Category: Video Games

Black Myth: Wukong Wins IGN’s 2024 People’s Choice Tournament

There were some incredible games released this year, and we wanted to know which you thought was the best of the best. So with our partners at Truth, we picked 64 of 2024’s best games, put them in a head-to-head tournament, and gave you the power to vote for your favorites. After six rounds of voting and more than 1 million votes in all, one game reigned supreme as champion: Black Myth: Wukong.

An action game from developer Game Science, Black Myth: Wukong is inspired by the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. You play as the Destined One, an anthropomorphic monkey based on Sun Wukong from the novel. You wield a staff with different stances, have access to several magic spells, and can transform into enemies after defeating them.

In IGN’s review, we cited its fantastic combat, beautiful environments, and well-designed bosses as the areas where it shines. While it may not be a soulslike, its combat can be quite challenging and forces you to weave together quick reflexes, smart resource management, and versatile attacks to take down its many bosses.

Black Myth: Wukong’s popularity was obvious from the very start of our fan-voted tournament. It had a dominant run, culminating in a win over Marvel Rivals in the final with 59% of the vote. Before that, it had to get through Harry Potter: Quidditch Championship, Star Wars Outlaws, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Stellar Blade, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, beating all of them with at least 67% of the vote.

Marvel Rivals’ run to the final was more contested, with it barely beating out the Silent Hill 2 remake in the semifinals and Astro Bot in the quarterfinals, which was one of the closest matchups of the whole tournament. There were more than 50,000 votes cast in that matchup, and Marvel Rivals won by only 960. Before those close calls, it had to get through some stiff competition in World of Warcraft: The War Within, Batman: Arkham Shadow, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

IGN’s pick for Best Game of 2024 went to Metaphor: ReFantazio, but it didn’t make it out of the first round of the People’s Choice Tournament. Mario & Luigi: Brothership took it down before falling to Black Myth: Wukong in its path to the title. Indie darling Balatro, one of IGN’s runners-up for Best Game of 2024 and winner of our Best PC Game of 2024 Award, also had a surprisingly short run. After narrowly defeating Still Wakes the Deep in the first round, it got only 26% of the vote in Round 2 against Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.

Space Marine 2 had a very impressive run overall, taking down multiple big names on its way to the Final Four. In addition to its resounding win over Balatro, it also defeated Sons of the Forest, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, another of IGN’s runners-up for Best Game of 2024. The other member of the Final Four was Silent Hill 2, which won the IGN Award for Best Horror Game of 2024. It got to the semifinals by going through Life Is Strange: Double Exposure, Helldivers 2, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, and Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.

Thank you to the many people who logged votes in this year’s People’s Choice Tournament. Let us know in the comments below what you think of the outcome. If you disagree with the winner, which game would you have chosen? And here’s to another great year of gaming in 2025!

Robot City Builder ‘SteamWorld Build’ Lands New Physical Edition On Switch

Pre-orders open this week.

Super Rare Games has announced that the foundations are set for a SteamWorld Build physical edition on Switch. What’s more, this one will be springing up quickly, with pre-orders opening on 9th January and shipping expected in March 2025.

This is a Super Rare Games joint, so naturally, there are a handful of goodies thrown in with each purchase. The boxed copy will retail for £37.20 (or your regional equivalent), including interior art, a full-colour manual, an exclusive sticker, and three trading cards featuring some of the game’s characters. And yes, the full game is included on the cartridge, so don’t expect any of that ‘code in a box’ nonsense.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Call of Duty’s Squid Game Crossover Event Locks Its Best Rewards Behind a New Premium Battle Pass

Call of Duty publisher Activision has confirmed plans to charge players extra to earn the best Squid Game crossover event rewards in a first for the series.

In a blog post, Activision detailed the Squid Game event, which includes a Red Light, Green Light limited-time multiplayer mode for Black Ops 6, as well as new operator bundles based on characters from the hugely popular Netflix show for use across Black Ops 6 and Warzone.

One controversial addition, however, is the new Squid Game Event Pass, which includes a free reward track and a premium reward track. While Activision detailed all the rewards included in both tracks (the premium track includes a Front Man Operator skin), it failed to confirm a price.

Here’s the official blurb on the Premium Reward Track:

While every player can progress and unlock items along the Free reward track, a second Premium reward track in the Event Pass offers even more. Purchase the Premium track to access the ability to unlock additional themed rewards, including the instant reward “High Authority” XM4 Assault Rifle Blueprint plus Blueprints for the Knife, GS45 Pistol, and Saug SMG as well as a Concussion Grenade Equipment Skin, a Finishing Move, the “Throwdown” Emote, the “Who’s Left” Talking Gun Screen, and more!

Complete the premium track to turn the tide on the other competitors:

Ultimate Mastery Reward: “Front Man” Operator

Become the leader of the Pink Guards with the “Front Man” Operator. Deploy as the ruthless administrator of the Squid Game and take your team to victory.

Call of Duty players are used to battle passes, premium battle passes, and even more expensive versions of premium battle passes on top of the $70 cost of entry. However, this is the first time a Call of Duty event has launched with its own premium battle pass. It’s fair to say reaction to this development is negative, especially considering the hardcore Call of Duty community isn’t best pleased with the state of either Black Ops 6 or Warzone right now due to what appears to be rampant cheating, a failing anti-cheat, and various connection problems.

