After watching the announcement trailer for Whispers of the Eyeless, I have one request: please, do not have that voiceover in the full game. It is hammier than a hamster eating a ham sandwich in Hamburg during a performance of Hamlet. It starts with “The Whispers [of the Eyeless] call to me!!!” and does not improve from there. Beyond that, colour me fairly enthused.
Warning: The below story contains full spoilers for the end of Baldur’s Gate 3.
As Baldur’s Gate 3 fans scramble to find all the secrets in the RPG’s absolutely massive Patch 7, released on PC this week, one player has found a scrapped evil ending that’s, well, a little anticlimatic.
YouTuber SlimXG (h/t GamesRadar) found the ending still in the game’s files, accessing it by merely blocking the “impossible” tag. By doing this, he discovered a fully animated new cinematic, which shows the player character leaving all this tadpole nonsense behind after an evil run.
As SlimXG explains, the character in his footage is Lae’zel, but the ending isn’t limited to her. It shows Lae’zel after taking control of the Netherbrain, leaving all of Baldur’s Gate at her mercy. As she grapples with what to do next, the removal of the “impossible” tag reveals two new options: “remove the tadpole at last and depart with your companions,” and “rid yourself of the tadpole at last and walk away from all of this — alone.”
With either option, Lae’zel then removes the tadpole from her head as onlookers, somewhat hilariously, look on in confusion, and then heads out. Basically, peace out alone, or peace out with friends.
It’s pretty easy to see why the ending was cut — it’s hardly even that evil, just apathetic — and, with each option coming in at under a minute, it’s a jarringly abrupt way to end the game. Still, it’s pretty funny to see the befuddled looks on the companions’ faces when the player goes through all that trouble to conquer the Netherbrain only to just… walk away.
It’s only one of many discoveries players have been making since the release of Patch 7, which also includes the highly anticipated addition of official mod support. The new evil endings are certainly a highlight, with Karlach’s causing her to trend on X/Twitter yesterday.
And the good news is, that may not be the last we see of new Baldur’s Gate 3 content. While Patch 7 was previously expected to likely be Larian’s last major patch, the studio’s head of publishing tweeted that “it’s not the final update” after all, though declined to reveal specifics of what’s on the horizon. Console players, meanwhile, will get to dig into Patch 7 sometime in October, Larian said with the PC release.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
“I am truly happy just to be able to send my child out into the world once again”.
Hironobu Sakaguchi needs no introduction. As the father of the Final Fantasy franchise, he’s the mind behind one of the most successful and popular JRPG series of all time. With FANTASIAN Neo Dimension reuniting Sakaguchi-san with Square Enix, he’s spoken about how returning to his former studio — and to Nintendo consoles — feels like coming home.
In an interview with Famitsu (shared via My Nintendo News and Genki), Sakaguchi and Creative Studio III and Final Fantasy XIV and XVI producer Naoki Yoshida (known as Yoshi-P) sat down to discuss the upcoming expanded rerelease of the Apple Arcade title. And in the chat, Sakaguchi got a little reminiscent about his time with Square and developing games for Nintendo consoles.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Last week, we asked you share gaming characters getting to work using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
MrioMoreno5 shares Lake protagonist Meredith delivering mail and package in her hometown.
snejku23 shares Rivet grabbing a selfie with some industrial workers in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
juniaxe shares Ada showing off her credentials in Resident Evil 2 Remake.
fsantos1697 shares Sam Bridges pausing to collect himself while delivering things in Death Stranding.
call_me_xavii shares Alan staring down writer’s block (or worse) in Alan Wake 2.
SeeyoulaterHihi shares Judy hard at work editing brain dances in Cyberpunk 2077.
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Astro Bot
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on September 11, 2024
Next week, Astro Bot’s off on his next big mission! Share adorable and adventurous moments with the titular bot and his many rescued friends using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
Bethesda has celebrated Starfield’s first birthday by sharing some new details on upcoming expansion Shattered Space.
