A proper scenery chewer.
Hooray! Splatoon 3 is one of our favourite Switch games and today it got a snazzy (free) Switch 2 upgrade which, as we reported earlier, takes advantage of the extra power of Nintendo’s new machine.
But according to the patch notes, when players are splatting on Switch 1, they’ll notice some downgrades compared to how it used to be.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Things are warming up as Remedy’s FBC: Firebreak approaches its June 17 launch on PlayStation 5 as part of the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog. We chatted with Communications Director Thomas Puha, Lead Level Designer Teemu Huhtiniemi, Lead Designer/Lead Technical Designer Anssi Hyytiainen, and Game Director/Lead Writer Mike Kayatta about some of the fascinating and often hilarious development secrets behind the first-person shooter.
Thomas Puha: We’ll support 3D Audio, and we’re prioritising 60 FPS on both formats. We’re aiming for FSR2 with an output resolution of 2560 x 1440 (1440p) on PS, and PSSR with an output resolution of 3840×2160 (4K) on PS5 Pro.
Some of the DualSense wireless controller’s features are still a work in progress, but we’re looking to use haptic feedback in a similar way to our previous titles, such as Control and Alan Wake 2. For example, we want to differentiate the weapons to feel unique from each other using the adaptive triggers.
Mike Kayatta: We looked at different TV shows that had lots of tools for going into a place and dealing with a crisis. One was a reality show called Dirty Jobs, where the host Mike Rowe finds these terrible, dangerous, or unexpected jobs that you don’t know exist, like cleaning out the inside of a water tower.
We also looked at PowerWash Simulator. Cleaning dirt is oddly meditative and really fulfilling. It made me wish a zombie attacked me to break the Zen, and then I’d go right back to cleaning. And we were like, that would be pretty fun in the game.
Anssi Hyytiainen: It’s radically different from a workflow point of view. You can’t really test it alone, necessarily, which is quite a different experience. And then there are times when one player is missing things on their screen that others are seeing. It was like, “What are you shooting at?”
Teemu Huhtiniemi: There were so many. But I like when we started seeing all of these overlapping systems kind of click, because there’s a long time in the development where you talk about things on paper and have some prototypes, but you don’t really see it all come together until a point. Then you start seeing the interaction between the systems and all the fun that comes out of that.
Kayatta: I imagine there’s a lot of people who probably are a little skeptical about Remedy making something so different. Even internally, when the project was starting. And once we got the trailer out there, everyone was so nervous, but it got a pretty positive reaction. Exposing it to the public is very motivating, because with games, for a very long time, there is nothing, or it is janky and it’s ugly and you don’t find the fun immediately.
Kayatta: Early on we were constantly asking ourselves, “Could this only happen in Control or at Remedy?” Because the first thing you hear is, “Okay, this is just another co-op multiplayer shooter” – there’s thousands of them, and they’re all good. So what can we do to make it worth playing our game? We were always saying we’ve got this super weird universe and really interesting studio, so we’re always looking at what we could do that nobody else can.
Huhtiniemi: I think for me it was when we chose to just embrace the chaos. Like, that’s the whole point of the game. It’s supposed to feel overwhelming and busy at times, so that was great to say it out loud.
Kayatta: Yeah, originally we had a prototype where there were only two Hiss in the level, but it just didn’t work, it wasn’t fun. Then everything just accidentally went in the opposite direction, where it was super chaos. At some point we actually started looking at Overcooked quite a bit, and saying, “Look, just embrace it. It’s gonna be nuts.”
Kayatta: So Firebreak is named after real world firebreaks, where you deforest an area to prevent a fire from spreading, but firebreaks are also topographical features of the Oldest House. And so we leaned into the term being a first responder who stops fires from spreading. The FBC part came from not wanting to put ‘Control’ in the title, so Control players wouldn’t feel like they had to detour to this before Control 2, but we didn’t want to totally detach from it either as that felt insincere.
An external partner pitched a title. They were very serious about talking up the game being in the Oldest House, and then dramatically revealed the name: Housekeepers. I got what they were going for, but I was like, we cannot call it this. It was like you were playing as a maid!
FBC: Firebreak launches on PS5 June 17 as a day on PlayStation Plus Game Catalog title.
Konami is bringing back Metal Gear multiplayer with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, but don’t expect it to play like Metal Gear Online.
Metal Gear Online is the fondly remembered multiplayer spin-off bundled with 2008’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Its servers shut down four years later, in 2012.
