Diablo 4 Players Come Up With Cool Theory to Explain Terrifying Giant Butcher

If you’ve been lucky (unlucky?) enough to have been graced by the presence of Diablo 4’s infamous The Butcher, you may have noticed he appeared larger than you expected. Or perhaps he grew in size as you fought, likely in vain, to survive.

It turns out there’s an explanation for this Giant Butcher, and it suggests all enemies are similarly susceptible to enlargement.

Our story starts with a Reddit post from a confused IronHeart_777, who ran into a Giant Butcher while killing demons in a Nightmare Dungeon. Alongside posting a screenshot of this larger than virtual life demon, IronHeart_777 asked: “So uh… anyone know why we found a Giant Butcher? He appeared this big…”

Strange! But there’s more. Icy-Veins subsequently reported on a video from streamer Vinsonte showing one Diablo 4 player surprised by a Butcher encounter, but this time the imposing beast grew bigger over the course of the fight, starting off default size before growing large enough to dominate the screen.

These player reports sparked some good old-fashioned theory-crafting from the Diablo 4 community. The current theory puts the blame on a dungeon modifier (affix) appropriately called Avenger.

The Avenger affix description text states killing a monster enrages monsters near it, making them deal more damage. This text fails to mention also making enemies bigger, and yet this is what appears to be happening. Perhaps Blizzard left this line out deliberately in order to surprise players and spark a bit of community fun. Perhaps it’s a bug. With Diablo 4, it’s hard to know.

It is difficult to see this effect in action on the vast majority of enemies, which start small and increase in size by a tiny amount with each nearby kill. But with the already big Butcher, the effect is more noticeable. At least, that’s what the theory suggests.

If the Avenger affix is the cause of the Giant Butcher, it also suggests something pretty amazing about how the enemy actually works. It may skulk around near enough to the player to trigger Avenger from defeated enemies but, and this is the important part, off-screen. As IronHeart_777 put it, the Giant Butcher “was there (but off the screen) slowly powering up into his final form”.

What a terrifying thought! Perhaps the Butcher does not always spawn on top of the player and start fighting immediately, but sometimes appears off-screen, watching, waiting, biding his time, getting ever so slightly bigger with each nearby kill, before exploding into view to terrify, and probably kill, the player. The Butcher’s unsuspecting victim would never know they were feeding the demon all along. That does sound like the kind of thing the Butcher would do, after all.

Add this fun Giant Butcher theory to the pile. Since launch Diablo 4 players have done some pretty out-there stuff, including convincing themselves rats lead to better loot, hunting for a secret cow level Blizzard insists does not exist, and running through 1,270 cellars in just three days to “see what happens”.

Diablo 4 launched big, becoming Blizzard’s fastest-selling game ever. It is also a hit with critics, and, generally, has gone down well with fans. However, the cost of Diablo 4’s microtransactions has raised eyebrows, and, surprisingly, Whoopi Goldberg called on Blizzard to release Diablo 4 on Mac.

Check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.

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.

Fallout: New Vegas mod adds a murderous psychic tumbleweed to your party

One recent Fallout: New Vegas mod adds a murderous psychic tumbleweed called Windy to your party, further cementing the game as the best in the series. ‘Wait a second, that doesn’t make any sense,’ you might be saying about a game where people don’t use bedsheets to sleep. But the mod is only accessible with the Wild Wasteland trait turned on, which allows all manner of silly and unrealistic things to happen in-game.

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Persona 3 Reload Won’t Include the Original’s Most Frustrating Mechanic

Persona 3 Reload players won’t have to worry about the original game’s most frustrating features as Atlus isn’t including broken social links in the remake.

As reported by Noisy Pixel, director Takuya Yamaguchi told Famitsu the developers are removing the ability to break social links but will keep the potential to reverse them.

For those unfamiliar, social links are the connection the protagonist has with fellow party members, where hanging out in the social simulator side of Persona powers up their abilities in the dungeon crawling part.

Much like real life, saying something horrible to a friend, hanging out with someone else after making plans, or ignoring them for weeks on end would result in a falling out, and the social link would reverse or eventually break as a result.

“In [Persona 3 Reload], the Broken system has been removed,” said Yamaguchi. “However, Reverse can still happen, though the conditions have been made severely less strict, so simply leaving a social link character alone will not cause it to Reverse, as it did in the original version.”

Atlus removed the feature for Persona 4 and Persona 5, so while it may still be in the remake on some level, fans of the later games will seemingly find an experience closer to those.

It’s not the only thing changing in the remake, as Persona 3 Reload also features a brand new English voice cast. The game was finally announced at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase following a string of rumours and one final leak ahead of the event.

It will specifically recreate Persona 3, not Persona 3 FES or Persona 3 Portable, meaning there won’t be a female protagonist or any of the other additional content those versions brought.

Unlike Persona 5 Tactica, which was announced alongside it, Persona 3 Reload won’t be coming to Nintendo Switch, though rumours around that version have also begun after Play Asia listed the game and said it wasn’t a mistake.

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

Someone Complained to Ad Standards That a Diablo 4 Billboard Reminded Them of the ‘Hell’ of Lockdown

Advertising standards officials have dismissed a complaint about a Diablo 4 “Welcome to Hell” billboard displayed in Melbourne.

