This is the Raye.
Holiday season is almost upon us (this writer’s local supermarket rolled out the advent calendars weeks ago), and Nintendo UK is equally keen to spread some festive cheer with its new TV ads.
This year’s offering once again puts the record-breaking singer-songwriter star Raye front and centre, showing that even Brit-winners like to let off some steam with a few rounds of Mario Party Jamboree.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Our pixel fishing adventure Nice Day for Fishing lands finally lands on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC today, and we’re really excited to be able to share on how it was made.
The story follows Baelin, the town’s humble fisherman. When a vast number of evils are released from a cursed magical chest and everyone but the NPCs vanish! (thanks a lot Baradun!) Baelin suddenly awakens with the powers of an Adventurer. Now it’s up to him to save Honeywood the only way he knows how – by fishing!
When we started designing the world of Azerim — the world in which Nice Day for Fishing takes place — we went deep into the Epic NPC Man universe, literally and creatively! We watched countless Viva La Dirt League videos, searching for iconic landmarks that every fan would recognize, even when reimagined in pixel art.
If you haven’t heard of Viva La Dirt League before, you’re missing out. The New Zealand comedy group creates clever, high-production sketches on YouTube that celebrate the fun, and the sometimes-absurd side, of gaming. Their videos dive into everything from the questionable logic in The Witcher, to tongue-in-cheek public service announcements for Hearthstone players. What makes them stand out is their background of being gamers themselves. They understand the meta-moments and inside jokes, the glitches and weird NPC behaviors everyone recognizes. Their long-running series Epic NPC Man is set inside a fictitious MMORPG game world Skycraft and covers the unseen lives of NPCs — from navigating player induced chaos, petty rivalries or that existential dread in hearing the NPC with one repeating voice line.
With incredible support from the VLDL team and their community, we gathered tons of reference material from maps, environmental notes, and even hints about regions that might appear in future episodes. We also thought about what makes for great fishing locations in general and matched those ideas to the Epic NPC Man world. A volcano? Sounds hot (and maybe a little dangerous.) A magical library turned slimy fish-infested ruin? That had to be in. And of course, The Undead Mines, because every fantasy world needs undead (fish).
We also wanted to bring fans to places that were only talked about in the show but never shown. Translating such a rich world into a 2D sidescroller, and dividing it into 12 underwater regions, was a challenge, but one that sparked endless creativity as we dove deeper into the lore of Azerim.
At the heart of it all lies Honeywood Village, complete with the original music from the VLDL videos. Seeing the Azerim map come to life in side-view, piece by piece, was both a challenge and a rewarding world-building experience.
When you think “fishing game,” you probably imagine a simple minigame. We didn’t want that. Nice Day for Fishing takes the act of fishing and turns it into a full-blown RPG-style battle system.
Once a fish bites, combat begins! Players attack with a button press, dealing damage and pulling the fish closer to the surface. But beware — these aren’t your average fish. They’ll fight back, reverse the line, and force you into a defensive stance. You’ll need to time your attacks, blocks, and spell casts while managing items and cooldowns — because even the fish have tricks up their fins.
Our goal was to make every battle feel like an epic encounter, not just a quick catch. You’ll see health bars, stamina meters, damage numbers, buffs, debuffs, and magic spells — everything you’d expect in a fantasy RPG.
And then there are the bosses. These deep-sea monsters are truly something else. As you chip away at their health, they shift forms, change phases, and unleash new abilities in classic RPG fashion. Get ready for some “This isn’t even my final form!” moments.
There are plenty of ways to get your hands on powerful equipment — hidden treasure chests, upgraded shop inventories, or even bizarre side quests from Honeywood’s eccentric mayor. Whether you favor magic or brute strength, your playstyle determines what tools will serve you best.
Here are a few fan-favorite pieces of gear to look out for:
Bonecaller’s Rod
A perfect weapon for early offensive mages, this rod can be earned early on by completing the first set of the mayor’s side quests. It’ll carry you comfortably through the midgame until you’re ready for something stronger.
The Buckler
Great for defensive players who prefer to outlast rather than overpower. Found in a submerged treasure chest, its bonus defense can turn a seemingly impossible boss fight into a manageable one.
