplate your fear of settling down than in a cathedral tucked away in the misty Scottish Highlands.

Once known for its epic platforming, Naughty Dog has become the standard-bearer of character-driven storytelling starting with The Last of Us and the darker, more character-focused Uncharted 4, which followed after. The studio further cemented its ability as world-class storytellers with the premiere of The Last of Us TV series on HBO, which is already being called one of the most successful video game adaptations of all time.

As Naughty Dog became a more storytelling operation, the Uncharted series began zeroing in on Nathan Drake the character, with his adventures across the world serving as a metaphor for the internal drama he was facing, whether it’s his fear of loss, fear of his past, or fear for his future. It was bold, especially considering Nathan Drake’s nickname when he was first introduced into the world — Dude Raider. But in the same way Temple of Doom is some peoples’ favorite Indiana Jones movie because it’s about the adventure and less about Indiana Jones, to me Uncharted as a whole feels like a series comprised of three Last Crusades — the movie that explained, that actually, Indiana Jones’ life was molded by a single childhood event as well as his relationship with his father.

It doesn’t help that the series broke new ground in the spinoff Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. The seemingly final Naughty Dog Uncharted game introduced a semi-open world that was fertile ground for all kinds of future adventures. The Western Ghats of India that Chloe and Nadine explore partway through Lost Legacy felt like a revolution at the time and could be utilized in any number of ancient temples, ruins, and more wonderful, made-for-Uncharted locations. To quote Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems, why would you show me something if I couldn’t have it then?

Plus, it also showed that Uncharted games could be headlined by a character who wasn’t Nathan Drake. Never mind that Naughty Dog was still firmly in its tormented protagonist era by having new heroine Chloe Frazer face off against — yup — her father.

The real greatness of Uncharted was how it showcased the beauty of our world, and there’s so much world left to explore. To lose Uncharted as a series will deprive gaming of one of the rare game series that takes joy in the diversity of our shared human history and the splendor of oft-overlooked civilizations, whether it’s the mountains of Nepal or the plains of India. With so many cultures that could still be explored through the virtual adventures of Nathan Drake, it’s a shame that towards the end of the series, its gaze shifted away from our beautiful world and inwards towards the soul of its surprisingly tortured protagonist.

Not many game series can claim a definitive ending like Uncharted. The games industry is littered with half-finished (Half-Life?) series that promise to finish the fight, only for the market to declare the series isn’t selling anymore so let’s move on. Not Uncharted though, which was both critically and commercially successful enough to warrant numerous sequels and a proper finale.

If Naughty Dog has closed the book on Uncharted it’s because there are no more Nathan Drake stories to tell, even though there are still plenty of Uncharted stories that can be told.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

You know how it is – you go years without a sci-fi survival horror game set in the distant depths of space, and then two arrive in consecutive months. The first, The Callisto Protocol, a spiritual successor to the Dead Space series helmed by Dead Space creator Glen Schofield and reportedly endowed with a monster development budget, released this past December with notable performance issues and ultimately failed to hit its sales targets. The second, a remake of the original 2008 Dead Space crafted with considerable care and creativity by Motive Studio, arrived this past week and managed to outdo the original in almost every way. Earlier in 2022, Schofield was quoted as being “kind of bummed” about not having any involvement in remaking the seminal survival horror game that put his name on the map. One can only wonder how he’s feeling now.

To be clear, I enjoyed my time overall with The Callisto Protocol, even though I felt a number of issues ultimately held it back from greatness, and I think it does eclipse Dead Space in a handful of areas. I’d say the performances from its lead actors, Josh Duhamel as Jacob Lee and Karen Fukuhara as Dani Nakamura, are slightly stronger than that of the cast featured aboard the USG Ishimura, and The Callisto Protocol also takes the prize for serving up the most uncomfortably convincing level of blood and gristle, with a level of onscreen meat-mulching that would make even the most gore-hungry gamer consider becoming a videogame vegan. That said, in almost every other comparison with both the original Dead Space and now even more so with its remake, The Callisto Protocol comes up shorter than a necromorph with its knees knocked out.

Much like Dead Space, Striking Distance Studios’ prison break game involves prison-breaking the arms and legs right off its mutated inhabitants, but the tools you’re given to get the joint-severing job done just don’t have the same kind of panache as Isaac Clarke’s iconic arsenal of repurposed mining implements. The Callisto Protocol is saddled with an ordinary ordnance limited to pistols, shotguns, and an assault rifle, which feel satisfying enough to shoot but are ultimately indistinct from the firearms featured in any number of other action games. To its credit it does differentiate itself with a melee-heavy focus in its opening hours complete with axes and stun batons, but while going toe-to-toe with two-headed titans isn’t a complete swing and a miss, the slightly fussy timing of the melee mechanic means as a feature it lands as more of a glancing blow than a knockout punch.

