Anyone up for a little shindig? NetEase clearly are, as Marvel Rivals‘ second season is all about the Hellfire Gala, a fun little party gone wrong hosted by Emma Frost. As you’ll no doubt be aware, Emma Frost isn’t in the game currently, making her the first of the new characters to join this season, which kicks off next week, April 11th.
Both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are getting Nintendo Switch 2 versions for the new console. Alongside the in-game upgrades, Nintendo’s adding a number of additional features through the new Zelda Notes option in its Nintendo Switch App, including achievements.
The Nintendo Switch App (formerly known as the Nintendo Switch Online App) will get an update adding Zelda Notes, a game-specific service exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2 versions of both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
This app was shown off in the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, allowing players to use GPS-style navigation to reach landmarks in the Zelda games. For achievements, the app will track your play data and allow players to earn in-app medals based on their records. These account for opening chests, earning rupees, and more.
In the Achievements section, Nintendo lists categories such as “Quests and Adventures Cleared,” “Shrines of Light Cleared,” “Locations Visited,” “Lightroots Unlocked,” and others. Alongside tracking those numbers, the app will also let you see how you match up with other players on a global scale.
While the achievements seem geared towards completion, it’s interesting to see Nintendo experiment with these options. Granted, they exist in a phone app rather than on the Switch 2 console by itself, but I am curious to see whether other games get similar treatments in the future.
Other features of the Zelda Notes app include a Daily Bonus option for helpful resources, a Voice Memories section which adds more story and lore to the world as you explore, and an Autobuild Sharing tool. These do seem like handy tools, and especially geared towards people playing through this Zelda duology for the second time on their Nintendo Switch 2.
The Nintendo Switch 2 has a launch date set for June 5, 2025. Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom will have Switch 2 editions at launch, alongside a slew of other games both new and refreshed. Previews dropped this morning for some of the launch window games for the Nintendo Switch 2, including Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and general hands-on impressions of the console.
If you’re looking for everything announced at the Direct for this upcoming console, be sure to check out our recap of all the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct news here.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
Alright folks, quiz time: what’s the single best feature in the GTA series? I’ll give you a second. Got your answer done? If you wrote anything but the in-game radio, you’d be dead wrong, obviously it’s listening to boppin’ tunes as you crash into lamp posts for the umpteenth time, there’s nothing else it could be. I love an in-game radio, and as it turns out, Dune: Awakening of all games will include one (didn’t know they had radio on Arrakis).
“it’s a bold move”.
Nick Arran, managing director of UK retailer GAME, has stated that digital games being cheaper than physical on the Switch 2 will be “a challenge”.
As reported by The Game Business, Arran commented on the cost of the Switch 2 console and games, stating that although the £75 price point for Mario Kart World “seems expensive”, he believes it’s necessary to cover the rising costs of production and publishing.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
South of Midnight invites you into a dark, fantastical world drawn from tales of the American South – and while this might look like a fairytale, both the stories it tells and the challenges it poses are far from simplistic.
Telling the tale of Hazel, who gains the magical power of Weaving after her mother is swept away by a supernatural flood, you’ll need to cross a warped take on the South in your hunt to find her mother, and answers to what exactly is going on. Along the way, you’ll battle Haints – corrupted enemies borne from the sorrow of the world – and cure the wounds of Mythical Creatures, the subjects of real-life folktales brought to life by developer Compulsion Games.
Premium Edition owners can play from today (ahead of an April 8 release date for all players), and to celebrate we’ve put together some tips that cover both exploration and combat, which will help you prepare for this very unexpected journey:
Navigating each of South of Midnight’s chapters could be as simple as following your Guiding Strand – a feature that sees magical threads guide you to your next goal. But that’s far from all there is to discover. Each location is stuffed with hidden areas – some require platforming to reach, others need you to use your spells, while others will lead you into battles you might never have otherwise had. All of them will require a keen eye to find.