The sci-fi role-playing shooter, which launched on September 6, 2023 as Bethesda’s first brand new franchise in years, gets its debut expansion Shattered Space on September 30, 2024.
In a tweet, Bethesda teased it has “much more coming” to Starfield beyond Shattered Space, but for now, revealed some fresh details on the expansion.
The highlight here is the addition of over 50 new locations to discover and explore across Va’ruun’kai (Va’ruun’kai is the new planet players get to visit during Shattered Space). This suggests Shattered Space will certainly keep Starfield fans busy when it comes out.
Elsewhere, there are new grenades to craft that stem from organic material you gather – “and it’s gross,” Bethesda added. There are “formidable” new enemies, too (“be on your guard for Redeemed and Vortex Horrors…”).
And finally, Bethesda said Starfield players haven’t seen the last of Zealots, Spacers, or the Crimson Fleet. “As you explore the planet be on the lookout for those taking advantage of the situation,” the developer added.
We gave Starfield a 7/10 when we reviewed it last year, writing at the time that it “has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist.”
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.
I’ll admit it, I downloaded the free prologue for horror game Baby Blues Nightmares mostly because I couldn’t stop giggling at the offer to “utilize the unique abilities of a toddler”, encompassing “stealth gameplay”, “survival elements” and “upgradeable abilities”. It’s as though a toddler were actually an undersung class of special operator from a Tom Clancy shooter, rather than a wailing, hyperactive ball of tears and poop. Then again, I imagine Sam Fisher was a toddler once. Perhaps this is how he got started: escaping a smashed-up house full of roaming demon toys.
Warning: Spoilers for Astro Bot follow.
There are well over 150 PlayStation characters, references, and Easter eggs in Sony’s brilliant new platformer Astro Bot. Some will be known to most – God of War’s Kratos, Uncharted’s Nathan Drake, and Horizon’s Aloy, for example – but some may just have you scratching your head a little.
Well, that’s where we can help you out. We’ve scoured the clues given and taken a look back through PlayStation history to find out what games and consoles these little guys are from. So, without further ado, here are 21 of the most obscure PlayStation characters from Astro Bot explained.
Before renaming to Polyphony Digital and becoming the creators of the beloved racing series Gran Turismo, Polys Entertainment developed Motor Toon Grand Prix in 1994. More of a kart racer than the sim racing experience Polyphony would become known for, a handful of cartoonish characters and their accompanying cars were available to drive with. Captain Rock (you don’t want to pronounce that name incorrectly) was the cover star of Motor Toon Grand Prix and its 1996 sequel.
Alundra is the titular protagonist of Alundra (known in Europe as The Adventures of Alundra), an action-adventure about a young man with the power to enter other people’s dreams. Not an ode to A Nightmare on Elm Street nor the inspiration for Inception, Alundra was developed by Matrix Software in 1997 and was noted for its tough puzzles and dark story themes. A sequel was released in 1999, and despite being called Alundra 2, didn’t feature the character of Alundra at all. Who knows why.
Charged with investigating an alien invasion, news reporter Ulala is the protagonist of Space Channel 5, a music game first released in 1999 for the Dreamcast before making its way to the PlayStation 2 three years later. Taking a heavy influence from the aesthetics of 1960s sci-fi, both Space Channel 5 and Ulala are remembered for their distinct style as well as, of course, all that memorable music.
Let’s not stop the music yet and head right over to PS2 rhythm game Mad Maestro! and its classical orchestra. That orchestra is led by Conductor Takt, and taking command of his conducting baton puts you in charge of keeping all the musicians in check by pressing increasingly more complex and frantic button combos.
An intricate and entirely singular puzzle game, Devil Dice is all about moving around levels and causing chain reactions by flipping and rotating die as you walk across them. A big seller for the original PlayStation, you play as a little devil in the game, who is pictured right here.
