Tetsuya Takahashi’s Xenoblade Chronicles series began its journey on the Wii in 2010, but it’s on the Switch where the RPG series has really taken off.
With two sequels, plus huge prequel DLC adventures for both, Monolith Soft’s RPG series has established itself as one of the jewels in Nintendo’s crown. And with the Definitive Edition ports of both the original Xenoblade Chronicles and the underappreciated Xenoblade Chronicles X for Wii U, all the entire series is no playable on a single console.
The GameCube generation ended years ago, but the controller for this system is still a popular choice for many Nintendo enthusiast when it comes to select titles. If you are hoping to see support for this particular gamepad on the Switch 2 in some way or form, you might be in luck.
If you’re interested in unusual or innovative games, then Maps of Misterra should be on your radar, especially since it’s currently selling at a hefty sale discount. It normally runs in the $30 range, but Amazon currently has it on sale for $12.99, which is less than half price. That’s quite a deal on a game that’s worth a look.
Maps of Misterra on Sale for $12.99
In Maps of Misterra, players are cartographers, seeking to chart an unknown island. You’ll start with some end-game goals of what you think the island is supposed to look like, and initially you’ll place terrain tiles on a shared board trying to match that map. But exploration is a tricky business and you can be mistaken: other players can overwrite your placements with their own until someone takes an extra action to confirm that tile, fixing it in place. Terrain effects, such as being able to see further atop mountains, or travel further over steppe, lend extra weight to the strategy and flavor to the theme.
The result of this clever, two-step, discover and confirm mechanic is a fascinating dynamic and interactive puzzle where your goals push and pull against those of other players, and the island takes shape around them. This also provides a real sense of revelation, of venturing into the unknown as every version of the island is different.
If you enjoy getting into the theme of a game, you can also have a great time loudly proclaiming that your suggestions are the absolute truth against the nonsense other players are trying to foist on the map. It’s fun as a solo board game, too, against an automated opponent so you still get the sense of playing against an active player. The slightly messy interaction might put off some players, but at this price it’s worth a look for its sheer oddness.
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Matt Thrower is a contributing freelance writer for IGN, specializing in tabletop games. You can reach him on BlueSky at @mattthr.bsky.social.
With all the trailers, showcases, and dev diaries that can lead up to a game’s launch nowadays, it’s harder than ever for one to be a real surprise – and that’s especially true of a multiplayer first-person shooter when, like me, you are a Certified Old Gamer™ who’s been playing them since the genre began. Yet FragPunk has done just that. What I worried might end up being a Valorant clone with a card gimmick and a big list of other buzzword features has instead impressed me with how fresh it all feels. That said, a messy mishmash of in-game currencies and rewards hurts the fun that can come from leveling up and chasing cosmetics.
In many ways, FragPunk reminds me of a reverse Ship of Theseus. If every component of a game came from somewhere else, does it eventually become something original? It’s hard to say, but the result here is quite amusing regardless. Like Overwatch, it has very distinct characters with big personalities and unique tools to match them. Like Valorant or Counter-Strike, the primary game mode, called Shard Clash, revolves around teams of five competing to plant or defuse a Converter (aka bomb) or eliminate one another across multiple rounds. And like Fortnite, it has a deep bag of cosmetic items like costumes, weapon skins, stickers, and emotes to entice you to spend some money on this otherwise free-to-play shooter.
FragPunk’s playable characters are called Lancers, and they are an entertaining group to choose from. Some are relatively typical archetypes, like a sniper named Hollowpoint and her abilities that help reveal enemies. Others are way out there, like the punk rocker Axon, who shoots lightning from his guitar. Unlike Valorant, where abilities can give you an edge but are rarely what win a fight, Fragpunk places a much bigger emphasis on using them to dominate the map, which I like. When abilities like Broker’s rocket launcher can instantly erase someone, it feels good to use it yourself or devise a counter on the fly as you see it coming, like throwing down a shield wall as Nitro to provide cover and then returning fire from a remote controlled combat drone.
Naturally, Fragpunk isn’t all lightning guitars and rockets. Your standard assortment of shotguns, SMGs, assault rifles, and more forms the backbone of combat. I don’t mind that the guns really aren’t the star of the show here, but I do wish there was more variety to choose from. There are two options in each category you can select as your primary weapon, and they all shoot pretty much exactly how you’d expect. But the gunplay is at least smooth and responsive, and the fast time-to-kill does a good job of emphasizing the importance of positioning over raw gun skill.
The real star of the show is the Shard Card system.