Obvious Wizard Hat
A must-have for glass-cannon mages. Once you gain more freedom of movement with your hook, head back to the ship at sea to find this stylish — and powerful — hat.
Ring of Great Recovery
Beyond healing potions and spells, this ring helps restore your health mid-battle. Whether you’re a tank, mage, or hybrid build, you can buy it from Willow’s shop to give yourself a little extra survivability.
Duel Ring
Earned after defeating the first boss, this ring helps new players time their blocks and parries more effectively. It’s a huge advantage early in the game and perfect for mastering defensive combat.
In general, however, the rule is: anyone who wants to have the very best equipment has to upgrade all the shops to the maximum level. Then you’ll find gear that offers the best of the best for mages, paladins, or warriors respectively.
Except for one exception — the reward for defeating the secret new boss. But we don’t want to spoil too much about that.
From peaceful moments in Honeywood to chaotic boss battles deep below Azerim, Nice Day for Fishing redefines what a “fishing game” can be — part parody, part adventure, and all heart.
If you’ve ever seen Viva La Dirt League’s Epic NPC Man YouTube series on YouTube, you’ll instantly recognize the iconic characters and laugh-out-loud moments, complete with epic quests and a whole bunch of fishing and achievements just waiting to be unlocked.
Your time of adventuring is here! Whether you’re chasing colossal catches, or just in it for the signature comedy of Viva La Dirt League, it’s a catch you won’t want to miss. Nice Day for Fishing is available today for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC as an Xbox Play Anywhere title!
Team17
Upgrade your gear with the Nice Day for Fishing “Legendary DLC”, featuring a range of new Legendary equipment to help you become the hero you were destined to be. Battle fish, look epic, and save Azerim!
The Epic Edition includes:
– Legendary Rod
– Legendary Hat
– Legendary Ring
– Legendary Necklace
– 4 sails to customize Baelin’s boat
– “Overpriced Cosmetic Item” Rod
– Ring of Dormor
– “Company Property” Necklace
– Tinfoil Hat
Team17
When the heroes of Azerim mysteriously vanish, an evil force threatens to take over the lands! Baelin the fisherman NPC must rise up to defend the town of Honeywood the only way he knows how! However, something’s different… Baelin’s no longer an NPC but… an Adventurer! Can you handle your new found responsibility?! Battle fish with precision timing and magic spells, upgrade your abilities, defeat evil and rebuild Honeywood.
Morning! Nice day for fishing ain’t it!
Epic Fishing Battles
Engage in fearless fishing battles to fulfil quests, increase your strength and unlock spells to use against your aquatic adversaries. Equip the right bait for your catch, and time your attacks perfectly to ensure flawless victory. Be wary of the boss fish looming in the deep, who will truly test your skills.
Explore the world of Azerim
Explore the enchanting lands of Azerim above land and beneath the waves. Adventure through Honeywood forest to the Azerim coast where you’ll encounter new quests, people to save and new fish to catch. Navigate the pull of the underwater currents to move your hook into hard to reach caves and upgrade your fishing line to delve deeper into the abyss.
New Gear, New Mechanics
Every Adventurer deserves the ultimate tools for their quest. Although Baelin may be a humble fisherman, as an Adventurer his rod is his weapon, his boat is his steed and his hat is his armor, so make sure you’ve equipped the right one for the job! Effortlessly dredge hidden treasures from the deep with the magnet hook, or break through cavern walls with the powerful drill to unlock new pathways. Enhance your fishing rod to increase your strength and upgrade your lines to go further into the depths to target the formidable and challenging fish that swim in the shadows.
Rebuild Honeywood
While on your adventures, you’ll find valuable resources to dredge from shipwrecks that have succumbed to the sea, which can be used to rebuild the destroyed village. Enlist help from the Woodcutter to bring Honeywood back to its former glory. Each building upgrade unlocks more equipment and quests from the merchants.
Complete the Collection
Prove yourself worthy to the mighty fishing God by offering completed collections from each region at his statue, and receive your blessings of upgraded skills.
The post Nice Day for Fishing: Creating the World of Epic NPC Man’s Azerim appeared first on Xbox Wire.
