The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered’s shadow-drop release on April 22 took the internet by storm, but indie developers who planned to launch their game on that same day were left reeling.

Jonas Antonsson, co-founder of indie publisher Raw Fury, took to social media to explain how “massive” shadow-drops from huge games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered can cause everything else coming out at the same time to get “buried.”

“I loved (when younger) and still absolutely love Oblivion and I’m personally excited to see it get a breath of new life and being introduced to a whole new generation of players,” Antonsson began.

“But from the perspective of indies and indie publishers, this is the problem with these sort of massive shadow drops. Everything more or least gets buried. We don’t have the cash nor muscle to throw around, so everything is carefully planned. Including when to release, based on other releases etc – to try to maximize the chances of getting attention.”

Antonsson then pointed to Red Soul Games’ Post Trauma, which Raw Fury published on April 22. It’s a puzzle horror game inspired by PS2 era classics where you “navigate environments, tackle threats, and meet other lost characters in the depths of the Gloom.”

“Love the game that dropped but feel the pain for our team and especially the developer we’ve worked with for years – who has poured his heart and soul into his game,” Antonsson said.

Raw Fury had tweeted sarcastically on April 22: “Thank god Post Trauma was the only notable release of today and nothing else happened!”

From Bethesda and parent company Microsoft’s point of video, the Oblivion Remastered shadow-drop has been a big success. The game enjoyed an impressive start on Steam, and it’s dominated online discussion as players celebrate the return of funny character faces, old bugs, and memes.

Even other games Microsoft itself has pushed hard in marketing terms are running up against Oblivion Remastered. This week, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 publisher Kepler Interactive acknowledged the ‘Barbenheimer’ energy of releasing the same week as Oblivion Remastered. Both games launched straight into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

As for Raw Fury, when it set the Post Trauma release date it couldn’t have known Oblivion Remastered was waiting to steal the show. It may gone down as just one of those things.

We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

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.

The original Tron has a particularly interesting place in pop culture, delivering the first movie about video games and the hidden worlds within computers. So it’s a wonder that the first film and its follow-ups still haven’t made that many forays into video games proper after more than four decades since the 1982 original. Thankfully, recent attempts from developer Bithell Games have done more to push the concept of Tron beyond just the imagery of speeding light cycles and fast-paced identity disc combat to offer more of a look into the inner machinations of the Grid.

With Tron: Catalyst, we have a new action game set within The Grid’s neon, grey-soaked setting to uncover a larger conspiracy involving the impending end of the computer world. There’s so much detail to admire that’s packed into Tron: Catalyst from my recent hands-on time, and with an interesting time-loop twist, it carries on the familiar Tron action from a new perspective.

Set after the events of both Tron: Legacy and Tron: Identity, you play as a courier program named Exo, who navigates the large megacity of the Arq Grid to complete her various routines. After discovering one of their packages was secretly a bomb which detonates while in the city, they’re subsequently framed and imprisoned. As she plans her escape, she discovers glitches in the Grid that allow her to roll back time, letting her take information and skills backward in the timeline to a recent point. With a plan set, she seeks out the real culprit of the attack to clear her name and foil a larger plot that will disrupt the foundations of the Arq Grid.

The previous Tron game that Bithell Games worked on was Tron: Identity, a visual novel-style adventure game. Catalyst carries many concepts from its predecessor, particularly its investigation and character interactions. Exo even rubs shoulders with some notable returning characters from Identity – such as the previous protagonist Query. However, Catalyst moves away from the static presentation of the visual novel and into fully explorable environments populated by programs, making sense of the uneasy presence of security programs patrolling the city.

In a similar vein to games like Death’s Door and Tunic, Tron: Catalyst has a balance between narrative-driven exploration and combat sequences within the larger city. As Exo, you’ll be able to interact with a set of other programs going about their time in the town, and when the investigative element kicks in, she can engage in combat, exploration, and rolling back time to overcome the odds.

The combat style in Catalyst does well to capture the sense of precision and patience when using the iconic identity discs, which double as a close-range melee weapon and a long-range projectile that can depress enemies. The combat mechanics, while fairly simple during this opening chunk of the game, offered some fun when it came to carefully taking out squads of security officers. A particularly fun moment I had was nailing a parry and then unleashing some strikes before throwing the disc to finish them off. That said, I am hoping for the combat to really open up properly as the story goes on, as the action sequences can feel a bit one-note after some time.