The other aspect of shooting that stands out is how little movement affects your aim. Unlike Valorant, where stopping and popping is often essential if you want to be accurate, Fragpunk fully embraces running and gunning. I found myself repeatedly lagging behind my squad in kill count until a teammate pointed out that I’m better off treating gunfights like Call of Duty with powers – advice that put me right at the top of the next match’s leaderboard. That style of shooting isn’t necessarily better or worse than the more deliberate action of other games, but it does stick out as atypical for an objective-based tactical shooter in a way that’s a perfect fit with the general FragPunk vibe.
The real star of the show is the Shard Card system. Before every round, each team has three random cards pulled that players can then put Shard Points into, effectively voting on which ones will be active. The costs of their effects vary, and you earn more Shard Points either by getting kills or picking them up off the ground mid-round. Some Shard Cards are simple, like one that increases your movement speed, while others are extremely powerful, like another that forces the next round to play out as a melee battle – or one called Big Heads, which (as advertised) gives the entire enemy team overgrown, easy-to-hit craniums. A few are even downright weird, like Egg King, which causes everyone to lay an egg after crouching for 10 seconds, which you can then eat to regain health. It’s hilarious, utterly bizarre, and unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a shooter before.
I’m surprised by how much I enjoy the card-collecting aspect of FragPunk. You start with access to less than a third of the 169 total Shard Cards that are currently available, and you can earn more after completing matches. Getting more matters, as the cards that are randomly selected before each round are based on what each team member has unlocked. It’s pretty exciting getting a new card and reading what weirdness it’s going to introduce. I also appreciate that you can easily see your collection, read the effect, and, in some cases, watch a quick video showing you exactly what it does.
Rounds of Shard Clash go by fast – possibly too fast. In theory, one team is trying to plant the Converter on one of two objective points, which the other team would then need to defuse… but in practice, the overwhelming majority of rounds end when one team wipes out the other, often in just a few minutes. That means that matches rarely have the same sort of strategic back and forth that makes hard-fought games of something like Valorant so engaging. It also means that Lancers with abilities that have more of a nuanced, tactical focus have seemed less viable overall. I’d love to hunker down with Nito’s turrets and drone to hold a point, but so far that’s just a recipe to have all the action happen elsewhere. Hopefully some balance tweaks will arrive to make the objectives a more relevant part of the action.
The cosmetic hunt is too complex without having a lot of enticing options.
A match ends when one team wins four total rounds, but if both teams reach three wins before that happens, it activates one of my favorite twists: Duels. This has each team face off in a series of 1v1 fights in a small arena, and whoever survives sticks around to face the other team’s next champion until every member of one has been eliminated. Health and abilities don’t regenerate round to round, which makes it tough for one great player to run the table. The action is as exciting as it is tense, and spectating while you root on your teammate and wait for your own turn is thrilling, especially when you get the win that clinches the Duel and, by extension, the entire match for your team.
Ranked competition isn’t available until you reach level to 30, which can potentially take up to 10 hours. That’s a little on the long side, and I was pretty done with no-stakes matches well before I was able to start playing for rank. Shard Clash is the same in ranked, apart from the fact that you are now playing to six wins rather than four, but the random element of the Shard Cards might be a little too random in this context. It’s tough to be fighting with actual stakes and feel like bad draws are costing you wins. There’s an advanced version of Shard Clash you get access to once you reach Diamond rank that gives teams some control over selecting and banning cards to mitigate that, but I can’t help but feel like it should be the default for ranked competition across the board.
A few other modes add some variety, though none stand out. Simple Deathmatch is nice for shooting practice, and Duel Master is a similarly good gametype to train for those one-on-ones, though it not being the finale of a long match takes a lot of the drama out of it. Outbreak is the most interesting option: Like Halo’s Infection playlist, most players start with weapons while a few turn into Zombies, and everyone who is killed turns and starts hunting the survivors. Unfortunately the matches are much too long, and the mix of zombies with too much health and guns that slow them down tends to make fights frustrating for both sides.
Like so many free-to-play games, FragPunk relies on incentivising people to spend money on things like cosmetics as a source of revenue, rather than game sales. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that model, and it can even be a fun motivator if there are cool things to chase. Here, however, the cosmetic hunt suffers from a mixture of being too complex without having a lot of enticing options that make it feel worth investing in.