With this August’s release of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, the remake of 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3, Konami will rekindle Metal Gear multiplayer with Fox Hunt, although it said its gameplay is completely different than MGO’s.
In a new video, Konami revealed snippets of Fox Hunt gameplay, which show a soldier controlled from a third-person perspective using camo tech to blend in with their environment. For more, check out everything announced at Konami Press Start Live June 2025.
Our passionate team of developers take us on an extended look into the creation of METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: SNAKE EATER and its bonus content 🐍 ❗#KonamiPressStart pic.twitter.com/aIhW4HIAVM
— KONAMI UK (@KONAMIUK) June 12, 2025
Yu Sahara, director of Fox Hunt mode in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, said this new online multiplayer mode takes “camouflage and hide and go seek to the next level,” using the “back and forth tension of staying hidden or searching out the enemy” to create something unique.
“Fox Hunt is a completely original online multiplayer mode,” Sahara said. “Although it shares the same world with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, the gameplay is completely different.
“When we say Metal Gear multiplayer, many fans will probably think of Metal Gear Online, but Fox Hunt will be its own new type of mode. We very much appreciate all the long-time fans of MGO who have always wanted to see it make a comeback, but the landscape of multiplayer games has changed a lot since MGO. It took a lot of careful consideration to think about what a new online mode should look like.
“Based on the iconic stealth and survival elements of the Metal Gear series, we are taking camouflage and hide and go seek to the next level. We challenged ourselves to make something unique that is more than just a shootout. We’ve used that back and forth tension of staying hidden or searching out the enemy to create an online experience unique to Metal Gear.”
Expect more information on Fox Hunt soon, Sahara added.
Meanwhile, the video showed off more of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, as well as its PC and PlayStation 5 Ape Escape crossover mode, Snake vs Monkey, and Xbox Bomberman crossover mode, Snake vs Bomberman.
Yuji Korekado, creative producer, said of the main game: “While the basic gameplay of the boss battles remains the same, we’ve made some updates to the AI and animations, and rebalanced some things.”
Secret Theater also returns, but in the remake, the original Secret Theater videos can now be found as collectibles in-game. There are new Secret Theater videos made for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, secretly carried by enemy soldiers.
In April, IGN reported on Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater’s ESRB listing, which mentioned the game includes suggestive and sexual content such as the Peep Demo Theater unlockable extra feature found in the Subsistence and HD Collection versions of the original Metal Gear Solid 3.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater launches across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on August 28, 2025.
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.
Nintendo has deployed an update for Splatoon 3, improving how it looks and runs on Nintendo Switch 2.
As well as increasing the resolution of images stored in the Switch 2 album, Update 10.0.0. brings smoother on-screen movement in Splatsville, Inkopolis, Inkopolis Square, and Grand Festival Grounds, as well as improved animations for certain characters like jellyfish, and the Salmonid when there’s a large number of them in the stage in Salmon Run.
In additional to these performance and visual improvements for Switch 2, you also get 30 new weapon kits from the Barazushi and Emberz brands (the Splatlands Collection), and the return of the Urchin Underpass stage from the original Splatoon game on Wii U.
Nintendo said its next update will “focus on multiplayer balance based on analysis of changes to the situation that come with these weapon additions.”
Added Features and Game Content Changes
The following updates have been made when playing the game on Nintendo Switch 2:
The following updates have been made when playing the game on Nintendo Switch:
All other changes below apply to both Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch.
Changes to Multiplayer
Changes to SplatNet 3
Other Changes
As a bonus update, in this update we added weapons and a stage, increased the maximum Freshness, implemented a Series Weapon feature for Anarchy Battle (Series), added a call sign feature to X Battles, and performed optimization of operations on Nintendo Switch 2.
For Anarchy Battle (Series), we implemented a new Series Weapon feature targeted toward players Rank S or higher.
With this feature, the Series Weapon Power will be measured for each weapon currently equipped, and players will be matched up against others with similar levels of power.
We implemented this feature in hopes that players will enjoy battling using a variety of weapons, including the Splatlands Collection – Barazushi / Emberz weapons added in this update.
Additionally, we made balance changes to multiplayer battles.
For S-BLAST ‘92 and S-BLAST ‘91, we have made adjustments to give players fighting against them more room to counter because, from the opponent’s point of view, there seemed to be no openings at any distance.
For the Crab Tank, we lowered the maximum damage of the cannon to decrease the frequency that the person being attacked is defeated without any opportunity to evade. We also made it easier for other special weapons to fight against the Crab Tank.
