Microsoft have responded to the US Federal Trade Commission’s assertion that the tech giant are now offering a “degraded” Game Pass experience, posing “exactly the sort of consumer harm” the FTC warned was possible in advance of the Activision Blizzard acquisition.
Nuh-uh, say Microsoft, who call the FTC’s letter “a misleading, extra-record account of the facts”.
Warframe developer Digital Extremes has unveiled more gameplay for its upcoming fantasy MMO, Soulframe.
The studio pulled back the curtain on its next project during an inaugural dev stream as part of TennoCon 2024. It’s a closer look at some of the game’s opening moments, revealing customization features, new magical abilities, and combat. The footage also gives us a longer look at the players’ wolf-like mount and the Nightfold hub, where you can relax, customize your arsenal, and talk to NPCs, all with the press of a button. It shares some similarities with Warframe’s Orbiter ship, and in case you were wondering, yes, you can pet your mount here.
It all kicks off with a look at the Warsong Prologue, which higlights customization options for their mother’s hair, skin color, eyes, and more as Soulframe begins. It reveals a taste of not only new features but also how themes of ancestry have been woven throughout the experience. This fully narrated intro sequence is then cut short as a time-skip launches us into the future, revealing what will eventually become each player’s Envoy character.
We got an even better look at the importance of visuals in Soulframe thanks to the introduction of a new NPC: Verminia, the Rat Witch. Digital Extremes says this character can “enhance the customization of cosmetics” while also helping out with potions, elixirs, and more. Although the Envoy’s abilities allows them to hurl their weapons at enemies and turn invisible for stealth approaches, Soulframe players will need more than brute force to take out large foes like Nimrod. This towering behemoth uses lightning abilities for ranged combat while using staff for close-quarters fights, and it looks like we’ll be fighting them more than once.
“The community we’ve formed around Soulframe has been really inspiring for the team and they are the backbone of everything we do,” Soulframe Community Manager Sarah Asselin said in a statement. “We’re welcoming more new players than ever and we can’t wait to share our progress through regular Devstreams with the team as we continue to peel back Soulframe’s layers of intrigue.”
Today’s Soulframe gameplay should whet the appetite of both Warframe veterans and those who have never touched a Digital Extremes game, but there’s still a lot of waiting to do before it officially launches. However, during today’s TennoCon presentation, Digital Extremes promised plans to get its fantasy MMO in the hands of more players sometime this fall. As long as the plan goes unchanged, the studio says that anyone who wants to play Soulframe Preludes will be able to when they sign up.
“The closed testing we’ve been doing with our community has been so impactful; we’ve learned a ton, and we continue to listen and learn each day,” Soulframe Creative Director Geoff Crookes said in a statement. “We’re hoping to open this up to a lot more players this fall. Everything is still rough around the edges, but that’s part of our style – the feedback is important to us, and we really do iterate on it regularly.”
We learned even more about Soulframe during our interview with Digital Extremes CEO Steve Sinclair, Crookes, and Asselin. During our talk, we gained insight into how the studio is keeping with its community-driven development approach, weapon variety, potential Warframe tie-ins, and so much more. Keep an eye out for the full interview to drop early next week.
Soulframe is launching first for PC with plans to come to consoles at an unspecified point in the future. Another dev stream is set to take place in September.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
Station wagon survival ’em up Pacific Drive has received a summer update which adds a photomode, new upgrades for garage machinery, a new sideways dodge manouver for the car, and a piece of paid cosmetic DLC. This is the first of a new roadmap of post-release updates still to come.
“Having a ceiling on any sort of media will always be seen as a negative”.
It’s been over four years since this writer last spoke to George Perkins of Super Rare Games, the boutique publisher of limited-run physical Switch releases which set up shop back in 2018.