Arc the Lad was the biggest-selling Japanese PlayStation game of 1995. Despite that, it never saw a release outside of its home nation (apart from in a compilation many years later). A tactical RPG, the story follows Arc, a lad on a journey to find his long-missing father. Two sequels would be released for the original PlayStation in the following five years.
A cloaca is the part of a snake or chicken (and many other animals) where the eggs come out. Importantly, this is not cloaca, but Klonoa, a platform series with entries that spanned across the original PlayStation and PS2. First appearing in 1997’s Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, protagonist Klonoa is a nondescript mash-up of dog, cat, and rabbit – none of which are egg-producing animals. He does have the ability to travel to different dream realms, however, and remove the forces that threaten them. He also has creator Namco’s original mascot Pac-Man on his hat.
The Japanese title ‘Boku no Natsuyasumi’ translates into English as My Summer Vacation. And that’s exactly what this game is, as you follow a young boy named Boku on his summer trip away from home. Set in 1975 in rural Japan, its an easygoing time as you decide what to do with the 31 days you have on the calendar. Fishing, catching bugs, or flying kites are all potential entries in your relaxed schedule. It would go on to get three sequels, although none are yet to have been released outside of Japan.
Another Japanese exclusive, Ore No Ryouri is a fast-paced cooking game in which you control a chef using solely the analog sticks. Battling against the clock (and cockroaches), players were tasked with managing different types of restaurants when it was released for the PlayStation in 1999.
Perhaps the least obscure on this list of obscure characters is Vibri from Vib-Ribbon. An early example of Sony’s desire to experiment (and, frankly, just get weird) you controlled a wireframe character called Vibri as you navigated a black-and-white world. Produced by Masaya Matsuura, the man behind other rhythm games like PaRappa the Rapper and Um Jammer Lammy, has become somewhat of a cult hit in the years since its launched in 1999, eventually getting a North American release in 2014.
The original PlayStation ushered in a new era for 3D graphics. And tell me, what’s more 3D than a cube? A qube perhaps? Intelligent Qube was a puzzle game about a tiny man pushing a giant box around levels in order to clear them. First arriving in 1997, it has received many different remasters and remixes, and was even added to PlayStation Plus as recently as 2022. Check out if you love cubes, and especially qubes.
Taneo has a day from hell in Incredible Crisis. In one of many minigames, he’s forced to dance with his coworkers (which would be as horrifying as it gets for most of us), but it gets a lot worse from there. An incoming boulder, high-speed traffic, a bomb, and a UFO are just some of the things he has to steer clear of in order to make it home to his family. Released on the original PlayStation, it won the “Best Other Game” IGN award in 2000. Whatever that means.
In Mister Mosquito you play as this annoying little bastard who enjoys nothing more than flying around a house looking for blood to suck from its occupants. Buzzing his way onto the PS2 in 2001, it’s definitely one of the weirder games to have made it onto the console, and it’s perhaps just as weird that he shows up in Astro Bot.
Before The Last of Us on the PlayStation 3, there was Tokyo Jungle – a post-apocalyptic survival action game that put you into the shoes of many different animals (if animals wore shoes, that is.) One of those animals is the humble Pomeranian, who is cute to wander around a ruined Japan and chomp on unsuspecting pigs with. Until he’s mauled by a pack of wild dogs, that is. A genuinely funny curio, Tokyo Jungle has developed a cult following since its 2012 debut.
Another canine pal and by far the most recent entry onto this list, the Shiba Inu from Humanity glows bright in order to direct crowds to safety. Released only last year and produced by Tetsuya Mizuguchi (creator of Rez, Lumines, and Tetris Effect), it was one of the most underplayed but critically aclaimed games of 2023. Check it out if you haven’t already.
