Category: Video Games

Towers of Aghasba early access launches November 19, content roadmap detailed

A studio only gets to launch its very first game once! Everyone here at Dreamlit Games is incredibly excited to debut our upcoming open-world fantasy builder, Towers of Aghasba, which launches into Early Access on November 19. We can’t wait for you to experience this fantastical world as you design your island with bustling settlements and nurture thriving ecosystems while fighting off the withered invasion.

Why early access? 

This project is an ambitious open-world sandbox developed by a small team, with core mechanics intended to let players shape their island however they like. It’s also one of the first in-development early access titles coming to PS5. By launching into early access, we can involve our community in the development process, allowing us to better balance, polish, and iterate on these core components. This allows us to introduce new content and features based directly on your feedback.

You can still count on a fun, fantastical experience, with lots of content to explore right from the start of our Early Acess journey— but we’ll be adding additional polish and updates in the weeks ahead. Here’s a roadmap of what to expect from Towers of Aghasba at launch— and throughout early access: 

Launch content

The initial launch of Towers of Aghasba is already brimming with content, deep gameplay systems, a compelling narrative, and a vast world to explore. We release with:

  • Six regions to explore
    • Exploration across vast open-world lands—climbing, gliding, and riding mounts
    • Ruins and relics to discover, unlocking ancient knowledge
    • Leisure activities (eg. fishing!)
  • Three types of settlements to build, design, and decorate
  • Three types of ecosystems to grow
  • 50+ unique creatures
  • 150+ decorations to craft
  • Single-player and co-op gameplay
  • Invite up to three friends to your island to build up your settlements, tend to your ecosystems, take on challenging withered foes, and discover secrets across the world

Post-launch roadmap

As with any early access title, the launch is just the beginning. We have plenty in store for the weeks and months following the release, from introducing new systems while expanding existing ones, new quests and narratives, new regions to explore, and more.

Q4 2024

  • Post-launch support
  • Quality of life updates
  • Polish and fixes

Q1 2025

  • New regions to unlock and explore
  • New quest lines
  • A fresh cast of characters
  • Time of day-related gameplay
  • Offline play mode
  • Expanded glider traversal mechanics
  • Photo Mode
  • Player Emotes

Q2 2025

  • New mounts and mount management system
  • Expanding multiplayer activities and experiences
  • Crossplay
  • Player character customization
  • Improved Townfolk AI
  • Improved Shimudex functionality

Q3 2025

  • New regions unlocked
  • New withered quest lines and characters
  • Giant withered demon combat
  • Cold environmental effects
  • New creatures
  • Creature relationship systems

Q4 2025

  • New biome type–shallow water
  • New ecosystem type–water ecosystem
  • New village type–fishing village
  • New creatures
  • New foliages
  • New quest lines and characters

Q1 2026

  • New regions unlocked
  • Hot environmental effects
  • New creatures
  • Town happiness system
  • Building customization

Q2 2026

  • Increased Tower levels
  • New major questlines

Apart from all these exciting and ambitious plans for the road ahead, an important aspect in guiding the development of Towers of Aghasba through early access is you. 

We feel it’s important to have the community involved in the development of our game to provide the best experience possible. Your feedback and suggestions are integral in the decisions we make and we hope to expand our roadmap to accommodate our player community’s requests.

Let’s build an incredible, unique, ambitious, and special game together. You can pre-order the game now, and dive into the adventure with us next week when Towers of Aghasba launches into Early Access on November 19 on PS5.

Andor Season 2 Brings a Video Game TIE Fighter to Star Wars Canon

Star Wars is forever bringing back elements of the prior Extended Universe and Andor Season 2 is doing its bit by featuring a ship from a 1994 video game.

Total Film spotted protagonist Cassian Andor stealing a TIE Avenger ship in the brief snippet of footage released in the Disney+ Coming in 2025 trailer. This is obviously part of the TIE Fighter family featured in myriad Star Wars projects, but specifically comes from the 30-year-old Star Wars: TIE Fighter PC game.

Those who’ve played Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance will also recognise the TIE Avenger, but the ship has otherwise been absent from Star Wars lore over the years. It was pushed into the “unofficial” Extended Universe when Disney bought Lucasfilm, of course, but will make this triumphant return to canon sometime during Andor Season 2’s run when it debuts April 22.

Andor Season 2 leads directly into the final chapter in Cassian Andor’s storyline, told in true Star Wars fashion through an interquel in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Season 2 introduces characters from that feature film such as K-S20 and Krennic, and star Diego Luna has said it turns Rogue One into a completely different film.

IGN’s Andor: Season 1 review returned a 9/10. We said: “Andor is one of the very best TV shows of the year and as good as Star Wars has been in a long, long time.”

