Category: Video Games

Mortal Kombat 1’s first DLC character, Omni-Man, is available to download from November 9, Warner Bros. Games and developer NetherRealm have announced.

The announcement comes alongside a gameplay trailer for Omni-Man, who is lifted from the Invincible franchise complete with voice work from J. K. Simmons, who plays the character in the Amazon Prime show.

The gameplay shows off a number of Omni-Man’s moves, which are as hard-hitting as you’d expect for such a powerful supervillain. One highlight is Omni-Man’s dodge ability, which sees Nolan Grayson move to avoid multiple attacks from his opponent. We also get to see Omni-Man’s Fatal Blow, which is lifted from Invincible, as well as his train Fatality, which is also lifted from an infamous Invincible scene.

Allowing a Viltrumite into the Realms? Think, Liu Kang! Think! Omni-Man joins #MK1 starting November 9. pic.twitter.com/NfqYRqRkAs

— Mortal Kombat 1 (@MortalKombat) November 2, 2023

Onni-Man is joined in the gameplay trailer by new Kameo fighter Tremor, who we assume launches alongside Omni-Man himself.

Omni-Man is the first playable character in Mortal Kombat’s Kombat Pack 1 and will be available as a standalone fighter or as part of the Mortal Kombat 1 Premium Edition. Other DLC characters set to come out as part of Kombat 1 are Quan Chi, Peacemaker, Ermac, Homelander, and Takeda.

In August, Mortal Kombat development chief Ed Boon told IGN Omni-Man and Homelander from The Boys won’t just be clones of each other, despite striking similarities in power and abilities.

Mortal Kombat 1 has proven to be a somewhat controversial release, with its Nintendo Switch version accused of poor visuals and performance issues. Mortal Kombat 1 recently horrified fans by charging around $10 for a Halloween-themed Fatality.

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 beta for highly anticipated and controversial post-apocalyptic open world MMO The Day Before will only be available to those who “volunteer” for developer Fntastic.

The Day Before received a new trailer yesterday, November 1, alongside an information drop confirming a third delay to December 7, word it would only launch in PC Early Access and not on console on that date, and a celebration from Fntastic over winning its trademark dispute over the game’s name.

The developer failed to mention the beta it announced in April, however, and when asked about it by IGN, confirmed that only Fntastic “volunteers” would be granted access.

“Volunteers” are what Fntastic calls its staff, broken into two categories: employee-volunteers (actual employees) and external volunteers. The latter are essentially unpaid workers helping develop The Day Before, a practice that was criticised by onlookers but defended by Fntastic in June 2022.

Per Fntastic’s website: “External volunteering is an opportunity for those who are willing to offer their skills and talents to improve the Fntastic community. External volunteering includes various activities, from translation to community moderation.”

Fntastic announced the beta in April, but didn’t mention that it would only be available to its “volunteers” and not general fans of the game. “As we get closer to the release date, we will be conducting a beta test for the game,” it said. “This will give players the opportunity to try out the game before it is released and provide valuable feedback that we can use to improve the final product.

“We will provide more details on the beta test as we approach the release date, so be sure to stay tuned for updates. We look forward to sharing game with you and you will enjoy playing it as much as we have enjoyed creating it.”

Fntastic hadn’t said anything about the beta officially since — outside of confirming to IGN that only “volunteers” would be able to access it — despite the game previously being intended to launch on November 10 and now December 7, and after it promised to improve communication.

The Day Before has otherwise been wrought with controversy over its development period, with once-fans even calling the game a scam amid its multiple delays, copycat accusations, miscommunication, and more. You can read about the entire strange saga of The Day Before here.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Activision has confirmed the global release times for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3’s campaign early access, available to those who have digitally preordered the game.

The campaign goes live across all platforms (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Battle.net and Steam) at the same time: 10am PT today, November 2, Activision said in a blog post.

Here are the launch times per timezone:

• U.S. West Coast: 10am PT
• U.S. East Coast: 1pm ET
• UK: 5pm GMT
• Europe: 6pm CET
• Japan: 2am JST November 3

The Modern Warfare 3 campaign is available now to preload across all platforms.

The Modern Warfare 3 campaign was developed by Sledgehammer Games in partnership with Infinity Ward, and is the direct sequel to last year’s Modern Warfare 2. It includes 15 missions, each of which rewards players with items upon completion. These rewards can be used across Multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone.

