For goodness’ saken.
Greetings, and welcome to another edition of Box Art Brawl!
Last time, we checked out the original Harvest Moon for the SNES, and would you believe it, it was actually the more realistic European design that won the day with 46% of the vote. North America was the runner-up with 34%, while Japan only managed 20%.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Not long to go now.
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake launches for the Switch and Switch 2 next month, and to build some excitement, Square Enix has now released an extensive gameplay overview trailer.
Over seven minutes, you can get a better look at the game’s exploration, combat, party lineup and more in the “stunning new versions” of these classics. It follows on from the development team announcing the game had gone gold last week.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
“What fun memories do they bring back?”.
Earlier this week, Ubisoft began its 30th anniversary celebrations for its famous video game mascot Rayman.
Apart from the news he’ll be returning at some point in the future (with work on a new project now underway), Ubisoft is planning to reflect on the character’s career with behind-the-scenes information, anecdotes, developer interviews, concept art and “more”.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Here’s the latest batch.
The Switch 2 allows you to play your existing Switch library, but not every Switch game works perfectly out of the box.
Fortunately, Nintendo has been rolling out regular firmware updates to help improve this, and following yesterday’s major system update (bumping the Switch 2 up to Version 20.4.0), a handful of games are now running as intended.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
It looks like Bethesda has begun teasing new content for Starfield, after fans spotted a hidden message in a social media video released to celebrate the game’s two-year anniversary.
The video, below, starts off innocently enough, but soon the tone of the music shifts and the image becomes garbled. Clearly, there’s a tease in there somewhere!
Celebrating two incredible years in the #Starfield. 🌌
Thank you to everyone who has explored the Settled Systems with us. We look forward to the adventures yet to come. pic.twitter.com/AeWN8DVlO2
— Starfield (@StarfieldGame) September 5, 2025
And indeed there is. It didn’t take long for Starfield fans to arrange the frames in such a way to form the words ‘Terran Armada,’ which has sent the game’s community down a rabbit hole of speculation.
Warning! Spoilers for Starfield follow:
The most obvious suggestion is Terran Armada is the name of Starfield’s long-awaited second expansion. If so, it suggests a DLC that revolves around Earth, people who left Earth, or people who still are on Earth. Some are speculating that Terran Armada, if this does in fact relate to DLC, will be about the return ships that left Earth at some point in the past, perhaps a fleet of generation ships. Another popular theory is that the Terrans are the name of a new enemy faction of survivors left on Earth after its destruction, which could evoke Mad Max vibes.
In Starfield, Earth became a barren, uninhabitable wasteland after its magnetosphere collapsed in 2203, leading to the dissipation of its atmosphere and the evacuation of humanity. The collapse was a direct consequence of the invention and widespread use of the Grav Drive, a technology enabling faster-than-light travel. The planet is now exposed to dangerous solar and cosmic radiation and is covered in toxic vents and impact craters, with no signs of life.
Or perhaps Terran Armada isn’t DLC 2 after all, and instead is a stop-gap update designed to tide fans over until the promised second expansion finally materializes.
Whatever this is, clearly Starfield fans who have stuck with the game since its launch in 2023 are chomping at the bit. Apart from vague words of reassurance, Bethesda has remained tight-lipped on the future of Starfield, only recently teasing improvements to space travel.
“We’ve waited 11 months for a three-second screen that changed colors and revealed a few letters of a broken up word (and we’re probably gonna have to wait another 4-6 months for anything more),” said redditor Elkupalos. “We’re beyond starved at this point haha. Next trailer or update of actual substance is gonna hit us fans like a nuke.”
Last month, Bethesda confirmed improvements to Starfield space gameplay “to make the travels there more rewarding” after datamined fragments of code suggested the developer had a more streamlined space travel experience in the works. Based on this datamine, while you may be able to travel between planets within the same system, you won’t be able to fly all the way between systems, nor fly directly from a planet’s surface into orbit, like No Man’s Sky.
In a new video discussing his career, veteran Bethesda developer Tim Lamb confirmed that the studio had been working on Starfield’s space gameplay, and that a new DLC story was still coming at some point.
“I think as it comes to Starfield, I’m really excited for players to see what the teams have been working on,” he said. “We have some cool stuff coming, including free updates and features the players have been asking for, as well as a new DLC story.
“I can’t go into all the details just yet, but I will say part of the team has been focused on space gameplay to make the travels there more rewarding. We’re also adding some new game systems, and a few other smaller delights. There’s also some really interesting stuff coming down the pipe from our verified creators. There’s some fun stuff.
“I just want to say thanks. We really appreciate the support and the enthusiasm. We can’t wait to get it into the hands of our players.”
