With several Disco Elysium spiritual successors in the works from former staff, controversy regarding the exits of key team members behind the beloved RPG, and an in-development expansion cancelled, you might have been wondering what Studio ZA/UM will do next. Well, that answer is here. In a recent presentation held for the press, ZA/UM revealed a first look at their next game. It’s called C4 and it’s about espionage.
Now that’s an Odyssey.
No matter how hard you went on the MAR10 Day celebrations yesterday, we’d wager that you probably didn’t put as much effort into marking the occasion as Guillaume Lazert, a French fan who embarked on a two-day, 110km (68 miles) trip just to draw Mario’s face (thanks, NME).
You see, Lazert is a self-professed “GPS artist”, whose canvas is the walking app Strava and whose paint is… uhh, walking. By tracking his routes around Paris, Lazert has previously etched out images of the Eiffel Tower and an outline of France, but, for a MAR10 Day special, he decided to focus on something a little more gamey.
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Despite requiring players to sign NDAs to prevent details of EA’s upcoming untitled Battlefield game leaking online, it leaked online anyway, with dozens of video and screenshots popping up, showing off what players participating in the game’s closed playtesting have been up to.
As we reported when the leaks surfaced, the footage seems to confirm the “modern” setting previously teased by Vince Zampella, distinguishing it from other Battlefield games. A quick scroll through the Battlefield subreddit gives us plenty of firefights, as well as a taste of the game’s destructible environments and a handful of new mechanics, including the ability to hang off vehicles and dragging wounded teammates out of harm’s way.
Perhaps most surprising of all, however, is EA is seemingly doing very little to combat the leaks.
Most publishers are fiercely protective of leaked early footage as pre-release gameplay can feature incomplete animations, unfinished UI, and less-than-stellar graphics. This time, however — despite the fact players are breaking confidentiality agreements by uploading videos or screenshots — EA has yet to issue takedowns.
Perhaps that’s because, unlike Battlefield 2042’s lukewarm reception, fans seem pretty pleased with what they’ve seen so far.
“I am scared to say that but this game is shaping up very damn well. I hope there are no catches…” said one player, with another adding: “The animations of the weapons moving around while running / doing anything look better than 2042 to me.”
“Dude, even in a pre-alpha state, the explosions, bullets, and projectiles whizzing by, buildings crumbling down, dust kicking up. This has so much potential!” exclaimed another happy player.
“I can’t get over how good the sounds and the destruction look at alpha,” opined someone else.
EA expects its next Battlefield game to launch in the fiscal year 2026, which means we’ll see it released sometime between April 2025 and March 2026. From our first official unveiling just last month, we now know the new Battlefield will include the return of a traditional, single-player, linear campaign, which has been welcome news to players disappointed it was excluded in the multiplayer Battlefield 2042.
Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
The first enemy I encounter in the Steam demo for Songs Of Rats is a giant golem, encased in fridge-thick armour with fists the size of fridges and a thousand-fridge stare. If RPGs are good at anything, it’s making numbers scary. To wit: The battle golem has 40 health, and I have a nerf crossbow with pretensions that does one entire damage. I manage to do two entire damage, and he downs me in two hits.
This may well be what it feels like for a real life rat to fight a real life fridge, and in that, Songs Of Rats earns its name. The intro is all 80s cheese meets a desperate melancholy bolstered by bleak and bitty retro-futurist visuals. It’s also very pen n’ paper, down to losing health if you don’t have enough food and the limited action points you have to spend each day on exploration.
A trailer for you. It took some digging, I tell you. A certain other song about rats has monopoly on the search term.
Drawing inspiration from Vangelis, Ghibli & more.
Earthblade, the next game from Celeste developer Extremely OK Games, was sadly cancelled earlier this year following what studio founder Maddy Thorson described as “a disagreement about the IP rights of Celeste”. We only got a very small taste of what this follow-up would offer — a Game Awards reveal trailer and the odd blog post — but now composer Lena Raine has shared a “concept album” of her work on the project and, expectedly, it sounds beautiful (thanks, Eurogamer).
‘EARTHBLADE ~ Across the Bounds of Fate’ is now available to listen to and buy on Bandcamp. It consists of nine brand new tracks, both “conceptual and implemented”, which Raine hopes will tell her own version of the game, and draws inspiration from the likes of Vangelis, Joe Hisaishi’s work on Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Yoko Kanno’s Cowboy Bebop score.
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We all know what’s coming up in The Last of Us season 2, right? I mean, everyone knows what happens quite early on in the game, because it was a pretty controversial narrative choice so everyone and their mum has spoiled it. I haven’t played it myself and I know what happens, but it seems like streaming service Max is happy to pretend that everything is peaches and cream (more or less) in their adaptation.
