Earlier this month Nacon did something unthinkable, completely unpredictable with Dune: Awakening… they delayed it. Alright, fine, generally the opposite is true for big games these days, but it did come down to the wire in the greater scheme of things as it was due out this coming May 20th. Now the MMO is slated to be released on June 10th (or June 5th for those with early access), just three weeks extra. That “meh” news did come with some “oh that’s cool” news though, as a large-scale beta was promised. Now, following a snazzy new story trailer, a date for said beta has been set!
Buying a new console on or close to its launch date (or, in some cases, at any point during its lifespan) can be exceptionally costly.
It’s often a good option, then, to flog your current-gen console and get a discount off your next hardware purchase, especially if the new one is backwards compatible. In the case of the Switch 2, GameStop has confirmed that it is offering a pretty reasonable deal in the US if you trade in your old Switch towards the new system.
This article contains spoilers for the Until Dawn movie.
I’ve been racking my brain over the conundrum that is adapting Until Dawn. Supermassive Games’ deconstruction of horror cinema through choice-based butterfly effect mechanics is essentially a 10-hour playable movie—a damn fine one written by indie horror staples Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick—so a film adaptation couldn’t just be the same thing. But a film that isn’t indebted to the game and its “choose your own adventure” method doesn’t feel appropriate either. Sony’s desire to release an Until Dawn adaptation seemed misguided upon announcement, and after viewing the film, it’s still a headscratcher.
That’s because David F. Sandberg’s Until Dawn movie betrays the core hook of Supermassive’s Until Dawn.
Writers Gary Dauberman and Blair Butler chose to adapt Until Dawn as its title reads. In this case, “Until Dawn” translates into a time-loop-like horror scenario where five young adults find themselves hunted by various baddies, and they only escape if they can survive … until dawn. Should anyone die, they’ll wake once a gigantic hourglass fixed to an ominous, skull-adorned mount drops its last grain of sand. Die enough times, and you become a wendigo lost to Dr. Alan J. Hill’s delirious experiment. The core impetus of a missing sibling is still there—Ella Rubin’s protagonist, Clover, is hunting for her missing sister—but otherwise, you’re not on Blackwood Mountain aka Mount Washington (er…yet), and certainly not similarly punished for choices that alter narrative paths.
That’s… not Until Dawn.
Death Shouldn’t Be An Afterthought
In the game, death matters. It matters so much, in fact, that killing a single character sends ripple effects felt throughout the remaining storylines. There’s no regeneration or second chances. Like, famously. That’s the point of Until Dawn. The stakes are so astronomically high, the slightest nervous twitch of your controller during a “stay still” Quicktime event could doom multiple characters. Dauberman and Butler fail to translate the nerve-wracking experience of playing Until Dawn, landing on quite the opposite concept.
If anything, Until Dawn is a beginner’s attempt at Cabin in the Woods. Glore Valley is drenched by a thunderstorm, except for a perfect circle of sunshine over the welcome center location, like some all-powerful horror movie god is controlling the rain—once again resembling Cabin in the Woods in terms of the “influencing environment” effect. The all-seeing overlord (Dr. Hill), the meta nature of characters joking about horror movie rules, and the different creatures unleashed each rewind? Despite countless plot configurations, the game’s powerful storytelling is far superior to this random assortment of scary scenes tied to an hourglass clock. The game pulls players deeper into a web of intrigue, where the movie’s Mad Libs nature drags viewers through a jumbled rotation of clowns-and-kooks randomness.
Points are awarded for at least using wendigos. In the game, Fessenden’s “Stranger” character reveals that a 1952 mining cave-in led to cannibalism, and said cannibals turned into wendigos that now haunt Blackwood. Here, Clover and her friends start turning into wendigos due to Dr. Hill’s experiments on Glore Valley from his sanatorium hideout (resembling his dingy in-game office). It’s not a one-for-one translation, nor does it need to be, but the wendigos are overshadowed by a slasher villain vaguely costumed after Josh’s psycho getup. There are also witches, porcelain doll-looking masks, creepypasta demons, and water that makes your entire body explode Scanners-style if you drink it. It’s a hodgepodge of dangers that have nothing to do with Fessenden and Reznick’s straightforward creature-centric game, outside of a few Easter eggs.
