I had totally forgotten that Resident Evil Village was in development alongside a new Resident Evil multiplayer game, which (at the risk of yet again inflating my own importance) is perhaps why Capcom have just shut the latter down. As promised earlier this year, Resident Evil RE:Verse is no more. Capcom have burned down the game’s storefront listing, taken a shovel to its DLC pages, and now put a pitchfork through the servers. Run tell the peasantfolk that the beast is finally dead.
Deluxe indeed!
When Japanese physical publisher Superdeluxe Games announced it was giving Castlevania Anniversary Collection the physical release treatment earlier this year, I immediately sat up and took notice.
Having already seen how excellent the company’s other physical editions can be, I couldn’t wait to see what Superdeluxe had in store for this one, as Castlevania is without a doubt my favourite game series.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The Jackbox Party Pack 11 is dropping on Xbox this fall, and we can’t wait for everyone to get to see what we’ve been working on! We have five, all-new games in this pack including a joke-writing game, a cozy drawing game, a sound effects game, a social deduction game, and a trivia role playing game, called Legends of Trivia!
Legends of Trivia is Jackbox’s newest trivia game, with a fantasy twist! In this new title coming to Party Pack 11, work cooperatively with your team to defeat monsters and villains by answering trivia questions correctly while trying to avoid the baddies hitting back!
We recently spoke to a few of the developers from the Legends of Trivia team, including Game Director, Warren Arnold, Lead Artist, Hector Padilla, and Audio Lead, Nate Sandberg.
Warren Arnold : Players are given a trivia question which, when answered correctly, does damage to a monster. However, incorrect answers allow the monster to attack the players. Players work as a team to face increasingly difficult monsters and rack up as many points as they can in order to be considered “Legendary.”
Legends of Trivia is definitely one of the bigger games we’ve made, due to the fact that there’s a lot of action, animation, and balancing that are necessary to make this game come to life.
Hector Padilla: I actually pitched the first iteration of the game about five or six years ago! It was my first prototype. I was really happy with how it turned out, and it made it pretty far in the pitching process. People seemed to like it! Ultimately, we decided to put the idea on ice because there were still a lot of unanswered questions about the design.
Then recently, Nate (Sandberg, Jackbox Audio Lead) randomly asked me to send him all of the notes and designs I had accumulated during that pitch process and he made a small pitch team that successfully got the green light to make the trivia-RPG game that we’re working on now! A lot of years in the making!
Nate Sandberg: The 8 bit music in the Final Fantasy franchise, written by Nobuo Uematsu, imprinted on me hard. The arpeggiated analog synths, ear worm melodies, and driving bass lines in that soundtrack define fantasy and RPG music for me. I tried to bring some of that sound to Legends of Trivia. I mixed analog sounds with more traditional fantasy genre instruments like lute, bodhran, Irish whistle, cello, and trombone (the main instrument I actually play).
I had a clear idea of how the music should sound in this game, but it was a lot more serious and, at times, intense, than a lot of other Jackbox games. So one challenge has been trying to offset that intensity by bringing humor into the sound design for the game. I’ve ended up using some classic cartoon sound effects for monsters and characters to make things more funny and Jackboxy. And I threw in some jaw harp and contrabassoon for fun.
Hector: Yeah, I was a Final Fantasy fan like Nate, too. More than anything, I am a student (or a graduate?) from the school of Ken Sugimori, who was the primary visual designer of the Pokémon franchise since its beginning. His art was always a huge influence of mine. Character design is something that comes more naturally to me, but UI and layouts are always a struggle.
Hector: I grew to love Azura, The Princess Mage a lot because I worked on a lot of her animations. I really had to get in touch with the magical girl inside my heart. Also, Bingo, The Rogue Jester! People need to stop being afraid of clowns!
Nate: I think my favorite audio moment is the sound design for the ogre boss monster. Hector created this massive ogre riding a tiny donkey. I had so much fun creating sounds for those animations. I used cartoon inspired xylophones and squeaky toys for the donkey, which makes for a hilarious contrast with the big, bassy ogre sounds.
What do you hope to inspire players to experience or feel based on the game’s art and audio?
Hector: I hope that players really feel immersed in the game. I want them to feel like the choices that they make matter, where the moves they make really hit or the avatar they choose really fits the character they want to roleplay for 20 minutes.
Nate: I hope the music and sound design inspires a sense of story and nostalgia. And I hope some of the melodies stick with players like those classic RPG melodies did with me. Legends of Trivia, along with five other all-new games, are coming to The Jackbox Party Pack 11 this fall on Xbox! Follow Jackbox Games on Instagram and TikTok to keep up with our games as they get announced.