By the midpoint of Dead Space, however, Isaac is truly spoilt for choice when it comes to creative killing. The swiveling head of his Plasma Cutter may as well have been engineered by the Gillette razor corporation for how effective it is at shaving the stubborn limbs off necromorphs no matter which way their bodies are angled. The Ripper’s spinning saw blade lets you prune the parts off each freak with vengeful glee like you’re attacking the annoying tree branches coming from over your neighbour’s fence. Meanwhile the Contact Beam literally hoses the decaying flesh right off each necromorph’s bones like you’ve somehow stumbled onto an R-rated patch for PowerWash Simulator. Each of these work perfectly in tandem with Dead Space’s object-throwing Kinesis and enemy-slowing Stasis abilities, giving you a variety of ways to problem-solve your way out of each roomful of angry undead astronauts.

While sadly there’s no Stasis in The Callisto Protocol, there is a Kinesis equivalent. However it’s overpowered and too easily abused, allowing you to lift enemies off their feet and hurl them into the always conveniently placed spiked walls and exposed fan blades, meaning you’re able to clear entire areas of threats with a few hand gestures before they’ve had a chance to notice you. It’s fun to quickly Force-push mutants to their doom like you’re a Jedi who’s running late for a council meeting, but it hardly maintains a sense of tension. There really is no contest when it comes to combat variety and balance; The Callisto Protocol’s Jacob is a blunt instrument, while Dead Space’s Isaac is a sci-fi Swiss Army knife.

Isaac is also pitted against a decidedly more ghastly group of ghouls than what Jacob has to contend with. As I stated earlier, The Callisto Protocol’s vivid depiction of viscera is not to be undersold, but most of its enemies are gross in a reanimated roadkill kind of way. Dead Space’s nasties, on the other hand, are the stuff of proper cosmic horror nightmares. There’s a reason that horror movie maestro John Carpenter would love to make a film out of the Dead Space series, and it’s because game recognises game. Or I guess, moviemaking gamer recognises game inspired by moviemaker’s movies. At any rate, it’s clear that Dead Space’s creature designs are a cut above and they come in more shapes and sizes, from tiny tentacle-sprouting babies to a towering Leviathan that can only be described as looking like the largest arsehole in the universe this side of Uranus. (Sorry.)

The Callisto Protocol’s level structure is equally as narrow as its number of enemy types. It certainly serves up some striking and unsettling locales like its opening prison cell block and fetid waste management, but rarely does it give you a moment to linger. It just sluices you through them in a surge of forward momentum, slamming the door shut behind you at the start of each chapter with no way to backtrack for secrets you may have missed. Striking Distance Studios’ artists did an incredible job at realising each area of the Black Iron Prison, so it’s a shame it largely all passes by in a blur with little reason to ever stop in order to scrutinise your surroundings.

On the other hand, in the Dead Space remake you’re given the ability to shuttle back and forth between the various decks of the USG Ishimura, and you’re incentivised to do so with locked doors that can be accessed as Isaac’s security level increases. Doing so gives you access to precious resources and upgrades, and a multi-part side mission that tasks you with tracking down a number of the ‘RIGs’ discarded by deceased crew members that can eventually be combined into an all-access skeleton key for every room and cabinet on the ship. Further, as you return through previously visited areas, Dead Space surprises you with additional enemy ambushes so that you can never really feel safe, and tucks away some interesting environmental puzzles to discover that bring welcome diversions to all the death and destruction. Dead Space encourages you to truly submerge yourself in its haunted house of horrors, while The Callisto Protocol is effectively a rollercoaster ride; thrillingly brisk in pace but linear in direction.

at least as far as its story goes. The Callisto Protocol’s campaign is done in less than eight hours, and although you do ultimately find out how its outbreak occurred, there’s an abruptness to the credits screen that leaves you with a sense that it’s a few hour-long episodes short of a full season of television – at least in terms of the fates of certain characters. On the other hand, despite the fact there’s clearly more to Isaac’s story as evidenced by the existence of Dead Space 2 and 3, Dead Space resolves the events onboard the Ishimura in an extremely satisfying way, even more so in the remake which makes some clever character alterations to better sell its plot-twisting climax.

To be fair, some of The Callisto Protocol’s shortcomings could well be remedied in time. A NewGame+ mode that was noticeably absent at launch has recently been added as part of a free update, while additional gory death animations, new weapons, and added story DLC is promised for later in the year – although these are coming as part of paid season pass content. There’s plenty to build on in The Callisto Protocol, and I’d certainly welcome the announcement of a sequel, too, just… not as much as I’d welcome the announcement of a Dead Space 2 remake helmed by Motive Studio. Because ultimately while The Callisto Protocol is not without its charms, Dead Space still treats it like it’s a suspicious-looking corpse and stomps all over it.

Tristan Ogilvie is a video producer in IGN’s Sydney office. He’s never fought any machines in real life, although he did once have a tense altercation with a robot bartender in Tokyo. He almost never tweets here.