The most obvious connection is Peter Stormare as Dr. Hill, Josh Washington’s (Rami Malek) hallucinated psychiatrist who runs players through rigorous psychological tests that influence future in-game details. However, even Dr. Hill features stark differences in the film vs. the original game. In the movie, he’s seen as a gas station attendant, but it’s not long before he’s outed as former game character Dr. Hill—who’s in control of experiments on Glore Valley. It’s here where we have the only direct reference to the game’s most well-known character, Josh Washington. After Clover discovers Hill’s “office,” we see her patient profile alongside Josh’s.
There’s some exposition about Hill’s experiments as we watch prisoners cannibalize bodies and then turn into wendigos to highlight that connection to the game, but the reveal is followed by Clover defeating Dr. Hill pretty easily.
Except she doesn’t. Probably.
As the film ends, we return to the dirty sanitarium office where Dr. Hill explodes after ingesting some ‘splodey water, and on surveillance monitors, we see Blackwood’s lodge. We then hear Dr. Hill speak, suggesting he was Clover’s hallucination, much like Josh’s in the game. But, that’s right before the credits because I guess Sandberg’s movie is an offshoot prequel that, for some reason, has nothing to do with the actual events of the Until Dawn game? If there is a sequel, presumably it’ll be about Josh’s case of vengeance paid unto the Blackwood group except based on the film’s rules … somehow.
Cheap Easter Eggs Aren’t Enough
It’s just all so generic. Turning Dr. Hill into the baddie removes intrigue and becomes a cheap cop-out, torn from the game but improperly refitted. Then the stinger of Blackwood hits, which again is confusing because in interviews, Sandberg insists his film takes place after the game’s timeline—but Blackwood’s reveal suggests it’s not a sequel, but a prequel. Inconsequentiality plagues Sandberg’s film in a way that makes you wonder why it’s even tied to Until Dawn (*cough* intellectual property reasons *cough*), which only causes Blackwood’s tease to be even more spoonfed and underwhelming. For so long, Until Dawn (the movie) bears no resemblance to Until Dawn (the game)—why pivot back toward the game at the last minute?
The reason is simple: to appease us fans. There are choice moments that attempt to help us relive the game, but they’re crammed in like afterthoughts. Ji-young Yoo’s spiritualist character Megan has everyone hold hands in silence, mimicking the game’s quiet “hold your breath” Quicktime events. There’s a shot bathed in red lighting where a wendigo is right by a frightened Clover, and that’s a direct reference to the “Don’t Move” instructions. But the game’s cinematic nature doesn’t yield many other level-based opportunities to recreate, nor does the film try. The adaptation’s biggest issue is it never fully comprehends how best to honor Supermassive’s inspiration while telling a fresh horror tale.
What else might you recognize? The wendigo audio files are plucked from the game, reusing the same noises. There’s also Abe’s first death of being chopped in half, which could be respect paid to Josh’s fake death in the game, or maybe that’s just a lucky coincidence. Are the werewolf sketches in the witch’s cabin a possible reference to The Quarry? Is the radio in the basement the same radio in the game where characters find out they must survive until dawn? Chances are yes, but these Easter eggs feel forced.
Look, I’m all for a “spiritual successor.” But to do so, there has to be some resemblance to the thing you are named after. While I don’t think Until Dawn is a terrible movie, it’s a bad Until Dawn movie. It’s a far cry from the urgency and invasive dread that Supermassive so easily conjures, speaking to what makes the playable horror movie such a blast to complete (over and over).
As is, the Until Dawn movie doesn’t make much sense in context. The events of Glore Valley are a grab bag of ideas from other horror movies that would be nothing but a clip show without Dr. Hill’s inclusion. But even with Stormare’s reprised role, it’s only Until Dawn at face value, nothing deeper. I get the interpretation of the gang’s choices forcing them to keep restarting, but it’s still too far off-base to consider this adaptation anything more than unfaithful. In the end, Until Dawn is a missed opportunity to bring Supermassive’s smash-hit game to life.