Here are the Modern Warfare 3 campaign rewards:

• “Breather” Calling Card
• 30 mins Double Player XP Token & 30 mins Double Weapon XP Token
• “Corso” Operator
• “Ghillie Guy” Calling Card
• 30 mins XP Token and 30m Weapon XP Token
• “Pathfinder” Operator
• “Toxic Drip” Calling Card
• 1 hour Double Player XP Token and 1 hour Double Weapon XP Token
• “Doc” Operator
• “Skull Rhapsody” Calling Card
• 1 hour Double Player XP Token and 1 hour Double Weapon XP Token
• “Jabber” Operator
• Campaign Completion Emblem
• Campaign Completion Weapon Blueprint

Modern Warfare 3 launches proper November 10. It’s the first Call of Duty game to launch following Microsoft’s $69 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard, but don’t expect it to hit Game Pass until 2024. Check out IGN’s Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer review in progress to find out what we thought of the recent open beta.

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.

Remedy has released an update for recently launched Alan Wake 2 that makes over 200 individual improvements and fixes to the game.

Update 08, which brings Alan Wake 2 on PlayStation 5 up to version 1.000.008, on Xbox Series X and S to version 1.0.0.8, and on PC to version 1.0.8, tackles everything from graphical issues to mission specific bugs. Of note: the patch makes various audio-related improvements.

Players had encountered audio problems, especially on Xbox, so hopefully this update sorts those out. Remedy apologised for one bug in particular, which caused the Oceanview Hotel Lobby Echo in Room 665 not to align correctly (“this one was really annoying; we apologize”).

Here are the Alan Wake 2 08 update patch notes in full:

Global

• Various localization fixes, such as improved subtitle timings for all languages
• Improved localized audio for live-action cinematics
• Various audio-related improvements and additional polish
• Improved lip sync in some instances
• Fixed various graphical issues in the environments
• Fixed various minor issues in cinematics
• Minor improvements to image aliasing in Performance mode and Xbox Series S
• Improved lighting
• Fixed lighting bugs in multiple locations
• Various UI-related fixes and additional polish
• Various gameplay fixes and improvements
• Minor gameplay finetuning
• Improved auto-aim for specific circumstances
• Fixed rare player character animation issues
• Fixed various issues in the Case Board
• Fixed various map issues
• Several conversations failing to trigger and thus blocking progress later have been fixed
• Fixed Rose’s dialogue choices, sometimes not being selectable, blocking progress
• Fixed a rare issue with Saga’s lines not playing when going to the Sheriff’s Station, blocking progress
• Resolved a potential problem in the player getting stuck in a Case Board Tutorial
• Fixed exploration rewards for Lighthouse

Mission specific

INVITATION:

• Fixed a bug where Saga could get stuck in the environment (“Crazy forest”)

CASEY:

• Fixed potential issue with players able to get stuck when falling from ladders
• Fixed potential issues with Dark Presence (it remains a threat)
• Fixed a rare crash

ZANE’S FILM:

• Fixed a bug where Alan could fall through the environment

SCRATCH:

• Fixed a bug where Saga could fall through the world
• Fixed a bug in where a gate could get locked after reloading a save game, causing the player to get blocked from progressing
• Fixed an issue where, in rare circumstances, the player could end up outside of the game world when opening the map
• Fixed an issue where, in rare cases, the Lighthouse key could not be picked up

WE SING:

• Fixed a bug where Alan could get stuck in the environment

ROOM 665:

• Fixed an issue that caused the Oceanview Hotel Lobby Echo not to align correctly (this one was really annoying; we apologize)

MASKS:

• Fixed an issue where if the player performed specific tasks in an unpredictable order, the mission progress could get blocked

DEERFEST:

• Fixed an issue (much to Rose’s chagrin) with physics-related props that could block the player in and halt progress

COME HOME:

• Fixed an issue where the player, in rare instances, could not exit the radio, TV, or manuscript interact modules.

PC specific

• Fixed a bug that could cause graphics settings to reset when launching the game
• Improvements to PC Window handling logic
• Fixed mouse cursor sometimes not appearing in menus

Alan Wake 2 is a smash hit with critics. In our 9/10 review, IGN said: “Alan Wake 2 is a superb survival horror sequel that makes the cult-classic original seem like little more than a rough first draft by comparison.”

This week, Remedy said it was too early to say whether Alan Wake 2 had been a commercial success, although its critical acclaim gives the game “a strong basis for good long-term sales”. Remedy boss CEO Tero Virtala said all four of the studio’s other projects (Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes, Control 2, Condor, and Codename Vanguard) will benefit from staff moving on from Alan Wake 2. Two expansions are due for release next year.

Players can also check out IGN’s Alan Wake 2 Guide and essential tips and tricks to get the most out of playing the long-awaited survival horror sequel.

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.