Your rewards for doing this usually come in the form of Floofs – the game’s upgrade currency – and we hugely recommend you take the time to look for them. With just a bit of concerted exploration, you can add upgrades to your skill tree (more on those later) much faster than by simply running from one objective to the next.
Even better, you may also find Life Filaments as you go. Most chapters contain one of these – usually in its most hidden side area – and collecting three offers a permanent upgrade to your health bar.
South of Midnight is all about stories – from the tale of Hazel’s search to find her mother, to the tragic backstories of the Mythical Creatures you’ll find along the way. But if you want to dig really deep, make sure to search each chapter for items, notes, and more. You’ll see these marked by small circles as you approach, often in out-of-the-way locations.
Far from your regular world-building, each chapter’s hidden notes add even more detail to the characters and stories you’re learning about along the core questline. You may discover hidden motivations for why characters are the way they are, simply because you took the time to read about their lives. It’s an enriching way to add to the wider tale.
As mentioned above, you can speed through the upgrade tree with a bit of exploration – and when you start hitting harder combat sequences, you’ll thank yourself for doing it. Even on its regular difficulty level, South of Midnight’s combat packs a punch, with even the most basic Haint enemies removing whole chunks of your health bar after a single hit – never mind when you come up against a Mythical Creature. Upgrades are your means of turning the tables.
Upgrades tend to focus more on offering you added perks, rather than simply buffing an ability’s existing stats. When you Unravel a downed enemy to claw back some health, for example, you can add an area of-effect blast to stagger any nearby Haints before you get back into the fray. Adding a quick double-dodge to your repertoire, meanwhile, will come in very handy when you start meeting enemies that can quick-fire multiple projectiles. Take the time to explore the skill tree, and prioritize upgrades that look like they’ll solve problems.
Hazel doesn’t have the ability to block attacks – but she more than makes up for that with a powerful bonus to her dodge. Hitting the dodge button will help you escape in any direction (with some invulnerability frames thrown in) – but hitting a perfectly timed dodge, just before you’re hit, comes with a nasty surprise for whoever was trying to hurt you.
Perfect Dodges send out a blast of energy, staggering any enemy around you and doing some nice damage, too. It’s worth paying attention to not just what attacks enemies can do, but the time it takes to pull them off – pretty soon, you can be doing almost as much damage by not attacking.
As we mentioned, getting hit in South of Midnight can get very nasty, very quickly – and while Hazel has that handy dodge, it can sometimes be easier simply to stop an attack in the first place. Against most enemies, throwing out a spell – whether that’s a Pull, a Push, or a Weave (which incapacitates most Haints) – will break them out of an attack completely.
While it’s tempting to spam your spells as soon as they’ve cooled down, we’d recommend keeping one in reserve as an emergency interrupt – if you see an enemy winding up during your combo, simply hit them with a spell and keep thwacking.
If you really want to keep an enemy locked down, you can use your full spell repertoire to keep attacks going without interruption. This is particularly useful once you have a few upgrades under your belt.
For example, you could Pull an enemy towards you, with an added Weave effect (which you can also upgrade to have them take more damage while tied up). As soon as they break free, Weave them again with that core spell – and when they break free again, use Push to deal some damage and keep your distance, before charging up your ranged attack to deal the killer blow.
With a bit of practice, enemies that felt like they took an age of dodging and poking to beat in the early game can begin to go down in a single combo – it’s extremely satisfying.
South of Midnight will be available on April 8, 2025, on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox App for Windows PC, Steam and cloud, and arrives on day one with Game Pass. Play from today by purchasing the Premium Edition, and get access to digital extras.
Xbox Game Studios
UNRAVEL THE PAST
From the creators of Contrast and We Happy Few, South of Midnight is a spellbinding third person action-adventure game set in the American Deep South.
As Hazel, you will explore the mythos and encounter creatures of Southern folklore in a macabre and fantastical world. When disaster strikes her hometown, Hazel is called to become a Weaver: a magical mender of broken bonds and spirits. Imbued with these new abilities, Hazel will confront and subdue dangerous creatures, untangle the webs of her own family’s shared past and – if she’s lucky – find her way to a place that feels like home.
