Right, it’s that time again. Get ready to slide back down the ladder of powerfulness, because mandatory wipeage is required to stick everyone back on the same trajectory ahead of [insert new thing here]. No, say the developers of shooterArc Raiders. They will not bow before the mandatory wipe gods at this time, instead trying out a voluntary wipe system dubbed Projects.
Yep, rather than leaning on the same unavoidable resets which plenty of extraction shooters and survival games employ to ensure newbies aren’t always guaranteed to run into folks with more levels someone playing a platformer in a regularly-stopping elevator to the sun, Embark Studios plan to do their own thing.
Yes, you read that headline correctly, rather than pushing the prices up to match what we’ve seen everywhere else in the industry of late, select EU retailers appear to be cutting the cost of Switch 2 consoles and bundles (thanks for the heads up, My Nintendo News).
Amazon France was the first retailer brought to our attention to be implementing such a cut, with the Mario Kart World Switch 2 bundle and pre-orders for the Pokémon Legends: Z-A option now down to €469 (a 6% drop from the previous €499,99). Standard Switch 2 purchases are currently sold out on the online storefront, but French outlet Nintendo Town reports that it has seen the same discount and is now listed at €419.
With a week to go until the official launch of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, fans have issued a warning over online spoilers, as datamined details from the game have begun to leak online — including word of even more new Mega Pokémon.
Pokémon Legends Z-A is due to launch on October 16 for Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, but already there’s evidence of early copies filtering out into the wild. And now, as of this morning, IGN has seen evidence that the game is actively being datamined to extract its secrets.
To date, The Pokémon Company has revealed just a handful of the new Mega Pokémon expected to make up the game’s final roster of fresh Mega species. And while an older leak had listed out many of the still-to-be-confirmed Mega Evolutions, there’s evidence today that even more creatures may be included than first expected.
In response to all this, Pokémon fans have now begun signalling that anyone hoping to go into Pokémon Legends: Z-A without seeing spoilers should be mindful of where they click online over the next few days — or log off social media completely. (IGN will not be spoiling any of the new species here.)
New Mega Evolutions include the majestic-looking Mega Dragonite — which has also now made its Pokémon anime debut — plus Mega Victreebell, Mega Hawlucha and Mega Malamar.
Post-launch, Pokémon Legends: Z-A will unlock Mega Evolutions for each of the three fully-evolved Starter Pokémon, available via online play: Delphox, Greninja and Chesnaught. And beyond that, you can already buy Pokémon Legends: Z-A: Mega Dimension, a paid DLC which will add two new Mega Evolutions for Raichu.
Battlefield 6 marks the first time, in all my years of hardwaring, that I have been summoned to someone’s house in order to make a PC game work. I can’t offer this Jim’ll Fix It service to everyone, not least because IGN’s lawyers have issues with the name, so I’ll just say this: Enabling Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 is inconvenient, but not as fiddly as it sounds, and can be done with at most a couple of toggles in your BIOS/UEFI’s Security section.
As it turns out, that’s probably the worst of BF6’s hardware worries. I don’t know who forgot to tell DICE that all FPS blockbusters must now be callously demanding graphics card shin-kickers, but in both the campaign and multiplayer, this seems to run quite… well? Likely well enough that as long as you’re on any reasonably modern rig, you might not need to do much twiddling with the visual settings.
EA has insisted players won’t see anything made by generative AI in Battlefield 6.
The use of generative AI is one of the hottest topics in the video game industry, with the pressure on publishers to cut costs and speed up development in order to boost profits despite the risk of backlash from some fans. Indeed, according to a report by The Financial Times, EA’s new prospective owners (the ones who just spent $55 billion to take the company private) are betting on the use of generative AI to do just that.
For now though, at least when it comes to Battlefield 6, generative AI is taking a backseat. Rebecka Coutaz, general manager of original series developer DICE in Sweden, and Criterion, the UK studio now also a part of what’s collectively called Battlefield Studios, told the BBC that while generative AI “is very seducing,” currently there is no way to work it into the developers’ daily work.