There are way too many different currencies. There is Gold, which you use to buy items and new Lancers, and there’s Glunite, which also buys items – those are both earned largely through playing matches and progressing along the battle pass. Then you can buy FragPunk Coins, which cost real money and are also used to unlock characters and items. If you buy into the premium version of the battle pass for 900 FragPunk Coins, which will cost you around $10USD, you’ll earn Battle Pass Tokens to spend on a different set of cosmetics. Meanwhile, playing ranked matches will get you Ranking Coins, which let you pick from an exclusive pool of weapon skins. That’s not to be confused with the Membership Pick, obviously, which you cash in for weapon skins from a different pool. And, of course, if you or create an in-game Club, you can get Club Supplies. These are all spent on basically the same types of things, but from separate catalogs, which creates unnecessary confusion with no benefit to you as a player.
It’s a mess, and that’s without including the additional currencies that will presumably rotate in and out for special events. It’s too scattered, and way too much to keep track of. It’s also hard to feel any interest in figuring it all out when most of the prizes aren’t very appealing. None of the additional skins stand out the way the best options in Marvel Rivels do, for example. Many of the things Gold (the currency you earn the most of) gets you are random pulls for small touches like gun stickers. The most valuable thing Gold can buy, the Lancers, are prohibitively expensive, resulting in a far too coercive push towards spending real money to buy new characters outright – when it took me 10 hours to unlock a single Lancer, that $10 price tag starts to look less like a suggestion.
Even the battle pass, a staple of games like this, misses the mark. There are very few rewards on the free tier of the 60-level pass, and they consist primarily of stickers, icons for your profile, and pop cans that give out random rewards. Paying for the premium tier gives you access to many more prizes, including several bland character and weapons skins… but there’s also an Ultimate level on top of that, which adds very little other than doubling a few of the random pull rewards, two weapon skins, and one Lancer skin. That seems absurd given the Ultimate Pass is more than double the cost of the premium version at a whopping 2500 FragPunk Coins, or around $25.
The developer of Bulletstorm and co-developer of Gears of War: E-Day, People Can Fly, has signed a deal with Sony Interactive Entertainment to develop a new game, codenamed Project Delta.
This comes from a report published by People Can Fly describing the agreement, which stipulates Project Delta will be made as a work-for-hire game, but does not provide further description of the project.
Just last December, the studio announced it was suspending work on its in-progress Project Victoria, and scaling down another in-development game, Project Bifrost. Prior to that in April, it announced it would be cancelling Project Dagger, which was supposed to be an action-adventure title in partnership with Take-Two interactive.
That still leaves People Can Fly with eight total projects in the works that we know of, including the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day in partnership with The Coalition. We don’t have a release date on that one yet, though the Square Enix partnership game, Project Gemini, was last known to be due out in 2026.
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.
Zynga has announced that it will be shutting down servers for the free-to-play shooter Star Wars: Hunters on 1st October 2025.
In a blog post shared on the official website, the developer shared that “We understand this news may be disappointing and want to assure you that this decision was not made lightly. Your passion and dedication to the game and its community have meant the world to us…”, confirming what would be coming to the game.
Hey, everybody! Sid, O’Dell, Tim, and Brett are back this week to discuss MLB The Show 25 early access, including an interview with San Diego Studio Gameplay Director Chris Gill. The crew also swaps Monster Hunter Wilds stories and highlights this week’s news.
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.]
Sony and game developer Santa Monica Studio have revealed the Dark Odyssey collection, a God of War Ragnarök update coming to players next week that features in-game equipment themed after one of the franchise’s most iconic outfits.
Sony detailed all of the goodies included in its God of War 20th anniversary plans in a PlayStation.Blog post. Dark Odyssey is the real headline here, as it includes a war chest of cosmetic treats for all God of War Ragnarök owners across PlayStation 5 and PC. It’ll arrive as a free update March 20.
Everything included in Dark Odyssey features a clean, black-and-gold look that will no doubt have Kratos and co looking better than ever as they tear their way through Norse mythology. Atreus and Freya both receive their own cosmetic sets as part of the patch, too, as do a variety of the player’s shields and weapons.
The show-stealer, though, is a Dark Odyssey appearance and armor set for Kratos that hearkens back to a skin originally only rewarded to players who managed to beat God of War 2 on God Mode difficulty. Players can claim the content in any Lost Items chest in the base game or immediately in God of War Ragnarök’s roguelike Valhalla mode after the update drops. The patch will also finally introduce the option to customize the appearance of Kratos’ weapons without sacrificing each weapon’s respective ability.