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

Rue Valley is sending the nattering inner voices of Disco Elysium to therapy

In Rue Valley you role play a guy with poor mental health. He wanders around a crappy motel, stuck in the same old patterns of life, seemingly unable to escape his inner demons. When confronted with the premise for this upcoming RPG you may have one of two reactions. The first: you will say “lol, it me” with enough humour to wishlist it on Steam and earmark it for the future. The second: you will mutter “ugh, it me” and be immediately put off by the idea of having to tolerate an entire second layer of psychological hangups.

There is a third secret reaction though… you might think: oh, this looks a lot like Disco Elysium, but in the real world.

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Sega Fans Relieved to Hear Sonic the Hedgehog Is Still Homeless

Despite being the face of a Hollywood film franchise and the star of a three decade old video game franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog is still homeless.

As reported by Automaton, fans grew concerned recently after discovering what appeared to be a major change to an incredibly random piece of Sonic the Hedgehog lore. A comic featured in the 2025 Sonic the Hedgehog Annual claimed the blue blur lived in Green Hill Zone, the iconic opening level to the original Sonic the Hedgehog.

But Sonic lore has otherwise stated he’s a drifter, roaming from place to place and never settling down, with even official channels like the TailsTube web series pointing to this fact.

Some fans were therefore relieved to hear Sonic had settled down, while others were in an uproar, forcing the hand of Chris Hernandez, Sega’s associate manager of Sonic the Hedgehog lore, who clarified the annual’s claim was just a misprint.

“Sorry to burst the bubble so late here,” Hernandez said on X/Twitter. “This was something we caught early on but it looks like an older draft got through on accident. Sonic doesn’t have a home; he’s still a drifter. Will work on making sure this doesn’t happen again. Thanks for catching this.”

Sonic appears too busy to sit down and apply for a mortgage, with his third film debuting on December 20 and bringing Shadow the Hedgehog to the cinematic universe. An enhanced remake of Sonic Generations folded in the edgier hedgehog in the aptly titled Sonic x Shadow Generations.

In our 9/10 Sonic x Shadow Generations review, IGN said: “Sonic x Shadow Generations takes an already excellent game and spring jumps it to new heights with a creative Shadow campaign and an appreciable graphical upgrade.

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

Infinity Nikki Release Date Set for December

Infinity Nikki, the open-world dress up role-playing game from former The Legend of Zelda director Kentaro Tominaga, launches on PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile on December 5.

Developer Infold Games revealed the date alongside a new trailer, below, which showed off a ton of the world alongside its characters, their companions, side activities, and clothes players can dress up in.

“Infinity Nikki breathes new life into the Nikki series by delivering an open world experience unlike any other,” the synopsis reads.

“Players will discover and explore a charming, vibrant world through activities such as fishing, pet grooming, and fashion contests. Additionally, a diverse cast of characters will brighten the world through evocative and engaging story quests, while locations will challenge Nikki with platforming challenges to take advantage of her movement and exploration toolsets.”

The game also has a staggering 30 million pre-registrations, meaning its launch next month could set some records of its own.

Our own preview of Infinity Nikki had positive things to say. “[We never knew dressing up could be so much fun. [Our] time with Infinity Nikki left [us] eager to try on the finished game when it eventually arrives.”

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

Fiddly parkour is the secret sauce that makes every moment of Deadlock compelling

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: running away is the best feeling in videogames. More specifically, being chased is the best feeling in videogames, a sentiment I’d happen to share with my golden retriever if you replaced the word “videogames” with “the universe”. He is a purer being, but he’ll also never know the joy of executing a rail-dismount into a dashing corner-jump escape in Deadlock, and for this he deserves our pity.

It’s easy to miss if you haven’t played for at least a few hours, but Deadlock packs one of the most engaging movement systems this side of Tribes Ascend.

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Xbox Confirms It’s Looking Into A Potential Handheld Device

Don’t expect anything soon, though.

Microsoft’s Phil Spencer has confirmed that the firm is looking into potentially producing a handheld device for its Xbox platform.

In speaking with Bloomberg (thanks, Pure Xbox), the executive stated that the “expectation is that we would do something” in the handheld space, but was also seemingly keen to set expectations. He said that the company is producing prototypes and considering what it might do with a portable device, but he has also requested that his teams look at the current market and apply its learnings.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Brace Yourself: The Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 1 Update Is 40 GB

Black Ops 6 Season 1 launches today, November 14, and with it comes a mammoth update that has become a Call of Duty trademark.

