Category: Video Games

Call of Duty Warzone Fans Up in Arms Over Playlist Consolidation Ahead of Black Ops 6 Launch

Activision has been accused of “butchering” the playlists available for battle royale Warzone after developer Raven Software announced a consolidation ahead of the release of Black Ops 6.

Warzone typically rotates different modes, squad sizes, and even maps every week, much to the annoyance of some fans who just want to play the battle royale in their favorite way, or with a specific number of friends.

With Black Ops 6’s release just a few weeks away, Raven announced it’s making “preparations” for the future of Warzone. As part of that, has consolidated the current playlist selection into the following:

• Battle Royale Solos & Quads

• Resurgence Duos & Quads

Plunder, Bootcamp, and active Limited-Time Modes will remain available, and Trios will continue to be available via Ranked Play, with the current season ending on Thursday, October 17.

However, it’s what Warzone has lost, rather than what it now has, that has sparked a backlash from fans, with Duos and Trios no longer available in Battle Royale mode, and Solos and Trios unavailable in Resurgence.

This means that from now until at least the launch of Black Ops 6 on October 25, Urikztsan (the current Battle Royale map) only supports Solos, Quads, and Plunder Quads, and Resurgence has a Duos and Quads map rotation, with Trios available in Ranked Play only via Rebirth Island (by far the smallest map in the game).

It’s fair to say this announcement has sparked a backlash from Warzone’s hardcore community. “This might be one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen,” said YouTuber Westie. “You’re essentially sunsetting core branches of your game and giving no real explanation at the time the change is being made.

“Some added context/information would be wonderful.”

Here’s some more reaction:

Raven has yet to offer an explanation for its decision, but some are speculating it has to do with a need to maintain fast-filling lobbies amid a perceived shrinking playerbase. Players are also wondering why Raven namechecked the release of Black Ops 6 in its announcement — Warzone is set to incorporate the upcoming shooter’s mechanics, weapons, and gear into the game, but there’s no explanation for why this would require a playlist consolidation.

For now, Warzone players have no choice but to play with this new, consolidated playlist offering, or, as some are threatening, quit until their favorite ways to play return.

Last month, Activision announced that Warzone is bringing back the map that started it all, Verdansk, in spring 2025. Verdansk is the most beloved map in Warzone’s four-year history, and it returns to the battle royale complete with iconic points of interest such as Stadium, the Train Station, and Superstore. Fans are now hoping their favorite playlists will be available in time for Verdansk’s release.

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.

Space Marine 2 Patch 3.0 Made a Seemingly Innocuous Change to the Game’s Ending — and Now Warhammer 40,000 Lore Fans Are Losing Their Minds

A seemingly innocuous change made to Space Marine 2 as part of this week’s big Patch 3.0 has got Warhammer 40,000 lore fans excited about potentially huge implications for the game’s story and the wider setting itself.

Warning! Huge spoilers for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 follow:

Space Marine 2 patch 3.0, released yesterday, September 26, made a long list of welcome changes to the game, but one line in particular buried within the patch notes suggests the Emperor himself played a key role in the story all along.

Pre-patch, during the climax of Space Marine 2, we see a cutscene in which protagonist Lieutenant Titus almost dies while destroying a Chaos artifact. He then hears a voice that says: “Rise, son of Guilliman.”

According to the game’s subtitles, that line — again, pre-patch — was attributed to Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines. Fans took it as an odd thing for Calgar to say to Titus, given he also is a son of Roboute Guilliman, the primarch from which all Ultramarines are based.

Now, onto patch 3.0. Here’s the change in question:

  • Fixed an unidentified voice at the end of the story that was assigned to the wrong character.

Assigned to the wrong character, you say? So, who is the right character? The same cutscene now attributes the line to [Voice], which is ambiguous, but Warhammer 40,000 lore fans have a clear idea who this voice belongs to: the Emperor himself.

If true, this has big implications for Space Marine 2’s story, the nature of Titus’ abilities not just in this game but the first, and any role he might play in the ongoing narrative. But given Titus is now part of the Warhammer 40,000 canon (he has his own model you can play on Games Workshop’s tabletop game and the company has even released an official lore video delving into Titus’ backstory on Warhammer TV), fans are taking this as further evidence of the Emperor’s resurgence across the galaxy.

For the uninitiated, the Emperor of Mankind is the reigning monarch of the Imperium of Man whose slowly decaying body has sat immobile within the Golden Throne of Terra for over 10,000 years. But that hasn’t stopped the Emperor, the most powerful psyker to have ever existed, from seemingly stepping in every now and then to help humanity out in its darkest hours.

At this point in the ongoing (and slow moving!) Warhammer 40,000 storyline, there is growing evidence to suggest the Emperor is finally stirring, with some convinced his return proper is coming sooner rather than later. Indeed, in Warhammer 40,000 novel Godblight, the Emperor uses Guilliman as a vessel to burn down the Garden of Nurgle from within the Warp, miraculously reviving his son in the process.

