Available now.
Aspyr has announced that a new update is now available for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered, introducing a handful of improvements to both titles.
The patch notes below include indicators showing which game each fix belongs to, with a couple of generic improvements included at the bottom. It looks like the first game has received the most love here, but your experience should be improved across both entries regardless.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Foundation is a grid-less, laidback medieval city-building game with a focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management.
*Offer ends February 7 at 10AM Pacific Time
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! In this weekly feature we cover all the games coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, the Xbox app for Windows PC, and Game Pass! Get more details on these upcoming games below and click their profiles for further info (release dates subject to change). Let’s jump in!
Soft Not Weak, LLC
Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To – February 3
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Samar is a young witch working the spirit-swapping night shift in the eastern outskirts of Demashq. A recent spike in spirits crossing over from another dimension breaks the chill atmosphere of their night shift, so with her trusty familiarZ by her side, she sets off into the city to find out what’s happened. With a popular band scheduled to kick off their big comeback tour in Demashq, Samar needs to work quickly before the city is overrun with stans and spirits alike!
Ocean Media
Mystery Box: The Journey – February 4
Welcome to the fourth chapter of the “Mystery Box” series with 10 new boxes full of enigmas to crack that are waiting for you on this journey through lost worlds.
Tripwire Interactive LLC
Rogue Waters – February 4
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery / Xbox Play Anywhere
Rogue Waters is a tactical, turn-based rogue-lite – with pirates! Lead Captain Cutter and their crew through procedurally generated encounters for revenge. Recruit, train, and upgrade crew, harness sea creatures, and engage in naval and melee combat to succeed.
Xitilon
Journey of Johann: Grasslands – February 5
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
Journey of Johann is an action-adventure platformer with puzzle elements. Make your way through levels and a boss with different challenges and obstacles. Collect goblets, secrets and beat time trials. Use your weapons as tools such as climbing, blocking hits, and defeating enemies. The game was designed with speedrunning in mind.
Eastasiasoft Limited
Mechanita – February 5
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Embark on a steampunk adventure in Mechanita, a side-scrolling platformer with challenging pixel art stages! Guide a goggled heroine through 50 increasingly complex levels.
Afil Games
Mimi the Cat – Meow Together – February 5
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
A charming puzzle game that blends cuteness and strategy into a relaxing and fun experience. Play solo or in local co-op mode to help the kittens solve puzzles and find their cozy beds.
Old School Vibes
Punch Monk – February 5
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
Punch Monk is a challenging puzzle game with 50 phases of incremental progression. As players advance, new mechanics are introduced, increasing the game’s complexity.
Nacon
Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator – February 6
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
Ambulance Life: A Paramedic Simulator lets you experience a paramedic’s life. Your goal is to reach accident sites quickly, care for the injured, and provide first aid. Each case is unique, requiring you to adapt and make swift, effective decisions.
Dear Villagers
Big Helmet Heroes – February 6
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
Explore the engaging world of Big Helmet Heroes, a 3D beat ’em up that merges combat and adventure. Discover 29 unique heroes concealed within various kingdoms, and select your preferred characters to embark on a quest to rescue the princess. You can play solo or with a companion as you strive to conquer the significant challenges ahead.
Yellow Dot
Let’s Cook Together 2 – February 6
Embark on a gripping cooperative journey to save the planet and its food from the regime of Nutri Inc. – a powerful group of zero waste maniacs seeking to turn life on Earth into a tasteless dystopia. Become an Ohmie – member of Weldon Ohm’s resistance movement seeking to liberate the world from Nutri Inc’s food and mind control.
TrampolineTales
Luck be a Landlord – February 6
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Your landlord is banging on the door. You have a single coin left to your name. You insert the coin into your slot machine and… Jackpot!! Luck be a Landlord, tonight! Collect symbols, build synergies, and defeat capitalism in this cult classic roguelike deck builder – now on consoles by popular demand.
Dr. Kucho! Games & Astrolabe Games
Moons of Darsalon – February 6
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Teams of darsanauts got lost on Darsalon’s moons during mining missions. You must lead them to the nearest base station, where they will follow your commands using their AI. Protect them from dangers and enemies with your laser gun, jet pack, and vehicles. Use the ground maker gun to destroy terrain and create new paths.
Nejcraft
Spacepunk Survival – February 6
A multiplayer first-person shooter where players and their teammates must survive in the dark and hostile environment of the Iapetus Station, a former laboratory now inhabited by alien creatures. Featuring retro graphics, Spacepunk references notable sci-fi and retrofuturistic works from the past.
Clear River Games
Under Defeat – February 6
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
Under Defeat is a classic game developed by G.rev, originally released in Japanese arcades nearly twenty years ago. It later came to various platforms, including the Dreamcast. The 2024 edition is the ultimate version, featuring all previous content and expertly ported by industry veterans.
