Lny_Trpr_EE7 shares the titular Stray and robot friend B-12
scottoka1 shares the Persona 3 Reload protagonist and companions
HomuraChihiro shares the Hunter and their eagle companion in The Pathless
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Comfort SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on February 28, 2024
Next week’s theme is all about games that bring you comfort. Share a moment from your go-to comfort game using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
In the immersive storytelling between Dragonheir: Silent Gods and Dungeons & Dragons, the legendary ranger Drizzt Do’Urden successfully thwarted his nemesis, Errtu the Balor, in the first phase of the storyline. As the adventure moves into its second phase, two arcane masters from Dungeons & Dragons, Elminster Aumar and Sammaster, will debut on February 23rd, offering players an exciting showdown.
Expanding Dragonheir’s Fantasy Multiuniverse with Classic IP Collaboration
Dragonheir: Silent Gods, also referred to as Dragonheir, is an open-world TRPG that incorporates several classic Western fantasy tabletop game mechanics. It includes dungeon duels, card mechanics, dice rolls, and a wide variety of races and professions.
Sagi, the lead producer of Dragonheir and head of SGRA Studio, shared his thoughts on the collaboration: “We look forward to embarking on an extensive collaboration with Dungeons & Dragons, a renowned western fantasy IP. Our goal with this collaboration is to provide players with an immersive experience as they explore the vast world of Dragonheir. We want players to enjoy the thrill of forming adventurous teams with iconic Dungeons & Dragons characters and engaging in strategic combat.”
Experience an Exclusive Storyline to Receive Limited-Time Rewards
In the storyline of this collaborative adventure, Dragonheir‘s multiverse welcomes the arrival of Elminster Aumar and Sammaster, two esteemed masters of the magic arts. In the original lore, Sammaster once studied magic under Elminster Aumar. However, after a heated argument, Sammaster’s irrationality led him to redirect his dissatisfaction towards Elminster’s existence, fueling his resentment. This divergence pushed him away from the path of righteousness, delving into necromantic arts, and ultimately opposing Elminster Aumar. Within Dragonheir, players will accompany Elminster Aumar to thwart the collaborative boss Sammaster from encroaching upon the world of Dragonheir.
In addition, the second phase collaborative event offers players new gameplay features, artifacts, and promotional benefits compared to the first phase:
Introduction of a limited-time dice skin exclusive to Phase Two Collaboration – [Arcane Dice].
Debuting the multi-phase gameplay for the collaborative Boss, presenting varied abilities and attributes, empowering players to tailor their strategies.
Presenting the limited-time artifact – [A Guide to Magic by Elminster], accessible through the Collaboration Token [Sage’s Chess Piece].
Unveiling for the first time, an exclusive collaborative promotion bundle containing multiple Heliolite Dice and Skill Scrolls, accompanied by the exclusive collaborative avatar frame [Sage of Shadowdale].
Players can delve deeper into strategic gameplay and reap additional benefits during this collaborative adventure. The expanded feature set promises a more immersive experience, with greater strategic depth and an enhanced reward system for players who participate in this event.
Dragonheir: Silent Gods‘ collaborationwith Dungeons & Dragonsis now available to play on Mac, Windows, Epic, Steam, iOS, and Android platforms. Click here to download the game now and enter IGN’s exclusive gift code ign223 to redeem limited rewards.
Join Dungeons & Dragons legends in Dragonheir and engage with the game’s community on Facebook, YouTube, and Discord for comprehensive information!
Lil Guardsman is a game that wears its heart on its sleeve. In a victory for normative determinism, this is a fantasy adventure about a small girl named Lil who somehow becomes the first (and seemingly only) line of defence at a city’s border patrol as a guardsman. At various points, both Lil and those around her frequently call attention to the fact that, yes, you are merely a 12-year-old child who is massively underqualified for this task, and that if you’re going to continue filling in for your good for nothing father who’s down the pub gambling on the latest ball game, then really, what do your superiors expect? It’s very self-aware in that sense, and occasionally verges on breaking the fourth wall. This alone will probably be a fairly good indicator of whether you’ll gel with Lil Guardsman’s sense of humour or not, but for the most part, this is a sweet and jovial narrative adventure whose characterful animation and charming voice cast help bring this oddball tale of fate and consequence to life.
