Category: Video Games

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the most exciting the series has felt in years, and it’s now down to just $49.99 on Amazon for PS5 and Xbox.

It’s the first big discount the game has had since its release earlier this year, and comes courtesy of Amazon’s early Prime Day sales.

Dropping from $70, that’s a sizable $20 off the list price, and an increasingly more appealing price point for anyone previously unsure of Ubisoft’s latest open-world RPG.

Surprise! A new My Hero Academia game is on the way.

We learned the news during Bandai Namco’s brief teaser for its upcoming Summer Showcase, and while details were light — at least for now — we can expect more when the showcase goes live on July 2 at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 9pm CEST / 4am JST.

My Hero Academia debuted in April 2016 and became an instant hit, telling the story of Izuku Midoriya as he navigates a school for superheroes after only just inheriting the world’s most powerful abilities. Alongside the eight seasons of anime, four films and myriad games have been released, too. The eighth and final series is set to air this coming October.

In the same 30-second teaser, Bandai Namco also revealed we’re set to get a new trailer for Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree and a gameplay deep dive of Digimon Story: Time Stranger.

That’s not all. Also slated to appear are Code Vein 2, The Blood of Dawnwalker, Death Note Killer Within, Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots, Little Nightmares 3, Patapon 1+2 Replay, Shadow Labyrinth, Super Robot Wars Y, and Tekken 8.

We had a good look at The Blood of Dawnwalker quite recently, of course. Rebel Wolves — the studio led by former The Witcher 3 game director and co-director for Cyberpunk 2077, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz — confirmed its upcoming dark fantasy action-RPG will release in 2026 when it shared new gameplay footage earlier this month.

Bandai Namco went big on little things last week, too, confirming Little Nightmares 3 will release on October 10. And if that seems very far away, anyone who pre-orders a digital version of Little Nightmares 3 between now and launch day will get to revisit the game that started it all with Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition as an early access title.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Dune: Awakening griefers are at it again, concocting ever-new and exciting ways to make other players’ lives miserable. And once again, the griefing concerns Ornithopters.

Last week, Funcom launched Dune: Awakening’s Public Test Client and then extended the PvE zone of the Deep Desert from about 10% of the map to 50%. It followed an AMA in which the studio told players frustrated by the endgame experience that it was “formulating a plan” to improve PvP in the Deep Desert. Previously, players branded the endgame as “toxic” due to griefing even after the ability for players to squish each other with their Ornithopter was supposedly patched out.

But despite Funcom’s mitigations, unscrupulous players have discovered another way to grief players by landing their Ornis on top of unsuspecting players — this time to prevent them from farming.

“All the griefers are now coming into Hagga to farm spice. They’re doing the same thumper and land on thopter technique they perfected in [Deep Desert]. But now they’re using it to farm all the minor nodes in Hagga,” wrote one aggrieved fan over the weekend.

“This game has some massive issues ahead. Griefers are in an all-out war against everyone else on their server, and yet there’s zero way for solos to band together to stop it. And as a Dune fan, I don’t think planting a thumper and then having four thopters land on you is part of the mythology.”

u/RandoFinder then edited their post to add: “I kept my Thopter at 730 km for 30 minutes until a spice blow, and as soon as I moved, four thopters were chasing me. JFC, y’all are pathetic. This was in Hagga. I had players tonight telling each other to doxx me when I stood up to them in Hagga chat. I’ve been in WoW general and other horrible chats, but Dune general is the most toxic chat that I’ve ever seen.”

“I think it goes without saying that PVP is PVP, and killing other players in a PVP zone is totally legitimate and expected,” responded another player. “Entrapping someone by abusing game mechanics intended to prevent grief of a similar kind, ala pinning people with ornithopters that otherwise can’t be destroyed or escaped in a PVE zone, is griefing. Griefing should be explicitly and implicitly disallowed. If you’re in a PVE zone, you should not have to worry about players killing you through an abuse of mechanics.”

At the time of writing, there has been no public response from Funcom about the issue.

Dune: Awakening has enjoyed a superb launch, with a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam. Within hours of going live on June 10, Funcom’s survival MMO had clocked up over 142,000 concurrent players on Valve’s platform, and hit a new high earlier this month of 189,333 players. And it’s already clocked up over 1 million players, too, making it Funcom’s fastest-selling game ever, and securing a Great 8/10 in our review.

If all that’s got you interested but you’re not sure where to start, make sure to check out all the Dune: Awakening classes you can choose from, and keep an eye on our Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step guide to the story. We’ve also got Dune: Awakening resource guides that’ll help you find iron, steel, aluminium, and a Dune: Awakening Trainers locations guide to help you survive on Arrakis.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.