Desert Water Games
Bomb Bowling X – February 7
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
Bomb Bowling X is a casual retro game where you need to help a cute cat in a superhero cape win at Bomb Bowling. It has only a few bomb charges, as well as bowling balls, basketballs and your skill and ingenuity. Armed with the laws of physics and your own ingenuity, bring down the full power of your “striking” skill on the pins!
Brainium Games
In the vibrant world of Beeflandia, our hero Beef Cat and his friends always know how to celebrate the good times. But when a mysterious Big Guy shows up and stirs up trouble, everything changes. The peaceful vibes are over and it’s time for a new kind of adventure!
Jollypunch Games
Fly Punch Boom! – February 7
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Engage in intense combat with your friends where the stakes are astronomical. Collide with skyscrapers, marine giants, and asteroids to gain the upper hand, pursue them relentlessly, and execute extraordinary special moves. The focus is on the exhilaration of strategic confrontation.
Short N Sweet
Holyhunt – February 7
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
A roguelike shooter game that unites the nostalgic and fun 8-bit aesthetic with modern and deep shooting mechanics. Make your way into the church hall to shoot and dash-holy-punch through different species of demons and bosses with unique mechanics that keeps challenging your abilities each run.
Happy Player
Idle Devils – February 7
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S
Idle Devils is a strategic placement game. You can choose devils to cultivate and conquer new female demons, ultimately saving the Demon World and becoming the Demon King. The game features rich roles, skills, and equipment systems.
RISING MOON GAMES
Loot Stack – Relics Hunter – February 7
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
In this relaxing game, your ability to optimize inventory space will be put to the test. Each relic has a unique shape and its own challenges to fit, making the gameplay experience both challenging and rewarding. Relish the sense of achievement as you uncover hidden items and refine your strategy to collect all the available treasures.
Lucky Raccoon Games
Spot Challenge Vol. 2 – February 7
A game series inspired by the classic “Spot the Differences,” where you need to compare two images and identify the differences between them. With over 330 differences spread across 35 levels, will you be able to find them all?
Ratalaika Games S.L.
Sugoro Quest: Dice Heroes – February 7
Optimized for Xbox Series X|S / Smart Delivery
Roll the dice and fight! Sugoro Quest: The Quest of Dice Heroes comes to the West for the first time! This is a board game-style turn-based RPG where dice will decide your fate! The story begins in the kingdom of Siland, where four adventurers set out to talk to the king in search of intrepid adventures. Each adventure is different, so be sure to choose the most suitable member for each journey.
The post Next Week on Xbox: New Games for February 3 to 7 appeared first on Xbox Wire.
The developer of Civilization 7 has explained why it strongly recommends even veteran Civ players stick with the tutorial for their first full campaign.
In a post on Steam, Ed Beach, creative director at Firaxis Games, offered his tips for your first game of Civilization 7.
“Civilization 7 is a big game, with many new systems and mechanics that differentiate it from earlier games in our series,” he began. “There’s a lot to learn, so we felt that it was important that we provide some suggestions to ensure everyone has a successful first experience.”
This is a reference to Civilization 7’s Ages system, which is a drastic change for the long-running strategy series. A full campaign in Civilization 7 is one that goes through all three Ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern. Once the Age is completed, all players (and any AI opponents) experience an Age Transition simultaneously. During an Age Transition, three things happen: you select a new civilization from the new Age to represent your empire, you choose which Legacies you want to retain in the new Age, and the game world evolves. The Civilization games have never had such a system.
Beach then explained why Firaxis chose Small as the default map size for Civilization 7.
“We know that many veteran Civ players love to play on the largest map size and see the maximum number of empires battle it out,” he said. “However, there’s a very deliberate reason that we chose Small as the default map size. With three other empires on your home continent, and a few more to discover later in the game, Small Maps make for a very comfortable experience while you are learning the ins and outs of Civ 7.
“We especially recommend this map size as you get your feet wet with our new Diplomacy system. Tracking your relationship and ongoing diplomatic activities with a manageable number of opponents makes it way easier to get the hang of how you want to spend and manage your Diplomatic Influence.
“We also recommend sticking with Continents Plus for your Map Type selection. The extra islands just off-shore help ease you into the ocean exploration – a key element of the Exploration Age, the second chapter of our game.”
As for the Tutorial and Advisors, Beach confirmed that when you launch into your first game of Civilization 7, it turns the Tutorial on for you. He also strongly recommended Civ pros play with the Tutorial on, at least for their first full game.
“The Tutorial is designed to provide tips and explanations exactly when you first encounter something new,” Beach explained.