A DARK MODERN FOLKTALE
When a hurricane rips through Prospero, Hazel is pulled into a Southern Gothic world of memory made real and must embark on a journey to rescue her mother and safeguard her hometown. In this folktale for modern times, Hazel will need to reconcile the weight of family, history, and legacy against her own identity.
CONFRONT MYTHICAL CREATURES
Wield an ancient power to restore creatures and uncover the traumas that consume them. Cast weaving magic to fight destructive Haints, explore the diverse regions of the South, and reweave the tears in the Grand Tapestry.
HAUNTING BEAUTY OF THE GOTHIC SOUTH
Discover the lush, decayed county of Prospero and its locals. Experience a crafted visual style, touching storytelling, and immersive music inspired by the complex and rich history of the South.
Xbox Game Studios
As Hazel, you will explore the mythos and encounter creatures of Southern folklore in a macabre and fantastical world. When disaster strikes her hometown, Hazel is called to become a Weaver: a magical mender of broken bonds and spirits. Imbued with these new abilities, Hazel will confront and subdue dangerous creatures, untangle the webs of her own family’s shared past and – if she’s lucky – find her way to a place that feels like home.
A DARK MODERN FOLKTALE
When a hurricane rips through Prospero, Hazel is pulled into a Southern Gothic world of memory made real and must embark on a journey to rescue her mother and safeguard her hometown. In this folktale for modern times, Hazel will need to reconcile the weight of family, history, and legacy against her own identity.
CONFRONT MYTHICAL CREATURES
Wield an ancient power to restore creatures and uncover the traumas that consume them. Cast weaving magic to fight destructive Haints, explore the diverse regions of the South, and reweave the tears in the Grand Tapestry.
HAUNTING BEAUTY OF THE GOTHIC SOUTH
Discover the lush, decayed county of Prospero and its locals. Experience a crafted visual style, touching storytelling, and immersive music inspired by the complex and rich history of the South.
The post South of Midnight: 6 Tips to Help You Thrive in This Dark, Fantastical World appeared first on Xbox Wire.
With so many great games coming down the pipeline, now’s a great time to hop on the Xbox Game Pass bandwagon. If some titles joining the catalog this year have caught your eye and you’re itching to join in on the fun, we have good news: Amazon’s offering a 15% discount on a one month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership right now, so you can save a few dollars when signing up.
You can learn more about that deal, what’s coming soon to Game Pass, and the big releases still to come below.
If you want to save some cash on Game Pass Ultimate, Amazon’s offering a 15% discount on the one month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership right now. This has dropped its price from $19.99 to $16.99. It’s a nice little deal to take advantage of, especially if you want to buy multiple memberships to stack them in advance.
Game Pass has a nice rotation of new titles to play every month. If you’re curious about what’s in store for the start of April, we’ve got you covered. The Xbox Game Pass April wave 1 lineup is:
Unfortunately, for those subscribing to the Standard tier (available for $14.99/month), this does not give Game Pass users access to day one releases. This means that some of the big new releases on the platform will not be available on that tier.
Unfortunately with new games joining the catalog it means a few must take their leave. Below, we’ve listed the games that’ll be leaving Xbox Game Pass on April 15.
Xbox’s Summer Showcase last June was a massive success, revealing an incredible amount of new games coming to the platform. The showcase included Doom: The Dark Ages, Perfect Dark, Fable, Gears of War: E-Day, and so many more. But which of these titles will appear as day-one releases on Game Pass? Thankfully, quite a few! Including all of the previously mentioned titles.
The latest big release on the platform is Avowed. In our review, writer Travis Northup said, “Even if it doesn’t swing for the fences or leave a memorable mark on the genre, though, it’s still perfectly competent with all the tried-and-true stuff I expect, including chaotic combat, leveling systems and a loot progression that lets you build the kind of character you want to play, and meaningful decisions that can have a massive impact on the world.”
