Category: Video Games

Riot Lays off More League of Legends Developers While Promising to Increase Team Size

Riot Games has announced it will be laying off an unknown number of developers from the League of Legends PC development team, while simultaneously pledging to increase the size of the League of Legends team.

In a post to X/Twitter today, Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill shared “An Update on How We’re Evolving League” in which he announced the layoffs, explaining that this “isn’t about reducing headcount to save money.” Instead, the layoffs are apparently occurring so the company can make “sure we have the right expertise.”

“While team effectiveness is more important than team size, the League team will eventually be even larger than it is today as we develop the next phase of League,” Merrill continued. “For Rioters who are laid off, we’re supporting them with a severance package that includes a minimum of six months’ pay, annual bonus, job placement assistance, health coverage, and more.”

Merrill continued his explanation in a follow-up post, in which he said that the success of a development team is unrelated to its size. “If we’re solving the wrong problems, more resources won’t fix it. It’s about building smarter and healthier, not just bigger.”

IGN has reached out to Riot Games for more clarity on why these layoffs are occurring, how many roles were impacted, and if any of those individuals are being considered for placement in roles as a part of the planned team expansion. A spokesperson confirmed that 27 employees were impacted across League of Legends development team and an additional five roles on Riot’s publishing team. The spokesperson stated that those impacted would have the ability to use the company’s internal job board to apply for other roles at Riot, but declined to share anything else.

These layoffs come rather uncomfortably as League of Legends celebrates its 15th anniversary, which Merrill references briefly in the post “so that League continues to be great for another 15 years and beyond.” They also come nine months after Riot already laid off 530 individuals, roughly 11% of its staff, in an effort to cut costs after allegedly taking on too many “big bets” as a company.

According to a games industry layoff tracker, this puts the number of laid off game developers this year alone at over 13,000, with over 10,000 laid off in 2023 and over 8,000 in 2022. We wrote about how the ongoing industry mass layoffs have impacted developers earlier this year.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Review: Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo – Pricey But Delightful, And Something Only Nintendo Could Pull Off

Can Hyrule’s destiny really depend on such a lazy boy?

Editor’s note: We’ve now updated this review with our final thoughts and a score having spent some quality (sleepy) time with Alarmo.

Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo, one of Nintendo’s most perplexing yet delightful products in recent memory, was announced and launched simultaneously on Wednesday 9th October.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

One of the Best PlayStation 5 SSD Deals for Prime Day Is Available Again on Amazon

We’ve seen the cost of SSDs trending upward for most of 2024, but lately it looks like prices have normalized and are even starting to drop back down. Today, Amazon is offering the PS5 compatible Lexar NM790 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 Solid State Drive (SSD) with pre-installed heatsink for only $128.99. This was one of the best SSD deals we saw during Amazon Prime Day. It expired quickly after, but available once again for a little while longer.

Lexar NM790 2TB PS5 SSD for $128.99

The PlayStation 5 console comes with a 1TB SSD, but 300GB of that is reserved for the OS, leaving around 700GB left over for games. That space will run out quickly because some games take up an enormous amount of space, especially if you buy digital copies. For example, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and NBA 2K25 all require 140GB each. Even older games like God of War: Ragnarok, Gran Turismo 7, and Horizon Forbidden West require 90GB of space apiece.

Enter the Lexar NM790 SSD. Although we didn’t pick it as one of our favorite SSDs for the PlayStation 5, Lexar is a well known and established flash memory brand and its SSD has garnered plenty of positive reviews. The NM790 is a guaranteed fit with any PlayStation 5 console. Performance-wise, it boasts read speeds of 7,400MB/s and write speeds of 6,500MB/s, which is well above Sony’s minimum recommendation of 5,600MB/s. It’s also pre-equipped with a low-profile aluminum heatsink. The 2TB capacity triples the storage of a PS5 or doubles the storage of a PS5 Pro.

