Since Battlefield 6 rolled onto the, er, battlefield late last week, a huge patch having been smashed against its hull to see it off, EA and their Battlefield Studios have understandably only put out a few more tweaks. Their latest little round of changes are server-side rather than being a proper patch, and enact a bit of balancing clearly deemed too important to wait for the next big patch’s deployment.
Pokémon Go’s new level cap requirements have leaked, and some fans say the fresh XP total required, as well as the some of the extra tasks involved, are too easy.
This week, Pokémon Go will raise its current level 50 cap for the first time in five years, and allow players to reach level 80 for the first time. But this change will come alongside an overall rebalancing of XP — meaning many players will find themselves transported to a much higher level, and potentially far beyond the XP needed to instantly hit level 80.
Of course, players won’t simply log on and find themselves at the finish line. As is the case currently, a fresh set of additional tasks will need to be completed to progress through the game’s final tier of levels (from 70 to 80, replacing similar tasks required to move from 40 to 50). But even these — which have been datamined by fans — have been dubbed as rather straightforward.
Last night, a post on the official Pokémon Go blog listed out the new XP requirements needed after the game’s level cap increases tomorrow, October 15.
It’s interesting to compare these fresh totals with the amounts of XP needed to hit the game’s level 50 cap now. Currently, hitting level 50 requires a lifetime total of 176 million XP. (This week, following the game’s rebalance, level 50 will require just 12.75 million XP.) This means the new level 80 cap requires just 27 million more XP than the current level 50.
While it’s been clear for a while that Pokémon Go’s new level cap will come alongside an overall smoothing of the game’s overall XP requirements, hardcore fans have still been surprised to discover that many of them will once again be in Pokémon Go’s new endgame, with little to no actual XP grinding required.
Moving on to those level up tasks, fans examining a datamined list of what will be needed have judged the requirements as rather straightforward. Each level requires players hold an increasing number of platinum in-game medals, though these can be earned in a way that reflects your playstyle. Some will take time — Purifying 100 Shadow Pokémon — but with planning there’s nothing here which should hold up hardcore players for too long.
Indeed, there is also palpable relief among fans at the lack of any artificial timegating here — such as requiring a Pokémon be caught on 30 days, holding progress back a month — something which has been found in other challenges previously.
With these tasks, and with Pokémon Go’s new XP rebalance, it feels clear that the game is adjusting itself for newer players, and leveling the playing field somewhat so there’s a chance for newcomers to catch up with those who have been playing for almost a decade. As the game approaches its 10-year anniversary next year, its developers will likely want to ensure Pokémon Go continues to welcome fresh blood to its userbase, without giving them too steep an XP mountain to climb. But some veterans are less impressed.
“These are all so easy,” wrote Old_Indication_4379 on top Pokémon Go fan reddit TheSilphRoad.
“I’m disappointed beyond disappointment,” added another fan, avaible17. “I’m sitting at 352M xp and I doubt that it is very impressive number for most of the old players. I hoped for a challenge and motivation to play, I’ve got easy and repetitive tasks, that most of them can be done in a day (except walking ofc).
“I was hoping for introduction of new type of medals, that would make my grind beyond capabilities of human flesh,” they continued. “Now I’m writing this and thinking, that they just make it easier for beginners, not more challenging for old dogs.”
Fresh incentives to climbing levels will include permanent boosts to Pokémon, inventory and gift storage, and an improved chance at gaining Lucky Friends status when players are level 70 and above. Finally, and most mysteriously, there’s a new 1km Daily Adventure Incubator for players over level 15. Alongside the game’s current Daily Adventure Incense item, which rewards players with extra spawns for 15 minutes, this is designed to reward players who walk at least 1km per day.
Exactly which Pokémon the Daily Adventure Incubator will hatch, however, remains unknown — though fans are already speculating that the mechanic will eventually include an ultra-rare Pokémon (Manaphy and Phione seem a good bet!) similar to how the Daily Adventure Incense has a rare chance at spawning a Galar Legendary bird.
Overnight, Pokémon Go’s development team fixed yesterday’s major bug which bricked the game for anyone who completed its first Weekly Challenge. A message posted on the Niantic Support social media account last night offered a smattering of XP and Stardust as an apology to impacted players, though did not state whether the Weeky Challenge feature would return next week.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
There’s even a new ? silicone case.