Since then the firm has branched out into both physical PS5 releases and digital publishing, and with its catalogue of physical Switch games now standing at a whopping 115, it seems that despite the tumultuous state of the gaming industry right now and the long-heralded decline of physical media, there’s more than enough interest to keep a company like Super Rare in rude health.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The weekend has kicked off, and we’re rounding up the best deals you can find this weekend. Today, there are great deals on handheld PCs, laptops, headphones, and, of course, video games. The best deals for Saturday, July 20, include Granblue Fantasy: Relink, ROG Ally Z1 Extreme, Nintendo Switch Lite, and more.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink is one of the biggest RPGs released this year. Over five years after its reveal, Cygames released the title officially on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC in January. The game features over 20 different playable characters from the Granblue Fantasy series, with characters like Nier, Rosetta, Lancelot, Percival, and more. Score this RPG now for only $39.99 and join the fun with over 100 multiplayer missions to complete!
If you don’t own a gaming PC and want to jump into the market, a handheld gaming PC is the perfect in-between. For the Black Friday in July sale, Best Buy has the ROG Ally Z1 Extreme for $549.99, which nets you savings of $100. It’s the lowest we’ve seen this model so far. Additionally, you can save $100 off the standard Z1 ROG Ally or the Lenovo Legion Go, which is also powered by the AMD Z1 Extreme.
Walmart currently has the Timmy & Tommy’s Aloha Edition Nintendo Switch Lite available for $159. This bundle includes a turquoise Nintendo Switch Lite and a free digital copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Together, that has a $260 value, which means you can save $100 by purchasing this bundle. If you have not purchased a Nintendo Switch yet, this is an excellent option.
Amazon has dropped the price of the 2nd gen Apple AirPods Pro truly wireless noise cancelling earbuds with the universal USB Type-C connector by over $80, now only $168.99. With this current gen AirPods Pro, Apple has replaced the proprietary Lightning port with the more universal USB Type-C. Don’t miss your chance to score a pair of new AirPods for an all-time low.
The Beats Powerbeats Pro are an excellent choice if you’re looking for an Apple AirPods alternative. You can get up to nine hours of listening time off a single charge, with over 24 hours available if you use the included charging case. These earbuds are powered by the H1 chip, which allows for easy pairing and instant connectivity when using an iPhone. Overall, it’s hard to beat the value these earbuds provide at just $139.99.
Amazon has the Razer Blade 16 listed for $1000 off right now for a limited time. This model includes an RTX 4080, 32GB of RAM, a 240Hz QHD display, and more. There are not many laptops out there that will offer you anywhere near the performance you’re getting with this Razer Blade.
If you’re in the market for a new monitor, look no further than this Samsung Odyssey G5 from Best Buy. Right now, you can save $200 off this QHD monitor, which has plenty of top notch features. First, you’ll get a 165Hz refresh rate, which is essential for getting the most out of your games. Additionally, with 32″ of screen, this larger display is perfect for immersion, especially in RPGs and other large-scale titles.
What are Yooka playing?
It’s time to check out everyone’s gaming plans as we dive into another edition What Are You Playing!
This week in the world of Nintendo, we got the announcement of a suspicious new Joy-Con charging stand, we finally found out who Emio is (he’s the start of the new Famicom Detective Club game, no less), Crocs and Pokémon teamed up on a new range of clogs and we checked out brand new updates for No Man’s Sky and Splatoon 3.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
A Nintendo sponsored event.
As part of the Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition Switch launch this week, Nintendo has announced it’s sponsoring a special competition featuring a bunch of Hololive VTubers.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
How about it, Capcom?
Industry legend Hideki Kamiya, who left his job at PlatinumGames last year, has recently mentioned how he’s still interested in making new entries in the Okami and Viewtiful Joe series, as both stories remain incomplete.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Model making is a great hobby, but knowing how and where to start is another story. It can be overwhelming for novices: Injection-molded plastic models have been on the market for close to a century, and there are kits of everything from military vehicles to sports cars and anime robots to household objects. Looking at some of the incredible creations of seasoned model builders, it might seem like you need an entire workshop of tools and equipment, the steady hands of a brain surgeon, and years of practice to make something cool-looking, but that’s not the case.
