Category: Video Games

Fallout 76’s lead artist is building a creepy single-player open world in The Axis Unseen

Look at any image of heavy metal horror game The Axis Unseen and you’ll recognise an archetype: the stealth archer. For a certain sort of Elder Scrolls player, it’s the only way to travel through a fantasy open world – perma-crouched, bow stretched lazily across the lower third of the screen. And it’s an appeal that creator Nate Purkeypile understands perfectly, having spent the larger portion of his career working on Bethesda’s RPGs, from Fallout 3 and Skyrim all the way through to Fallout 76.

“It’s probably not the best idea for most people to do a solo open world,” he says. “But at the same time, this is like my sixth one. I’m pretty sure what goes into these.”

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North American eSports a Failing Business According to Streamer Who Spent $1 Million on a Team

The North American eSports business is in a sorry state according to a streamer who’s spending $1 million on a team.

As reported by PC Gamer, streamer Jeremy Wang (better known as Disguised Toast) released a video outlining why “the eSports industry is one of the worst things you can get into”.

Wang founded a Valorant team called DSG in January and later added a League of Legends squad to the roster. Five months in and Wang was told he was set to lose $1 million within the first year, twice what he initially expected to spend.

“If you look at any eSports org in North America, all of them are either broke or going broke. And I do mean all of them.”

There’s little hope of making any money from the team, Wang said. “[My accountant] sent over this spreadsheet with all these red numbers, and I noted in the revenue section [that] it was blocked out,” he explained. “I asked him, ‘Why’d you block it out?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s not blocked out, there’s just nothing there. You’re not making any money.’ “

Wang said it’s not just an issue for his team either. “If you look at any eSports org in North America, all of them are either broke or going broke. And I do mean all of them,” he said.

“Some orgs will try and put on a front and say, ‘Hey, we’re still good, we look good, everything’s cool here.’ Trust me when I say, everyone is losing a lot of money. A lot of people are being fired. No org is safe right now.”

Companies are no longer interested in sponsoring eSports teams either, according to Wang, after being sold on exposure deals that haven’t came to fruition. “Brands are scared of eSports because they invested millions and millions into it, and they never got any significant return,” he said.

Wang plans to turn to Patreon and high quality merchandise to dig himself out the $1 million hole his team is currently in, though joked he may be making a video in another few months saying he’d now spent $2 million.

For more on eSports, check out IGN’s League of Legends Worlds 2022 coverage and our favourite moments from throughout the playoffs.

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

Our pals at VG247 are giving away a custom Company Of Heroes 3 controller

Excellent real-time strategy game Company Of Heroes 3 came out on PC earlier this year, and now its console edition has arrived on yer Xboxes and PlayStations. Listen, I know such console talk is considered heresy around these parts, but our corporate friends/siblings at sister site VG247 are running a competition right now to win a custom Company Of Heroes 3 Xbox controller. Sure, you might not want to play Company Of Heroes 3 specifically with said controller, but controllers in general are useful things that we at RPS use a lot for playing other types of games, and hey, we thought you might want to know about it, just in case. You can enter here if you fancy your chances.

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CD Projekt Adding Legendary Witcher Sword to Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt is adding a legendary Witcher-themed sword to Cyberpunk 2077 through its upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion.

Announced on GOG,com, anyone who preorders Phantom Liberty and has their GOG account (CD Projekt’s version of Steam) connected will be rewarded with a series of goodies depending on which other games they’ve played.

Those who own The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt get a red and brown leather hoodie for V to dress up in that looks sort of like a 2077 version of the School of the Cat armour.

These players will also be awarded the Gwynbleidd sword, which is reminiscent of Aerondight from the original Witcher and the third game’s Blood and Wine expansion. Gwynbleidd is also Geralt’s nickname in Elder Speech, which translates to White Wolf.

The Witcher Card Game fans haven’t been forgotten either as those who have Gwent on their GOG accounts get a unique t-shirt and a special pistol called Scorch, named after one of the game’s most infamous cards.

All who preorder Phantom Liberty also get a Rarog vest, named after the mythical bird that dons CD Projekt’s logo, and the studio has promised there’s more to come in the future.

The Phantom Liberty expansion is set to add a wealth of content to Cyberpunk 2077 when it launches on September 26 and fundamentally changes several mechanics in the base game.