When Bethesda finally revealed Oblivion Remastered earlier this week, I could hardly believe my eyes. Somehow 2006’s trip to Tamriel, known for its weird, potato-faced characters and smeary stretches of low-res verdant grasslands, is now the best-looking Elder Scrolls game ever made. A long history of HD overhauls has conditioned me to expect underwhelming results from remasters – Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Dark Souls Remastered are barely indistinguishable from their Xbox 360 parents, for instance – and so to see the Imperial City that I explored nearly 20 years ago rendered in Unreal Engine 5 with ray tracing was momentarily unbelievable. Not only that, but the game has been enhanced with upgrades to combat, RPG systems, and a multitude of other details. All that considered, I wondered if Bethesda and the project’s developer, Virtuos, had got the title wrong. Surely this is Oblivion Remake, not remastered?
It turns out I wasn’t alone in that thinking. Numerous fans have declared it a remake, and even Bruce Nesmith, the senior game designer on the original Oblivion project, has said “I’m not sure [the word] remaster actually does it justice.” But while I doubted Bethesda and Virtuos’ remaster claim at first, after playing several hours it’s actually pretty clear – Oblivion Remastered may look like a remake but it plays like a remaster.
There are plenty of reasons why Oblivion looks like a remake and they can be easily summed up: Virtuos has done a huge amount of work, with “every single asset redesigned from scratch.” In terms of what you physically see on screen, it is all brand new. Every tree, every sword, every crumbling castle. This means Oblivion lives up to modern graphical expectations. Not only is it beautifully textured, it also has gorgeous lighting and a whole new physics system that ensures every arrow and weapon strike affects the world realistically. And while all who you meet in the game are recognisably the same folks you crossed paths with back in 2006, every single NPC model is a brand new creation. It’s a hugely impressive overhaul that rejects the idea of making something that “looks like you remember” and instead aims for something that’s great by 2025 standards. It’s the best a Bethesda Game Studios RPG has ever looked, and if I had seen it before the remaster rumours began I’d probably have believed that it was The Elder Scrolls 6.
It’s not just visuals, though. Combat has been overhauled, and so swinging a longsword no longer feels like fencing with a balloon. The third person camera is now actually functional thanks to the addition of a reticule. Every menu, from the quest journal to dialogue to the lockpicking and persuasion minigames, have all had refreshed interfaces. The original, horrific levelling system has been replaced with a much more logical hybrid of Oblivion and Skyrim’s approaches. And finally you can sprint. With so many visual and gameplay upgrades, surely we are firmly in remake territory?
If I had seen Oblivion Remastered before the rumours began I’d probably have believed that it was The Elder Scrolls 6.
The big issue here is not so much one of technology, game changes, or project scope, but semantics. There are no industry-defined parameters for remakes and remasters, and publishers recklessly throw the terms around. Rockstar’s “Definitive Edition” remasters of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy are unmistakably blocky PlayStation 2-era games with upscaled textures and modern lighting effects. But the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, also branded a remaster, sports all-new graphical assets and looks like a game from the modern era. Things are even muddier when we get to remakes: Bluepoint’s Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls both rebuild their respective games from the ground up, but are faithful, 1:1 recreations of the original experiences. Resident Evil 2, meanwhile, sticks more-or-less to the original blueprint in terms of structure, but completely redesigns the way you interact with the survival horror icon. And then we have Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Rebirth, which radically overhaul the design, script, and even story beats of the original games. All five of these examples are considered remakes, but there’s very little shared philosophy between them.
At one point in time, the general consensus seemed to be that if the game had been rebuilt from scratch in a modern engine, it was considered a remake. Remasters, meanwhile, were more limited upgrades performed within the scope of the game’s original technology. Such a definition is clearly becoming fast outdated, though. Today, it seems more fitting to say that a remaster is a graphical overhaul that preserves the design of the original game (bar a few quality of life gameplay upgrades), while a remake redesigns a game from scratch. Such a definition would “downgrade” Demon’s Souls and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Delta to remasters, and ensure the remake term only applies to games that genuinely feel like new takes on old ideas.
