Category: Video Games

Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox Series S Could Get Split-Screen After Launch

The Xbox Series S version of hit role-playing game Baldur’s Gate 3 won’t have split-screen when it launches later this year, but that’s not to say it won’t receive the feature after launch.

A message on the official Xbox Twitter account (below) gave Series S players hope. “To answer some questions we’re getting, we’ll continue to work with [developer] Larian to explore the addition of split-screen on Series S post launch,” it said.

Baldur’s Gate 3 currently lacks a release date on Xbox despite having already launched on PC and its coming to PlayStation 5 on September 6. Larian wasn’t able to get split-screen working on the weaker Series S, and Microsoft’s feature parity policy prevented the studio from releasing even on the more powerful Series X.

Not even Microsoft engineers could get the game working as intended, but despite Xbox boss Phil Spencer insisting the feature parity policy remains in place, Larian later announced that Baldur’s Gate 3 will launch on Xbox this year without the split-screen feature on Series S.

The exception perhaps comes from the game’s success. The Dungeons & Dragons-based RPG has proven incredibly popular so far, almost immediately becoming one of the most popular games on Steam and forcing a hotfix from Larian to cope with demand.

It’s also gained attention for being, in the developers’ own words, “big-budget horny”, with players being shocked by the extent of its nudity.

In our 10/10 review, IGN said: “With crunchy, tactical RPG combat, a memorable story with complex characters, highly polished cinematic presentation, and a world that always rewards exploration and creativity, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the new high-water mark for CRPGs.”

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

Sea Of Stars review: a slick RPG that harks back to the Chrono Trigger classics

Many attempts have been made to recapture the JRPG’s glory days. In Tokyo RPG Factory, Square Enix founded a whole studio dedicated to the craft, and more recently Squeenix’s “HD-2D” style has come to define both their own retro work and that of others. But it’s arguably the RPGs from outside Japan that have been doing a better job of propping up the SNES nostalgia tent. Last year’s Jack Move and Chained Echoes were both infinitely more refreshing to me than the slightly tired Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler sequels, for example, and now we have The Messenger studio’s latest, Sea Of Stars, which is probably one of the few Japanese-inspired RPGs I’ve played in the last decade that’s even come close to bottling the mighty Chrono Trigger and lived to tell the tale. If you’re the sort to cry, ‘They just don’t make ’em like they used to anymore’, well, you can dry your tears, because Sea Of Stars is the one that is.

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Bloodborne-Inspired Lies of P, Like Bloodborne, Has 3 Endings

The upcoming Bloodborne-inspired Soulslike Lies of P features three endings for players to experience, just like Bloodborne itself.

Speaking to IGN at gamescom 2023, game director Ji-Won Choi said players will encounter different endings depending on the decisions they make throughout the game. Lies of P, perhaps unsurprisingly, features a lying system, and the extent of players’ lies throughout the game will determine which ending they receive.

“The lies in the game are not only lies that you are fooling others [with] but also white lies you have to do to make others feel better,” Choi said. “You have to understand others’ emotions to make a decision so [we] want users to feel how they would as a human in the game, and it will show in the ending.

“There are three different endings and if you get to the end of the story there’s a big surprise, a twist, waiting for you. The decisions that you made throughout the game will lead you to endings, so it’s not something that you have to pick at the ending, it will lead you throughout the game.”

Choi also suggested there won’t be obvious story paths for players to follow to achieve each ending, but instead there will seemingly be unclear consequences to players’ decisions that won’t unfold until later.

This is perhaps most similar to Bloodborne’s hidden ending, where players must make a series of decisions during the game that don’t have an obvious purpose at the time. Its other endings are more cut and dry, with players simply choosing between two options at the game’s close.

Comparisons have been made between Lies of P and Bloodborne since its announcement in 2021, from its gothic architecture to its animations to its simple red health bars. FromSoftware fans even modded Lies of P’s PC demo to include Bloodborne’s assets.

In our preview of the game, which launches September 19, IGN said: “Even if Pinocchio’s story in Lies of P isn’t being manipulated by cosmic old gods that turn people into slugs, the attention to detail in recapturing Bloodborne’s magic has got [our] full attention.”

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

Review: Sea Of Stars – An Instant Classic, So Much More Than A Chrono Trigger Throwback

Your wish is granted.