It’s also not shy about where it’s taken its main source of inspiration from either. This is fantasy Papers, Please through and though, albeit one that’s more about interrogating and probing would-be citygoers for information than checking documents and spotting inconsistencies. During the day you’ll be working your post, dealing with the increasingly large, but fixed queues of fantasy species all trying to enter the city gate to go about their business. When you’re off the clock, it’s time to pick up the game’s wider plotlines, with Lil able to travel around the city to set locations where she can chat with other townsfolk, sometimes partake in the odd mini-game or two, and visit the local shop before toddling off to bed. It’s admittedly quite a straightforward interpretation of Lucas Pope’s magnum opus, with star ratings denoting clear right and wrong answers for how you deal with each day’s horde, but you know what they say about first impressions. Good ones go a long way.
Microsoft has continued its custom console collection by creating an Xbox Series S based on ‘Pokémon with guns’ hit Palworld.
Revealed on X/Twitter, below, the Palworld Xbox Series S itself features a ton of Pals in colourful artwork, but it’s perhaps the controllers that will draw the most attention. The console comes with four gamepads, each one themed after different Palworld beasties.
A yellow controller features Electric element Pal Grizzbolt, a green controller features Grass element Pal Mammorest, a blue controller features Water and Ice element Pal Pengullet, and a pink controller features Neautral Pal Cattiva.
Imagine playing Palworld on THIS
Follow and RT with #PalworldXboxSweepstakes for a chance to win a custom Palworld Xbox Series S, 4 custom controllers, and a 3 Month Game Pass Ultimate Code.
Xbox isn’t selling the custom console but is instead giving it away in a sweepstake. Fans can enter for a chance to win by following the Xbox X/Twitter account and retweeting the post by March 17, 2024. The prize bundle comes with three months of Game Pass Ultimate, too.
Palworld is a smash hit, logging 25 million players since going on sale in January 2024, including 10 million on Xbox. It’s the biggest third-party launch on Game Pass ever. This might lower the chance of winning the special console, but someone’s got to win.
I know this sort of thing has been said before around these parts, but in scanning through the endless reams of Steam Next Fest demos earlier this month and trying to work out what these games are and whether they’re worth downloading, I truly believe it’s a sentiment that’s worth repeating. When I first saw the name C.A.R.D.S RPG: The Misty Battlefield appear on the Next Fest landing page, I instantly thought, ‘Yes, here we go, now we’re talking’.
Well, my first thought was actually, ‘Gee, if only there was an easy way to know what this game’s about based on just the title alone,’ but that’s just me being facetious. Ultimately, I have a lot of respect for this kind of naming convention, and the fact it’s also being made by the Octopath Traveler developers Acquire is really just the icing on the cake.
Steam survival crafting game Nightingale is getting an offline mode “as soon as is feasible”, with developer Inflexion Games deeming it a priority.
In a developer update posted to Steam, Inflexion said it built the game with a shared, connected universe in mind but didn’t realise players would want an offline mode too.
It updated the post later to say work on regular updates would be uninterrupted despite saying it was prioritising the unplanned single player mode. News on regular updates, pertaining to new content, fixes, bugs, and other work would arrive in the coming days, it said.
“We are now prioritizing and developing an offline mode that we plan to release as soon as feasible,” Inflexion said.
“Our vision for the game since inception was to create an interconnected series of Realms, with the idea of allowing for co-operative exploration in mind — a universe bigger than a single Realm or server. That meant we made a choice early in development between supporting co-op from day one or focusing development on an offline mode.”
It added: “Looking back on that decision, we misjudged what some of you were looking for in your experience.”
Nightingale launched on February 20 in Steam Early Access as a shared world survival crafting game set in an all new fantasy universe. Players are stranded beyond their own world, cut off by the sudden collapse of the arcane portal network.
“The gameplay loops of Nightingale look flexible, engrossing, and fun, though [we are] mildly worried about how much attention the base building can keep,” IGN said in our final preview. “[We’re] unsure of what else there is to do or maintain once it’s built the way you like. Of course, [we] do suppose creatures can also come wreck things and force you to build anew.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Credit to Nightingale, I’ve been enjoying the early access form of Inflexion’s gaslamp fantasy survival crafter a fair bit more than I did its older stress test build. The UI is cleaner and tighter, and I’ve had more space to explore (and enjoy) the mysterious nooks of its magic ‘n’ moustaches world. There’s potential here, but it’s very much the raw kind, especially when performance needs as much work as it does.