While exploring the city, Exo can summon her lightcycle to explore and whizz through the streets freely. But with the increased presence of Grid security, Exo is constantly under watch and can easily catch their attention, which launches a GTA-style manhunt for her. While you do have the run of the city, Catalyst is not an open-world game but rather uses its scale to present the different layers of exploration for its missions. Still, exploring the city on the lightcycle was very satisfying, especially taking in those slick Tron vibes.

Much like Identity, Catalyst is propped up by impressive writing that gives nuance to the various characters living in the Grid. As the investigation escalates, opening up new pathways to complete objectives, you can rewind to an earlier point to take a more optimal approach. These moments gave me the same feeling of being Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow, where I could do certain actions to learn some secret motives from characters holding back intel, or gain the upper hand in combat.

Tron: Catalyst certainly nails the look and feel of Tron, and it particularly captures the brighter and more visually alluring style of 2010’s Tron: Legacy. But what I found interesting about Catalyst’s style and storytelling was that its plot and focus on the inner society of the Grid scratch the same itch as the vastly underrated and short-lived series Tron: Uprising, which dealt with a similar storyline about programs within the Grid seeking to overcome an oppressive rule.

So far, Tron: Catalyst is an intriguing step in a different direction from Identity. While the latter game featured strong writing and plot, it lacked a more compelling package to contain its ideas, and I do like this upcoming turn with Tron: Catalyst that Bithell Games has in store. It’s more of a stylish, if modest, action game, but seeing Exo maneuver through the city and fight through the different battles reminded me of some of the more daring moments from the films and animated series. It’s always fun to see Tron showcase its rich and alluring world, which will build up throughout Catalyst’s dive into the world of the Grid.

With The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered going down well with fans, thoughts are now turning to which Bethesda game is set for the remaster treatment next. And with many speculating Fallout 3 is coming (it was leaked back in 2023), how might Bethesda improve upon its 2008 post-apocalyptic role-playing game?

Bruce Nesmith, one of Fallout 3’s designers, has pointed to the game’s “not good” gun combat, which he expects Bethesda would improve significantly for a remaster.

Speaking to VideoGamer, Nesmith said Fallout 3 Remastered would have shooting more in-line with that of Fallout 4.

“What did you see in Fallout 4? That will tell you what they felt was necessary to change from Fallout 3,” Nesmith said.

“I know in Fallout 4 there was a lot of work done on the gun combat, because Fallout 3 is the first time they ever tried to do a shooter-style game. And, well, I think the work that was done was amazing.”

Oblivion Remastered, developed by remake specialist Virtuos using Unreal Engine 5, has a long list of visual and feature improvements. It runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, as you’d expect, but other changes are more meaningful. Everything from the leveling systems to character creation, and combat animations to in-game menus have been improved. Meanwhile, there’s lots of new dialogue, a proper third-person view, and new lip sync technology. The changes are going down well with fans, some of whom believe Oblivion Remastered would be more accurately described as a remake. Bethesda, however, has explained why it went down the remaster route.

Nesmith said Fallout 3 Remastered would probably include improvements and changes along similar lines to Oblivion Remastered.

“[Fallout 3 combat] didn’t hold up to shooters at the time,” he said. “Also, it’s an RPG shooter, it’s not a run-and-gun shooter. But a lot of work was done on that for Fallout 4. So I anticipate seeing a lot of that work go into it, assuming they’re doing the same thing.”

“Oblivion wasn’t just brought up to the 2011 version of Skyrim,” he added. “It was brought up to something that, at least on the surface, looks like it exceeds the most recent graphics update in Skyrim.” Nesmith has said The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is so impressive it could be called “Oblivion 2.0.”

It’s a busy time for Bethesda, which is working on The Elder Scrolls VI and, maybe, more Starfield. Throw in remasters and ongoing work on Fallout 76 and the Fallout TV show, which is heading to New Vegas for Season 2, and fans are in for a treat in the coming years.

We’ve got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

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.

Nintendo has confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch 2 version will support cloud saves after all.

We already knew that the Nintendo Switch 2 was set to get special enhanced versions of several Switch 1 games, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but as IGN reported last week, a disclaimer had fans worrying that some games, or at least this one, wouldn’t support Nintendo’s cloud save functionality as they’d hope.

That’s because, initially, Nintendo’s pages for Tears of the Kingdom‘s Switch 2 edition carried the following disclaimer: “Please note: this software does not support the Nintendo Switch Online paid membership’s Save Data Cloud backup feature.”

Now, however, Nintendo has updated its website to provide more information. While Donkey Kong Bananza‘s page has since scrubbed all mention of cloud saves completely, Nintendo has revised the disclaimer on the Tears of the Kingdom page so it now states: “Save data created in the second save data slot in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition cannot be transferred to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on Nintendo Switch.”