Last month it was reported that Starfield’s second expansion and much-anticipated PlayStation 5 port would now arrive in 2026, following the poor reception to 2024 add-on Shattered Space. Bethesda boss Todd Howard had previously talked of expansions arriving annually.
Starfield launched in September 2023 as Bethesda’s first brand new IP in 25 years, but it was not as well received as the studio’s previous games in the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises, and the Shattered Space expansion, released a year later in September 2024, has a ‘mostly negative’ user review rating on Steam.
Starfield went on to reach 15 million players, but the question of whether Bethesda might walk away from the game to focus on its other franchises has been a running theme since release. In June 2024, Bethesda insisted it remained committed to supporting Starfield, and confirmed at least one other story expansion would come out following Shattered Space. And in an interview with YouTube channel MrMattyPlays, Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard said the developer was aiming to release an annual story expansion for “hopefully a very long time.”
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.
Fallout studio Bethesda Softworks has been through a lot in the last few decades, and former marketing boss Pete Hines was there to see it through almost all of its changes.
Hines touched on how Bethesda became a gaming giant during a recent interview with DBLTAP. In addition to providing his perspective on the company’s early days, he took the time to recount how some of its biggest victories and hardest falls helped shape it into what it is today.
Hines started with Bethesda in October 1999, seeing it through everything from the launch of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind in 2002, to Skyrim in 2011, to Fallout 76 in 2018. He also remained as a key figure at the gaming publisher throughout Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media, which was completed in 2021, before going on to announce his retirement in 2023.
Hines brought his time at Bethesda to an end after 24 years. However, it seems it was the quieter moments working with ZeniMax founder and CEO Robert Altman, who passed away in 2021, that he remembers most fondly.
“It was Robert Altman’s company, and we were his employees, no question,” Hines said. “But he treated us more like family, and we found a culture that really fit us. When it was working, it was magical. We were a small, private company. It’s way easier to stay out of scrutiny when you’re not having to put your earnings reports out for the whole world.”
Bethesda, which now serves under the titan that is Microsoft, encompasses a variety of different game studios. This includes its development arm, Bethesda Game Studios, Doom developer id Software, Deathloop developer Arkane Studios, Wolfenstein studio MachineGames, and The Elder Scrolls Online studio ZeniMax Online.
Gamers have turned to the company for everything from giant, trend-setting RPGs to laser-focused first-person shooters, but in 2024, the Bethesda umbrella shrunk. Just three years after Microsoft completed its acquisition, the Xbox company announced it would be shutting down Redfall developer Arkane Austin and Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks (Tango was later acquired by Krafton).
Bethesda has gone through major shifts both before and after the Microsoft acquisition. For better or worse, Hines says there’s no denying the company he started at in 1999 has changed.
“There’s just no question that the company is not the same,” he added. “It has been radically changed and altered from the company that we built. It is what it is. Things change. Things move on, but at its height, it was really a special thing to be a part of.”
Elsewhere in the interview with Hines, the former Bethesda executive touched on how he fought to change the name of Arkane’s Prey, as well as his thoughts on gaming subscription services like Game Pass. He also remembered the controversy surrounding Fallout 76 and how it led to “probably the dumbest thing” he ever did at Bethesda.
For more, you can read about how Bethesda became the first Microsoft game studio to fully unionize. You can also check out why one Bethesda veteran believes games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls will always have load screens.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
Twin peeks.
BOKURA: planet is a two-player, two-device-only co-op game that launched on Switch and Switch 2 on 7th August.
A follow-up to 2023’s BOKURA, indie developer tokoronyori says of the first game that he “kept wondering what scenery I might have seen if I’d gone in the complete opposite direction…In the end, I couldn’t hold back. I ran the other way, which is how BOKURA: planet was born, and the view here is incredible.”
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 publisher Paradox is now offering PlayStation Store pre-order refunds as it makes “big changes” after a backlash to its decision to lock clans behind DLC.
The furore began with the confirmation that Bloodlines 2 would feature four clans: Brujah; Tremere; Banu Haqim; and Ventrue. While this selection provides four different starting options for how you build your protagonist, it’s a more limited offering compared to the cult classic original Bloodlines, which featured seven clans.
Developer The Chinese Room added a further two clans to Bloodlines 2 (Lasombra and Toreador), but these were only available as part of the Shadows and Silk add-on pack, which costs $21.99 as DLC, or included as part of the $89.99 Premium Edition. The standard edition costs $59.99.
This DLC is available from day one, which has created the impression that the “full” roster has been carved up, with only those paying extra getting the complete launch experience. As you’d expect, fans were quick to express their dissatisfaction.