Besides relying on upscalers like DLSS for truly smooth running, Nightingale currently has a serious stuttering problem, and bumping into an ugly graphical artefact or even a hard crash is worryingly common. I’ve pulled together an optimised settings guide (down below) so that you don’t need to drop the visual quality lower than is strictly necessary, but do keep in mind that this is early access with emphasis on the early.
Splatoon 3’s Side Order has been dangling just out of reach since it was revealed in 2023, but Wave 2 of the DLC has finally landed for Splatoon 3 Expansion Pass owners. Nearly five years after the release of Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion, Agent Eight’s story continues in the drab and colourless world of the Memverse, but is it worth the train fare to reach this particular station?
Let’s be blunt, Side Order is a roguelite, meaning there’s a series of semi-random levels you must beat sequentially in order to triumph. The catch? If you run out of lives, you’re sent right back to the start. Note the ‘t’ in the genre name, though, as unlike a roguelike, you can unlock bonuses and boons to make each subsequent run up the tower that little bit easier.
Next Week on Xbox: New Games for February 26 to March 1
This is Next Week on Xbox! This weekly feature shows you all the games that are coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows, and Game Pass! You can find more information about these upcoming games below and click on their profiles for more details (release dates subject to change). Let’s get started!
A complex biomedical simulator in which you make life or death decisions. Create the ultimate illness to infect and torment your victim or play as the head of a medical team and hopefully find a cure to save your patient. Will you be the plague or preserve humanity?
Trudograd is a standalone story expansion to Atom RPG. Explore a vast open world, containing 40+ hours of gameplay and 45+ populated locations. Your goal is to travel to a giant post-apocalyptic metropolis that withstood the tests of nuclear obliteration and social collapse. There you must find what is thought to be humanity’s last hope in fending off the menace from outer space!
Experience turn-based strategy gameplay as players move from mission to mission in the Middle Ages. Command one of five different armies: the English, The French, the Spanish, the Poles or the Hapsburgs. Lead different types of units into battle , and control special hero units such as Henry III, Joan of Arc, Wladylaw I of Poland, and Peter of Castile, among others whose special ‘hero’ powers can affect the entire battlefield.
Hailed by critics when it was originally released, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is back! Faithful to the gameplay and touching story from 2013, guide two brothers on an epic fairy tale filled with discovery, loss, adventure, and mystery. With their father suffering from a deadly illness, two brothers must bravely set out to find the “Water of Life,” the one cure that can save him.
A deceptively easy game to learn but incredibly challenging to master as you progress from owning a rundown zero-star café into a five-star world famous restaurant. Manage your restaurant as you balance out your menu with thirty foods and hundreds of recipes, compete in cooking television shows and mysterious tournaments, and upgrade your equipment while battling robbers, impatient customers, and lots more!
Blast your way through post-apocalyptic wastelands in retro shoot’em up style! Dead End City is a post-apocalyptic vertical shooter. You drive a heavily armed car called a Chariot into the wastelands to rescue your loved ones from Scorpio, a gang that has conquered what little is left of humanity. Relive the thrill of ’90s arcade classics in top-down shoot ’em up style!
Brought to life by the team at Nightdive Studios, and fully remastered through its proprietary KEX engine, in the first Star Wars FPS video game, players assume the role of Kyle Katarn, a defector of the Galactic Empire turned mercenary for hire. Katarn joins the Rebel Alliance’s covert operations division tasked with infiltrating the Galactic Empire, where he discovers the secret Dark Trooper Project. New and returning players will enjoy upgraded gameplay, high-resolution textures, enhanced lighting and rendering, and support for gamepads.
Blending the charm of pixel art and the mechanics of an action RPG, with the atmosphere of film noir, you have not seen and played anything like Pecaminosa – A Deadly Hand. Interrogate suspects, explore a city dominated by crime and sin, and never hesitate to use your fists and guns. These are hard times in a very tough city.
In this deck-building roguelike, you’ll use a customizable dice set as you battle through randomly generated trails – full of loot, mysteries, and danger to protect inhabitants from the evil that has corrupted the trail. As a member of the Sturgeon Lodge: a secret society tasked with defeating a malevolent presence that has corrupted Tamarak Trail, it is your job to bring peace to all inhabitants.