What if the 1980’s became the jumping off point for the future? Like how this year’s Fantastic Four movie was a ’50’s version of the future? Enter ROUTINE, an upcoming first-person sci-fi horror game set on a lunar base. Like all good horror games, silence and loneliness are your worst enemies, and that’s true in ROUTINE – except for the part where you discover a foe who thinks the primary threat is, in fact, you. Piece together the events that took place prior to your arrival, and try to survive.
ROUTINE is our IGN First “cover story” game for November, ahead of its December 4 release for PC (Steam and Xbox on PC) and Xbox (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Xbox Cloud) – including Xbox Game Pass on day one. This first exclusive video (watch it above) introduces you to the C.A.T. Ultraview Module, a tool you’ll need to make frequent use of as you explore the lunar base. It looks like a camcorder and a radar gun had a baby, and…you’ll have to check out the video to see what it does.
ROUTINE has quite the development story, having originally been announced over a decade ago. It was re-revealed in 2022, and we finally played it for the first time earlier this year. Stay tuned all November long for more exclusive IGN First coverage. In the meantime, you can wishlist ROUTINE on Steam if you’re interested.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
Ball X Pit is the latest obsession to grip gamers, a chaotic roguelite that mashes together the mechanics of games like Peggle, Diablo and Vampire Survivors to make something that’s impossible to characterize, but is dangerously playable. Somehow it’s the work of one man, Kenny Sun, a game developer from Brooklyn, NY who loves games like Vampire Survivors, Deep Rock Galactic Survivor and Blotch Arrow. We spoke to Sun to first of all, confirm how the hell we say the Ball x Pit out loud, and then to talk about how he created this moreish Frankenstein’s monster of a game.
“It’s Ball Pit. Just Ball Pit. There’s no X,” explains Sun. “It’s mostly a tribute to anime like Phantom Hunter. Also, X can mean fusion, which ties into the game’s theme.” He also reveals that when he first had to choose a game name for Steam, it was City of Balls.
“It started when I played a mobile brick-breaker roguelite a few years ago. I got hooked but didn’t like all the free-to-play elements. So I wanted to make a version without that — a buy-once experience. From there, it evolved through tons of iteration,” Sun says, explaining the game’s origin, and why he settled on building a farm as a key part of progressing through the game.
“I wanted something more visual and personal than just menus — something with identity. I liked the idea of little characters bouncing around a base. Plus, I did base-building in my last game, so it wasn’t a huge leap.”
Some ideas didn’t make the cut, but Sun hinted that at least a few could come back with updates to the game.
“I try not to waste work, so most ideas make it in. But one was a magma ball that left lava trails enemies would take damage from — once the game started scrolling, it didn’t make sense visually, so we cut it,” he says, as for something we could see one day.
“I cut a pet system — you could bring pets into levels and they’d gain XP. It was fun but too much on top of character progression. There was even a monkey that jumped on enemies.”
And Sun has already been making updates, listening to feedback from players and tweaking the mechanics to make quality of life improvements. “Hitboxes were misaligned, so I redid them. And I added luck protection for fishing — players didn’t like getting too many bad rolls in a row.”
If you haven’t played Ball X Pit yet (and you really should) we asked Sun for his top tip to give you a head start.
“Aim for the back of the board so the balls ricochet around — that’s key for damage,” he advises. His personal favorite combo? “I like hemorrhage builds — combine it with area-of-effect stuff like lightning or ghost. Flash hits everything on screen.”
His favorite villager? “The one whose balls bounce off the back. I love chaotic screens. Combine him with Cohabitants for double the balls — it’s wild.”
Ball X Pit is out now on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X and S, with a Nintendo 2 version on its way soon. As for future updates?
“I can say there’s more coming, but not what exactly,” teases Sun. “The game’s done really well, and it feels right to give players a bit more.”
Rachel Weber is the Senior Editorial Director of Games at IGN and an elder millennial. She’s been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, and French Bulldogs. Those extra wrinkles on her face are thanks to going time blind and staying up too late finishing every sidequest in RPGs like Fallout and Witcher 3.