However, Coutaz clarified that generative AI is used in preparatory stages “to allow more time and more space to be creative.”
Based on Coutaz’s comments, and the current lack of an AI generated content disclosure on the Battlefield 6 Steam page, we won’t see something similar in EA’s rival first-person shooter.
“We live in a world now, where there are AI tools,” Leslie told IGN ahead of Black Ops 7’s reveal at Opening Night Live 2025. “I think our official statement we said last year, around Black Ops 6, is that everything that goes into the game is touched by the team a hundred percent. We have generative AI tools to help us, but none of that goes in-game.
“And then you’re going to say, ‘Yeah, but it has.’ I’ll say it has by accident. And that was never the intention. We’ve come out and been very clear that we use these as tools to help the team, but they do not replace any of the fantastic team members we have that are doing the final touches and building that content to put it in the game.
“So everything you play: human-created and touched. AI tools in the world we live in: it’s, how do we streamline it? That’s really the goal. Not replace, but streamline.”
It’s worth noting the Black Ops 7 Steam page does include the AI disclosure.
But will Battlefield Studios’ stance on generative AI hold for much longer, especially with EA’s new owners breathing down its neck? In the interview with the BBC, Coutaz sounded optimistic about the use of the tech going forward. “If we can break the magic with AI it will help us be more innovative and more creative,” she said.
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.
Altruism is a funny concept. Most of us can agree that bestowing a generous gift of greening shelf-stable bread-like product on the local park pigeons is a nice thing to do, but what of the knowledge that moulders in the back of our minds all the while, telling us: keep this up long enough, and you’ll definitely end up with a loyal army of skyborne scavengers willing to enact your every destructive whim at a mere flick of your wrist? Feed them the really good bread, they might even let you throw them at things. From super seeded, to superceding god. Here’s the trailer for The Bench.
Following last month’s release, Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is now getting updated to Version 1.05 on the Switch and Switch 2.
Perhaps, most notably, the Switch 2 update will add “image quality and performance settings”. Additionally, there is also a first-person perspective mode. Here’s the translation from the official Falcom website (via Gematsu):
The Switch 2 had all sorts of third-party support at launch, and one of these titles happened to be the Square Enix role-playing game Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster.
This remaster comes loaded with not only the main adventure but also brand new minigames utilising the Joy-Con 2 mouse mode. Now, Square Enix has released the Version 1.0.2 update.
The latest versions of the PS1-era Final Fantasy games are getting physical editions for Nintendo Switch on December 9. Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII Remastered are being released together in a “twin-pack” box, while Final Fantasy IX will have a box all its own. All of the games feature some modern conveniences that weren’t available in their initial release. They cost $39.99 each and are now available for preorder at various retailers.
All of these games are already available on Switch (and other platforms) in digital form. But this is the first time they’ll be available in the US in physical form.
Final Fantasy VII was a major release in 1997, and was the first time the series debuted on a non-Nintendo platform. It follows former SOLDIER Cloud Strife as he and a team of freedom fighters battle against the evil Shinra corporation. This version of the game features 3x speed mode, the ability to turn off random encounters, and “battle enhancement mode.”
Final Fantasy VIII Remastered is an enhanced version of a game that hit the PS1 in 1999. It follows Squall and the rest of the members of SeeD as they fight back against the sorceress Edea, who’s causing quite the global ruckus. This version of the game has various battle assist options, a 3x speed boost, and the ability to turn off random encounters.
At the time of its initial release in 2000, Final Fantasy IX was something of a throwback to the medieval-settings settings of the first six entries in the series. This game follows Zidane and a troupe of actors, who “kidnap” Princess Garnet, who secretly wanted to be kidnapped to get away from her deranged mother, the queen.
The visuals have been gently revamped to look better on modern displays. It has other new features as well, including auto-save and seven game boosters, including high speed and no-encounter modes.
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Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.
