As you might’ve heard, Hades 2 is out in early access, offering up the much-anticipated sequel to Supergiant’s mythical (and delightfully thirsty) roguelite. Though the sheer amount of polish and Stuff in even its pre-release form might have you thinking that a full 1.0 release can’t be too far down the line, the game’s creative director reckons we’ve still got around a year to wait before it’s considered all finished up.
The best kind of Ai(Ai).
The years straddling the turn of the millennium were tumultuous for Sega and its fans. The launch of the Dreamcast in 1999 following a series of hardware missteps and company infighting was exciting, but the system failed to gain sufficient traction despite its innovations and array of patented blue-sky software. News in early 2001 that Sega would quit the hardware business to develop games on other platforms rocked fans to the core, but within a matter of months the company’s debut GameCube title — adapted from the arcade original that debuted in June ’01 — would demonstrate that, despite Dreamcast’s demise, Sega’s inimitable arcade style and spirit was alive and well.
Super Monkey Ball felt like a mission statement when it arrived as a GameCube launch title. With a premise as zany as it was instantly understandable, you shift a free-floating course below the feet (well, ball) of your monkey to guide them to a goal while collecting bananas. Simple! The game was a blast of colourful arcade fun from Sega veteran Toshihiro Nagoshi and signalled to fans not to worry, everything was going to be just fine.
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The post Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II – On Location at The Vast Iceland Setting appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Last week we asked you to take in the view from your favorite games, and share memorable landscapes and environments using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
MrioMoreno5 shares a sky gondola and bridge in The Artful Escape.
bardfinnie shares Ellie gazing out at a lush mountain and forest landscape in The Last of Us Part II Remastered.
photomodeoftsu shares the flooded pavilion of Eidos 7 in Stellar Blade.
call_me_xavii shares Aloy running across a vast desert in Horizon Forbidden West.
scottoka1 shares a blue oasis town in the middle of a desert in Final Fantasy XVI.
jdmsantos07 shares a massive ship lodged between rocks in a craggy cave of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Mythical
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on May 22, 2024
Next week, we’re turning the lens on legends and myths. Share mythical characters or creatures you’ve encountered the a game of your choice using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
There are a few different points in the year that feature some great sale events, offering excellent discounts on a variety of gaming-related items. Memorial Day weekend is one of those times and usually has quite a few deals for Xbox fans to enjoy. Whether you’re looking for deals on games or controllers or storage, there’s plenty to check out at numerous different retailers.
While we don’t know what exactly will be hitting those virtual sale shelves this year, we can take a good look at previous years to see what could be making a comeback. Below, you can also find information on when Memorial Day lands this year, how long sales will last, and when the next big sale event will be that you can mark your calendar for.
Best Xbox Deals Today
While Memorial Day lands on Monday, May 27, some of the sales start up a bit earlier. Sometimes even a week before, but that depends entirely on the retailer. Places like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart will put up a notice on their respective websites stating when their sale event begins and how long it will last for, so it’s worth checking out your preferred site to see when the best time to buy is.
It’s also worth noting that some of these retailers offer early access to sale events through their respective memberships. Though that hasn’t been confirmed yet at one of their locations for this one, it’s still worth keeping in mind. Places like Walmart, for example, offer this through their Walmart+ membership and you can even score a free 30-day trial to test it out! They’re also offering some excellent bonus offers right now that you can take advantage of, like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for two months for free, a three-month trial of YouTube Premium for free, five months of Apple Music for free, and more.
Based on previous years, there are quite a few different Xbox deals that could pop up again this year. Xbox video game deals will absolutely come back around, but last year saw various expansion cards go on sale and there’s a very good chance that Xbox controllers will be discounted as well. We’ll make sure to update this piece with the best Xbox deals as they appear, but if you simply can’t wait for Memorial Day weekend and want to see what the best deals are right now, make sure to have a look at our roundup of the best Xbox deals.
While some sales will just run through the three-day weekend, others can extend a few days after, which is nice if you’re feeling on a tight schedule of picking up your favorite deals. Again, this entirely depends on the retailer, so it’s worth checking out your preferred shop to see what their sale event plans are.
Summer is a great time to shop around as there are a wide variety of sale events that go on over those months. You won’t even have to wait too long for the next one, as June usually sees some big Summer gaming sales very early on. With IGN Live and Summer Game Fest kicking the festivities off this year in June, there will likely be a sale that happens around that time on each platform’s store. IGN Live will run from June 7-9 in LA and SGF’s big livestream event will kick off on June 7 at 2pm PT/5pm ET/10pm GMT, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled around this time to see what the Xbox Store has up its sleeve.
Not long after these events will be Amazon Prime Day, which is an excellent time for Prime members to scope out deals they may have missed over Memorial Day weekend. While we don’t know the exact dates for it this year, if it follows the pattern of previous years, it’ll likely land around the second week of July.
