Howdy, pardner. Been a while, ain’t it? Red Dead Online‘s just gotten a fresh update that surprisingly adds some new missions, three or so years after Rockstar gave up on delivering major updates to the cowboy sandbox. Oh, and one of them looks to involve you investigating some zombie plague outbreaks.
Sounds a bit Undead Nightmare-ish to me, and these sudden new additions have folks wondering if Rockstar’s trying to bring the game back from the grave.
Borderlands 4 includes a slider that lets you decrease the volume of — or mute entirely — your beloved (or love-to-hate) companion, Claptrap.
The robot companion has been in the Borderlands franchise since it began way back in 2009, and you can even play as him in 2014’s Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. He essentially acts as your guide and mascot, and can make you laugh/cringe in equal measure. For some, however, he can be annoying, which is likely why the developers at Gearbox have introduced a setting to let you lower the volume of his voice or simply mute him completely.
“I wrote some lines just for this feature and it includes maybe the dumbest most niche reference to a certain terrible accent in a certain classic immersive sim,” teased Borderlands 4 narrative director, Sam Winkler, in a social media post responding to streamer and 2K partner, Chadly, who revealed there’s an audio slider dedicated to Claptrap’s voice.
When a fan suggested Gearbox shouldn’t have “caved to Claptrap haters,” he added: “I pitched that you should be able to put him from 0% to 200% but I think the government said no.”
ICYMI:#Borderlands4 features an audio slider purely for Claptrap’s voice💀 pic.twitter.com/APAtqUQu1p
— Chadly (@Chadly_99) June 30, 2025
Borderlands 4 is a looter shooter packed with billions of weapons, outrageous enemies, and intense co-op action where you’ll break free from a dangerous hidden planet as one of four new Vault Hunters.
We had a good time with what we’ve played so far, writing in IGN’s Borderlands 4 preview: “After several hours dipping my toes into what is sure to be a massive looter shooter, I’m much more optimistic about Borderlands 4’s odds of recapturing my affections after years apart.”
And in case Randy Pitchford’s controversial tweets had you thinking otherwise, publisher 2K Games has confirmed Borderlands 4 will cost $70, not $80, after all. Preorders are now live.
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.
To overcome the first enemy you meet in Key Fairy (a Bugle with big eyes and bat wings), you zip around the woods with a grapple, avoiding its circling and collecting the stars it dispenses. When you collect three, it turns friendly and apologises for attacking you. “Worry not, little bird”, I reply from a set of dialogue options. “My cloak is thick.” The next screen is inhabited by three cyclopean worms chanting about the “eels of creation”. I like it here very much.
Brought to life with spacious, enchanting and playfully layered electronic music and hand-drawn art (you can change the colour palette to something cooler or monochrome if you wish), Key Fairy’s forest is a place I want to live, and I’m very grateful for even a short opportunity to spend time in it.
Discounted eShop credit, subs, and games.
Summer has arrived in the northern hemisphere, and what better way to enjoy it than sitting in the shade with a glass of something cool — possibly with a novelty straw sticking out the top — and relaxing with a Switch?
Whether you’re still rocking the OG Switch or you’ve got your hands on the new hotness with Switch 2, there’s plenty to play over the warmer months, and we’ve got a discount on Switch eShop credit which might pique your interest, too.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The next mainline Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon game is moving into internal alpha testing in the coming months.
That’s according to Insider Gaming, which claimed the shooter, codenamed ‘Over’ internally, will commence alpha testing in the Fall (Q3). With testing thought to take around 12 months, IG estimated Ghost Recon may release Fall 2026.
News of a new Ghost Recon broke around the time the developer/publisher confirmed it was ceasing all new development on 2019’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint. It has reportedly been in development at Ubisoft since then, although at the time, it was clear the series was undergoing a full reset, which would necessitate a lengthy development cycle.
In a statement to IGN, an Ubisoft representative said: “We do not comment on rumour or speculation.”
IGN’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint review returned a 6/10. We wrote: “Breakpoint offers initial fun following Ubisoft’s open-world structure as gospel, but a lack of variety and conflicting pieces leave it devoid of personality.”
The news came hot on the heels of the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which just passed the 3 million player mark. Ubisoft suffered a number of high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations in the run up to Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ release, and there was enormous pressure on it to succeed after the company’s share price hit an historic low.