“In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay,” Austrian journalist and Marxist Ernst Fischer wrote in The Necessity of Art. “And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.” I can’t help but feel he’d very much appreciate Wreckfest 2‘s fourth early access update, which has added in a tool you can use to brush detailed rust, dirt, and dents onto the canvas of your old banger. Said tool has been given a suitably glorious name: CRAP-IT.
Fortnite developer Epic Games has issued a fresh user survey polling players over its pet-like Sidekicks — and in particular, the need to rebuy each creature to get another version, after your basic design choices are made permanent.
Currently, Fortnite forces fans to lock in their Sidekick’s body color, shape and style upon first use, and warns players that their decision cannot be changed again.
For now, just one Sidekick animal is available — banana dog hybrid Peels, which you get two of within Fortnite’s current The Simpsons battle pass. Upon first equipping the pooch, you must decide from three banana skin colors (yellow, yellow-green, or mottled), an ear shape (pointy, less pointy, flat) and a body style (slender, or thicc).
After this, each Sidekick also comes with its own mini battle pass of cosmetic add-ons (Peels has an emote where it dances with maracas, and also a couple of shirt options it can wear that can be equipped at will). But the creature’s base design choices are indeed no longer changeable, leaving players who want to try other body options seeking a separate Peels incarnation to change from the ground up.
Later this week, on November 7, a selection of additional Sidekicks will be available separately via the Fortnite in-game shop, with upcoming creatures set to include more dog breeds, a dinosaur, and even a Fishstick fish in a bubble. Each will cost either 1,200 or 1,500 V-Bucks (around $10-$14), and each is expected to offer numerous permanent cosmetic options fans will have to buy numerous versions of to own them all.
Amid the backlash to this decision, Epic Games has sent a fresh user survey sent to Fortnite players, including myself, that specifically asks for feedback on Sidekicks’ permanent customization mechanic — offering some fans a glimmer of hope that the whole thing is being reconsidered.
“How do you feel about the Sidekicks cosmetic?” asks one question. “Did you know that Sidekicks have basic features that you can only customize once upon claiming that Sidekick (e.g. its color and shape?” asks another. And then:
“How do you feel about having to purchase an additional copy of the same Sidekick if you want to customize your Sidekick with different basic features?” asks a third query, with various options to reply, from “strongly dislike” to “strongly like.”
Some fans have suggested Epic Games originally envisaged buying Sidekicks to be like adopting a creature from a pet shop — with a specific design you bond with over time (and as you unlock their battle pass). Others have also said that the pricing here, while steep, is little different to Fortnite’s also widely-disliked Kicks (digital shoes), which often cost upwards of 1,000 V-Bucks for licensed designs, and regularly require players to buy multiple copies to access different colors. (Around a dozen near-identical digital pairs of Crocs exist in the game, each of which must be bought separately.)
But others have compared Sidekicks to the highly customizable nature of many character skins — and indeed, the color options available to Fortnite’s more-basic Pets, which launched back during the game’s earlier years, and can be customized at will.
Certainly, it feels like the widespread response to Sidekicks’ design limitations has struck a chord. Far from a fun new cosmetic type — and one that could prove hugely lucrative, when licensed Sidekicks like Grogu and Stitch arrive — launching to positive sentiment, their soft-launch via Peels has only stirred up a backlash, with various reddit threads and social media posts now encouraging other players not to buy more when they do go on sale later this week.
Will Epic Games change course? Time will tell, though answers to that survey (and the sales from this week’s shop update) may play a part.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
You can pet the Vulpo.
Hibernian Workshop’s ace roguelike Astral Ascent has done a fair amount of growing since it first launched on Switch back in 2023. The release of the ver. 2.0 update and ‘Outer Reaches’ DLC mean the game is almost twice as big as it was to begin with, and it will soon be getting even bigger… and cuter.
That’s because the dev has revealed a new DLC, ‘Celestial Haven’, which will be coming to Steam later this month, with a Switch release following “shortly after”, and it is packed (we mean packed) with adorable little pets.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
When I was younger, I was completely immersed in point-and-click adventures and JRPGs — games that shaped how I think about storytelling, art, and emotional design. They left such a mark on me that I went on to study art and music, which eventually led to starting my own indie studio.