At gamescom 2025, a representative for publisher Paradox told IGN the decision was a “business” informed choice, prompting further outcry. Then, last month, a post on Discord from Paradox suggested a significant change would be coming ahead of launch, and now the publisher has gone one step further by issuing PlayStation Store pre-order refunds.
“Hi,” a post on social media on the official Bloodlines 2 account began. “We’re making adjustments and will share the details on Sept 17. Big changes take time, and we want to do this right.
“PS Store pre-orders will be refunded on Sept 8. You’ll be able to pre-order again before launch on Oct 21.
“Thanks for your patience; we’ll share more soon!”
Fans are now wondering whether Paradox will include Lasombra and Toreador by default and not as DLC at base game price. Certainly, the sentiment online is that’s the expectation.
“Honestly nothing short of fully including them at base game price will turn me around on this,” said one social media user in response to the announcement. “Otherwise I’m skipping.”
“The only way to salvage this and regain trust with the community is to sell the base game as-is with all clans available and rather sell DLC with new side stories and cosmetics on the side or just add the cosmetics/side stories as part of a higher tier eg deluxe edition/premium edition, as that won’t mess with the main story/narrative etc,” said another.
Some expressed thanks for the reaction to the backlash. “I’m very excited and hopeful to see what you came up with for the two clans locked behind DLC issue,” said one fan. “I’d like to thank you for listening to community feedback and working to fix the issue. I’m sure refunding store pre-orders was not an easy decision.”
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has suffered a difficult development and a number of high-profile delays, but it is a crucial release for Paradox. The publisher will be keen to give it the best chance possible to succeed, and backtracking on its DLC plans may be the only viable option at this stage. While you wait to find out, check out IGN’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 hands-on preview.
Be sure to stay up-to-date with all the latest from IGN by clicking here and setting IGN as a preferred source in Google.
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.
Exit 8, a live-action horror movie adaptation of the anomaly-spotting indie game of the same name, opened at movie theaters in Japan on August 29. Despite enjoying a profitable opening weekend, the Japanese film has attracted some controversy in its home country over a scene that depicts a tsunami, as well as the production company’s delay in issuing an official warning about this potentially upsetting content.
Originally released on Steam in November 2023, The Exit 8 is a first-person puzzle game set in looping passageways of a Japanese subway station. Starting by the sign for Exit 0, players must reach the titular Exit 8 by looking out for anomalies – if they see something strange they must turn back. If everything seems normal, they must keep walking straight ahead. Make the correct choice, and the number on the exit sign goes up by one. Make the wrong choice, and you go all the way back to zero. With its creepy atmosphere and occasional jump-scares, the game quickly shot up in sales and gained widespread popularity with streamers. It has since been ported to multiple platforms and even has a VR version.
The movie Exit 8 uses the iconic elements of the game to present a psychological horror. Kazunari Ninomiya plays the main character, an asthmatic unnamed man stuck in the daily grind of commuting to work on the subway who is struggling to come to terms with becoming a father. Like in the game, Ninomiya’s character gets trapped in the looping subway passages and must successfully spot anomalies to reach Exit 8. The movie also touches on themes like bystander apathy, dissociation from reality, and how smartphones can make us lose track of our surroundings.
The film has an uneasy atmosphere and is almost exclusively set within the claustrophobic bounds of the subway station. The subway passages evoke the game, right down to the wandering salaryman NPC, posters, and the overly shiny white, tiled walls. Some of the anomalies are similar to those in the game, while others are unique to the movie (one of which will likely be appreciated by Parasite Eve fans).
On September 1, the movie’s official X account posted a content warning to potential viewers about “certain scenes that may evoke traumatic memories of natural disasters, like tsunamis.” This post led to an outpouring of varied responses. Although some users thanked the production company for the heads-up, others criticized the timing of the warning, which came three days after the film hit theaters. “Shouldn’t this have been issued on opening day?” and “I wouldn’t have gone to see it had I known,” are among the critical user comments reported on by Japanese news outlets like Yahoo! Japan/J-CAST.
Meanwhile, some commenters who hadn’t seen the film yet mused about whether the depiction could really be traumatic enough to warrant such a warning, considering the “mild” rising water that appears in the game, plus the film’s G rating (suitable for all) from Japanese film classification board Eirin.
The Exit 8 game does feature an anomaly where a red tide of blood follows the player (in a possible homage to The Shining). However, on X, movie viewers rushed to assure people that the film’s scene is very different and much more realistic. “I think people who are familiar with the The Exit 8 game are more likely to let their guard down,” said one user, adding that the movie’s scenes are “about 500 times more ‘real-life tsunami’ than the game’s.” Others urged those with experience of disasters like the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami (which killed almost 20,000 people) to refrain from seeing the film. With the movie getting a “suitable for all” rating, some users wondered if Eirin had done its job properly.
