The Cyberpunk 2077 modder behind a bunch of the game’s most popular romance mods is set to make NPC showering an optional extra in two of their works, with the hopes that these “non-sexy mods” will no longer be “hidden unnecessarily”.
Their decision comes as a response to recent changes Nexus Mods have made regarding creations that’re classed as “adult”, something the modding site’s done as a result of the Online Safety Act coming into force in the UK. The legislation’s seen the likes of social media and porn sites also have to adopt new age verification checks before allowing users to access a range of content deemed unsuitable for children.
Glen Schofield, who co-created Dead Space, co-founded Sledgehammer Games, and most recently directed The Callisto Protocol, said “it’s tough out there” in the games industry, and admitted he had potentially “directed my last game” after failing to secure financial support for his latest prototype.
In a candid post on LinkedIn, Schofield said he’d been working with his “great artist” daughter, Nicole, who went to him with an idea for a new horror game — maybe even a new horror sub-genre, although he didn’t specify what — and had been working on the idea for the last eight months.
Alongside a “small, talented crew” of six U.S. devs and a “full crew” in the UK, Schofield said he started talking to people, most of whom “loved the concept.” Initially surmising he’d need around $17 million, the director was advised to lower the budget to “get it to $10 million,” before being told to further streamline the project to come in at around “$2-5 million.”
“So last month, we decided to walk away. Some ideas are better left untouched than done cheap,” Schofield wrote. “We had a team of six here in the States and a full crew in the UK. Now, everyone’s looking for work. They’re all talented folks — if you’re hiring, let me know.
“As for me — I’ve worked on games of every size. From two of us to over 300 devs. Spent the last 15–20 years making big AAA titles with great teams. That’s what I do. That’s what I love. But with the industry on pause, AAA feels like it’s a long ways away.”
Schofield says he’s “back to [his] art,” but admits he misses AAA development.
“I miss it all; the team, the chaos, the joy of building something for fans. I’m still around, making art, writing stories and ideas, and still cheering the industry on. But maybe I’ve directed my last game. Who knows? If so, thank you [for] playing my games.”
Striking Distance was founded over six years ago by Schofield. The studio is a subsidiary of Krafton, the parent company that owns the rights to the widely popular battle royale game PUBG. The studio was initially formed to create a narrative-driven game set in the PUBG universe, but ultimately released The Callisto Protocol, a third-person survival horror separate from PUBG that released in December 2022.
We thought The Callisto Protocol was ‘Good,’ awarding it a 7/10 in our review, writing: “The Callisto Protocol is a satisfyingly gory spiritual successor to the Dead Space series, but it’s ultimately more of a striking modern mimic than a scary new mutation.”
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.
Dusty extract-o-shooter The Forever Winter got an update over the weekend that added another mech to the growing list of horrifying war machines that roam its post-apocalyptic world looking for fleshy idiots to squash and eat. “The StiltWalker is a multi-legged destruction machine: equipped with multiple missile and machinegun weapon systems,” say the developers in an update post on Steam. Pfft. What’s so scary about that? Just shoot some rockets at it.
“It is also equipped with a point defense system that can detonate explosive munitions that are fired at it from a distance.”
If you’re anything like us, your Switch 2 has likely become a Donkey Kong Bananza machine for the past two weeks. We mean that in a figurative sense, of course — it’s the game that has dominated most of our time of late — but some arty fans have taken it much more literally.
Take Reddit user freakintoddles, for example, who recently took to the r/NintendoSwitch forum to share their latest creation: a Switch 2 dock cover modelled on DK’s iconic barrels. It looks bananas in the best possible way and, what’s more, its creator has even shared how you can make one yourself… if you have a 3D printer to hand.
Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection will release on September 30 — at least, that’s what the Xbox App was telling prospective players over the weekend.
Look now, and you may get the placeholder date of 31 December, 2025, showing on the Xbox app’s Legacy Kollection storefront (or at least I did when I checked first thing this morning), but for a brief time yesterday, players were getting a different date: either September 29 or September 30, depending upon where they were in the world.
As posters on Reddit suggest, this will more than likely get confirmed at the next Evo weekend, the annual celebration of all things fighting games, the next of which is set to take place in Las Vegas on August 1. It’s possible the release date went live a few days ahead of schedule before being quietly switched back to the placeholder date.