“Fans experienced with earlier Civ titles may scoff at the idea of playing with the Tutorial on, but with so many of our game systems having received upgrades and revisions, we really do recommend sticking with the Tutorial for your first full campaign through our three Ages.
“Keep in mind that the game has four different Advisors, and you can control which ones are actively leading you through a series of quests to teach you their portion of the game. If it’s too much to take in all at once, we suggest listening to only a single Advisor at a time.”
Even after you’ve mastered enough systems to turn the tutorial off, you should switch to the setting Only Warnings, Beach recommended.
“This setting allows these same Advisors to jump in and warn you if your empire’s progress is about to undergo a major setback,” he said. “Even our internal team at Firaxis that knows this game so well plays with these warnings enabled!”
Overnight, Firaxis unveiled Civilization 7’s post-launch roadmap as part of a special livestream event (Great Britain has been relegated to DLC). Civilization 7 itself launches on PC via Steam, on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S on February 11, although the more expensive Deluxe Edition grants access from February 6.
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.
Following layoffs at BioWare that saw the exit of many key developers of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, one former writer on the series has moved to reassure fans by saying: “DA isn’t dead because it’s yours now.”
This week, EA restructured BioWare to focus on Mass Effect 5 only. Some who worked on Dragon Age: The Veilguard were moved to projects at other EA studios. Some revealed they were laid off and were now seeking work.
The decision followed EA’s announcement that Dragon Age: The Veilguard had underperformed on its expectations for the long-awaited action RPG. EA said Dragon Age “engaged” 1.5 million players during its recent financial quarter, which was down nearly 50% from the company’s projections.
Notably, EA did not say the 1.5 million number was unit sales (Dragon Age: The Veilguard was also available as a part of EA’s Play Pro subscription service). Additionally, it’s not clear whether EA is counting a free trial of the game that was available through the cheaper EA Play subscription in the 1.5 million number either.
Either way, EA’s announcement, its restructure of BioWare, and confirmation of layoffs have combined to create the sense within the Dragon Age fandom that the series is pretty much dead. There is no DLC planned for The Veilguard, and BioWare’s work on the game came to an end last week with what sounded like its last major update.
But Dragon Age: The Veilguard senior writer Sheryl Chee, who was moved from BioWare to Iron Man and Battlefield developer Motive, took to social media to offer words of hope.
“I’m now with Motive,” Chee began. “It’s been a hard two years seeing my team get chipped away and having to still keep going. But I’m still employed, so there’s that.”
Then, in response to a fan who lamented the death of Dragon Age, Chee replied to say the series now belongs to the fans who will keep it alive with their own contributions.
“So a cool French woman dropped a cool quote from Camus on me today: ‘In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.’ (I mean, who does resistance like the French, right?) We’re going through it right now. It’s a lot, everywhere…
“But DA isn’t dead. There’s fic. There’s art. There’s the connections we made through the games and because of the games. Technically EA/BioWare owns the IP but you can’t own an idea, no matter how much they want to.
“DA isn’t dead because it’s yours now.”
Then: “So someone just reposted my thing saying they’ll write a giant AU and that’s what I’m talking about. If DA has inspired you to do something, if it sparks that Invincible summer, then it’s done it’s job, and it has been my greatest honor to have been a part of that.”
Dragon Age began life with 2010’s Dragon Age: Origins, which was followed up just a year later by Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age: Inquisition released three years later, in 2014. But it took a decade for the latest sequel, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, to come out.
In September, former Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah, who left BioWare in 2020, revealed that Dragon Age Inquisition had sold over 12 million copies, and “massively” oversold EA’s internal projections for the game.
EA has yet to outright say Dragon Age is dead, but it’s hard to see a new game in the series any time soon, if ever, given what’s happened to BioWare itself and the full focus on Mass Effect 5. As for Mass Effect, EA said a “core team” at BioWare is developing the next Mass Effect game under the leadership of veterans from the original trilogy, including Mike Gamble, Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, Parrish Ley, and others. “While we’re not sharing numbers, the studio has the right number of people in the right roles to work on Mass Effect at this stage of development,” EA told IGN.
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.
Spider-Man 2 on PC was shaping up to be surprisingly performant once its system requirements were revealed. However, the Nixxes-developed port has debuted to a ‘mixed’ Steam user review rating, with many players complaining about technical issues.
Currently, 55% of Spider-Man 2’s Steam reviews are positive. “Despite having a high-end GPU and running the latest Nvidia drivers (5.66.36), the game frequently crashes,” said one RTX 4090 user. Another read: “The game is completely unplayable on PC. The game crashes to desktop every five minutes. I have already requested a refund.”
“Hold off on buying until they get a couple of stabilization patches out because holy hell,” one reviewer added. “To say this is ‘rough’ is an understatement. Lighting doesn’t load in some cutscenes, those same scenes run at seconds-per-frame, audio desync issues up the wazoo, freezing, stuttering, and just about every other performance issue I can think of.