Now, we’re incredibly excited to bring 1000xResist to Xbox, complete with a new layer of haptic feedback that lets players feel the world through their fingertips.
When I first started prototyping 1000xResist, I leaned into narrative design because, honestly, that’s what I understood best. I wasn’t yet an experienced Unity programmer, and I couldn’t model 3D assets myself — but I loved story-driven adventure games. It made sense to build from what I knew and loved.
When we rebooted development and started fresh, we sat down as a team and said: “We’re making a narrative adventure game.” Our goal was to continue the lineage of Grim Fandango, Kentucky Route Zero, and Gone Home — narrative-driven experiences that center the player’s relationship to story, space, and performance.
Much has been written about “walking simulators,” and 1000xResist can certainly fit in that category. But from the beginning, we wanted to move away from reading journals or sifting through remnants of a world. Instead, we wanted the story to unfold around you and to you — to be something you inhabit, not something you discover after the fact. Along the way, the game evolved in unexpected directions. It became, accidentally, a survival horror, a time puzzler, a visual novel, a side-scroller — a hybrid of genres that all serve one purpose: to immerse the player in this strange, posthuman world.
Structuring 1000xResist was one of the hardest parts of development. We approached it almost like serialized storytelling — building one complete chapter before moving to the next. This method kept the narrative cohesive while letting us deeply explore each segment on its own terms.
Even though we never released it episodically, the process itself was invaluable. Games are embodied experiences; you can’t fully understand how a moment works until you play it. Developing sequentially gave us space to learn what the story needed as we went.
1000xResist is a sci-fi narrative thriller set in an uncertain future. A devastating disease spread by alien invaders has forced humanity underground. You play as Watcher, a devoted servant of the Allmother, until the day a revelation changes everything you thought you knew.
The game spans over 10 hours of story and includes more than 15,000 lines of fully voiced dialogue. For the Xbox release, we’ve added enhanced haptic feedback, allowing players to feel tension and impact through the controller — deepening immersion in every moment of the narrative.
We’re thrilled to welcome new players to 1000xResist on Xbox, so they can sit back on their couch and play on the big screen. Whether this is your first time entering the Allmother’s world or you’re returning to uncover its secrets once more, we hope the story stays with you long after the credits roll.
1000xResist is available today on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC, as well as through Game Pass Premium, Game Pass Ultimate, and Game Pass on PC, and as an Xbox Play Anywhere title.
Fellow Traveller
THE END OF HUMANITY
In the near future we learn we are not alone in the universe. A mysterious alien race of giant entities arrives. We call them the Occupants.
They are not hostile, but it doesn’t matter. Their arrival is a death sentence. Humanity is wiped out in a matter of months, succumbing to a disease the Occupants have brought to our planet.
There is one survivor, a teenage girl called Iris. Somehow she is immune.
SOCIETY IS REBORN IN HER IMAGE
1,000 years later. Iris is not only immune but immortal. She has birthed a new society consisting exclusively of her own clones.
She calls them Sisters. They call her the ALLMOTHER.
Unlike the ALLMOTHER, the sisters are not immune. They must wear masks 24/7 to avoid breathing the diseased air even in the Orchard – an underground bunker where they live in constant fear of an Occupant attack.
The ALLMOTHER lives in her own compound on the front line of the war with the Occupants. All Sisters dream of one day being able to take the train and join her in the fight.
RELIVE HER MEMORIES
Within the Orchard, every sister has an assigned function, while six sisters have special roles to play…
Principal – Head of administration and oversight of the Orchard
Bang Bang Fire – Head of military
Knower – Head of knowledge preservation
Fixer – Head of engineering
Healer – Head of medical and cloning
And you – the new Watcher.
Your role is unique. You have the great privilege of reliving and interpreting the memories of the ALLMOTHER through a process known as Communion, made possible by Secretary, your floating AI companion.
As the game begins, you are excited to embark on your first Communion.
RESIST A THOUSAND YEAR OLD LIE
But all is not well.
Your closest sister, Fixer, comes to you with a dangerous revelation. You have been lied to. The ALLMOTHER is not what she claims to be.
Fixer’s claims rock the foundations of your world, throwing everything you know and believe into doubt.
After Fixer is executed for her treason, it falls to you to discover the truth.