Players can also expect the bundle to guide them through Mortal Kombat history with behind-the-scenes materials and interviews.
“Digital Eclipse’s interactive documentary format explores how Mortal Kombat changed the way society perceived video games,” an official description from the studio says. “By using digitized humans as player sprites in an over-the-top, martial-arts fighter, the game thrilled players, shocked critics, and laid the foundation for a franchise that has thrived for more than 30 years. Hear firsthand from the original dev team of Ed Boon, John Tobias, John Vogel, and Dan Forden, along with other exclusive interviews, rare concept art, vintage marketing materials, and archival video footage.”
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.
Valve have released a revamped Steam store menu in beta, so folks can give a number of changes a whirl and offer feedback ahead of the full rollout.
As the pipe-themed company wrote in a news post about the menu emerging from the labs for this testing, the main goal of its changes is to offer “easier access to the places Steam users most frequently visit”. Insert joke about the sorts of weird stuff one can have lurking in their Steam library here.
We’ve rounded up the best deals for Sunday, July 27, below, so don’t miss out on these limited-time offers.
M4 MacBook Air for $799
This weekend at Amazon, you can save $200 off an M4 MacBook Air. This 13-inch model includes 16GB of Unified Memory and 256GB of SSD storage, making it ideal for multitasking and running intense applications. All 2025 models support Apple Intelligence features as well.
Mario Kart World for $71.99
Mario Kart World was the big Nintendo Switch 2 launch game, and today marks the first time we’ve seen the game on sale. Nintendo opted to release the game at a price point of $79.99, but you can pick it up for $71.99 at Woot. Mario Kart World features a brand-new open world design that interconnects each of the 30 tracks. A battle royale-like mode called Knockout Tour is hugely popular among players, as it offers a racing experience unlike anything we’ve seen in Mario Kart before.
Nintendo Switch 2 Available at Walmart & Target
While Nintendo Switch 2 has been quite challenging to find if you didn’t secure one at launch, both Target and Walmart have the highly popular console in stock. This is the Mario Kart World bundle, too, which packs in a digital copy of Mario Kart World for $50. The Nintendo Switch 2 is an upgrade to Nintendo Switch in almost every way possible, featuring a 1080p display with a 120Hz refresh rate, improved Joy-Con, and much more.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for $34.99
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was my favorite game of 2024, and it’s available for just $34.99 at Woot this weekend. This is the lowest I’ve seen the PS5 copies so far, and I cannot recommend picking it up enough. Cloud and the rest of the party leave Midgar to step into the open world of Gaia for the very first time, and there is well over 100 hours of content available for you to complete.
Pre-Orders are Live for the LEGO Game Boy
This week, Nintendo and LEGO unveiled the new LEGO Game Boy set. You can assemble your very own Game Boy in LEGO form, and there’s even images of games included for the screen. Plus, this set includes buildable cartridges of some of the system’s most popular games, including Super Mario Land and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake for $34.99
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake was one of the most enjoyable RPGs of 2024, featuring a gorgeous remade HD-2D world and voice acting. If you haven’t had the chance to check this one out yet, Amazon has copies available for only $34.99. This is by far the definitive way to experience this classic, and now is the perfect time to catch up before Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake this Fall.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land for $44.99
Kirby and the Forgotten Land was a brilliant release on Nintendo Switch, and an expanded Nintendo Switch 2 release is set to be released next month. While the standalone Switch 2 release is priced at $80, you can pick up a Switch copy for $44.99 right now at Woot, so you will only need to purchase the $20 upgrade pack to play Star-Crossed World.
Save on Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom for Switch 2
Woot also has both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for Nintendo Switch 2 on sale. These editions pack in both the original game on Nintendo Switch in addition to the Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade. Both games are some of the best experiences on Nintendo Switch, and they are even better on Switch 2 with support for higher resolutions and frame rates.
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection for $26.99
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection brought both Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit in one package, with Prosecutor’s Gambit releasing in English for the very first time. This release features updated visuals, new animations, gallery mode, conversation history, and more. You can even switch between the old and new sprites! Both of these games are quite excellent, and I absolutely recommend picking this up, especially for only $26.99.