The Season 1 update, which brings Call of Duty up to version 1.061.000, is available to download now and weighs in at a gargantuan 40.422 GB on PS5 and 38.724 GB on PS4.

This is an enforced update for Call of Duty, the all-encompassing app that houses Black Ops 6, Warzone, and prior Call of Duty games. You need to download the 40 GB update for the base game even if you don’t have Black Ops 6.

Season 1, which goes live at 9am Pacific / 5pm UK time, makes a number of significant changes to Black Ops 6, adding new Multiplayer maps, skins, a battle pass, and big balance changes. Activision published the Season 1 patch notes overnight. New updates are also coming for the Black Ops 6 campaign and Modern Warfare 3, if you have those downloaded.

Call of Duty, with its various evolving modes like Multiplayer and Zombies alongside yearly releases on top of separate games like Warzone, is not only messy but takes up a big slice of your storage. For this year’s game, Activision made a number of changes designed to streamline the Call of Duty interface, offering more direct access to games and more control over downloads.

Taking on Zombies mode? We’ve got Essential Zombies Tips and Tricks to help you get started, plus a guide on How to Exfil. Both Zombies maps are full of easter eggs and secrets; here’s everything we’ve found in both Terminus and Liberty Falls, including How to Pack-a-Punch in Liberty Falls and How to Get the Meteor Easter Egg in Terminus.

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.

Classic shooters Unreal and Unreal Tournament are now free and preserved on the Internet Archive

Epic Games has given the OK for their 1998 shooter Unreal to be hosted on the Internet Archive, essentially making the classic sci-fi alien blaster free, and preserving it for the future. They’ve also given the same permission for Unreal Tournament to be hosted there too, making free the multiplayer muckabout that spawned speedier and speedier sequels throughout the early 2000s (not to mention the origin of one of the most memorable multiplayer FPS maps of all time, Facing Worlds).

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Mortal Kombat 1 Dev NetherRealm Is Using Ghostface to Secretly Bring Back Two Obscure Characters — and Fans Have Already Worked Out Their True Identities

Mortal Kombat 1 developer NetherRealm fully unveiled Ghostface overnight, showing off the DLC guest character’s signature hunting knife, crawling skills, and ability to phone in a fellow Ghostface partner to help finish off victims.

But what the developers failed to reveal is which Mortal Kombat characters they’re quietly bringing back to the series via the Scream villain’s various versions that are available in-game.

During a Kombat Kast, NetherRealm confirmed there are actually three versions of Ghostface: the main Ghostface is the villain from the Scream films, as you’d expect, but the identities of the other two are secrets NetherRealm challenged players to work out for themselves.

As reported by EventHubs, NetherRealm confirmed that the other two Ghostface versions are Black Dragon characters called, at least for now, The Enforcer and The Assassin. Black Dragon is Mortal Kombat’s mercenary clan headed up at various points (the timeline is pretty complicated!) by fan-favorites Kabal and Kano. The lore justification here is Ghostface has been transported to Lui Kang’s timeline without his partners from the movies, so recruits two members of the Black Dragon clan to help him out.

So, Ghostface is actually three characters in one. You can switch to temporarily playing as The Enforcer or The Assassin by holding a button during certain moves. You can tell them apart by their knives, if you look closely. You get 12 seconds to play as an alternative Ghostface before you revert back to the OG, or your opponent lands a hit and triggers the OG to come running back in.

Players have analyzed The Enforcer and The Assassin’s unique movesets for hints at the Black Dragon characters’ true identities. Already, there are two outstanding suggestions.

Warning! Spoilers for the identity of Ghostface in Mortal Kombat 1 follow.

Mortal Kombat fans have identified moves that are directly related to Kobra (Enforcer) and Kira (Assassin), two human Black Dragon members who each made their debut in 2004’s Mortal Kombat: Deception. We also see Assassin do Kano’s famous roll attack, but Kira does this move as well in both Deception and 2006’s Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. As you can see from the movesets, this one looks nailed on.

So the other two are kobra and kira
byu/plastic-person180 inMortalKombat

Reaction to this revelation has been positive, not only because it’s a clever way of bringing back two rather obscure Mortal Kombat characters that perhaps would never have seen the light of day otherwise, but also because it leaves the door open for other, perhaps more wanted characters to appear as Kameos or even fleshed out DLC characters with a potential, but so far unannounced Kombat Pack 3.

As for Ghostface, the OG version is voiced by Roger L. Jackson, who has voiced the character throughout the Scream franchise. Ghostface joins the Mortal Kombat 1 roster on November 19 as part of the early access period for Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns Expansion owners, followed by wide availability for purchase on November 26. Up next is Conan the Barbarian and T-1000 Terminator.

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.