Alternative: Silicon Power XS70 2TB PS5 SSD for $127.99

Amazon is offering Amazon Prime members this Silicon Power XS70 2TB PS5 SSD for $127.99 shipped. The primary difference is that the Lexar NM790 is a DRAM-less drive and the Silicon Power XS70 has a DRAM cache. Instead of onboard DRAM, the NM790 uses HMB (host memory buffer), which basically means that it uses the system memory as cache. The XS790, on the other hand, has a dedicated DRAM cache built into the stick. Theoretically, having a DRAM cache offers fast random write performance, but both types of SSDs are so fast that there really any noticeable performance difference when it comes to gaming on a PS5 or PC.

If you want more options, here’s a list of the best PS5 SSD deals available right now. If you’re looking for deals on other PS5 accessories, check out our constantly updated best PS5 deals article. If you don’t yet own a PS5 console, note that the new PS5 Pro is currently up for preorder and ships out next month. This is a more powerful version of the PS5 with double the storage capacity at a significantly higher price.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn’t hunting for deals for other people at work, he’s hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Dev Reveals New Tyranid Enemy, the Huge Hierophant Bio-Titan

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 will soon get a brand new enemy type: the terrifying Tyranid Hierophant Bio-Titan.

Publisher Focus Entertainment said this huge xenos hits the explosive third-person melee shooter as part of the new PvE operation: Termination, which takes players back to the planet Kadaku. This will be made available for free, and is coming “very, very soon.”

Also part of this free update is the new Lethal difficulty, which is “designed to test your skills against the most brutal xenos and heretics.” The new weapon is the Neo-Volkite pistol, also free for all players.

As for cosmetics available through the premium season pass, the Dark Angels chapter of Space Marines is first in-line for new threads with a theme pack. This adds new weapon styles, armor pieces, and color schemes featuring the Unforgiven (the name given to the Dark Angels chapter following the disastrous events of the Horus Heresy in Warhammer 40,000 lore). This theme pack includes a full armor set for the Bulwark class.

All the above forms part of Season 2 of Space Marine 2, which runs from October until the end of 2024. Focus also teased the first year of updates coming to the game as part of Seasons 3 and 4. This includes new PvE operations, new PvP maps and modes, new Tyranid and Thousand Sons enemies, and a new Horde mode “with just one challenge: survive.” Expect cosmetics for new Space Marine chapters, too.

Specifically, Season 3 also adds PvE Prestige ranks and a Battle Barge expansion (the Battle Barge is the Ultramarines’ base of operations during the events of Space Marine 2). Season 4 adds the aforementioned Horde mode, a new enemy, and a new weapon. More seasons will follow.

Developer Saber Interactive recently released Space Marine 2’s game-changing patch 3.0, which made a seemingly innocuous change to the ending that got Warhammer 40,000 fans excited. Fans have also unearthed interesting and unannounced Space Marine 2 cosmetics by datamining the game.

Meanwhile, IGN interviewed Saber Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits about Space Marine 2’s record-breaking success. He revealed the boost he expects the PS5 Pro will give Space Marine 2, discussed how the breakout success of Space Marine 2 had “changed everything” for the studio, and how protective Games Workshop is over the Warhammer 40,000 brand.

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.

Review: Blazing Strike (Switch) – A Beautiful Love Letter To The Fighting Game Hardcore

Blazin’ squad.

A totally original pixel art fighting game in 2024 is certainly a welcome surprise. What’s more of a surprise, though, is discovering that Mark Minkyu Chung touts himself as a solo game developer. Known by his developer handle Rarebreed, we hopped to Blazing Strike’s credits roll to corroborate the seemingly impossible. And, sure enough, he appears to have done pretty much everything himself, from programming to art direction, rollback netcode implementation, and sound. Where he’s had help, he’s still the lead credit of two individuals for things like animation, character, and environment design. To that end, it appears Blazing Strike’s vast majority is indeed the effort of one man – a head-spinning feat considering the comprehensive nature of the end product.