A new trailer for The Last of Us season 2 dropped over the weekend that is full of drama and light on spoilers, which is why I’m staying quiet too, but it has been funny watching all of these trailers knowing that they’re lying just a little bit.
A leaked internal video has revealed Sony is experimenting with AI-powered PlayStation characters.
The Verge reported on the emergence of an internal video allegedly created by PlayStation Studios’ advanced technology group that uses Aloy from the Horizon games to demonstrate AI-powered game characters.
The video was subsequently pulled from YouTube following a copyright claim from Muso, an internet enforcement company The Verge said lists Sony Interactive Entertainment as a client. This suggests the video is legitimate. IGN has asked Sony for comment.
In the video, as reported by The Verge, Sony Interactive Entertainment director of software engineering, Sharwin Raghoebardajal, has a conversation with an AI-powered Aloy via voice prompts and AI-generated speech and facial animations.
The speech recognition is via OpenAI’s Whisper for speech-to-text, the conversational AI via GPT-4 and Llama 3 for dialogue and decision-making, the speech synthesis via Sony’s Emotional Voice Synthesis (EVS) system, and the facial animation via Sony’s Mockingbird technology.
In the tech demo, Raghoebardajal asks Aloy how she’s doing, to which she responds: “Hello, I’m managing alright. Just dealing with a sore throat. How have you been?”
The voice heard coming from Aloy’s mouth is not that of voice actor Ashly Burch, who famously plays the character in the video games. Rather, it is a robotic voice similar to the kind you get from any of the thousands of text-to-speech voice generators used to narrate social media posts. AI Aloy’s facial movements are stiff and her eyes appear lifeless as she converses with Raghoebardajal.
When asked how Aloy’s search for her mother is going, she replies: “I discovered I’m a clone of Dr. Elizabeth Sobeck, which led me to understand my purpose and origins.”
How does it feel to be a clone? “Being a clone feels unique, connecting me to the past while allowing me to create my own path and future,” Aloy replies.
The demo then transitions into the actual Horizon Forbidden West game world, and Raghoebardajal continues the conversation while playing the game. It’s slightly jarring to see the player converse with a character they’re in control of, and the irony of using Aloy as an AI-powered PlayStation character given the plot of the Horizon games is obvious.
The demo is described as a prototype developed with the help of Horizon studio Guerrilla Games to show off the tech internally at Sony. “This is just a glimpse of what is possible,” Raghoebardajal says in the video. And while the video shows an investment from Sony in the exploration of AI-powered PlayStation characters, it’s worth noting the company has yet to confirm plans to incorporate the tech into any public-facing PlayStation product, and there is no suggestion it would even be possible with PS5 games at this stage.
But it perhaps comes as little surprise to see Sony’s work behind the scenes here, given pretty much all its competitors in the video game space are working on AI tech of some description. Indeed, Xbox maker Microsoft is all-in on AI, and recently announced an AI called Muse designed to generate ideas for a game’s design.
Generative AI is one of the hottest topics within the video game and entertainment industries, which have both suffered massive layoffs in recent years. Generative AI thus far has drawn criticism from players and creators due to a mix of ethical issues, rights issues, and AI’s struggles to produce content audiences actually enjoy. For instance, Keywords Studios attempted to create an experimental game internally using entirely AI. The game failed, with Keywords citing to investors that AI was “unable to replace talent.”
EA said in September that AI was “the very core” of its business, and more recently Capcom said it was experimenting with generative AI to create the “hundreds of thousands” of ideas needed for in-game environments.
Head of PlayStation Productions and head of product at PlayStation Studios Asad Qizilbash weighed in on AI to say its use in video games is important to Gen Z and Gen Alpha gamers who seek “personalization across everything.”
“For instance, non-player characters in games could interact with players based on their actions, making it feel more personal,” Qizilbash said. “This is important for the younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, who are the first generations that grew up digitally and are looking for personalization across everything, as well as looking for experiences to have more meaning.”
Activision recently admitted the use of generative AI for some Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 assets amid a backlash to an “AI slop” zombie Santa loading screen.
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.
Expect more “over the next year”.
A lot of classic video games are coming up on major milestones and anniversaries, and one of them happens to be Square Enix’s legendary 1995 RPG Chrono Trigger.
Today actually happens to be the game’s 30th anniversary since its initial Super Famicom and SNES release and to mark this special occasion, Square Enix has announced it is planning a variety of projects over the next year which will apparently go “beyond the world of the game”. This comes from a translation via the official company and game social media accounts. Here it is in full:
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Hunters, the time to start your expedition to the Forbidden Lands on PS5 is nearly here! To get ready for the hunt, we’ve got one more trailer to share, giving you a look at the game’s compelling narrative as well as revealing the new Monster Hunter Wilds rendition of “Proof of a Hero.”