Remember Nintendo’s collaboration with Fujifilm? The one that let you add all kinds of Switch-relevant frames and stickers to your screenshotted polaroids via the instax mini Link 3? Don’t worry, we had forgotten about it too, but the company has just released a new update to help add an extra bit of Mushroom Kingdom flare to your physical snaps.
The main addition in this update is the instax AiR Studio. As the capitalisation on the former suggests, this new ‘studio’ lets you take photos with some Mario AR effects to boot — so, if you need a polaroid of your friend hitting a ? Block, holding a Red Shell, or popping out of a Warp Pipe, you’re in luck!
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Rapper Skrilla says his viral hit Doot Doot (6 7) is in Grand Theft Auto 6.
The soundtrack and radio listings in GTA games have long been something of a cultural phenomenon, boosting plenty of musical careers. In this instance, however, the song in question is already a mega hit that has inspired a global meme.
Skrilla’s 6 7 blew up earlier this year on TikTok and Instagram. It’s a slang term referring to gun violence but became popular when it began appearing in clips about basketball players like LaMelo Ball, who is 6ft 7 inches tall. It then went viral when a boy known as the 67 Kid used it in a meme, and now kids the world over are saying it.
Talking about the game on Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, Skrilla told the hosts (thanks, Dexerto): “I’m waiting for GTA 6 to come out… 6 7 is on there, too. Yeah, 6 7 is on there. I’m going to be my own person on there, playing my own music.”
Rockstar has yet to announce any songs appearing in GTA 6, and it no-doubt won’t until its good and ready. But Skrilla, at least, sounds convinced 6 7 is in there, and you’d like to think he’d know.
This isn’t the first time GTA 6 song talk has hit the internet. In July, Travis Scott’s music video for ‘2000 Excursion’ set tongues wagging after fans spotted what looked like a reference to GTA 6. That sparked speculation that that Travis Scott was set to appear in GTA 6 in some way, either with his own radio station (as celebs have done in previous GTA games) or as a character we see in the game.
Meanwhile, Faheem Rashad Najm, better-known as singer-songwriter T-Pain, confirmed that he’s contributing to GTA 6 (in the course of bringing T-Pain aboard, it seems that Rockstar requested he stop role-playing on NoPixel, a popular GTA 5 role-play server that runs on third-party servers).
We do, of course, know at least one band that won’t be appearing in the game. A founding member of British synth-pop band Heaven 17 alleged Rockstar offered the three writers of hit song Temptation $7,500 each for its use in Grand Theft Auto 6 — a figure that was flat out rejected. Founding member Martyn Ware tweeted to tell Rockstar to “go f*** yourself” after allegedly receiving what he called an “extremely low” offer to use 80s classic Temptation in GTA 6.
Development of GTA 6 began “in earnest” in 2020 following the success of Red Dead Redemption 2. It was originally slated to release in 2025, but suffered a high-profile delay from fall 2025 to May 26, 2026. Rockstar Games co-founder and writer of almost all the Grand Theft Auto games released to date, Dan Houser, has confirmed that he had no involvement in GTA 6, but insisted the game’s story will be “great,” even though it’s “not going to be a story I wrote or a character set that I developed.”
The release of GTA 6 Trailer 2 and Rockstar’s accompanying info-dump has sparked all sorts of speculation about what to expect from what is sure to be the biggest video game of all time. While we wait to find out, we’ve got plenty more on GTA 6, including all the details we’ve discovered so far, a roundup of 70 brand new screenshots, and the expert opinion on how GTA 6 will look on PS5 Pro. As for how much will Grand Theft Auto 6 cost? Amid the speculation, new research has suggested that a $100 price point would actually earn Rockstar less money than if went for the “sweet spot” of $70.
Photo by Erika Goldring/WireImage.
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.
Shortly after you finish celebrating the arrival of next year, a plague will rock up. Well, the full version of Pathologic 3, a game in which you play a doctor tasked with saving a town from a mysterious contagion will rock up. I’m sure that if you turn off all of the lights and pay someone to sit in the next room coughing every two minutes, the difference’ll be negligible.
Post-launch support for Hollow Knight: Silksong continues, this time with patch version 1.0.28891 out now.
The update makes a number of improvements and fixes, and some light balance changes. The game now pauses when the controller disconnects, which is an important safety net for such an intense game. Indeed, there are controller support improvements across the board.