In 2022, Ubisoft canceled development on Ghost Recon Frontline a year after it was announced. It was meant to be a free-to-play battle royale spin-off with 102-players, but never saw the light of day.
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.
“Mark Tyburn dreams of building the perfect video game,” reads the sales blurb for Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser’s novel A Better Paradise: Volume One: An Aftermath, a title so resplendent with drive-by colons that you could easily guess this man spent thirty years working in videogames. “Kurt Fischer dreams of being a rich and successful executive. Daisy Tyburn dreams of having the ideal father. John Tyburn Smith dreams of fitting in. NigelDave just dreams of becoming human.”
PleaseDon’tLetThatBeATypo, I immediately prayed to every god I knew the name of, and a few I made up on the spot. Please let NigelDave be real.
What’s next for Halo? It looks like fans will get a further tease this October at the Halo World Championship 2025.
In a blog post, Tahir “Tashi” Hasandjekic, Esports Lead for the Halo franchise, suggested fans attend the event October 24-26 in Seattle to find out what Halo Studios has been working on.
During the same event last October, Halo developer 343 Industries announced it had changed its name to Halo Studios and confirmed multiple projects were in the works. In the same breath, Halo Studios said all its future games would be developed on Unreal Engine, leaving behind the Slipspace Engine utilized by Halo Infinite.
The announcements were unveiled in a seven-minute video shown ahead of the Halo World Championship’s grand finals. This showcased the results of Project Foundry — an experimental project designed to show a Halo game built using the Unreal Engine — and offered a glimpse at a fresh beginning for Xbox’s flagship franchise in the wake of 2021’s Halo Infinite.
In the blog post, Tashi referenced last year’s announcements and teased more to come this October.
“Over the past few weeks, there’s been a fair amount of speculation about when and where more details might emerge about any of the multiple projects Halo Studios is actively working on,” Tashi said. “We don’t usually comment on such matters, but this time we want to enter the chat and share a little more perspective for Halo fans who might be on the fence about whether to attend this year’s event.
“Last year at HaloWC, we premiered ‘A New Dawn’ where we talked about the switch to Unreal Engine, gave you a behind the scenes look at Project Foundry, and debuted our evolution to Halo Studios as we enter a new chapter for Halo. For us, ‘A New Dawn’ was just the beginning — at this year’s HaloWC, we look forward to continuing the conversation.
“Speculation is always fun, but if you want the official scoop on what Halo Studios has been working on, you won’t want to miss this year’s Halo World Championship. We really hope you’ll join us in Seattle this October!”
So, what could Halo Studios have up its sleeve for the announcement? It seems unlikely we’ll get a full-blown gameplay reveal for the next big Halo title, but we may get a more detailed tech demo showing Halo running in Unreal Engine. Earlier this month, Microsoft was reported to be readying a Halo: Combat Evolved remaster for release in 2026. Perhaps we will get a look at that. The so-far unannounced remaster is apparently under consideration for release on rival platforms including PlayStation 5.
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.
Make sure it’s “Ultra High Speed”.
The Switch 2 has been out for almost a month now and during this time some users have been experiencing issues with their Joy-Con 2 and other Switch 2 controllers repeatedly disconnecting when using the system in docked mode.
If this has come up on your end, it might actually be due to the cables you’re using. As highlighted by IGN, Nintendo’s troubleshooting guide on its official customer support page notes how one way to potentially eliminate this problem is to simply make sure you’re using an “Ultra High Speed HDMI” cable.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The Switch title received a free update last month.
Alongside Switch 2’s launch last month, Nintendo rolled out multiple free Switch game updates. One of these was for Game Builder Garage – which not only included visual optimisations but also added Joy-Con 2 mouse support.
Now, timed in with this update and the game’s fourth anniversary, the Game Builder Garage community has held its very own “fan-made Nintendo Direct” hosted by VideoDojo on YouTube (thanks for the heads up, Giovani Vitti).
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The ‘Deluxe’ version of NSMB. U returns.
The Nintendo Music mobile app for Switch Online subscribers continues its weekly updates with more album drops and the latest one to join the service is New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe.
This soundtrack, based on the 2019 Switch version, comes loaded with 90 tracks and has a total runtime of 2 hours and 7 minutes. You’ll be able to listen to everything from the title screen through to the catchy staff credits.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