To make getting into this delightful pastime a whole lot less daunting, I’ve put together a list of kits that are worth checking out. Quite a few of these recommendations are based on my own firsthand experience. Up top are kits that don’t require glue, paint, or much else in the way of supplies, but keep scrolling for some recommendations if you’re ready to get your hands dirty and possibly stuck together. Head all the way to the bottom for essential tools and supplies you’ll need for model kits and where to buy these excellent LEGO alternatives.
For a very long time, model kits needed to be glued together and painted. Nowadays that’s not always the case. Most model companies offer entry-level kits that come pre-colored and can be easily snapped together. Keep in mind that some kits that advertise themselves as “for beginners” or “entry level” are so simplified it’s hard to count them as traditional model kits. However, plenty still offer a satisfying challenge without requiring any messy stuff like paint and glue. Case in point: Gundam! If you’re looking for a beginner route to model kits, and you think giant robots are cool, then either of the following two kits is a good start.
Gundam kits are classified by grade, the two most common being High Grade (HG), which are usually $15-30 and about 6 inches tall when complete, and Master Grade (MG), which’ll run you around $30-50 and are a couple of inches taller, but usually a lot more detailed and complex. There’s also Real Grade, which is somewhere between HG and MG; Entry Grade, which is for absolute beginners; and Perfect Grade, which is for advanced builders.
Gundam modeling (or Gunpla, short for “Gundam plastic models”) has become so massively popular, it warrants its own list of recommended kits. But for anyone who doesn’t care for big anime robots (Why not? Who hurt you?) I’ve rounded up a bunch of kits that take the same no-fuss appeal of Gundam kits applied to other properties and subject matter.
Bandai has given the Gundam treatment to a number of other beloved pop-culture properties, most notably Star Wars. A good number of characters and vehicles have been turned into pre-colored snap-together kits. Some lend themselves to this treatment better than others; some of the less colorful subjects may look a little bland without a bit of paint or finishing touches. A basic wash or some dry-brushing will really make the details pop on the more monochromatic Original Trilogy machines.
Boba Fett is nice and colorful and looks great without a drop of paint, which speaks to the character’s inherently kitbashed aesthetic. The Stormtroopers looked a little too plain out of the box, so my esteemed colleague Brian Altano and I personalized them a bit:
If full-color injection-molded action figure model kits work for giant anime robots, why not anime people as well? Bandai’s Figure-Rise line has tackled Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Digimon, and even some of the human characters from Gundam.
Currently sitting at the top of my pile of shame is Kotobukiya’s 1:100 scale Metal Gear Rex. Part of my procrastination is because it’s a big beautiful model kit and I don’t want to mess it up, but also because I built the Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, which was an extremely frustrating build. This may have been because I got it partially from a friend and picked up where he left off, but I think the more intricate and top-heavy design of the Sahelanthropus doesn’t lend itself as well to a physical kit. From what I’ve read, Rex’s more squat form makes for a more straightforward build. Unsurprisingly, a mech designed for a PlayStation 1 game has less proverbial moving parts than one designed for the PS4.
Good Smile Company’s Moderoid line of kits come pre-painted, which is great if you just want to put something together and display it, but they’re also on the pricier side.
Like a lot of Bandai kits, these dinosaur skeletons snap together and are molded in all the right colors. However, since they’re a bunch of bones, they’re monochrome. That said, for anyone who doesn’t have much confidence in their painting abilities, but still wants to paint something, this might be for you. I tried out a bunch of weathering techniques on mine to make it look appropriately prehistoric, and then made a custom base.
Not quite the weirdest model kit I’ve built (that honor goes to a 1:24 scale urinating dog), but it’s definitely up there. This is basically a Gundam, but it’s soup. It’s completely snap together, though surprisingly, deceptively complex in how it’s assembled. The finished product, without a drop of paint, is impressively hard to differentiate from the real thing, which is funny but also raises some concerns about how closely instant ramen noodles resemble polystyrene.