On the balance side of things, there’s a slight increase to Sharp Dart and Cross Stitch damage, updated damage scaling on Rune Rage to match other Silk Skills, and a slight decrease to Thread Storm damage at higher needle levels. It’s also worth noting that the patch changes Fine Pins wish drops from 50% chance to 100%, but raises the required quantity.
Developer Team Cherry had signalled its first priority remains to improve Silksong’s Simplified Chinese translation. This was in response to high-profile criticism of the translation, which had led to Chinese players leaving negative Steam reviews. These improvements are expected in the coming weeks.
Silksong remains one of the most-played games on Steam following its huge September 4 release. Here are some essential guides for your journey upwards: the Silksong Interactive Map, how to grind for Rosary Beads, our ever-expanding Walkthrough with boss videos and guides, how to get your first life bar upgrade (first four mask shards), and a great guide to the Simple Keys and the doors they open.
The patch notes, courtesy of Steam, are below.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Hopefully it doesn’t get delayed again.
Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road for the Switch and Switch 2 has been delayed multiple times, but according to Level-5’s previous update, the match will finally kick-off on 13th November 2025.
Before we get to this, it appears there’s apparently one more update in the form of a live stream. This Japanese broadcast will take place next week on 21st October 2025 and will share the “latest updates” about the title’s story mode, chronicle mode and versus mode. There will be a YouTube archive version of this video (featuring English subtitles) shared at a later date.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Joined by Xbox’s “gaming PC on the go”.
We’re at the point in the year where various outlets, companies, and events are handing out all sorts of nominations and awards.
With this in mind, Time Magazine’s website has featured the Switch 2 on its “best inventions” list of 2025. It mentions how this list features 300 of the “best inventions making the world better, smarter, and more fun”, and includes categories like robotics, accessibility, apps and software, and artificial intelligence.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Achievements for Switch and much more.
Argonaut Games has announced its Croc remaster is getting a major update. It’s officially titled Croc Legend of the Gobbos Platinum Edition.
This free update will be applied to the console versions of the game (including Switch) on 16th October 2025 and promises to deliver the “best possible Croc gaming experience”.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Amazon is having another one of its “Buy 2 Get 1 50% Off” sales and it is absolutely filled to the brim with puzzles this time around. There are hundreds of options included in this sale from some of the best puzzle brands out there. If you’re on the hunt for your next puzzle, or are just looking to grab a nice gift for the puzzler in your life, this promotion makes it a great time to save some money.
To take advantage of the promotion, you’ll just need to add two eligible jigsaw puzzles to your Amazon cart and the 50% discount will be applied to whichever one is the least expensive. And since it isn’t just puzzles included (there are board games as well), you can also mix and match with other items to still get that discount. I’ve gathered some of my top picks from this sale below, but there’s a ton of other options available if you want to browse the sale yourself.
Like I mentioned above, there are a ton of puzzles included in this sale. I couldn’t possibly include them all, so I’ve only highlighted a few top picks that I think best represent what is included here. There’s a fairly wide variety of piece counts, from 300 to 3000, but I mostly stuck to 1000-piece puzzles here as they are the most popular whenever I’ve covered a puzzle sale.
If you are looking for some suggestions for what to buy, the Spider-Verse puzzle from Buffalo games has been on our list of the best puzzles for adults for over a year now. It’s got a ton of different Spideys and is consistently one of the most popular marvel puzzles out there. There’s also the Disney & Pixar Shop puzzle from Ravensburger that offers something similar for fans of Disney instead of Marvel. There’s a bunch of characters and easter eggs hidden in each one.
I’d also recommend checking out The Drippy Trip puzzle. It’s the latest puzzle made by The Magic Puzzle Company and actually features a few fun secrets from the popular cartoon Adventure Time. If you aren’t familiar with Magic Puzzle Company Puzzles, they are a mix between jigsaw puzzle and magic kit and are generally very popular with families. There have been five different series of these types of puzzles and Amazon has a bunch of them featured in this sale right now.
Amazon’s buy 1, get 1 50% off sale also extends to board games. So if you want to purchase a puzzle and a board game you can still get that 50% off. There are a surprising number of board games included in the sale and you can mix and match to your heart’s desire. There’s even some crossover between IP so you can purchase a Lord of the Rings puzzle and a Lord of the Rings board game all at once if you want.