Call of Duty’s Squid Game Event goes live starting January 3 at 10am PT and ends on January 24 at 10am PT.

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.

Fantastic Four Confirmed for Marvel Rivals in Official First-Look Image

The Fantastic Four are coming to Marvel Rivals, its developer has confirmed.

In a first-look image, below, we see Marvel Rivals’ take on Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and Thing, as well as the robot H.E.R.B.I.E. The superhero team are sitting in the Fantasticar, and we also see the Baxter Building in the background.

Marvel Rivals developer NetEase tweeted to say a trailer showing Fantastic Four is set for January 6 at 8am PST. One early question fans have is whether H.E.R.B.I.E. is playable alongside the main Fantastic Four members. We’ll find out soon enough.

It’s worth noting that the Fantastic Four image also includes what look like bats flying across a sky lit by a blood-red moon. Could this vampiric tease suggest Blade is coming in Season 2?

Marvel Rivals is a smash hit for NetEase, securing 10 million players in just three days and 20 million in two weeks. The free-to-play superhero team-based PvP shooter launched on December 6 across PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, and while Sony and Microsoft do not make player numbers public, Steam makes Valve stats available.

On Steam, Marvel Rivals peaked over its launch weekend with 480,990 concurrent players, which was enough to put it in the top five most-played games on Valve’s platform. It’s the 20th highest concurrent player number ever seen on Steam, ahead of the likes of Helldivers 2, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Destiny 2.

Marvel Rivals launched with Season 0, with Season 1 set for January 9, according to the in-game battle pass countdown timer. It seems likely Fantastic Four will be made available with the release of Season 1.

Check out IGN’s Marvel Rivals Review to find out what we think. And keep an eye on the latest Marvel Rivals codes for free skins, and vote on the strongest Marvel Rivals characters in our community tier list.

Image credit: NetEase / Marvel.

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.

Bioshock was “basically a corridor”, says Ken Levine – Judas won’t be, and characters will have long memories

I come and go with the work of Ken Levine, celebrated auteurman and reported burnout-inducing manager, but I’m interested to see more of Judas, his current project at Ghost Story Games. The concept for Judas is that you’re trapped in a computer-run society housed aboard a colony ship, the Mayflower. The titular Judas has managed to break free of the AI-groomed status quo, and is out to start a revolution. “Bioshock Infinite in space”, we called it, back in 2022, but Levine says it’s more open-ended than either of his Bioshock endeavours, with a greater emphasis on other characters remembering and responding to your actions over time.

Read more

Review: Star Trek: Legends (Switch) – Competent Combat But Fails To Engage

Fire at Will.

As a mischievous omnipotent being once said, Star Trek isn’t about mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence. The voyages of the starships Enterprise et al. are journeys of self-discovery. It’s about the people we meet on those strange new worlds and what they teach us about ourselves. It’s not about taking turns to phaser each other in the face. Despite issues elsewhere, that’s where Star Trek: Legends really fails.

It’s not all bad, though. Emerald City Games’ turn-based trawl, published here by Qubic Games, debuted on Apple Arcade back in 2021 and though some may baulk at its mobile-first design, it translates fairly well to Switch. The UI is well-proportioned and the touchscreen integration functions as you’d hope.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Steam Users Are Review-Bombing Assassin’s Creed Origins Because Microsoft’s 24H2 Windows Update Has Bricked the Game

Ubisoft’s PC woes have continued into 2025, with the generally much-loved Assassin’s Creed Origins suffering a review-bomb campaign on Steam after a Windows PC update rendered it unplayable for some.

In November, Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 version 24H2 accidentally killed Ubisoft games such as Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and more. The issue was so bad that Microsoft updated its support website to reveal it has placed a temporary block on Windows 11 for users with those games installed.

“After installing Windows 11, version 24H2, you might encounter issues with some Ubisoft games,” Microsoft said at the time. “These games might become unresponsive while starting, loading or during active gameplay.

“In some cases, users might receive a black screen. The affected games are Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

“To safeguard your Windows update experience, we have applied a compatibility hold on devices with these games installed. These devices will not be offered to install Windows 11, version 24H2 via the Windows Update release channel.”

Ubisoft released an update to fix the problem in Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, but Microsoft and Ubisoft are both still working to sort out the Assassin’s Creed games, and frustration has finally spilled over into Steam user reviews.

Negative reviews for Assassin’s Creed Origins ramped up mid-December before hitting a peak as we crossed into 2025, with the game’s recent user review rating dropping to ‘Mixed.’ Overall reviews for the game remain ‘Very Positive.’

Pretty much all the recent negative reviews complain about the Windows update making Assassin’s Creed Origins unplayable. Until a resolution is found, Ubisoft told customers not to manually update to version 24H2 using the Windows 11 Installation Assistant or the media creation tool. If the game stops responding, you’ll need to use Task Manager to close the application.

Ubisoft’s Windows problems have hit the company at a particularly troubling time. The company is reportedly in buyout talks with Chinese megacorp Tencent after a torrid 2024 in which it closed studios, shut down games, and made mass layoffs. The company’s next big game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, was delayed into 2025 and Star Wars Outlaws failed to meet sales expectations.

Ubisoft’s shares fell to their lowest level in the last decade in September after it made a series of dramatic announcements around the performance of its games. As well as delaying Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft announced a return to Steam after a period of PC launch exclusivity on the Epic Games Store, with Star Wars Outlaws recently releasing on Valve’s platform.

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.