The post Learn More About Legends of Trivia, Coming to Xbox in The Jackbox Party Pack 11 appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Takaya Imamura — a video game designer and manga artist perhaps best known for his work on F-Zero, Star Fox, and The Legend of Zelda — has said that despite his lofty credits, there were “so many amazing people” in Nintendo, he felt “inferior” enough that it was a relief to eventually leave the company.
“There were so many incredible people at Nintendo,” Imamura wrote on X, as spotted and translated by Automaton, “and I remember constantly wondering how I could demonstrate my own worth in such an environment,” adding there was always “a sense of inferiority lingering somewhere.”
“When I left the company, it’s true that I felt a sense of freedom, as if I had been released from the inferiority complex I’d carried for years,” Imamura added. “But at the same time, there was also a loneliness in thinking, ‘I won’t be able to work with these people anymore…’ That said, with only a few years left until retirement anyway, and since game development often takes many years, I felt a stronger desire to move forward at my own pace, doing more freely creative things.”
While reading that may come as a surprise, it seems that sentiment is shared by many former Nintendo employees. One former Nintendo designer, Shinji Watanabe, who now heads up Epsilon Software, followed up to liken his former colleagues to “celestial beings,” whilst Ken Watanabe, who worked at Nintendo for 10 years before branching out an an indie creator, concurred, said: “There really is nothing but amazing people [at Nintendo]. Trying to find a way to stand out among them was both draining and fulfilling.”
On the subject of Nintendo… did you know Super Mario Strikers — or Mario Smash Football, as it’s known in Europe — is joining Nintendo Switch 2‘s Nintendo Switch Online GameCube library next week? It’s the first game to have been added to the library since Switch 2 launched earlier this month. And don’t forget, an extremely cool replica GameCube controller is also available for maximum nostalgia…
Nintendo Switch 2 is off to a strong start, with 3.5 million consoles sold, but an analysis on the console’s launch week sales paints a mixed picture of how well games not made by Nintendo are now selling.
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.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the most exciting the series has felt in years, and it’s now down to just $49.99 on Amazon for PS5 and Xbox.
It’s the first big discount the game has had since its release earlier this year, and comes courtesy of Amazon’s early Prime Day sales.
Dropping from $70, that’s a sizable $20 off the list price, and an increasingly more appealing price point for anyone previously unsure of Ubisoft’s latest open-world RPG.
I will defend this game till my dying breath. I’ve spent so much time just chilling and exploring the open-world landscape, and it’s honestly become a comfort game since I cracked it open.
If you’re after something meaty, with a seriously satisfying gameplay loop and some proper stealth challenge, especially with the new Nightmare difficulties, Assassin’s Creed Shadows absolutely delivers.
There are still some rough edges, but none of it takes away from how immersive and enjoyable it is overall. It’s a beautiful, ambitious Assassin’s Creed game that doesn’t try to please everyone, and I respect it more because of that.
IGN’s Jarrett Green review gave it an 8 out of 10, calling Yasuke and Naoe “the strongest Assassin duo in years,” and they’re right. The way Shadows handles combat, story, and seasonal changes across its open world makes it feel more alive than most open-world games manage.
At $50, it’s an easy recommendation. And honestly, I’d defend this one even if it weren’t on sale. The fact that it’s cheaper just makes it easier for others to see what I already know: this game is worth your time.
In other AC news, Ubisoft’s next big patch for Assassin’s Creed Shadows recently rolled out on June 25, 2025, and even included the game’s next story pack, which introduces a new Ally character for Naoe and Yasuke played by Critical Role’s Robbie Daymond.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Senior Commerce Editor, for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter/X or Bluesky.
Capcom have a tough fight on their hands at the moment. No, Arkveld hasn’t escaped from its lair to terrorise the non-OP masses. Monster Hunter Wilds has been suffering from some pretty nasty performance issues on PC.
While they don’t look to have the action game running as well as some kind of crash and stuffer-free Usain Bolt quite yet, the release of Wilds’ second title update has seen the studio try to curb some shader compilation and VRAM-related problems.
The Alters is a sci-fi management game in which you remix your character’s life history in a “Quantum Computer” to generate a workforce of deeply disturbed, borderline non-functional clones. In a twist so on-the-nose I can feel its fingers plucking at my olfactory bulb, developers 11 Bit Studios may have used generative AI to spawn or auto-translate parts of the in-game lore – despite the absence of a generative AI disclosure on Steam.
Glitch in the Matrix.
Until Then is a visual novel that tells the story of Mark Borja, a high school student who grapples with the usual day-to-day of teenage life while trying to figure out why he’s experiencing weird cases of déjà vu. It’s a slow burn; one that relishes in the quieter, mundane aspects of life that many TV shows and movies would rather you believe didn’t exist.