So if we accept these proposed definitions, is this new version of Oblivion a remake or a remaster? As anyone who’s played even just an hour of it can plainly see, Oblivion Remastered absolutely has the correct name. Yes, those new assets and Unreal Engine 5 ray tracing effects make it look brand new, but beneath that glowing skin is a collection of 20-year-old bones, organs, and muscles, all roughly stapled and taped together in that unmistakably Bethesda way. As the studio explained, “We looked at every part and carefully upgraded it. But most of all, we never wanted to change the core. It’s still a game from a previous era and should feel like one.”
The hallmarks of that previous era are everywhere. It’s in the loading screens that hide behind almost every single door. It’s in the baffling persuasion minigame that still, despite the interface upgrade, barely makes sense and feels utterly disconnected to your conversations. It’s in the design of the cities, which have the simplistic design of theatre stage sets rather than the complex, knotty arrangements of authentic population centres. It’s in the NPCs, who wander like awkward automatons and talk with all the grace of an AI trained on a “how to be society” manual. It’s in the combat, which even after a significant upgrade still feels detached and unwieldy. And it’s in the long list of bugs and glitches that still remain, reverently preserved in the name of upkeeping the original’s quirky charm.
The granular details of Oblivion are clearly grey and long in the tooth.
Just a couple of months ago we were treated to Obsidian’s Avowed, which offered a vision of the future for some of The Elder Scrolls’ key building blocks. Its kinetic combat is practically space-age compared to Oblivion Remastered’s, while its approach to rewarding exploration makes the rolling hills and grotty caves of Cyrodiil feel very much a relic of yesteryear. Such modern systems help put Oblivion Remastered into context. That’s not to say that this revised classic has nothing to offer in 2025 – far from it. The magic of its world still sparkles brightly, its Rohan-like open fields filled with dozens of mysteries and oddities. Much of its ambition remains intact even two generations later, such as the dynamic goblin wars that wage between its NPC clans, or the narratively-satisfying questing structure that remains head-and-shoulders above Skyrim’s many “visit a draugr-filled dungeon” missions. Many of its old-school ideas around player freedom feel refreshing in an age where we now reject the hand-holding nature of games from the 2010s. But the granular details of Oblivion are clearly grey and long in the tooth. There’s no finesse in its dialogue, nor elegance in the way its systems interconnect. And the level design, be it cave, castle, or the cursed lands of Oblivion itself, feels positively ancient. A remake’s job would be to update all those ideas, but this project is all about reliving the old. As such: Oblivion Remastered.
Video games have historically leant on terminology from other mediums. In the world of movies, remakes are brand new productions with fresh casts, crews, scripts, and sets. Remasters are existing films that are enhanced as far as possible to match modern picture quality standards. But an old film is still an old film; the 4K restorations of Jaws and The Godfather look incredible, but they are clearly products of the 1970s. You can see it in the direction, the delivery, the effects work. It’s in the texture of the film grain. Oblivion is like those blu-ray restorations of classic films. It pushes visual quality as far as it possibly can, which thanks to the more malleable medium of video games means recreating the project’s “exterior” in a brand new engine. But beneath that shell, Oblivion is unmistakably a product of the 2000s. Alex Murphy, executive producer at Virtuos, had the perfect analogy during the reveal stream: “We think of the Oblivion game engine as the brain and Unreal 5 as the body. The brain drives all the world logic and gameplay and the body brings to life the experience that players have loved for almost 20 years.”
Oblivion Remastered is exactly what it says it is, and that shouldn’t be seen as downplaying its achievements. Instead of insisting that it’s a remake, we should actually be using it as the quality bar by which we judge remasters from other titan-scale AAA companies. This is what Mass Effect Legendary Edition should have been, rather than a cleaned-up re-release. This is what Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy should have been rather than an incredibly cynical-feeling cash grab. Because there’s nothing cynical about Oblivion Remastered. It looks like a remake crafted by passionate hands but plays like a remaster preserved by loving fans, and that’s exactly how it should be.
The team at Nightdive Studios have rolled out a new update for Turok‘s Switch eShop release and multiple other platforms.
