Category: Video Games

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.

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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.

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.

Director Tetsuya Nomura has heard the cries for updates on Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 and Kingdom Hearts 4, and he’s happy to report that development is “progressing really smoothly.”

It’s a largely inconsequential but still welcome update for two of Square Enix’s most anticipated games that arrived during the recent Final Fantasy 7: Ever Crisis second anniversary broadcast. As reported on and translated by Gematsu, Nomura took the opportunity to address waves of comments from fans hoping to see the team make an announcement.

“Apparently, [co-director Motomu] Toriyama mentioned in an interview that something might be released around the second anniversary [of Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis],” Nomura said when addressing comments specifically related to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series. “So that’s probably where those expectations are coming from. Right, so things are progressing really smoothly. I can’t really say more — if I suddenly went, ‘Well, actually…,’ everyone would be really surprised! [Laughs.]”

Nomura goes as far as to say that the “release timing has already been decided” but stops short of clarifying when exactly Square Enix will share more. For now, he asks fans to be patient, adding that work on Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 is “moving forward according to that schedule.”

RPG fans have been on the hunt for news about the next entry in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series since its last installment, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, launched in early 2024. We know development started as early as June 2022, with Square Enix saying last year that its goal is to see it launch by 2027. Excitement for the third and final chapter in the trilogy grew even more when the team revealed that it had completed its story earlier this year.

Development for Kingdom Hearts 4, meanwhile, is progressing in a similarly positive direction, though Nomura says even less about when any further updates may arrive on this front.

“And this has also come up in the comments here and there,” Nomura added, “but Kingdom Hearts IV is likewise steadily moving forward according to schedule, so please look forward to it.”

Kingdom Hearts 4 was announced in 2022, and updates have been distressingly few and far between since. It wasn’t until May 2025, not even four months ago, that Square Enix was willing to share a substantial update, and even then, all fans had to hold onto was a handful of new screenshots and a short message from the team.

“We’ve seen how excited you are, and we are truly grateful from the bottom of our hearts,” Square Enix said at the time. “We are equally excited and can’t wait to share more about Kingdom Hearts IV when the time is right. Until then, we appreciate your patience.”

There’s no telling when exactly we can expect to hear any additional updates on Kingdom Hearts 4 or Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3. In the meantime, you can read up on everything we know about the former here. You can also learn about why the team behind the latter says it “will not cheat” when it comes to Final Fantasy 7’s iconic airship.

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).

Former Bethesda Softworks marketing boss Pete Hines has opened up about the Fallout 76 bag controversy of 2018, saying it led to “probably the dumbest thing” he ever did at the company.

Hines, who served as senior vice president of global marketing and communications at Bethesda before announcing plans to retire in 2023, touched on the infamous Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition during an interview with DBLTAP. The first true multiplayer Fallout experience came with too many issues to count at launch, but it’s the goodies promised with its collector’s edition that live with the former Bethesda executive to this day.

The company unveiled the pricey Power Armor Edition with the promise it would include a T-51B Power Armor Helmet, an exclusive steel case, collectible figures, and, of course, a canvas West Tek Duffel Bag. Players who picked up their copies upon the launch of Fallout 76 in late 2018, however, were surprised when the package included a cheap, nylon bag instead.

It led to quite the uproar from the Fallout community, which wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea that Bethesda may have pulled a fast one on the group of dedicated fans who paid $200 for the special release with only a small amount of in-game currency to show for it. It was a flub the company was quick to correct, offering fans an opportunity to request a replacement canvas bag by filling out a form by May of the following year.

Hines doesn’t remember this element of the launch of Fallout 76 fondly, recalling how his involvement in the contents of the Power Armor Edition led to one of his biggest mistakes at Bethesda.

“My first reaction was, ‘When the f**k did we add a canvas bag to this collector’s edition?’ Because the version I approved did not have one,” he said. “They were trying to add more value to the Collectors Edition. We were always fighting with the finance people about margins, right? I would throw shit fits around. ‘We cannot charge $300 for this, it’s f***ing insulting.’ But in this case, their hearts were in the right place.”

Hines continued, explaining that the decision to include a nylon bag came as a result of a canvas shortage.

“There was literally a canvas shortage, and some folks decided we’re going to do this instead. My biggest failing there was not pushing immediately for making and sending one to everybody that wants one. Because I was still annoyed that the damn thing was in there in the first place, and nobody had told me and that this canvas shortage happened. It’s probably the dumbest thing I ever did at Bethesda.”

Fallout 76 had a notoriously rough start but is generally regarded to be in much better shape these days. Bethesda has delivered an ocean of updates and post-launch content in the years since, with the CAMP Revamp update arriving just a few days ago. We gave the multiplayer Fallout game a 7/10 in our updated review last year.

For more on Bethesda’s history, you can read up on how Hines feels about gaming subscription services like Game Pass. You can also see what the former Bethesda executive had to say regarding the naming of Arkane Austin’s 2017 immersive sim, Prey.

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).

When Arkane Austin delivered its cult-classic immersive sim, Prey, for PC and consoles in 2017, not everyone at Bethesda Softworks was happy shipping the sci-fi immersive sim with that name.

After Prey 2 met an untimely demise in 2014, fans were elated to see the series return with a completely new look and feel with what was believed to be a reboot in 2016. The problem was Arkane’s Prey doesn’t actually have much to do with the series it pulled its name from.

Instead, what fans received when Prey launched in 2017 was something that was more of a System Shock spiritual successor, leading many to question why it was ever named Prey in the first place. Even director Raphael Colantonio has commented on its title in the past, saying that he wanted to use a different name but was eventually forced to stick with it.

Former Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines, who announced his retirement from the company in 2023, spoke about the name of Arkane’s now-beloved 2017 game during a recent interview with DBLTAP, saying that he was one individual at Bethesda who feared the baggage that the Prey name carried.

“Don’t even get me started on that,” Hines said when asked about Prey’s name. “I definitely pissed some people off internally over that because I fought so hard against using that name. I’m the head of the spear, but I had a lot of people across my team – brand, PR and community – and we feel like we’re burdening it with a name where we spend more time explaining why it’s called Prey than we do talking about the game.”

Hines adds that he regrets losing the battle to give the 2017 Prey a fresh start. He adds, “But nobody on this planet could have put more of a good faith effort into changing minds on that.”

“My whole point was, look how much time we spend talking about what the game is versus why it’s called this and like, that is wasted energy,” Hines continued. “That is wasted excitement. We could be turning that into something positive.”

Prey is now seen as one of the better immersive sims for more reasons than one, but it took some time for it to achieve cult-classic status. In addition to the confusion surrounding its title, game-breaking issues for PC players at launch helped tarnish its reputation out of the gate.

Bethesda eventually issued numerous fixes for those on that platform, but the damage had already been done. Tech issues almost certainly hurt Prey’s commercial performance, with Colantonio believing that its strange name also contributed to lost sales.

We gave the 2017 Prey game an 8/10 in our review. At the time, we said, “Prey’s space station is fantastically explorable and its shape-shifting enemies maintain tension when combat doesn’t.”

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).