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.
Hey, everybody! Sid, Brett, and Tim are back this week to discuss the release date reveal and new trailer for Ghost of Yōtei. This episode also includes interviews with Doom: The Dark Ages Director Hugo Martin and Days Gone Remastered Creative and Product Lead Kevin McAllister.
Stuff We Talked About
Next week’s release highlights:
Days Gone Remastered (out today) | PS5
Forza Horizon 5 | PS5
Despelote | PS5, PS4
Days Gone Remastered — New accessibility options revealed
Onimusha 2 Samurai’s Destiny remaster — Developer Q&A with Capcom
Ghost of Yōtei — October 2 release date, new trailer revealed
F1 25 — Dev interview and new Braking Point story mode trailer
Doom: The Dark Ages — New Cosmic Realm details revealed
The Last of Us Complete — Now available on PS5
The Cast
Download the image
Sid Shuman – Senior Director of Content Communications, SIE
Brett Elston – Manager, Content Communications, SIE
Thanks to Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music.
[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]
Marvel Rivals developer NetEase Games has laid out its plans to take some of the pressure off of Strategists players just days after fans launched a community-wide Support strike.
Much of Marvel Rivals Season 2 has gone over swimmingly. New characters, maps, and modes helped the hero shooter push forward as the team promises quicker seasons and even more playable heroes, but its balance changes have introduced entirely new issues. Strategists – a character class that largely functions as Marvel Rivals’ Support pool – aren’t having much fun as Vanguards and Duelists have taken power.
The decreased viability of the Support class has been the topic of discussion in the Marvel Rivals community since Season 2 launched earlier this month. With other roles given more power on the battlefield, many Strategist players have reported not only an abundance of punishing matches but toxic ones, too, as teammates hop into text and voice chats to place the blame on them. It all reached a boiling point this past week when hundreds of players began taking to social media to declare they would stay away from the healer spot until NetEase explained how it might make the experience more enjoyable for all.
“We just want basic respect.”
“We’re not asking to be glorified or seen as the ‘hardest’ role – because I don’t think we are,” one Reddit user commented. “We just want basic respect. It’s tiring to be called brain dead or worthless when your stats are solid and you’re playing your role the way it’s meant to be played.”
I Need Healing
Whether the strike has been successful or if players are simply choosing to stray from a challenging class, NetEase says it wants to take action. In a Dev Talk post published to its website today, NetEase addressed the concerns revolving around the Strategist class. Its approach to relieve some of the pressure is two-pronged and involves buffing the Support role while also making its Competitive mode more rewarding.
The team says Strategist “threat levels” will be elevated in an upcoming patch. This means potentially buffing heroes like Invisible Woman or Jeff the Land Shark while hitting Vanguards like Captain America and Groot with nerfs to their survivability, while Spider-Man’s Amazing Combo ability will get decreased damage range. Details on exactly which characters will receive changes have yet to be revealed.
“Since this is a mid-season balance adjustment, we aim to be cautious, keeping changes minimal to enhance the experience of certain heroes without drastically altering the overall meta,” NetEase explained. “As we move into S2.5, with Ultron’s arrival and new Team-Up Ability adjustments, we’ll consider broader, more comprehensive balance changes.”
Meanwhile, Competitive is a Marvel Rivals offering that has seen slightly altered stats since the launch of Season 2. Duelists, in particular, have had an advantage when it comes to performance ratings, while Vanguard and Strategists have been at a slight disadvantage. As a result, NetEase plans to adjust performance rating calculations “to ensure fairness across all heroes.”
“Balancing the game and rank adjustments is a challenging endeavor, and we can’t guarantee perfection 100% of the time,” the Dev Talk adds. “However, we remain humble and attentive, striving to address issues promptly and enhance your experience. Stay tuned for official patch announcements for more updates. Thank you for your support and patience!”
Marvel Rivals Season 2 introduced Emma Frost as its newest playable Vanguard hero, with Season 2.5 set to include Ultron in the near future. While we wait to see if the upcoming balance changes please those participating in the Support strike, you can read up on a recent Marvel tease that could see a collection of swimsuit skins joining the game.
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).