Vehicular combat, a Cyberpunk: Edgerunners inspired cyberpsychosis feature, and a clever nod to The Witcher are coming too, though at the cost of upping the game’s PC requirements.

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

Guide: Best Switch Games In Nintendo’s Hyper Max eShop Sale (North America)

100 wishlist winners.

We’re on the cusp of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, which means it’s time for summer sales! Nintendo is running Switch eShop sales around the globe, but that doesn’t mean the same games are discounted in all territories. Take the North American ‘Hyper Max‘ sale, for instance — there is some overlap with the games in the European Summer Sale, but not half as much as you’d expect.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

30 Years Later, Street Fighter 6 Finally Gives Sheng Long the Canon Appearance He Deserves

He began life as a mistake that sparked one of the greatest hoaxes in all video games. Now, 30 years later, he’s finally in a video game.

Sheng Long is the once mythical Street Fighter secret boss who was mentioned in Ryu’s victory quote from the original Street Fighter 2: “You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.” Fans vociferously speculated about the identity of the mysterious Sheng Long. Who was he? Where was he in the game? Is he Ryu and Ken’s master? Could he be unlocked somehow?

In the pre-internet era, Sheng Long was the subject of heated debate in playgrounds across the world. Little did players know, the name was simply the result of a mistranslation of “Shōryūken”, Street Fighter’s famous Dragon Punch.

Capitalising on the speculation, a 1992 April Fools’ prank by U.S. games magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly tricked people into believing Sheng Long was an unlockable boss character in Street Fighter 2. Cue more heated debate in playgrounds across the world as fans tried in vain to fight Sheng Long. Now, 30 years later, fans finally can in Street Fighter 6.

Spoilers for Street Fighter 6 follow.

In Street Fighter 6’s single-player campaign mode, World Tour, Sheng Long can be found on top of the SiRN building in Metro City at night as part of the Fighty Mighty side quest. It’s a bit of a fiddly trek to get to the level 90 beast. Head to Bayside Park Street and enter the SiRN building via the Construction Site. Climb the steps and ladders all the way to the top, using the control panels to call in the moving platforms to progress. Sprint past the aggressive NPCs if you can.

You’ll end up in the SiRN server rooms, which are packed with annoying robotic enemies. Sprint past them as you make your way up to the first floor of R&D. Get in the lift to the seventh floor, run down to the sixth floor, then up the stairs to the roof. From there, climb up to the crane platform and Sheng Long’s location. This video from YouTube channel lilfarmboi shows the way.

Sheng Long uses Ryu’s fighting style (of course he does), and looks like a sort of PS2-era Heihachi from Tekken. This is a design inspired by EGM’s prank, which involved unofficial art. Speak to him and he’ll say: “Begone. All who bear witness to me suffer terrible misfortune. Knowing this, do you still wish to face me in combat? Is this bravery born from ignorance? Or are you a beast whose hunger demands fell sacrifice? It matters not. Come. Face me with every fiber of your being.”

It turns out Sheng Long is something of a fireball spammer (it’s all his fault!), so if you can time your jump-ins well, you should be able to land some decent hits. The problem of course is Sheng Long is a level 90 NPC, and so presents one of the toughest encounters in the game for the vast majority of players who will be significantly under-levelled by the time they hunt him down. Remember your consumables!

Defeat Sheng Long and he says: “I… am defeated? Long has it been since I’ve known such a feeling. I suppose, then, that showing myself once more was fortuitous. I offer you my thanks, strong one.”

And that’s it. Sheng Long has finally made his canon appearance in a Street Fighter game. Perhaps when Street Fighter 7 comes around, he’ll be a playable character.

Street Fighter 6 launched earlier in June and was met with critical acclaim, including from IGN’s review. Capcom has announced one million people played over launch weekend.

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.

Diablo 4 kills another high level Hardcore character, this time with a bug

Just one week after Diablo 4‘s first level 100 Hardcore character was killed by a lost connection, the game has brutally (and unfairly) claimed another Hardcore character. Unlike Carn’s Barbarian, Quin69’s Druid wasn’t level 100 yet, but he was pretty darn close at level 91. His Druid had 172 hours and 50 minutes of play time. That’s more than a week’s worth of playing and the game’s only been out for 10 days (or 15, if we’re including early access).