A love letter to the fighting game hardcore, there’s plenty of SNK about Blazing Strike, with incredibly tall, superbly rendered sprites, tons of animation frames, and a scaling effect that zooms in and out based on the proximity of the combatants. Indeed, the game’s graphical style is arguably its most polished asset, and bears some visual kinship to Rage of the Dragons. The spritework appears genuine, as if it was crafted on old-school tools, and boasts a near-CPS3 quality (that being the hardware that fuelled Street Fighter III and Red Earth). The colour palette positively beams, with attractive blending, and, although samey at times, the backgrounds are truly top-notch, featuring a range of sci-fi cityscapes and in-theme prison courtyards.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Wayfinder unveils brand-new area The Crucible

Wayfinders! I’m AJ, an Executive Producer at Airship Syndicate and I’m incredibly excited to talk about the upcoming release of our game, Wayfinder! Today we’re focusing on two big new additions coming alongside our October 21 launch!

For those that might not know, Wayfinder is an ARPG where players assume the roles of various Wayfinders to push back a hostile force called the Gloom. With a single player campaign that can be played solo or with up to two friends, as well as endless replayability through randomized dungeons and end game activities, Wayfinder is packed with content for you and your friends to enjoy; all for one price with no microtransactions. 

Our 7 Wayfinders are distinct & different, each with their own backstory, gear, abilities and (pun intended) ways-to-find new experiences across the world. You start out with one hero and quickly rescue the full roster from the Gloom so you can level, customize, and swap between them at will. But you don’t need to fight alone! Two others can join you for 3-player online, drop-in cross play co-op as you fight through Evenor collecting over 3,000 weapons, armors, housing decorations and more! 

We’ve been in Early Access for the past year, fine-tuning the game based on player feedback we’re seeing from our super engaged community.  I want to give a huge thank you to Wayfinders old and new from all of us at Airship– you make the game better each update. 


Wayfinder unveils brand-new area The Crucible

Leaving Early Access and moving into the game’s full release will bring a ton of new content to the game. A brand new playable character, new Lost Zones (our version of repeatable, and randomized dungeons), new armor styles and loot to collect and a whole lot more. 

But today we’re here to talk about a huge brand new open world area– The Crucible! This lush, yet dangerous area has quests, mini bosses, and is packed with secrets (and monsters!) lurking around every corner. 

The final battle begins in The Crucible. The Eldren have occupied a shattered region known as The Crucible—a city-sized machine built by The Architects, reclaimed by nature and lost to time. In search of a powerful secret at The Crucible’s center, the Eldren intend to finish the war their gods started, and pen the world a dark fate.

Players may have a mount already, but the Crucible is enormous and filled with verticality & multiple areas to explore. With that in mind, we developed an entirely new traversal tool: the Hookshot! We think you’ll love this thing. It’s super fun to use, and allows you to easily get around the massive new area, as well as avoid dangers in situations you may find yourself in when exploring the Crucible! 

Alongside the game’s release, we’re also introducing The Critical Role Supporter Pack, which brings the world of Vox Machina into Wayfinder with over 50 unique items. This Supporter Pack directly supports Airship Syndicate and Critical Role, two indie companies bringing their worlds to life with the help of their passionate player base. This pack will go on sale October 21,  but we’re thrilled to show off the first in-game teaser featuring Venomess as Vex! Can you spot all the Critical Role inspired items?

“We are huge fans of Critical Role, so we’re super excited for this collaboration, which we hope is the first of many.” said Joe Madureira, CEO of Airship Syndicate and Marvel Comics alum. “From the start, we wanted the Vox Machina personas to feel uniquely Wayfinder, while still capturing the magic that makes these beloved heroes of Exandria so special.  Our team of artists and animators were very passionate about making it happen, and I think it shows.”

Wayfinder has changed for the better so much over the last year in Early Access! Our fans have told us that the experience today is more polished, more rewarding and most importantly, more fun. We can’t wait to welcome all the new PlayStation 5 Wayfinders on October 21!

Talisman Board Game Buying Guide and Expansions

Originally published in black and white by Games Workshop in 1983, Talisman is a classic fantasy board game with a rich history spanning over 40 years. Commonly compared to Monopoly, Talisman features an easy to learn and basic gameplay loop that makes it a great board game for beginners, despite its extremely randomized outcomes, hectic situations, and often longer-than-average play times.