The unnamed complainant contacted the Australian Ad Standards Community Panel to say the billboard “brought back memories of the hell of the two years of lockdowns in Melbourne”.

The person also accused the advert of causing offense to Christians and Catholics, and “promoting evil and satanic paraphernalia”.

“The words ‘welcome to Hell Melbourne’ as part of the advertisement for this game and a picture of a devil are offensive to me as a Christian,” reads the complaint.

“The imagery is also inappropriate for my children to see and has already given them nightmares. The imagery is frightening to children as the demonic looking character is staring at the camera, creating the effect of staring at the observer. It is located in an prominent position beside a busy freeway where children have a clear view of the very large Billboard.

“I feel it’s inappropriate to show such disgusting and disturbing content on a billboard where children are seeing this on a daily basis. It has no context and for an adult of 43, I found it unsettling.

“It’s scary for young children who see it, but even as an adult it brought back memories of the hell of the two years of lockdowns in Melbourne. The language and words used are not necessary to get across the message about the release of this game.”

As you’d expect, the Ad Standards Community Panel dismissed the complaint, in hilarious fashion.

On the point about religion, the Panel pointed to the comma between “hell” and “Melbourne”, stressing the ad is not saying the city itself is hell. Never forget the important of a well-placed comma!

Does the ad contain violence? The panel didn’t think so. It compared the image of Lilith, Diablo 4’s antagonist, to Disney’s Maleficent and even noted a Melbourne Australian rules football club nicknamed The Demons.

It’s yet another odd Diablo 4 story among a raft of weird and wonderful reports about Blizzard’s action role-playing game. IGN recently covered the Diablo 4 players who convinced themselves rats lead to better loot, and the community-wide hunt for a secret cow level Blizzard insists does not exist. Then there’s the Diablo 4 player who said they ran through 1,270 cellars in just three days to “see what happens”.

Diablo 4 launched big, becoming Blizzard’s fastest-selling game ever. It is also a hit with critics, and, generally, has gone down well with fans. However, the cost of Diablo 4’s microtransactions has raised eyebrows, and, surprisingly, Whoopi Goldberg called on Blizzard to release Diablo 4 on Mac.

Check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.

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.

Sonic Fans Treated To New ‘Summer’ And Manga-Inspired ‘Shonen’ Merch Lines (Europe)

Shirts, shades and snapbacks galore!

SEGA Shop Europe has launched two new Sonic the Hedgehog merchandise lines, giving fans of the blue blur yet another reason to spend their hard-earned cash on some seriously swish-looking goodies.

The ‘Summer’ range, based on the infamous Sonic the Hedgehog lolly, is full of bright colours and cutesy designs, while the manga-inspired ‘Shonen’ range goes in the opposite direction with striking imagery and gritty prints. Check out both complete ranges below (prices are shown in GBP, but shipping is available across Europe and Africa):

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Xbox and Bethesda Attending Gamescom 2023

Xbox and Bethesda are officially locked in for Gamescom 2023, meaning fans attending the event may get a chance to play Starfield ahead of its September 6 launch.

Gamescom itself announced the news in a tweet (below). “Breaking. Xbox and Bethesda will join us on the show floor for Gamescom 2023,” it said. “More details soon.”

Xbox is a regular exhibitor at the convention in Germany, having shown up every year in a time when PlayStation hasn’t. Sony is yet to confirm if it will attend the 2023 show.

Sony last appeared in 2019, opting not to have a presence at the digital-only show caused by COVID-19 or the subsequent events. Nintendo was in the same boat, but confirmed in April it would return to Gamescom in 2023.

2022 saw the return of over 250,000 visitors to the physical show floor in Cologne, Germany. This year’s event takes place August 23 to 27. An Opening Night live launch event kicks off the show a little early though, taking place the night before on August 22.

Last year’s Opening Night Live saw the announcement of Lies of P, a new release date revealed for Gotham Knights, the re-introduction of Dead Island 2, and much more.

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

Ubisoft are suspending The Division 2 players who used an exploit for extra XP

Ubisoft have started to dish out two-week suspensions to players in Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 over an XP exploit. Players were apparently joining the game’s roguelike Descent mode partway through matches via a loophole in Ubisoft Connect’s interface. The team says the bug yielded an “unfair amount of XP and SHD levels,” hence the penalties.

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Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Update Now Live (Version 1.2.0), Here Are The Full Patch Notes

Download it today.

Nintendo has today rolled out a new patch for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on the Switch, bumping the game up to Version 1.2.0.

This latest update now allows Switch users to redeem items from the system’s news channel. This was also a feature for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Apart from this, the latest update includes a number of quest fixes and resolves several other issues to improve the gameplay experience.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Hollow Knight mod Pale Court expands its lore and boss fights while you wait for Silksong

Pale Court is an ambitious mod for Hollow Knight that adds five new boss fights, as well as new art, music, dialogue, voice acting and more. If you’re one of the bajillion people who yell “where’s Hollow Knight: Silksong” during every video game livestream, maybe it’ll tide you over. There’s a trailer and download instructions below.

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