Patch 3.0.1013 includes a whole list of Switch-specific updates. This includes fixes, some new options, and much more. Here are the full patch notes for this latest update (via Nightdive Studios’ official website):
With Switch 2 pre-orders going live in multiple locations this week, various game developers have used this second round of excitement to showcase their upcoming games for the new platform.
This round up includes some new third-party game pre-order trailers as well as some we may have already showcased here on Nintendo Life:
Josef Fares and Hazelight’s latest co-op action-adventure Split Fiction is on the way to the Switch 2 this June and now to add this, Variety is reporting the upcoming movie adaptation has cast Sydney Sweeney.
Sweeney’s role has not been decided yet, but according to Variety’s “sources” she’ll be playing either Zoe or Mio. Jon M. Chu (Wicked) is reportedly directing and the script is supposedly being handled by the Deadpool & Wolverine screenwriters.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a new RPG and debut title from the French studio, Sandfall Interactive. With a blend of immersive storytelling and challenging gameplay, there’s nothing else quite like it. Maxroll has been hard at work on helpful guides for Expedition 33. There are guides to help you get started, teach you game mechanics, find valuable loot, and hone your builds. Maxroll’s Codex has weapons, skills, Pictos, and Lumina to help you prepare for the challenges you will face on the continent. If you’re the theorycrafty type, you can use Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Planner to make your own build, then share it on their Community Builds Section.
Getting Started
Get started in the world of Expedition 33 with character guides, beginner resources, and Pictos guides from Maxroll. If you’re looking for a step-by-step companion guide to keep up as you play, check out IGN’s Expedition 33 Walkthrough.
Beginner’s Guide
Maxroll’s comprehensive Beginner’s Guide for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 introduces the game’s core mechanics like exploring the world, doing battle against Nevrons, each of the playable characters and their unique mechanics, plus introduces the game’s progression systems like weapons, attributes, Pictos and Luminas. Also check out IGN’s 10 Things Expedition 33 Doesn’t Tell You for a shorter guide of some easily-missed things you should know.
Combat Guide
Learn more about defeating dangerous Nevrons with IGN’s Combat Guide. This is a beginner’s guide with some tips and tricks, including advice for how to use Lune and Maelle.
Weapons, Attributes and Upgrades
Weapons are a core part of building your team in Expedition 33. Each weapon (and character skill) deals different types of elemental damage, some of which are more effective than others against different Nevrons. Each character has a variety of different weapons that have increased attribute scaling as you level them, plus unlock special bonuses at levels 4, 10, and 20. Read more about Weapons, Attributes and Upgrades.
Pictos and Luminas
Pictos are equippable items that give stats and a variety of unique effects. Each character can equip 3 Pictos, but you can use the Lumina system to gain even more special effects. If you’re struggling on an encounter, consider changing up your Pictos to gain more defenses, add damage or buff your team with things like Shell or Powerful. Learn more about Pictos and the Lumina system, a core progression feature in Expedition 33.
Early Game Pictos Guides
The Pictos system provides a lot of room to customize your party and build each character the way that you want, but there are a few Pictos which stand out as especially powerful during the early game. Keep an eye out for Dead Energy II and Critical Burn, complete side-content for the “lone wolf” style Last Stand Pictos and use Recovery to turn one character into a super-tank!
Characters
Learn about each playable character in Expedition 33, their unique mechanics, and skills with Maxroll’s Character Skill Guides.
Maxroll also has a few more guides suitable for the midgame and endgame. These go into detail on how to unlock areas of the map, defeat certain enemies more easily, or which Pictos are the best.
How to Unlock all of Esquie’s Traversal Abilities
Esquie can break through obstacles, swim, fly, and even dive under the ocean. Learn how to unlock all of Esquie’s Abilities as you progress through the game.
Enemy Strengths and Weaknesses
Learn about the Strengths and Weaknesses for the enemies you encounter across the Continent. Abuse enemy weaknesses to deal 50% more damage, and avoid using elements they absorb, as those heal the enemy instead of damaging them!