If you want to see even more deals outside of Xbox, check out our roundups of the best PlayStation deals, the best Nintendo Switch deals, and the best PC video game deals. You can also check out our Daily Deals roundup to see the latest and greatest discounts available at the moment, from tech to video games to movies.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
Around a week after Microsoft shuttered a number of beloved studios with a track record of making excellent single-player, story-driven games, their newly-owned arm of Activision has revealed a brand new studio. Working on a new series of story-driven, triple-A games.
After teasing earlier this year that it would properly reveal the long-awaited return to the college football video game series, EA Sports has finally released the first official gameplay trailer for College Football 25. The trailer shows off the visuals, first looks at returning modes like Road to Glory, and some new changes fans can anticipate.
You can watch the new trailer above. Additionally in a press release, EA shared new details about what is coming to College Football 25. Such as the previously confirmed return of the fan-favorite modes Road to Glory and Dynasty Mode and insight into two new online modes: Road to the College Football Playoff and College Football Ultimate Team.
More interestingly, the trailer reveals that College Football 25 will introduce CampusIQ, which bundles several features that aim to bring “to life the true depth of college football.” Features like a Wear & Tear System and Pre-Snap recognition aim to challenge a player’s strategy to ensure maximum success for their favorite FBS school.
Beyond the diversity in play styles across all 134 college football schools, another thing that makes college football unique is the iconic settings, stadiums, and traditions. EA notes that College Football 25 will capitalize on the spirit of college football by offering rivalry rituals and unique team run-outs. It will also feature broadcasting and commentary from notables analysts and commentators, such as Kirk Herbstreit and Rece Davis.
The full reveal and details on gameplay come less than a day after EA announced the cover athletes for both the Standard and Deluxe Editions of College Football 25. In addition, the publisher revealed that College Football 25 will be released on July 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, though fans who buy the Deluxe Edition or the MVP Bundle will gain access to the game three days early.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
“In one of Nero’s many manifests,” reads a books in surreal puzzle-box Lorelei And The Laser Eyes, referring to its eccentric (read: tastefully deranged) antag-artist, “there is a satirical proposal claiming that only dictators should be allowed to direct films.” Developers Simogo – of well-deserved Sayonara Wild Hearts and Device 6 acclaim – seem to agree that’s a position worth satirising. Lorelei, despite its single-solution puzzles, is not dictatorial. It’s far too interested in collaborating with you for that. It wants you to observe, consider, and interpret its many mysteries. What’s really hooked me here is how those puzzles are kept coherent and logical, despite you getting delivered a letter by dog and occasionally visiting a floppy disk bizzaro world where you converse with a magician who manifests from his own discarded hat.
Microsoft will soon announce its intention to release this year’s mainline Call of Duty game straight into Game Pass, according to a new report.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft will announce the plans during its Xbox showcase event in June.
“Microsoft plans a major shakeup of its video game sales strategy by releasing the coming installment of Call of Duty to its subscription service instead of the longtime, lucrative approach of only selling it a la carte,” WSJ reported. Microsoft declined to comment when contacted by the publication.
The report tallies with recent comments from Xbox president Sarah Bond, who indicated all Microsoft’s games, including those developed by the recently acquired Activision, will launch straight into Game Pass.
Microsoft has faced tough questions around the potential cannibalization effect of Game Pass, particularly on games that launch on the service day-one. While Xbox executives have insisted sales can be boosted by a game’s presence on Game Pass, some publishers remain unconvinced. Former Activision boss Bobby Kotick, for example, was always against putting Call of Duty into subscription services. Unlike Microsoft, console rival Sony does not release its new exclusives straight into its subscription service.
In an interview with IGN last year, Xbox boss Phil Spencer was asked how he’d handle his and Kotick’s different ideologies after the deal to buy Activision Blizzard closed. “Well, there’s a different person making the decisions,” Spencer laughed.
New Call of Duty games sell for $70 and usually shift around 25 million copies per year, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. By releasing this year’s Call of Duty straight into Game Pass, Microsoft potentially risks cannibalizing those sales.
Of course, Activision will also launch Call of Duty across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC as a game that can be bought outright. But with Game Pass subscriber numbers failing to grow meaningfully Microsoft is under pressure to attract new customers, and adding a mainline Call of Duty game at launch will no doubt help with that.
This year’s Call of Duty is expected to be called Black Ops 6, after teasers discovered in Warzone were acknowledged by developer Treyarch. Microsoft is also rumored to be ready to release the Call of Duty back catalog of video games into Game Pass ahead of Black Ops 6’s release later this year.
Microsoft is in the process of cutting 1,900 staff from its gaming business. Earlier this month, the company shocked the video game world by announcing the closure of Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall developer Arkane Austin. There are fears more cuts are to come.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Apocalypse wow.
Update : Set your doomsday clocks, folks, because Splatoon 3’s end-of-the-world Splatfest gets underway this weekend.
The event will be kicking off on 18th May (17th in North America) and asks the surprisingly dark question, “What would you do at the world’s end?“. Be sure to head over to the polling station in Splatsville Square to cast your vote for either Team Same Ol’, Bucket List or Save the Day and then prepare yourself for a weekend of splatting.
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