DISCOVER THE TRUTH
Dive into the memories of the ALLMOTHER.
Explore pivotal moments in her life from high school days and the arrival of the Occupants to the creation of the Orchard and the birth of the first sisters.
Jump back and forth through moments in time within these memories to solve puzzles and access locked off areas and secrets.
In between Communions, explore the Orchard – a large underground hub area which houses you and your sisters, has many characters to speak to, and holds many things to uncover.
Find the truth and reclaim your legacy.
A STORY LIKE NO OTHER
Experience perspective shifts both literal and metaphorical as the game blends between 3rd person adventure, visual novel and first person walking simulator while throwing twists, turns and revelations at you until you question everything you think you know.
Born from an eclectic set of inspirations, including the games of Yoko Taro (NieR:Automata), the anime of Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue) and Naoko Yamada (A Silent Voice), and even the theatre of Robert Wilson (Einstein on the Beach), 1000xRESIST tells a story in ways only a game can while simultaneously bringing fresh ideas to interactive storytelling from theatre, dance, performance art, and cinema.
FULLY VOICED
Enjoy more than 10 hours of playtime brought to life with over 15,000 lines of fully voiced dialogue from a brilliant cast of Asian-Canadian actors and an incredible soundtrack from two composers.
The post How 1000xResist’s Creators Brought it to Life on Xbox appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Microsoft has announced the Xbox Game Pass November 2025 Wave 1 lineup of games, headlined by Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
As a Microsoft-owned video game, Black Ops 7 launches straight into Game Pass day one when it comes out on November 14. That’s across cloud, console, and PC for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers only.
But there are a number of games hitting Game Pass before Treyarch and Raven’s first-person shooter arrives. On November 5, Dead Static Drive (Cloud, Console, and PC) arrives on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as another day one release.
As per Xbox Wire, Dead Static Drive is “Grand Theft Cthulhu.” “An indie survival-horror game following a nightmarish road trip across a 1980s Americana, Dead Static Drive blends weird fiction and uncanny Eldritch themes with a spooky unease underlying this small-town life,” Microsoft said.
Also on November 5 is Rebellion’s Sniper Elite: Resistance (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Premium. Here’s the official blurb:
Offering unparalleled sniping mechanics, stealth and tactical third-person combat, Sniper Elite: Resistance turns the attention of the award-winning series towards a hidden war, far from the front lines, deep within the heart of occupied France. Bring a friend – the full campaign can be experienced in co-op.
On November 6, Egging On (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass as a day one launch. The day one launches continue with Whiskerwood (PC), also on November 6, for Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Moving on, November 7 sees Voidtrain (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) launch across Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Premium. November 11 sees Great God Grove (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) across Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Premium. Also on November 11, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (Cloud, Console, and PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Premium. And, on November 11, Pigeon Simulator (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) is a day one launch on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
November 12 sees Relic Hunters Legend (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Premium. Also on November 12 is the day one release of Winter Burrow (Cloud, Console, and PC) on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. And of course, Wave 1 ends with the big one: Black Ops 7 on November 14.
It’s worth remembering that, following Microsoft’s recent Game Pass price hike and rebranding of some tiers, we’re now talking about what’s on Game Pass Premium and Essential, rather than Standard and Core. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass keep their names.
As already announced, a number of games leave Game Pass this month. The loss of Stalker 2 in particular has caused some subscribers to express their frustration, coming as it does a year after its timed console exclusive release on Xbox and ahead of its PS5 release date. As always, you can save up to 20% if you buy these games to keep them in your library.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Ten hours into Arc Raiders, I felt betrayal’s sharp sting for the first time.
The round began with generosity. I met a fellow raider who had dropped me a rare shotgun as well as a damaged heat sink to upgrade my workbench. They asked nothing in return. It was one of many friendly encounters I’ve had roaming the surface of Arc Raiders’ hostile maps, but I also felt my heart rate rise: when you die you lose everything you’re carrying, so I knew I had to reach an extraction point quickly and quietly.
On the way, I met another player. We exchanged “don’t shoot” emotes followed by our actual voices on proximity chat, agreeing to cover each other until the exit. I even dropped him some bandages.
Fool.