With beautiful pixel art visuals at its heart, Until Then feels a lot more ‘alive’ than a lot of visual novels, with dialogue and actions taking place entirely within the scene; so in other words, no ‘talking head’ sequences where static characters are nattering to one another from across the screen.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Surprise! A new My Hero Academia game is on the way.
We learned the news during Bandai Namco’s brief teaser for its upcoming Summer Showcase, and while details were light — at least for now — we can expect more when the showcase goes live on July 2 at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 9pm CEST / 4am JST.
My Hero Academia debuted in April 2016 and became an instant hit, telling the story of Izuku Midoriya as he navigates a school for superheroes after only just inheriting the world’s most powerful abilities. Alongside the eight seasons of anime, four films and myriad games have been released, too. The eighth and final series is set to air this coming October.
In the same 30-second teaser, Bandai Namco also revealed we’re set to get a new trailer for Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree and a gameplay deep dive of Digimon Story: Time Stranger.
That’s not all. Also slated to appear are Code Vein 2, The Blood of Dawnwalker, Death Note Killer Within, Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots, Little Nightmares 3, Patapon 1+2 Replay, Shadow Labyrinth, Super Robot Wars Y, and Tekken 8.
We had a good look at The Blood of Dawnwalker quite recently, of course. Rebel Wolves — the studio led by former The Witcher 3 game director and co-director for Cyberpunk 2077, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz — confirmed its upcoming dark fantasy action-RPG will release in 2026 when it shared new gameplay footage earlier this month.
Bandai Namco went big on little things last week, too, confirming Little Nightmares 3 will release on October 10. And if that seems very far away, anyone who pre-orders a digital version of Little Nightmares 3 between now and launch day will get to revisit the game that started it all with Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition as an early access title.
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.
Dune: Awakening griefers are at it again, concocting ever-new and exciting ways to make other players’ lives miserable. And once again, the griefing concerns Ornithopters.
Last week, Funcom launched Dune: Awakening’s Public Test Client and then extended the PvE zone of the Deep Desert from about 10% of the map to 50%. It followed an AMA in which the studio told players frustrated by the endgame experience that it was “formulating a plan” to improve PvP in the Deep Desert. Previously, players branded the endgame as “toxic” due to griefing even after the ability for players to squish each other with their Ornithopter was supposedly patched out.
But despite Funcom’s mitigations, unscrupulous players have discovered another way to grief players by landing their Ornis on top of unsuspecting players — this time to prevent them from farming.
“All the griefers are now coming into Hagga to farm spice. They’re doing the same thumper and land on thopter technique they perfected in [Deep Desert]. But now they’re using it to farm all the minor nodes in Hagga,” wrote one aggrieved fan over the weekend.
“This game has some massive issues ahead. Griefers are in an all-out war against everyone else on their server, and yet there’s zero way for solos to band together to stop it. And as a Dune fan, I don’t think planting a thumper and then having four thopters land on you is part of the mythology.”
u/RandoFinder then edited their post to add: “I kept my Thopter at 730 km for 30 minutes until a spice blow, and as soon as I moved, four thopters were chasing me. JFC, y’all are pathetic. This was in Hagga. I had players tonight telling each other to doxx me when I stood up to them in Hagga chat. I’ve been in WoW general and other horrible chats, but Dune general is the most toxic chat that I’ve ever seen.”
“I think it goes without saying that PVP is PVP, and killing other players in a PVP zone is totally legitimate and expected,” responded another player. “Entrapping someone by abusing game mechanics intended to prevent grief of a similar kind, ala pinning people with ornithopters that otherwise can’t be destroyed or escaped in a PVE zone, is griefing. Griefing should be explicitly and implicitly disallowed. If you’re in a PVE zone, you should not have to worry about players killing you through an abuse of mechanics.”
At the time of writing, there has been no public response from Funcom about the issue.
Dune: Awakening has enjoyed a superb launch, with a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam. Within hours of going live on June 10, Funcom’s survival MMO had clocked up over 142,000 concurrent players on Valve’s platform, and hit a new high earlier this month of 189,333 players. And it’s already clocked up over 1 million players, too, making it Funcom’s fastest-selling game ever, and securing a Great 8/10 in our review.
If all that’s got you interested but you’re not sure where to start, make sure to check out all the Dune: Awakening classes you can choose from, and keep an eye on our Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step guide to the story. We’ve also got Dune: Awakening resource guides that’ll help you find iron, steel, aluminium, and a Dune: Awakening Trainers locations guide to help you survive on Arrakis.
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.