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Diablo 4 Streamer Rages After 172-Hour Hardcore Character Dies During Loading Screen

A Diablo 4 player flew into a rage after his 172-hour, level 91 Hardcore character died during a loading screen.

New Zealand-based streamer Quin69 uploaded a video to YouTube of the moment he saw the dreaded Hall of Fallen Heroes on-screen message after Diablo 4 appeared to crash while teleporting his character to the town of Kyovashad following the completion of a dungeon. The only option open to Quin69 is to click “acknowledge.”

“I finished the f**king keystone and portaled to town,” Quin69 said as realisation set in. “In the loading screen of me porting to town my character has died.”

What appears to have happened is Quin69’s character, which was standing inside a protection bubble during the portal to town, somehow died to an innocuous attack from a nearby floating device. This shouldn’t happen, of course. As Diablo 4 streamer Octavian ‘Kripparrian’ Morosan suggests in the video, the port to town loading may have made Quin69’s vulnerable to the attack while stuck in limbo.

Diablo 4 itself recorded the death as: “Slain by ‘Environment’.” Whatever the reason, Quin69 has now lost a character he put over a week’s worth of hours into. It’s a brutal end, but Quin69 is not the only Diablo 4 player to have lost a Hardcore character through no fault of their own.

IGN reported on the first Diablo 4 player to hit Level 100 in Hardcore mode after his character was lost forever following a disconnect.

Souaïb ‘carn’ Hanaf was livestreaming Diablo 4 when the game disconnected. After logging back in, carn discovered his max level Hardcore Barbarian was gone, leaving him no option but to create another character and start all over again.

Diablo 4’s Hardcore mode features permadeath, which means if a character dies it’s gone for good. Character deaths such as these are a stark reminder of the perils of always-online video games, and are sure to fuel complaints about Blizzard’s decision to make Diablo 4 unplayable offline.

Friends of Quin69, horrified by what they had seen happen to the streamer, can be heard saying they won’t bother with Hardcore mode. “You’re eventually going to die from a DC or a crash or whatever the f**k this is,” one said. “That’s terrible,” said another.

Despite issues such as these, Diablo 4 has been a critical and commercial success. In IGN’s 9/10 review we described Diablo 4 as “a stunning sequel with near perfect endgame and progression design that makes it absolutely excruciating to put down”. Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 guide for tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your journey through hell, and to use our interactive map to keep track of 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.

Dordogne review: don’t brush off this sweet summer adventure

Memory can be a fickle thing. For thirty-something Mimi, everything before her thirteenth birthday is a blank. What happened before that point is never really interrogated during Dordogne‘s three-hour run time, but we do know her father is a stubborn old goat who cut ties with Mimi’s really quite nice grandmother Nora after a summer she spent there as a shy, sheltered twelve-year-old. It’s this summer that seems to be the cork in Mimi’s memory bottle, and it’s also the window in which Dordogne frames its sweet, coming of age tale. As Mimi in the present comes to terms with her grandmother’s recent passing, the objects she finds in Nora’s now-empty summer house trigger important flashbacks to that golden summer, and maybe also the answer to Mimi’s apparent amnesia. Dordogne never demands very much of you during these sequences, but it does know how to luxuriate in life’s little details, and find pleasure in a more leisurely lifestyle.

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Nintendo Switch Online Gets a Classic Fire Emblem Game Next Week

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade hits the Switch Online library on June 23, Nintendo has announced.

Revealed in a tweet (below), players will soon be able to get their virtual hands on the game that originally launched for Game Boy Advance in 2002 and is commonly known as just Fire Emblem. This is because, while The Blazing Blade held the subtitle in Japan, this was the first Fire Emblem game released in the west.

“Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector must amass an army strong enough to fight back the forces that would destroy their homeland in the Game Boy Advance version of Fire Emblem,” reads the tweet.

Users will need both Nintendo Switch Online and the Expansion Pack before they’re able to download Metroid Fusion and the rest of the Game Boy Advance Games, but all of this can be done from the Switch Online app on the console itself.

Also available in the collection is Super Mario Advance 4, Super Mario Bros. 3, WarioWare Inc: Mega MicroGames, Kuru Kuru Kuruin, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, and more.

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