About five years ago, a no-name studio called Sabotage wowed audiences when it put out The Messenger, a creative and innovative action platformer that quickly set itself apart from the deluge of similar retro-flavored titles releasing in the indie space. Empowered by that game’s deserved success, the team then began work on its dream project, a retro JRPG called Sea of Stars inspired by the likes of Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. Some doubted the small studio’s ability to deliver such a different experience from its debut release, but we’re happy to report that any such doubts can be resolutely put to rest. Sea of Stars ticks all the boxes and executes its vision near-flawlessly, presenting players with a fun, engaging, and thoroughly excellent new entry in the JRPG genre.

Sea of Stars opens in an ancient library, where a mysterious archivist tells you a story that takes place in the same world as The Messenger, thousands of years before the events of that game. An evil god called The Fleshmancer created a few monstrous Dwellers before disappearing, and each of these creatures could turn into a World Eater and cause the apocalypse if allowed to grow to maturity. To oppose this, a powerful order of warrior mages called Solstice Warriors was formed to exterminate the Dwellers, which are vulnerable to magic during an eclipse.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Mediterranea Inferno takes you on a beautiful hallucinogenic anxiety holiday

But you know. In a good way. My waking hours are, currently, beset by stress and anxiety from a number of different directions, and I’ve only had time to play about about an hour of Mediterranea Inferno so far. It’s quite a short game, though, and I’m sort of transfixed. It’s about three men in their early 20s who, pre-pandemic, were the toast of their party scene in Milan, and after a couple of years apart enforced by a lockdown they’re reuniting for a summer mini-break. Having blazed through my early 20s I no longer really remember that unique, potent mix of feeling simultaneously fragile and invincible, but it’s captured in this almost occult, yet hyper-real visual novel.

I may be playing on a Steam Deck on a rainy day, but the bold colour contrasts and the desperate enthusiasm of the dialogue really get over the feeling of a too-hot summer, of trying to force fun and recapture a friendship when you all want different things. The most intense segments of Mediterranea Inferno are the Mirages, visions that merge past and present and metaphor, giving explicit form to each character’s wants and anxieties. It’s unreal and yet a distillation of reality. It’s quite an intense ride so far, but it’s a good one.

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Armored Core 6 Gets Off to Flying Start on Steam ‘Thanks to Elden Ring’

FromSoftware’s Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is off to a flying start on Steam, with publisher Bandai Namco saying it’s “thanks to Elden Ring”.

As reported by PCGamesN, the epic mech battling game from the Dark Souls developer topped Steam’s best selling games chart over the weekend, and while it now sits at fifth place, its launch day performance knocked the critically-acclaimed Baldur’s Gate 3 from its throne.

Fires of Rubicon arrives as the first Armored Core game in 11 years but more crucially as the first after FromSoftware released the likes of Elden Ring, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Bandai Namco had higher expectations for this game as a result.

“This is an opportunity for us to truly widen the audience of the Armored Core games,” Bandai Namco Europe CEO Arnaud Muller told GI.biz. “My ambitions are not on par with Elden Ring, but our ambitions are way bigger than the previous Armored Core games.

“Thanks to Elden Ring, FromSoftware has become a seal, a guarantee of quality, and therefore people will see that the Metacritic of this game is great, [that] it’s challenging but very rewarding, [and say] ‘I wanna try that game’.”

While giant mechs don’t exactly align with the stoic fantasy world of Elden Ring, the two do share one similarity on the technical side. The PlayStation 4 Pro version of Armored Core 6 runs with a locked framerate of 60fps on PlayStation 5 despite Bandai Namco saying it maxes out at 30fps at 1800p resolution, just as Elden Ring did.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: “Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon’s stellar customization options feed into its excellent mecha combat, and the result is challenging combat puzzles that kept my attention all the way through its 15-hour campaign and beyond. It’s let down by a dull story, but lands direct hits where it counts.”

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

Star Trek: The Next Generation Boldly Bounces Into Pinball FX’s New Table DLC

An Enterprising addition.

Alongside the launch of the Marvel collection, Pinball FX has now ventured to the final frontier with an all-new DLC package containing Williams’ legendary Star Trek: The Next Generation table.

The package is now available to download from the Switch eShop for £8.99 / $9.99 and you can get a taste of the U.S.S. Enterprise’s long-awaited arrival to the virtual-pinball realm by checking out the above launch trailer.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Starfield Global Release Times and PC Specs Revealed

Starfield is just about here and Bethesda has revealed its global release times alongside the minimum and recommended PC specifications ahead of its early access release date of Friday, September 1.

Bethesda Game Studios shared the details in a blog, giving important details to those of us still living on the “old neighborhood” called Earth. First up, it shared the release timing for those who will get access to Starfield via early access.