Dark Odyssey Armor & Appearance for Kratos
Dark Odyssey Kratos Appearance
Dark Odyssey Armor Set for Kratos (Dark Odyssey Breastplate, Dark Odyssey Bracers, Dark Odyssey Belt)
Dark Odyssey Companion Armor
Dark Odyssey Vestment for Atreus
Dark Odyssey Witch Frock for Freya
Dark Odyssey Weapon Appearances & Attachments
Dark Odyssey Leviathan Axe [Appearance] & Dark Odyssey Knob [Attachment]
Dark Odyssey Blades of Chaos [Appearance] & Dark Odyssey Handles [Attachment]
Dark Odyssey Draupnir Spear [Appearance] & Dark Odyssey Hind [Attachment]
Dark Odyssey Shield Appearances & Rönd
Dark Odyssey Guardian Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Dauntless Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Stone Wall Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Shatter Start Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Onslaught Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Spartan Aspis Shield [Appearance]
Dark Odyssey Rönd
God of War Ragnarök released in late 2022, so one simple update was never going to do the series’ 20-year history justice. Also included in Sony’s plans to celebrate God of War is a long list of other activities and offers for those who have stuck with Kratos’ story since the beginning. Highlights include a collection of some snazzy social media assets (that you can download here), an art showcase coming as part of a collaboration with Los Angeles’ Gallery Nucleus, new merch, sales, multiple vinyl releases covering the franchise’s history, and more.
“On behalf of everyone at Santa Monica Studio, we are immeasurably grateful to have had the chance to build the legacy of this series with and for you, the fans of God of War,” the studio said.
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).
Easter eggs and secret messages are old hat for many ongoing games, and Helldivers 2 is no stranger to them either. So it’s little surprise that amid an ongoing, calamitous conflict with the Illuminate, players are poring over the messages for hidden details.
If you’re not caught up with the running narrative in Helldivers 2, here’s a quick catch-up: developer Arrowhead has the Illuminate back and pushing the lines of galactic warfare as the latest threat to Super Earth. The eerie foe is using a massive black hole to slowly consume entire planets, pushing it to Angel’s Venture and, now, Moradesh.
Ironically, the black hole was initially created on Meridian by Super Earth, in an effort to wipe out a Terminid Super Colony. Arrowhead’s got a particular penchant for “yes, and”-ing the outcomes of the galactic campaigns. The slow build to right now, with the Illuminate pretty much pushing a black hole slowly towards Super Earth, is the latest in a long line of dominoes.
So, now we’re here: Moradesh is evacuating, and Helldivers are anticipating the next step of this cataclysmic campaign. Yet some are digging into the evacuation orders, trying to suss out a hidden meaning from the messages Arrowhead is broadcasting.
Reddit user Pinglyadya shared an image of what looks like an egg, hidden in the Moradesh videos. In the comments, they go further, breaking down the potential morse code strings into dots and dashes, surmising that it all results in a few different codes: “045a5, 06efbc, e1b5f0 then 21232. We don’t know what this is the code to but have fun.”
The “06EFBC” code caught attention in another thread, as it could correspond with the hex code for a shade of teal called Last Straw. Sounds ominous! Nothing concrete has surfaced beyond that, but at least a few fans are convinced there’s something hidden in these messages.
It wouldn’t be the first time players have gone diving for secrets in Arrowhead’s updates. With the Meridian Singularity slowly approaching Super Earth, though, I do wonder whether Helldivers have time to spare for this.
Arrowhead has, since the destruction of Moradesh, issued a new Major Order for players, tasking them with defending planets so Super Earth can construct a Penrose Energy Siphon and effect a “one-time reduction” in Dark Energy Accumulation.
MAJOR ORDER: Following days of diligent resource collection and repurposing of enemy combatants, the Helldivers have enabled the construction of a partial blockade of the Meridian Singularity. The blockade is porous, but still moderately effective, and has slightly reduced the… pic.twitter.com/ye33V6VKa6
Hopefully, this can put a stop to the giant tear in space that’s slowly encroaching on everything the Helldivers hold dear. And, possibly, put a few more secret messages out into the ether.
This is all part of Helldivers 2’s ongoing, community driven Galactic War, which has captured the attention of the game’s community for over a year now. The Illuminate invaded in December with an initial alien force that added new enemies to fight against as well as brand new Super Earth colonies to fight on. These colonies introduced Helldivers 2’s first urban environments, with city streets packed with innocent civilians mind-controlled by the Illuminate. The Voteless, as they’re called by Super Earth, are little more than zombies who want nothing more than to team players limb from limb.