If you’re looking for even more savings on all things Xbox, have a look at our roundup of the best Xbox deals. There, we’ve highlighted all of the latest and greatest discounts on the platform, from incredible game deals to fantastic offers on high-quality headphones. Or, if you’d rather see what’s going on with other platforms, check out our roundups of the best PlayStation deals, the best Nintendo Switch deals, and our overall roundup of the best video game deals.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
Have you ever woken up and thought to yourself “I’d like to be a bear, or perhaps a moose, just for like, a little bit”? Oddly specific thing to think about first thing in the morning, but Striden has you covered at least. It’s a looter shooter, yes, it’s a survival game, sure, it’s a team-based game, why not! Except sometimes, for some reason, you can just turn into different animals to fight your opponents, like a radioactive bear, which I think is very silly, but in a wonderful kind of way. And, as developer 5 Fortress announced today, it’s getting an open beta this weekend so you can see what it’s like for yourself.
Monster Hunter Wilds gets its first Title Update tomorrow, including quests encouraging competition for fast clear times. In light of that, Capcom is ensuring players know it will take action against cheaters engaging in any sort of fraudulent activity.
In a post from the Monster Hunter account on X/Twitter, Capcom issued the stark warning: “To ensure a fun and fair experience for our players, we will take action against accounts participating in fraudulent ranking activity, such as the use of cheating or external tools. Accounts deemed to be in breach of this may be suspended, or have restrictions placed on them, such as being unable to receive rewards from these quests.”
Not cheating is one thing, but Capcom also warned that players participating in multiplayer hunts with cheaters could also result in an invalid quest completion time and the “right to rewards” revoked for everyone in the party.
“Please take caution to avoid playing multiplayer with those who are engaging in prohibited activity, or those you suspect of such,” Capcom said. The company encouraged players who find themselves in a quest where fraudulent activity is taking place to report the cheaters.
These quests will ultimately offer some neat rewards in the form of cosmetic pendants. Some will be doled out to all participants, and others are granted based on Completion Time or the hunter’s ranking. So it makes sense that Capcom is cracking down a bit harder on potential cheaters and suspect behavior, if it could result in issues with rewards and completion times.
The Time-Based Competition Quests go live with Title Update 1, and will all be organized through the new Arena Quest Counter in the Grand Hub in Suja. You’ll need to complete the special tutorial mission to unlock the Grand Hub first, so make sure to beeline there once Title Update 1 goes live tomorrow in Monster Hunter Wilds. Check out the Monster Hunter Wilds Title Update 1 patch notes for more.
To help get your Monster Hunter Wilds adventure started, take a look at what Monster Hunter Wilds doesn’t tell you, and a guide to all 14 weapon types in the game. We’ve also got a detailed MH Wilds walkthrough in progress, a MH Wilds multiplayer guide to explain how to play with friends, and if you’ve played one of the open betas, here’s how to transfer your MH Wilds Beta character over.
Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
Mario Kart World will launch with at least 60 different playable characters and outfits when it releases on June 5th, 2025.
We recently got hands-on time with the Switch 2 launch game, and you can check out our impressions of Mario Kart World here. As part of playing it, we got a good look at the character select screens and noted down all of the starting drivers and the alternate looks for each. Here they are:
Quite the list! Looks like we’ll be doing a lot of racing (and throwing food around?) when Mario Kart World launches alongside the Nintendo Switch 2. Although impressions are positive around the look and open-world ambitions the game, questions have been raised around its $80 price tag.
We’ve got an explainer on why the Switch 2 costs so much here, as well as everything announced from yesterday’s Nintendo Direct in one handy place.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
GeForce RTX 4090 might be yesterday’s flagship, but it’s still faster than nearly every GPU on the planet—unless you’ve somehow tracked down an RTX 5090 at MSRP, in which case, congratulations on your black-market wizardry. For everyone else, Alienware currently has the cleanest way to get a 4090 system right now without jumping through flaming eBay hoops.