For Toxic Mist, we have reduced the amount of ink consumed to make it easier to fight in combination with main weapons. On the other hand, we have simultaneously extended the time before ink begins to recover so that this change does not lead to tactics where players simply continuously throw their sub weapons.
This week, Nintendo announced Splatoon Raiders, a brand-new Splatoon spin-off exclusive to the Switch 2. The surprise reveal was made with a trailer that was released first on the Nintendo Today! App. Nintendo failed to announce a release window, but said to keep an eye out for more information in the future.
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.
As yet another Balatro-style roguelite hybrid emerges raging from the volcanic portals of Steam Next Fest, as the smaller-scale gamedev scene at large threatens to melt into a soup of RNG and deckbuilding, I want you to picture me leaning over you like Samwise Gamgee leaning over Frodo, trying through his tears to remind the Ring-bearer of life back in the Shire, before the horror of Mordor.
“Do you remember the taste of strawberries?” Sam whispers. I do not want you to remember the taste of strawberries. I want you to remember how good it felt to sneak a ball behind the blocks in Breakout. It is the only thing that will save you now.
Splat-tastic.
In case you missed it, Splatoon 3 has been updated to version 10.0.0, bringing with it a whole bunch of new content, but also improving the game’s visuals and performance for those playing on Switch 2.
But how has it been improved, exactly? Well, the above video should clear things up quite nicely for you. We’re mainly looking at bumps in resolution and frame rate, and this is perhaps most obvious within the Splatsville hub area, which notably at a stable, albeit sluggish 30fps on the Switch.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The post Xbox Games Showcase Deep Dive: Grounded 2 appeared first on Xbox Wire.
The PC version of Stellar Blade only launched yesterday, June 11, but it’s already Sony’s biggest single-player Steam launch ever.
Right now, the concurrent player peak is almost 105,000, but that’s the seventh all-time peak the game has set since I started writing this story. There’s no doubt player numbers will continue to climb, especially as we move into the weekend.
By comparison, Ghost of Tsushima topped out at 77,154 players, God of War peaked at 73,529, and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered sports a peak of 66,436 players. In fact, the only Sony-published game to have a higher concurrent record than Stellar Blade is Helldivers 2, which is, of course, a multiplayer game.
PC-specific features include AI upscaling via Nvidia DLSS 4 and AMD FSR 3, an unlocked framerate, Japanese and Chinese voiceover, ultrawide display support, higher resolution environment textures, and DualSense support for haptic feedback and trigger effects.
The PC version was originally region locked in 100+ countries, but is now available in “over 250 regions.” And yes, there are mods. Dozens and dozens have popped up, with modders making all kinds of tweaks and buffs since the demo dropped a few weeks ago. Not all of them are safe for work, though…
Stellar Blade has done so well for developer Shift Up that a sequel is already confirmed. The Sony-published action game launched to a positive response back in April 2024, with players saying its gameplay mixed elements of NieR: Automata and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
IGN’s Stellar Blade review returned a 7/10. We said: “Stellar Blade is great in all of the most important ways for an action game, but dull characters, a lackluster story, and several frustrating elements of its RPG mechanics prevent it from soaring along with the best of the genre.”
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.
The first part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy may have just been announced to be coming to Xbox, but for the time being, the second chapter, Rebirth, is one of the best games only available for PS5 and PC.
If you’ve not yet picked it up, however, you can save 50% on the ambitious open world entry in the saga thanks to Amazon-owned retailer Woot.
Woot has slashed the price of the title from its MSRP of $69.99 down to $34.99 as part of its ongoing video game sale (which notably ends in just a few days time).
That’s not all, either. Because Woot is part of the Amazon family, the game includes the Amazon exclusive pre-order bonus from 2024: a nifty controller skin. You’ll find it in the box.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s huge world is made up of a series of hubs, allowing for a whole host of side objectives that players can find, including the legendary Golden Saucer amusement park.
For $35, you’re getting an unbelievable amount of additional content that could have you playing right through to Part 3.
Speaking of which, Rebirth won’t be getting DLC a la the first part’s Intergrade. Instead, the team at Square Enix wants to get Part 3 out as soon as possible.
In our review, we said, “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion, both as a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenges and an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long,” awarding it a 9/10.
Lloyd Coombes is Gaming Editor @ Daily Star. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay. He’s also a tech, gaming, and fitness freelancer seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, IGN, and more.