Zone Progression
If you’re feeling lost after completing the game’s story, Maxroll has you covered with a Zone Progression Guide, which gives some recommendations on when to complete different optional zones. IGN also has a list of Expedition 33 side quests with their rewards, so you can determine which ones are worth completing.
Best Pictos
Learn the Best Pictos to equip in both the early game and the endgame. Maxroll’s guide details Pictos that provide generic power along with those that have more niche uses, empowering new build archetypes.
Codex
Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Codex has information on all of the different Weapons, Pictos, Luminas, and Skills available in the game. You can even adjust the level at the top to see how Weapons/Pictos scale.
Here are the features to keep in mind when using Maxroll’s Expedition 33 Planner.
Select your characters and set up the active party. If you want to create different teams (with unique setups for each character) you can also do so here. At the top select an optional tag like “Story” or “Post-Story.” You use this section to navigate between each of the characters on your team to change their setups.
Pick your weapon, then adjust the level. As you do the power and scaling change but attributes are not currently factored in.
– Select the 6 skills you’re using on the character.
NOTE: Gradient Skills are excluded here but you can learn more about them in the Codex!
Pick your Pictos, you can use each Pictos once across your entire team. Select the correct level to display the stats added by each.
Add Luminas here, the point count is displayed at the top.
Allocate attributes, maybe use something your weapon scales off of?
Your stats are displayed here, based on Pictos, Attributes, and base weapon damage.
Add some notes, tell people about your skill rotation or where you found some of the cool stuff you’re using.
Set your build to public to share it with the community.
Tomorrow Comes
That’s it for Maxroll’s new guides for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Why not head over to the build planner and start theorycrafting?
Written by IGN Staff with contributions from Tenkiei and Snail.
Players woke up to find that Virtuos’ massive re-release received an unexpected update earlier today. With no patch notes or clear answer as to what the update addressed, most proceeded with their play sessions as normal. Others, however, quickly found that the first Oblivion Remastered update was causing more problems than it fixed
Yoooo why would @virtuosgames push an update to Oblivion Remastered that removes all upscaling right before the games first weekend?!!?
“Can’t change the upscaling methods anymore,” one Reddit user pointed out. “It’s set to ‘off’ and while the arrows are clickable nothing happens. So I closed the game, disabled fluid motion in the NVidia app (was testing something before the patch came) and started the game again. Loading times for my save are long again and still can’t change upscaling settings lol.
“Now I am stuck with 40-60 fps in high settings with a 5800X3D and a 5080. Nice patch :D”
While some players haven’t noticed much of a change in performance, others are reporting new struggles related to low framerates. Many have also noted that upscaling settings have been completely closed off, leaving fans with major visual issues ahead of Oblivion Remastered’s first weekend in players’ hands.
Bethesda finally attempted to address concerns with a post published on its official support page. As for what today’s Oblivion Remastered update was meant to fix, the post explains the patch simply included “a few backend tweaks and nothing directly impacting game play.” Unfortunately, it seems those who own Oblivion Remastered through the Microsoft Store are the ones running into problems with their upscaling and anti-aliasing options.
“Any graphic settings adjusted prior to the Microsoft Store hotfix are still enabled and function normally,” Bethesda clarified. “However, you will temporarily be unable to adjust those settings due to the issue with the settings UI. The team is taking a look and working out a resolution, we will share more info as soon as we can.”
For now, there’s no telling when exactly a resolution for what was originally supposed to be an under-the-radar hotfix will arrive. In the meantime, it appears players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S consoles can continue playing with no issue.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor 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).
Horror fans on PC have been raving about R.E.P.O., developed by Swedish studio semiwork. It’s an online co-op game which launched back in February 2025 where you and up to five friends need to work together to discover a long lost age of humanity. You need to balance quiet and careful with panic and hilarity as chaos ensues. It went viral when it dropped early access, and rightly so.
So, if you’re browsing the Switch eShop and happen to spot something that looks very similar, a warning: don’t buy it. Over on the NintendoSwitch subreddit, one user is cautioning fans about a “total fake” game called “REPO Horror“, and the evidence is pretty damning,as Gamesradar and PC Gamer report.