“I’m gonna get a refund for now because frankly, there’s other stuff I could use $70 for right now.”
The main issue appears to be that the game’s graphics controller crashes frequently, even with users on higher-end PCs. According to one reviewer, the error reads: “A problem has occurred with your display driver. This can be caused by out of date drivers, using game settings higher than your GPU can handle, an overheating GPU, or an error with the game. Please try updating your graphics drivers, or lowering your in-game settings.”
Other users have complained that features like DLSS and ray tracing are not working properly, while others have mentioned long loading times, missing textures, and audio issues.
Several players alleged that performance can also stutter after several hours of gameplay, before leading to a hard crash. Some believe a memory leak could cause the problems.
Nixxes has responded to the reported crashes on the Steam forums, stating to one user: “Sorry to hear you are experiencing issues.
“Please refer to the troubleshooting guides on the Nixxes Support website and contact us if the problem persists. Make sure to include your logs and crash dumps as outlined on the support website, so we can troubleshoot as quickly as possible.”
Additionally, Nixxes was made aware of other bugs that can occur during the photo-op missions in Spider-Man 2. “We are aware of a bug that can occur if your framerate is very low during this scene (below 20 FPS). As a workaround, try lowering your graphics settings and or resolution to pass this point.”
Sayem is a freelancer based in the UK, covering tech & hardware. You can get in touch with him at @sayem.zone on Bluesky.
Launching next week.
Developer Bombservice and publisher PLAYISM have announced that Momodora: Moonlit Farewell will be launching on the Nintendo Switch eShop on 6th February 2025.
Serving as a sequel to the excellent Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight (which we awarded a coveted score of 9/10), Moonlit Farewell carries over the same stunning pixel-art visuals and fast-paced metroidvania action teeming with awesome boss fights.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket received its Space Time Smackdown expansion yesterday, January 30, and players have expressed shock and heartbreak at one specific card’s artwork that depicts a particularly brutal scene for Pokémon.
The card in question is Weavile ex, and while this comes in three separate forms, it’s the 2 Star full art card that has fans in an uproar. In the artwork, below, a group of Weavile are hiding in the treetops with claws at the ready, preparing to prey on an innocent Swinub.
“No Swinub,” look up! Look up!” reads a Reddit post featuring the artwork with nearly 10,000 upvotes. “Always got to be one card per set that shows Pokémon in the process of straight up killing each other,” one user replied. “Leave the lil guy alone,” said another.
“The ecology of Pokémon is always so crazy to imagine,” another fan added. “Like these are still animals, some smarter than others. Just they have the ability to fire laser beams.”
Some are choosing to believe the full art card for Mamoswine, the final evolution of Swinub, depicts a happy ending though, as it shows the mammoth pocket monster looking up while protecting a handful of Swinub.
“Hey, Mamoswine protected his baby. Don’t worry. He most definitely saw those Weaviles,” said one desperate fan. “The Mamoswine alt card already looks above. He saw them. He saw…” said another.
Space Time Smackdown arrived as a Pokémon Diamond and Pearl themed set bringing the likes of Weavile and Mamoswine alongside Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, and more. It includes a total of 207 cards and is therefore significantly smaller than Genetic Apex’s 286. That being said, 52 of these are the alternate art, Star and Crown rarity cards, and as Genetic Apex had 60 of these, there is a higher percentage of rare pieces to collect.
Creatures Inc. still hasn’t commented on the controversial trading update which arrived the day before, with its social media accounts and the game itself only really focusing on Space Time Smackdown. It also failed to respond to IGN’s request for comment.
A “Trade Feature Celebration Gift” did arrive with 500 Trade Tokens and 120 Trade Hourglasses (the former of which is enough to trade a single ex Pokémon), but the developer has otherwise remained quiet on fan complaints.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
The creator of frying pan simulator Arctic Eggs is working on a fishing game that I am certain will replicate the act of angling in an entirely ordinary and accurate fashion. Its approach to hooks, lines, and sinkers will combine the fishing from Animal Crossing, Sega Bass Fishing, and Webfishing, says developer The Water Museum in a post on Bluesky. It may have a splash of Dredge when it comes to inventory management too. Oh, also, a strange man might imply you are “disappointing someone”. Nothing to worry about. And the ocean may or may not turn completely red. These decisions have not been finalised. Everything is okay. It is possible the fish are safe to eat.
Cardy, Jesse, and Wes are here to go through some of Xbox’s most famous franchises, and rank each of them in tier lists based on which they enjoy the most. Is Halo still S-tier? Can Playground’s Fable return the series back to its Lionhead heights? Does anyone want a new Fuzion Frenzy? Some of these questions will be answered.
Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you’re enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