As the name suggests, Aoshima’s The Snap Kit series of model cars are a *snap* to put together, literally and figuratively. Much like Gundam kits, no glue is required and the majority of the pieces come molded in the correct colors. (Stickers are included for the ones that aren’t.) They’re a great option for anyone who’s looking for a quick project that doesn’t require a lot of tools or materials. Without paint, the end result might look a bit more like a toy than a proper replica, but painting is still an option. If that’s the part of the hobby that appeals to you, these’ll get you off to the proverbial races faster.
I turned The Snapkit’s 2000GT-R Skyline into a beat-up junker, and kitbashed the Prius into a heavy metal post-apocalyptic monster truck. A “Judas Prius,” if you will. That one’s a work in progress; it looks too Halo, not Mad Max enough.
The beauty of tanks, aside from being a cross between a cannon and a bulldozer, is how forgiving they are of a messy paint job. The real, full-size ones are frequently painted just one color, but get caked with dirt, mud, grease and grime, which is immensely gratifying to recreate in miniature with dry brushing, washes, and pigments. If you screw up during constructing, just call it battle damage! Tamiya makes some excellent armor kits, along with just about any other type of military hardware and/or accoutrement you could ask for, including but not limited to 1:35 scale farm animals.
The scale of models can be a little confusing, but it’s just fractions. A 1:1 scale model is life size, 1:2 scale is 50% the size of the real thing, and so on. However, different subject matter is suited best to certain scales. Cars are usually 1:/24 or 1:32, and the standard for military ground vehicles, like tanks and trucks and infantry, is generally 1:35. Larger aircraft models are 1:48, but 1:72 isn’t uncommon, and when you get into larger naval vehicles it gets even more fractional. There’s plenty of overlap, so if you want a little truck to go next to your 1:48 helicopter, it probably exists somewhere out there. The scale of railroad models is the gauge of the miniature train tracks being used, which I’m not even going to go into here. The point is: You can get a big Harrier jet or little Harrier Jet, or you can buy two big ones and pretend it’s a mommy and a daddy and a baby jet.
I am admittedly not much of a car guy. My dad, on the other hand, is very much the opposite. As a Father’s Day gift one year, I tracked down Hasegawa’s 1:24 BMW 2002 Tii kit, and painted it to look like a real car he’s been tinkering with and repeatedly repairing for the last few decades. He loved the gift and I had a great time putting it together. The amount of detail and tiny parts in a kit like this might be overwhelming for a novice modeler, but it’ll certainly keep you busy.
Two companies called Revell make model kits: Revell USA and Revell of Germany. The general consensus among the model building community is that the ones from Germany are excellent and the American Revell kits leave a lot to be desired. I’ve only built the American ones, and I wasn’t impressed.
What’s your dream car? A Lamborghini? What about a kebab truck? Aoshima makes a range of great vehicles, from luxury supercars to civilian automobiles to a surprisingly broad selection of funny little food trucks.
This is a great little set of tools to get started. If you get serious, it’s worth investing in a nice pair of hobby shears, side-cutters or “nippers” for cutting the individual parts off the runners. The cleaner the cut, the less trimming, filing and sanding needed during assembly. I have a pair of Tamiya side-cutters that I swear by, but the God-tier option in this department is the “God Hand” line (not to be confused with the PlayStation 2 game IGN gave a controversially bad score to a million years ago).
A sturdy cutting mat is helpful for not ruining your dining room table and getting yelled at, and also for easily moving your entire project away from the dining room table because you have company coming over and you don’t want people to see the funny little things you make in your spare time.
Model cement is different from regular glue in that it’s actually a solvent that slightly melts the plastic where applied, letting you fuse parts together. This makes it effectively useless on other materials, but for plastic kits, it’s my favorite. A tiny brush is built into the lid, so you just hold two pieces of your model together and apply a drop where they touch. The cement is so thin it’ll usually flow into the crack on its own.