Persona 3 Reload for $20
Persona 3 Reload is available at Amazon for just $20. This was one of the most anticipated RPGs of 2024, and for the most part, it delivered. The mystery of the Dark Hour is compelling, and Persona 3’s cast of characters shine bright in a story that has quite a few twists and turns. The Episode Aigis DLC features epilogue content that was originally depicted in The Answer, so you can experience everything Persona 3 has to offer with Reload.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition for $47.99
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition launched earlier this year, and it’s still one of the biggest RPGs you can jump into on any platform. The remaster introduced numerous quality-of-life updates that were much needed, in addition to a brand-new epilogue chapter. We gave the game a 9/10 in our review, stating, “Xenoblade Chronicles X was already one of the Wii U’s best games, and this Definitive Edition does more than enough to justify another trip to planet Mira.”
Tarkir: Dragonstorm was Magic: The Gathering’s third set of 2025, and its focus on big ol’ dragons and Tarkir’s clans was a winning combo that stands as the best in-universe set for a while.
Not only was it the perfect tonic to the silliness of Aetherdrift, it also offered plenty of valuable cards from dragons, to behemoths, to much, much more.
Using data from the fine folks at TCGPlayer, we’ve put together a list of the most valuable cards in the set, judging by their market price at the time of writing. Have you packed any of these? They might be worth more than you think!
Almost every entry on this list has the slick Halo Foil treatment, and kicking us off is Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant.
‘Mr Dragon’ himself is a low-cost card that builds up when you’re bringing in dragon-type creatures.
Elspeth, Storm Slayer (Showcase) – $66.97
Spoiler alert, we’ll be seeing Elspeth, Storm Slayer again on this list, but this showcase version of the Planeswalker is around $70 right now.
Elspeth lets you create tokens and buff creature tokens, while also being able to destroy a big threat on the board.
Ugin, Eye of the Storms (Showcase) – $76.69
I own a non-Showcase version of Ugin, Eye of the Storms, and it’s a ridiculously fun Planeswalker for colorless decks owing to its ability to add three colorless mana at no cost.
Add to that some nice lifegain and the option to cheat out nonland permanents and you’ve got a fun card to build around. We’ll see Ugin again soon…
All-Out Assault (Showcase – Halo Foil) – $88.73
The kind of card that, as the name suggests, could cause a huge swing towards victory, All-Out Assault gives counters and deathtouch, and can give you a second combat phase.
The Halo Foil version can reach $90 and above in good condition, so keep an eye out if you’re still opening packs.
Allowing you to refresh your hand at the end of your turn if you’ve cast plenty of spells, Narset, Jeskai Waymaster is ideal for any deck packed with low-mana cards.
This Halo Foil version has a market value of $90, but we’ve seen near-mint versions listed for $100.
A card that stops your opponent from using activated abilities, attached to a 3/3 flying body that costs just three mana? Yeah, we like Clarion Conqueror.
This Halo Foil can reach as high as $140, but the market price is around $120.
Dracogenesis (Showcase – Halo Foil) – $150.74
The kind of enchantment that can spell doom for opponents, Dracogenesis lets you play Dragon spells without paying a mana cost.
This Halo Foil is up to $150, but there are listings pushing it for closer to $320.
We told you she’d be back! Elspeth, Storm Slayer’s Halo Foil variant is going for a whopping $400 right now, but that’s actually slightly below market value.
Snap it up if you’re keen!
Ugin, Eye of the Storms (Showcase – Halo Foil) – $443.99
Finally, this Ugin, Eye of the Storms looks incredible with its Halo Foil treatment, and turns an already powerful card into a thing of beauty.
It won’t come cheap, though. While market value is just shy of $450, you can expect to pay close to $500.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
Last week, North America and Europe duked it out over Weaponlord on the Super NES, with NA giving their EU PALs a good wholloping and taking home 85% of the vote.
Update: New gameplay footage and physical editions revealed.
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We’ve got some exciting news for Scott Pilgrim fans, with Tribute Games announcing it’s teaming up with Universal and the series creator Bryan Lee O’Malley to release an “all-new, action-packed” video game entry on multiple platforms including the Switch.