Even if you enjoyed NieR: Automata and its predecessor, NieR: Replicant, you could be forgiven for not knowing that game actually got a sequel, and a pretty good one too. Unfortunately, that sequel, mobile game NieR: Re[in]carnation, hasn’t been available for almost a year after being taken offline in April of 2024.
But fortunately, a Square Enix website is dropping some pretty wild in-universe hints that this might be about to change.
As pointed out to us on BlueSky by journalist Willa Rowe, an official NieR website that’s currently publishing a NieR special movel to commemorate the series 15th anniversary is teasing something NieR: Re[in]carnation-related via cryptic in-text hints and webpage source code. As a part of today’s update to the novel, the just-published chapter 4 ends with some strange text that reads as follows:
[WARNING] : Recovery protocol initialized…[ERROR] : Redirecting to backup node: < https://www.jp.square-enix.com/nierreincarnation/ >[INFO] : Analysis comments added to the source code. [FATAL] : Process forcibly halted.
What does THAT mean? Who knows? But wait, there’s more. If you hit “View Source” on that page, there are even more weird teases in the code comments, as hinted at above. They read, in order:
TODO: Optimize rendering efficiency. Contradictions in “Her” emotions may interfere with signal clarity. Ensure transission remains undistorted.
FIXME: Visibility settings enabled for crashed observer system. He is watching…Adjust access permissions before deployment. His name is…………
HACK: Log discrepancy detected. Records indicate previous modification attempts due to excessive interference from The Cage. Cross-check against original transmission before proceeding.
Okay, there’s a lot here, some of which is inscrutable and some of which makes sense. “The Cage”, for instance, is the main location where most of NieR: Re[in]carnation takes place. And “Her” is a key character (yes, that’s Her name) in Re[in]carnation as well. Between that and the hyperlink, it’s pretty obvious what all this is referencing, but what exactly will become of it remains anyone’s guess.
The two final chapters of the novel are scheduled to publish on May 2, a week from today, and it’s possible it may also pull back the curtain on whatever’s happening here. Fans are speculating that it may be leading up to some sort of port or re-release of NieR: Re[in]carnation, which has been completely unplayable anywhere since it went offline last year. They’re also pointing out that the chapters of the special novel, which are currently only available in Japanese (but which fans are translating), have some pretty significant tie-ins to all three other NieR games.
If you’re unfamiliar with Re[in]carnation, I highly recommend keeping an eye on this, especially if the end result is another opportunity to play it. Re[in]carnation is a good game in its own right that many slept on due to its being a mobile gacha game, but critically, it’s also the direct sequel to NieR: Automata, and effectively is NieR 3, for those who have been waiting for it. Who knows? Maybe a new Re[in]carnation release could include some new content that ties the ongoing stream of loose NieR-related threads together at last.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Bethesda Game Studios and Virtuos’ The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered includes the original’s infamous Dupe Item Glitch – and fans are loving it all over again 20 years later.
Since the mega-hit remaster launched for PC and consoles earlier this week, Elder Scrolls veterans have been beside themselves as they revisit iconic locations and characters from Bethesda’s classic fantasy RPG. It’s a total visual overhaul that remains so faithful to the original 2006 experience that Virtuos even thought to include some of its more memorable bugs and even a few handy glitches.
In Oblivion Remastered, players have found they’re still able to use a version of the original’s Dupe Item Glitch, just the same as they did nearly 20 years ago. It allows the user to duplicate nearly any item in the game, and it only involves navigating through a few menus and a barrel or storage crate. That means unlimited arrows, ingredients, and even infinite money if you’re willing to be patient and haul everything to a merchant after you’re done. You can see our explanation of how to do the Dupe Item Glitch here.
There’s been some debate about a few other Dupe Item Glitch exploits that seem to have been fixed, but the consensus is generally that Virtuos’ move to keep such a niche bug in some capacity is amazing. Now, in 2025, both returning and new Elder Scrolls fans can see Cyrodiil just as it was in 2006, with many important wrinkles and bumps left intact, and the reaction is impossible to deny.
To those upset that Oblivion Scroll Duping got Removed I have great news! DUPES ARE BACK BABY!!! pic.twitter.com/Y21CowLJqq
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).
Twice a year we round up a bunch of stragglers, many of which we had on our list to review but just couldn’t get to due to the sheer number of games launching every week, some of which totally slipped through the net.