Now, not all of these characters are actually from games. Some are actually from the real world. The ERS-110 was the first model of AIBO (Artificial Intelligence RoBOt) from Sony, a robotic dog that had the ability to learn and ‘grow up’ over time. It would react to its owners in different ways after extended communication and be able to express different emotions. It was released in 1999, but discontinued in 2006 after underwhelming sales.
But the robot dog returned! Able to recognise up to 100 people’s faces and designed with a much “cuter” dog appearance than its more robotic older brother, the ERS-1000 has been available to buy since 2018 and will only cost you $2,899.99 to have in your home. Bargain.
It’s really raining both cats and dogs in Astro Bot. Here is Toro Inoue, a white cat who has been the official PlayStation mascot in Japan since he first appeared in virtual pet game Doko Demo Issyo. A cultural icon in Japan, Sony America was against the idea of having a single mascot represent the PlayStation platform, which explains his lack of presence in the West.
Often seen alongside Toro is Kuro. They’ve appeared in many games together such as Doko Demo Issyo on the PS2 and Mainichi Issho on the PS3. Not quite as pure as his cat counterpart, Kuro is known to be “a man of vices” who enjoys the company of women, gambling, and drinking. He hasn’t been cancelled… yet.
Polygon Man was one of the first characters to be associated with the PlayStation brand. Essentially a purple, blocky piece of marketing, he was used to show off the 3D graphical power of the original console back in 1995. He never had his own game, but did appear as the final boss in 2012’s PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Is it time for Sony to give that one another shot?
Staying with 1995 and the birth of PlayStation, in Jumping Flash! you play the role of Robbit, a giant robotic rabbit who bloody loves to jump. Armed with his sparkle beam gun and tasked with saving the galaxy from the evil and insane astrophysicist, Baron Aloha, it was initially revealed as a tech demo in 1994 before being turned into a full game a year later.
And that’s what we think are the most obscure characters featured in Astro Bot explained. How many of the above games have you played? Let us know in the comments below.
Summertime is coming to an end and Woot’s celebrating the change of seasons with a little fall video game sale. There are quite a few excellent options included in this sale event, but our absolute favorite deal is on Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which has dropped down to just $45 (see here at Woot). This is 25% off its MSRP of $59.99, so it’s a great opportunity to pick it up for yourself if you’ve had your eye on it. Note that it may not be the US version of the game, but since Switch games are region-free, it will run on your US Switch without any issues.
In case you’re in need of some convincing before hitting that ‘add to cart’ button, it’s worth knowing that we gave this game a 9/10 in our Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door review. Our reviewer Logan Plant stated that, “Paper Mario has finally returned to its RPG roots with an amazingly loyal and visually dazzling remake of The Thousand-Year Door.” He went on to say, “Everything fans have been begging Nintendo to bring back is here, including a delightfully varied turn-based battle system with satisfying real-time elements and unique, lovable party members who are essential to both the story and gameplay.”
On top of that, “It also introduces a host of modern improvements that streamline (but don’t eliminate) the original’s backtracking issues, easily making this the best way to experience Mario’s quest to gather the Crystal Stars.” If you’re a Mario fan who’s been itching to add this remake to your library, there’s no better time than now to do so.
If you’re looking for even more Nintendo deals, have a look at our roundup of the best Nintendo Switch deals. There, you can see even more discounts on games alongside offers on accessories, power banks, and some incredible deals on storage. If you want to see what’s going on with other platforms, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals and the best PlayStation deals.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only widescreen. No ultrawide for the moment, sadly. As and when they add support for ultrawide monitors, perhaps they should call it “ultramarinewide”. Ha ha! Ha. Anyway, here’s what’s coming in the first round of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 patches.
Let’s roll.
After learning last week that Pauline will be joining the fun in Super Mario Party Jamboree, Nintendo has today revealed another trailer, this time highlighting the game’s new boards.
Shared to Twitter by @NintendoUK, the 39-second video provides a whistle-stop tour of the five game boards and shows some of the sights we can expect to see on each.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