Having seen the Exit 8 movie, I can confirm that the tsunami scene is more realistic and prolonged than the game’s. The torrent of water that floods the subway corridors is not blood-red but brown with mud, and quickly submerges a young boy. There are first-person shots from the viewpoint of the main character, conveying his panic as he struggles to get to the surface of the strong waters. There is also an intense scene in which the main character tries to save the boy by getting him on top of the ceiling’s exit sign, followed by a prolonged shot of the boy curled up fetus-like and surrounded by debris.
The Exit 8 movie has been heavily advertised in its home country, and had the highest-grossing opening weekend for a live action-movie in Japan so far this year (source: Anime News Network). The main actor Kazunari Ninomiya has a strong fan following dating back to when he was a member of the hit boyband Arashi. These factors mean that a larger audience, including those unfamiliar with The Exit 8’s source material, are likely to check out the movie, and has amplified the criticism surrounding the tsunami scene.
Exit 8 is currently showing at movie theaters in Japan. It has already been screened at some international film festivals including Cannes, with further, staggered releases planned in various countries. Neon acquired North American rights to Exit 8 in August, and plans a theatrical release in early 2026.
Be sure to stay up-to-date with all the latest from IGN by clicking here and setting IGN as a preferred source in Google.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
League of Legends strategy game Teamfight Tactics is getting a temporary single-player PvE mode called Ao Shin’s Ascent later in September, Riot Games has announced.
Teamfight Tactics is the 2019 spinoff of Riot’s enormously popular MOBA League of Legends based on Dota Auto Chess. Eight players build teams and fight to be the last person standing, with their units automatically battling after being placed strategically on the game board between rounds. Riot describes TFT as “the world’s largest PC strategy game.”
TFT is traditionally a PvP game, but Ao Shin’s Ascent, due out September 24, is its first-ever progression-focused PvE mode. Players take on escalating PvE battles and bosses, with roguelite progression that grants permanent power in the mode’s Journey Track.
Ao Shin
Here’s the official info, from developer Riot Games:
SUMMIT THE MOUNTAIN: Climb the mountain while strengthening your board, arming yourself with powerful Augments, and preparing for an ultra-powerful Boss.
CRAFT YOUR PATH AND CHALLENGE: Select your difficulty, your Guide, the Boss you’ll fight, and more to make every run feel and play differently!
KEY MECHANIC; GUIDES: The odds aren’t stacked in your favor at the start — recruiting a selection of unlockable Guides can help turn the tides by giving you access to novel strategies and power! Take Zoe for random loot, or grab a bundle-exclusive Guide like Battle Queen Gwen to access powerful Items from various TFT sets!
PROGRESS TO THE SUMMIT WIN OR LOSE: Make progress on your climb win or lose, via the Journey Track. The more runs you take on, the stronger you get!
UNLOCK GUIDES AND POWER WITH THE FREE JOURNEY TRACK: Unlock Guides, and power through the Journey Track. Clear the summit with at least 12 Guides to claim a free Ao Shin’s Ascent Portal reward.
PURCHASE BUNDLES: The Ao Shin’s Ascent Guide Pack (575 RP) comes with an emote and both Bundle-exclusive Guides: Truth Dragon Yasuo and Battle Queen Gwen. And the Ao Shin’s Ascent Mega Bundle (2780 RP) comes with that Emote, both Guides, Legendary Little Legend: Awakened Ao Shin, the Little Legend Sol Harbinger Ao Shin, and the second K.O. Coliseum Pass Plus!
Christina Jiang, Events Product Lead for Teamfight Tactics, said: “Ao Shin’s Ascent represents everything we love about TFT — experimentation, strategy, and a dash of chaos — while introducing a roguelite twist that challenges players to adapt and persevere. This progression-based mode is our most ambitious PvE experiment yet, building on the strong global player engagement we’ve seen with Set 15, K.O. Coliseum. It marks a major step toward giving TFT players more ways to play, more ways to test themselves, and more reasons to return for the next climb.”
And here’s a comment from Michael “Skip” Scipione, Senior Game Designer for Teamfight Tactics: “With Ao Shin’s Ascent, we wanted to push TFT forward with bold new mechanics that expand on its core gameplay. Bosses evolve with shifting modifiers, and the new progression system means each run builds toward the next, letting players experiment with different approaches against an ever-changing challenge. It’s a way to expand TFT’s core mechanics while giving players new stories to create with every climb.”
Teamfight Tactics: Ao Shin’s Ascent launches on September 24 at 10am Pacific Time, shortly after the release of patch 15.5. The mode will be available until the end of patch 15.6 on October 8.
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.