Without venturing into the messy, expensive, and frequently frustrating world of airbrush operation and maintenance, my preferred method of painting models is with a combination of “rattle cans” and water-based acrylics. Primer is key because it gives the surface a finish that paint will adhere to more easily than bare plastic. It’s possible to use regular spray paint from a hardware store, but it comes out thicker and can very easily ruin any fine details. Cans of hobby spray paint produce a fine mist, which is much easier to apply carefully.
Mr. Hobby’s Mr. Surfacer is an excellent primer that will even out the appearance of a kit prior to painting, covering up imperfections in the plastic while also providing a nice matte finish that paint will stick to really well.
Unlike lacquers or enamels, water-based acrylic paint doesn’t need any special thinners or solvents when it comes to mixing or cleanup. Vallejo’s Model Color line comes in every shade imaginable, and the dropper bottles make it easier to avoid spills.
Tamiya has a whole rainbow of hobby-grade spray lacquer, which is a great alternative to hand-painting large areas and worrying about brushstrokes. If the model is mostly one color, laying down a base coat and then doing the details by hand is a good system. It’s unlikely you’ll use an entire can of paint on one kit, so if you grab a color or two per kit, over time you’ll likely collect a nice variety.
Like any good hobby, model making is basically a bottomless pit of enjoyably wasted time (that’s not actually wasted if you enjoyed yourself). No matter how good you are at it, you’ll inevitably come across someone who’s so much better than you it makes you want to give up entirely. On the bright side, a lot of experts share their work online along with handy tips and tutorials for any skill level. On YouTube, a few accounts you may want to check out are SpruesNBrews, NightShift, and Jun’s Mini Garage. If you are looking for some inspiration for dioramas, or just to see some ridiculously cool stuff getting made, Laser Creation-World and Minibricks both put up some great work. Happy modeling!
Max Scoville is a senior writer, host and producer for IGN covering video games, movies, toys and collectibles. He has 15 years of experience in pop-culture media, previously writing for and/or appearing on Current TV, Destructoid, Revision3 and StarWars.com. He has been involved with several podcasts, including The Comedy Button, Weird Heat, Podtoid and you can currently find him hosting IGN’s weekly PlayStation show, Beyond.
His favorite video games/series include Metal Gear Solid, Yakuza, Bloodborne and Secret of Evermore. Some of his all-time favorite movies are Akira, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Royal Tenenbaums, Boogie Nights and My Neighbor Totoro. When he’s not looking at a screen for some reason, he loves to read, paint cartoon monsters and build model kits and miniature dioramas, but most of his free time these days is spent with his kid or being tired.
Bethesda Game Studios is officially the first Microsoft game developer to full unionize under the Communication Workers of America (CWA), forming a “wall-to-wall” union of developers including artists, engineers, programmers and designers. Microsoft has recognized the union.
The union was confirmed after 241 developers either signed a union authorization card or indicated that they wanted unionization via an online portal. It follows Bethesda Games Studios Montreal’s unionization in late June and the unionization of roughly 300 quality assurance workers within Zenimax, which is Bethesda’s parent company.
“We, a majority of developers at Bethesda Game Studios Dallas, Rockville, and Austin, are ecstatic to announce the formation of our union with @CWAUnion,” the group wrote on X/Twitter. “Together as #OneBGSUSA, we advocate for the betterment of every developer at BGS, setting the new standard for our industry.”
The new union will now negotiate a contract with Microsoft. IGN has reached out to Microsoft for comment.
“We are so excited to announce our union at Bethesda Game Studio and join the movement sweeping across the video game industry,” senior system designer Mandi Parker said in a statement via press release. “It is clear that every worker can benefit from bringing democracy into the workplace and securing a protected voice on the job. We’re thrilled to get down to brass tacks and win a fair contract, proving that our unity is a source of real power to positively shape our working conditions, our lives, and the company as a whole.”
Unionization is a growing trend within the games industry as workers seek protection against mass layoffs. Sega of America’s union ratified a contract earlier this year, with Activision’s QA workers announcing a union of their own. Microsoft has previously said it would not block a potential Activision Blizzard union, which seemingly extends to Bethesda Game Studios as well.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