Players choose from over 12 characters, all of which are classic fantasy classes, like the Wizard and Thief, and then the game begins. In it, two to six players battle it out to be the first to reach the Crown of Command in the center of the board and defeat the dragon, venturing through three main sections of the board: the outer, middle, and inner.

Throughout the game, you’ll have the opportunity to use over 100 different Adventure, Spell, or Talisman cards to gain the upper hand or screw with your opponents. You might even be able to turn one of them into a toad.

Featured in this article

The entire history of Talisman is vast and has many out-of-print versions and expansions, so this guide will focus solely on expansions and spin-offs that are more easily accessible.

The Base Game

Talisman: The Magical Quest Board Game 5th Edition

  • Price: $59.99
  • Players: 2-6 players
  • Age Range: 12+
  • Play Time: 60-90 minutes

Released in July 2024, the 5th Edition of the decades-spanning fantasy board game is the latest and most up-to-date version available. With the game’s rich history, it’s easy to get confused on which versions to pick up – don’t look on eBay, as 4th Editions can go for almost $150! Instead, pick up the 5th Edition, which offers the base game as well as the gameplay mechanic changes first introduced in the 3rd Edition. Additionally, compared to the 4th Edition, the newest edition of Talisman is a more streamlined, slightly less chaotic experience; the 5th Edition rulebook even mentions explicit changes with a symbol next to the rules blurbs. This version also comes with two fewer characters; it cuts the Bard and Druid.

Talisman Expansions

A very notable bummer is that the 5th Edition is not backwards compatible with the extensive library of 4th Edition expansions. But there’s a new 5th Edition expansion available called Fate Beckons.

Talisman Alliances: Fate Beckons

  • Price: $33.99
  • Players: 2-6 players
  • Age Range: 12+
  • Play Time: 60-90 minutes

The first expansion for 5th Edition, Fate Beckons offers cooperative play for the first time in mainline Talisman history. Players must complete 5 Trials in order to win the game, and do so using over 50 new cards, tokens, and figures.

Talisman: Legendary Tales

  • Price: $49.99
  • Players: 1-6 players
  • Age Range: 14+
  • Play Time: 20-40 minutes

Not so much an expansion as it is a spin-off, Talisman: Legendary Tales is a story-focused adventure that has players working together to recover the five Talismans to thwart the evil that vies for control over the Crown of Command. Each of the five lost Talismans is recovered in their own unique adventures, and can be replayed as many times as possible to get the full experience. Great for beginners and those looking for quick-playing board games.

Talisman: Themed Versions

There are a few themed versions of Talisman, with Batman and Star Wars tie-ins out of print.

Talisman: Harry Potter

  • Price: $59.99
  • Players: 2-6 players
  • Age Range: 11+
  • Play Time: 90+ minutes

The gameplay mechanics are virtually unchanged from the 4th Edition here. The main draw is the Wizarding World setting, with amazing art and figures of fan favorite characters, like Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, and Dumbledore. Make your way to the center of the board to take on the Dark Lord Voldemort to win the game.

Talisman: Kingdom Hearts

  • Price: $59.99
  • Players: 2-6 players
  • Age Range: 13+
  • Play Time: 90+ minutes

This version also maintains the mechanics of the original game, and sees classic Kingdom Hearts characters like Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Riku battle their way through Heartless to reach the inner part of the board and seal the Door to Darkness.

Talisman Adventures RPG

Talisman Adventures: Core Rulebook

  • Price: $35.94
  • Players: 2-6 players
  • Age Range: 13+
  • Play Time: 2-4 hours

Essentially a DnD-like (and DnD-lite), the Talisman Adventures RPG Core Rulebook has everything you need to get started with the 3D6 ruleset: a breakdown of each character class, the lore, and, of course, how to play. Choose your class, ancestry, and skills as you set forth on your own unique Talisman adventure. You can find other RPG board games here.

Talisman Adventures: Myths and Monsters

  • Price: $33.52
  • Players: 2-6 players
  • Age Range: 13+
  • Play Time: 2-4 hours

The first expansion for the RPG experience adds an impressive amount of content, including bigger and badder enemies and bosses, as well as new events and festivals. This’ll surely add a lot of meat to the bare-ish bones of the starter book.