Do you want your very own zombie companion? A faithful friend that protects you from its peers and accompanies you on all your adventures? At ParadiZe, we make it happen! Here, the zombies do all the dirty work. In this action-RPG with co-op capability, ingenious survivors are testing a technology that can be used to control the zombies that have overrun the world. Once hacked, they become invaluable allies, even though they are not that smart and sometimes rather unstable. It’s not all rosy in ParadiZe, but if you’re reasonably clever and handy, maybe you’ll manage to survive…
Join Ria Carbon along with the former PopSlinger heroine Gin in a whimsical adventure to save their planet from the otherworldly forces using their magical soda-powered guns, while grooving to a funky and dynamic original soundtrack that reacts to your performance.
A minimalist puzzle and strategy experience about combining buildings to build villages on beautiful, procedurally generated islands. Combine buildings to create your villages and cities on endless islands scattered around the world and enjoy relaxing atmosphere – no resource management or armies, just focus on building.
A tactical strategy RPG set in a fantasy world. In the vast unexplored land of Argenia, where hundreds of nations are crowded together, a new era is about to begin, leaving behind the medieval era and entering the era of magical civilization. In turn-based battles, you can choose your own strategy, whether you dash alone like lightning, or advance steadily like the earth. Immersive and enjoyable pixel animations take place to enhance the battle experience.
Become Captain Velvet Meteor and help Damien conquer his fears in a tactical adventure enjoyable for players of all ages and skill levels. Damien’s life is flipped upside-down when his family moves him to Japan. A shy boy, he copes with his newfound loneliness with the power of his infinite imagination and creates an imaginary hero named “Captain Velvet Meteor”.
Dynacat’s home has been invaded by an army of robots who are draining energy from the land and storing it in the form of magic crystals. Follow Dynacat on an adventure to fight back against the robots and protect the land from withering. A fast-paced 3D platforming game with an isometric perspective – speed through stages by using platforms, springs and other stage elements to overcome obstacles. If you’re going fast enough you can even run on walls!
A classic 2D adventure game with detailed 3D visuals. Explore an interconnected world filled with brutal lifeforms and malfunctioning machines. Find your way through abandoned facilities and perilous environments, on the surface and in the depths of this remote alien planet. Choose your own path and explore a complex open world, discovering it in your own way.
In this family-friendly platformer sequel, rampage through the fluffy feltwork arts-and-crafts recreation of the world of Ufouria, with your trusty crew from the original game in this exploration-based action side-scroller. Of course, newcomers to Ufouria are welcome too!
Militant. Armed. Domestic. Cows! An exciting, retro, action-platform game. Mow down aliens. Buy better guns. Rescue cows, dogs, raccoons, and more. For centuries, the aliens mutilated cattle with little to no consequence. Finally, the cows had enough. They organized. They trained. Now they are ready… for their revenge!
A dungeon crawler roguelite in a fantasy setting. As a nameless adventure seeker, you venture into an ancient dungeon full of secrets, traps, and hostile creatures. You wake up in the ruins of an ancient fortress, held captive by giant sentient snails. Use a wide arsenal of magic staves, melee weapons, and forbidden artifacts to fight your way through the crowds of enemies and make it out alive!
Embark on a thrilling journey as a Frontier Pilot in this immersive sci-fi cargo sim, where dynamic missions, seamless trading, and a vast alien world await your exploration. Take command of customizable and upgradeable VTOL craft, navigate challenging weather conditions, and push your piloting skills to the limits.
Prepare for an adrenaline-fueled journey like no other! This captivating platformer boasts 63 levels of intense gameplay, filled with treacherous traps. Colorful Boi will push your skills to the limit and deliver an unforgettable gaming experience. Are you ready to conquer all the challenges and become the ultimate platforming champion?
Cardy, Matt, and Dale have all finished Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and had a bloody good time playing it, too. Find out why, as well as why Dune: Part Two is a fantastic sequel and film you should see ON THE BIGGEST SCREEN POSSIBLE. Plus, there’s also time to try and explain how the new poker-based roguelike Balatro is taking over lives.
What’s the scariest kids TV show? What’s the best KitKat? Get in touch at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
: Dark Forces Remaster