Monster Hunter Wilds aims to deliver a satisfying story campaign from start to finish that puts your hunter in the center of an ecological mystery, all set in the seemingly uncharted Forbidden Lands. As the lead hunter of the Expedition Team’s Avis Unit, you’ll unravel a mysterious quest full of danger, compelling characters, and a fully realized world brings you face to face with a long-forgotten threat. Your hunter, who’s fully voiced for the first time in the series, will perform heroic feats and hunt seemingly unstoppable monsters in the Guild’s quest to bring balance to an unstable ecosystem.
Whether you’re a newcomer looking for a new story adventure to experience or a Monster Hunter series veteran with many hunts under your belt, we hope you’ll enjoy the ride that Monster Hunter Wilds will take you on!
In case you missed it, have one more look at our launch trailer, which gives you a look at the exciting hunts on the horizon. It also shares a peek at the game’s first Free Title Update, which introduces the graceful leviathan Mizutsune to the Forbidden Lands.
Each of the locales in Monster Hunter Wilds features a powerful apex predator that reigns at the top of the ecosystem. These four monsters, Rey Dau, Uth Duna, Nu Udra, and Jin Dahaad – all brand new to the series – are shaped by the harsh environments around them, and present unique challenges for hunters.
The game’s flagship monster with chain-like appendages, Arkveld, plays a vital role in the game’s story. Although some of you have already hunted Arkveld in the second Open Beta Test, there’s still plenty more to discover and learn about the monster they call “The White Wraith.”
It wouldn’t be a Monster Hunter game without the return of some series favorites. Expect to take on monsters from the series history, all of which have new behavior and twists in the vast and unique world of Monster Hunter Wilds. If you’re a veteran, we hope these encounters find a way to keep you on your toes!
Experience the most refined action in the Monster Hunter series to date, with a new Focus Mode that adds further depth to each weapon and allows you to aim and reposition your attacks, letting you set up devastating Focus Strikes to destroy wounds on monsters. It’s all set in a truly seamless world across multiple locales that are bigger than any in series history, and where loading screens are kept to a minimum.
To traverse this world, hop on the back of your trusty Seikret mount. Its ability to quickly navigate perilous terrain, avoid monster attacks, and store helpful items and even a second weapon you can switch to, will all prove key to your hunts in the Forbidden Lands.
And of course, there’s a compelling cast of characters to meet, from your handler, Alma, the smithy, Gemma, the mysterious young boy Nata, and more, we hope you look forward to meeting your fellow members the Forbidden Lands Expedition Team, all with their distinct personalities, backstories, and motivations for embarking on this quest.
If you’ve played the recent Open Beta Test, thanks for joining the hunt! The team has been working hard on the final game to implement adjustments and improvements based on your feedback. The full version of Monster Hunter Wilds features adjustments to hitstop to make your attacks feel more impactful, significant changes to weapons – like bringing back the Insect Glaive’s Vaulting Dance – improvements to performance, and much more.
Speaking of performance, in the full game, Hunters on PS5 can choose from three graphical modes: Prioritize Resolution at 30 FPS, Balanced mode at 40 FPS – great for players with displays capable of outputting 120hz, and a Prioritize Framerate mode which delivers smooth gameplay at 60 FPS.
If you’re looking to get even more immersed into Monster Hunter Wilds, we’re happy to share that the game will be PS5 Pro enhanced, leveraging the system’s advanced Ray Tracing capabilities and PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) for improved visuals and performance. Prioritize Resolution and Balanced mode display visuals with raytracing at 30 FPS and 40 FPS respectively, while Prioritize Framerate delivers smooth gameplay at 60 FPS. All three modes benefit from PSSR with improved image quality, so choose the one that meets your preference!
With 20 years of Monster Hunter behind us, we want to share our thanks to our partners at PlayStation, and you: the PlayStation community! With the launch of Monster Hunter Wilds on February 28, we mark the start of a new beginning. And launch doesn’t signal the end, as the hunt will continue to evolve with new free content on the way.
We can’t wait to embark on this journey with you all. We hope you enjoy exploring everything the Forbidden Lands has to offer.
See you in the Wilds and happy hunting!
Online multiplayer in the full version requires a PlayStation Plus subscription. Broadband Internet access is required.
Microsoft could be testing the waters…
The Switch 2 is just around the corner and according to a new report it could be joined by a new Xbox handheld “later in 2025”.
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