Talisman Adventures: Tales of The Dungeon

  • Price: $22.11
  • Players: 2-6 players
  • Age Range: 13+
  • Play Time: 2-4 hours

The next expansion is much darker in tone, and sees adventurers delving into the Glittering Caverns to confront the Lord of Darkness. This offers two new ancestries; minotaur and vampire, and two new classes; necromancer and tomb robber.

Talisman Adventures: Tales of the City

  • Price: $16.60
  • Players: 2-6 players
  • Age Range: 13+
  • Play Time: 2-4 hours

Finally, Tales of the City brings players to some of the seedier areas of the City. From shady goblins to pickpockets, this expansion adds plenty of new and unique story content to round out your adventure, as well as the new goblin ancestry and three new classes: alchemist, tinkerer, and gladiator.

Talisman Board Game Accessories

Talisman Board Game Organizer

If you’re in possession of the 4th Edition and its expansions, this organizer has everything you need to house the insane amount of cards, tokens, and figures all in one place.

Talisman Adventures RPG Game Master’s Kit

The perfect tool for those looking to DM your first campaign, this kit includes 24 pages of tips and expanded rules explanations, a four-panel screen used for reference while playing, more Fate tokens, and blank character sheets.

Talisman Adventures RPG – Premium Dice Pack

Includes six gorgeous 6-sided dice and a Talisman Adventures drawstring bag.

Talisman Adventures RPG – Accessory Pack

This set includes six more awesome D6, as well as 7 heavy light and dark Fate tokens.

Talisman Adventures RPG Playtest Guide

  • Price: $6.99
  • Players: 3-6 players
  • Age Range: 13+
  • Play Time: 2-4 hours
  • See it at Amazon

A sort of proof of concept entry level appetizer, the playtest guide is great for those looking to dip their toes into their first RPG. Includes six characters and nine classes to choose from.

Drawstring Bag Bundle

Looking for a one-stop-shop and then some for all these accessories? Online retailer Fapeto has you covered. This bundle includes the Playtest Guide, Accessory Pack, and Game Maker’s Kit mentioned above, with a bonus 8x10in. drawstring bag to carry it all.

How to Play Talisman Online

  • Digital: $52.99
  • Physical: $29.97

This video game adaption of the board game classic is a faithful recreation, offering the same gameplay mechanics and rules, but with awesome 3D graphics and visuals that make the experience that much more immersive. The 40th Anniversary Collection includes all 13 of the 4th Edition expansions, from Blood Moon to the Nether Realm. The PS4 and PC versions include extra characters not available on Switch. Notably, the physical versions on PS4 and Nintendo Switch are not region-locked, but the expansions are.

The Bottom Line

Talisman is undeniably one of the most popular fantasy board games of our time, with a rich history of expansions and revisions spanning over 40 years. The streamlined ruleset of the 5th Edition makes learning it for the first time a breeze, and the updated fantasy art is worth the upgrade. And while many of the 4th Edition expansions are out of print and are either hard to find or expensive on the secondary market, the 5th Edition of the base game marks a perfect jumping on point for newcomers or those looking for a more laid back experience. The Talisman Adventures series of RPGs is a worthy, barebones competitor to DnD, and is great for budding DMs and players of all ages looking into trying out their first RPG.

Myles Obenza is a freelance commerce writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @Myles Obenza.

No plans for a Space Marine 2 PvPvE mode – “it sounds great on paper”, but “it’s very annoying” in practice

In the grim darkness of the far future, you will not have to worry about getting preyed upon by rival Space Marine chapters whilst duffing up the Tyranids, for there are no plans to add a PvPvE mode to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. That’s according to game director Dmitry Grigorenko, who observes that enjoyable PvPvE is the “holy grail” of game design, much-sought and seldom claimed. Balancing shooters in which players fight both each other and the bots is tricky, especially in a game as prone to dousing the screen in giblets as Space Marine 2.

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