If you pre-ordered or purchased the premium edition, premium edition upgrade, or the Constellation Edition, you will be able to take off into the great beyond on September 1 (or even earlier!). If you have the standard edition, you will have to wait until September 6.

You can see the image below for the full global release times, but those in Eastern and Pacific time zones will be able to play Starfield right at 5pm PT/8pm ET on August 31. That translates to September 1 at 1am BST/10am AEST.

Starfield PC Specs

As for Starfield’s PC specs, both the minimum and recommended options require an SSD and will require 125 GB of avaialble space. Check out the full minimum and recommended specs for Starfield below;

MINIMUM:

  • OS: Windows 10 version 21H1 (10.0.19043)
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Storage: 125 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: SSD Required

RECOMMENDED:

  • OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
  • DirectX: Version 12
  • Network: Broadband Internet connection
  • Storage: 125 GB available space
  • Additional Notes: SSD Required

While we don’t know the exact performance on PC, Bethesda’s Todd Howard previously confirmed that Starfield will run at 4K and 30 FPS on Xbox Series X and 1440p and 30 FPS on Xbox Series S. The decision to lock the game to 30 FPS was to ensure a “consistency” of performance.

For more, check out a preview of Starfield’s opening mission, Bethesda’s Pete Hines’ comments on how Starfield “doesn’t really even get going” until players finish the main quest, and everything else we know about Starfield.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

PSA: Armored Core 6’s PS4 Pro Version on PS5 Appears to Run at a Locked 60 FPS

While the PS5 version of Armored Core 6 runs very well and mostly at 60 FPS in performance mode, the PS4 Pro version run on a PS5 appears to give you a locked frame rate of 60 FPS, much like it did for Elden Ring.

As noted by Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) and confirmed by IGN, the PS4 Pro version of Armored Core 6 will run with a locked framerate of 60 FPS on PS5 despite Namco Bandai saying it maxes out at 30 FPS at 1800p resolution. While it takes a small resolution hit, those looking for the best performance may want to give this a shot.

As previously mentioned, this was the case with Elden Ring as well, as we showed in our Elden Ring performance review.

“One nice benefit of the PlayStation 5’s backwards compatibility mode is you can also play the PS4 version, or in this case the PS4 Pro version, which provides a reduced image quality of 3200×1800 (likely a reconstructed method as per Sekiro) and some graphical cutbacks,” IGN’s Michael Thompson wrote about Elden Ring. “The reward is a perfectly locked 60fps readout from all tested sections. This offers the absolute best way to play if performance is your main priority, and that includes the PC due to the current patched version experiencing heavy prolonged stutter and slow down when it happens.”

McDonald went on to say that the PS5 version of Armored Core 6 runs “GREAT almost all the time, but it does have moments of slowdown that aren’t hard to see whatsoever. They mostly happen in cutscenes but also when exploring areas with heavy weather effects. (Yes, this is Framerate-priority mode).”

For more, check out our Armored Core 6 performance review for PS5 vs Xbox Series X/S vs PS4 vs Steam Deck and out review.

In our Armored Core 6 review, we said its “stellar customization options feed into its excellent mecha combat, and the result is challenging combat puzzles that kept my attention all the way through its 15-hour campaign and beyond. It’s let down by a dull story, but lands direct hits where it counts.”

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The Best Cosplay at gamescom 2023

gamescom 2023 was filled to the brim with some incredible cosplay, and the official gamescom cosplay contest showed off some of the best of the best and rewarded these incredible people with some fantastic prizes.

While there were obviously a ton of people in cosplay at gamescom, 30 of them competed for the ultimate prize in the official gamescom cosplay contest. All of these cosplayers deserve recognition for their fantastic work, and there is a good chance you’ll find representation from your favorite game somewhere in there.

As for the winners, you can see a full list below alongside a video of their cosplay in action. The overall winner was Pockyy Neko Cosplay’s Valkyrie from Apex Legends, but all are worth a look. You can also see some of the best cosplay from gamescom in the slideshow below, and be sure to check out our tour of gamescom’s incredible Cosplay Village.

Best Costume – 1st Place: Pockyy Neko Cosplay (Valkyrie from Apex Legends)

Best Costume – 2nd Place: Dragoon Cos (Cleanrot Knight from Elden Ring)

Best Costume – 3rd Place: James (Odon of Confraternity from Blasphemous)

Best Dress: Coffeeowl Cosplay

Best Built: Kiraaramec

Fan Favorite: Funzkopf (Din Djarin from The Mandalorian)

For more on gamescom, check out our recap of the biggest moments from the show and our roundup of Opening Night Live.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.