Warhammer 40,000 fans now believe the Emperor is doing something similar with Titus. Titus’ unexplained immunity to the corrupting influence of Chaos during the Space Marine games may have been the Emperor’s doing all along. Indeed Titus’ ability to interact with the Chaos artifact and destroy it might be because he is blessed by the Emperor. As the ending of Space Marine 2 makes clear, the Inquisition’s suspicion of Titus and his abilities continues despite his heroics. But perhaps in the inevitable Space Marine 3 we’ll see the truth of the Emperor’s involvement, and Titus finally clear of the Inquisition’s attention.

For now, Space Marine 2 and Warhammer 40,000 lore fans are simply enjoying the debate this change has sparked, and have pointed to a tease by creative director Oliver Hollis-Leick about whether the line of dialogue in question does indeed come from the Emperor. Here’s his response:

“That is open to individual interpretation. It could be in Titus’s mind, could be Calgar, or it could be the Emperor (though GW might disagree on that). I know who I meant it to be when I wrote it but I’ll keep that to myself ;)”

IGN recently interviewed Saber chief creative officer Tim Willits about the boost he expects the PS5 Pro will give the game, and how the breakout success of Space Marine 2 has “changed everything” for the studio.

Meanwhile, Warhammer 40,000 superfan Henry Cavill has been playing Space Marine 2 and delivered his verdict, and we also have details on what fans can expect from Space Marine 2’s seasonal post-launch content model. Season 2 runs from October until the end of 2024, and includes a new Operations map, a new enemy, a harder difficulty level, a new weapon, and various other improvements.

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.

System Purge: Hollowpoint is a maddening platformer, but the good kind of maddening

Alice Bee (RPS in peace) wrote about platformer System Purge a while back, saying it starred a witch with a nice hop. So I tried out the demo for its sequel, System Purge: Hollow Point, and can confirm that the witch still has a nice hop. I’m thankful for this, because if the witch did not have a nice hop, the game would be maddening in a bad way. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still maddening. Just in a good way. The hop is good.

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Japanese Charts: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Surpasses 6 Million Units Sold

Pole position.

The latest boxed charts data from Japan is now available courtesy of Famitsu, and once again, we can see that the Switch is still comfortably dominating in the region both with hardware and software sales. Astro Bot is the only representative from Sony’s PS5 platform.

Frankly, it’s mad that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe keeps selling so well. More than 7 years after its Switch debut with mere months (weeks..?!) to go until we learn more about the Switch successor, the arcade racer has now surpassed a mind-boggling 6 million units sold in the region. Worldwide, of course, the latest data confirms that the game is now sitting well above 60 million units sold.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Deadlock cheaters are being turned into frogs as players get chance to vote on their fate

Valve instituted a fairytale punishment for cheaters in its unreleased laney shooter Deadlock yesterday. Cheaters will now be turned into frogs, provided the other players in the match vote for it. A Counter-Strike 2 modder proved the effect in a post on Xitter after the change was mentioned in some out-of-the-way patch notes by a Valve developer.

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The ghost of StarCraft: Ghost endures as a new shooter set in the RTS universe is in the works at Blizzard

A new shooter set in the StarCraft universe is in the works at Blizzard, according to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier’s book Play Nice, via Eurogamer. The project is headed up by Dan Hay, who worked various leading roles on Ubisoft’s Far Cry series, and also a 1999 CGI film starring Jim Belushi named “The Nuttiest Nutcracker”. The real-time strategy spinoff was also mentioned during an IGN podcast that aired yesterday.

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Review: Looney Tunes: Wacky World Of Sports (Switch) – Zany Sporting Antics That Aren’t Much Fun

That’s pretty much all, folks.

Fans of old-school sports compilations may remember Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Sports Challenge on Super Nintendo. In it, you played as the titular animated youngsters, who competed in enjoyable cartoon versions of familiar events. SNES also had Looney Tunes B-Ball, a beautifully animated genre classic that put a colourful spin on the NBA Jam formula.

Bamtang Games hopes to bring back this forgotten subgenre with Looney Tunes: Wacky World Of Sports, a collection of four game types, pitting the original Warner Brothers animated line-up against each other in solo and multiplayer tournaments.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Advance Wars-Style Game ‘Warside’ Blasts Onto Switch Early Next Year

“Classic turn-based tactics”.

Following successful funding on Kickstarter, the turn-based tactical strategy game Warside has finally locked in a release date. It will launch for Switch and multiple other platforms on 28th January 2025.

In case you missed our existing coverage of this one, as you can see, it’s heavily inspired by a certain Nintendo series. The developer previously mentioned how it felt it could “evolve” the genre and was happy to cite not only Advance Wars but also series like Wargroove and Into The Breach as inspirations.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Wins Japan’s Grand Game Award For 2024

It was released on Switch last year.

It’s meant to be all about Echoes of Wisdom this week, but there are also some celebrations currently taking place for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

A year after its release, Link’s massive open-world sequel outing has now taken out the “grand award” at Japan’s Game Awards for 2024. This award was accepted by series producer Eiji Aonuma and the game’s director Hidemaro Fujibayashi.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com