“I’m really looking forward to seeing what Nintendo does with it”.
Rumblings of the Switch successor reached fever pitch last month when Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa took to Twitter to reveal that a console announcement is coming “this fiscal year”. We are still in the dark about what games will be coming to said console (though we have our theories) but thanks to a new interview with VGC, we do know that No More Heroes studio Grasshopper Manufacture is “definitely gonna cook for it”.
That’s according to the studio’s founder and CEO Goichi “Suda51” Suda who, while at this year’s MomoCon in Atlanta, Georgia, was asked about his hopes for Nintendo’s next console and whether he’s currently working on anything for it.
Last weekend, Age of Mythology: Retold made an appearance at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024, revealing in-game footage for the very first time, as well as a launch date of September 4, 2024. As part of the Official Xbox Podcast’s deep-dive series, hosts Malik Prince and Jenn Panattoni sat down with Emma Bridle and Earnest Yuen from World’s Edge to share some insight into this exciting, modern reimaging of the 2002 strategy classic.
Watch the full podcast below – the Age of Mythology: Retold section begins at 25:40:
For those unfamiliar, Age of Mythology: Retold is a faithful retelling of the original title, a real-time strategy game where humans live and fight alongside monsters and gods. “It’s a fantastical, magical, chaotic world that you get to control,” says Bridle.
During the trailer, we got a first look at one of the campaign missions, set in the Egyptian Pantheon (the name for the playable factions). Playing as Amanra, your primary goal is to destroy the Migdol Stronghold, and to do that, you’ll need to amass an army. Here, we see Amanra collecting units from temples scattered around the surroundings, but they’re not your typical sword and bow wielding soldiers. We see units of monsters that are directly inspired by Egyptian mythology – Petsuchos (or ‘laser crocs as Bridle jovially refers to them), large, bejeweled crocodiles that fire devastating long-range beams of sunlight at their enemies, as well as what Yuen calls “Kaiju Scarabs,” dealing close-range damage to structures.
Theoretically, you’d expect a humongous crocodile with a radiant sniper to outwit any little human charging at it with a sword, but Age of Mythology is finely balanced to ensure humans, monsters and gods all share an equal shot at victory. According to Yuen, there’s a triangle of ability – the mythological units are often very good against human units, but then you have the Hero units, which are especially good against mythological enemies.
“As a player, it really makes you think about where to place your units as you move through the levels,” Yuen adds.
The backdrop of this action is also draped in gorgeous environmental design that matches the setting. Bridle explains that each Pantheon (the name given to playable factions) has its own distinct biome and architecture – golden sands and light, angular buildings grace the Egyptian campaign, while a blanket of snow settles on the mountains and thatched huts of the Norse setting. This is a game that weaves in elements of magic, but everything looks and feels authentic to the period your Pantheon is playing in.
Bridle adds that all of the original game’s art has been completely remade, in line with creating this modern, fantastic looking recreation of the original title. During the podcast, this was showcased with images and animations comparing 2002’s Age of Mythology to the upcoming Retold. A screenshot from one of the campaign missions comes to life in incredible detail, and Bridle adds that “the whole world has been redone.” This included seeing original models for two Heroes, Arkantos and Athena, both now super-refined and realistic, and the Atlantean Titan, now with blazing lava veins woven between scorching rock – quite literally a “glow-up” for the creature, Bridle adds.
“When we compare these units, they’re showing more definition, you can see the particle effects, they’re really coming to life more,” Bridle says.
One core goal for Age of Mythology: Retold is that it’s going beyond the already impressive blueprint set by the recent ‘Definitive Edition’ Age of Empires titles. “The goal for the Definitive Editions is to build the awesome game that people remember in your head, but not necessarily how it really was,” Yuen explains.
“With Age of Mythology: Retold, we’re going beyond that to add new features and mechanics to the game. It’s not just about preservation, we also now have the technology to do this concept the justice it deserves.”
Yuen details one new feature coming to the game, which is that God Powers are now rechargeable, meaning that they can be used multiple times during a game. In the original Age of Mythology, most of the God Powers could only be used once, but Yuen shares insight on why that might not have been the optimal approach for Retold.
“Because you could only use that God Power once, people would try to save it for the right moment, but what actually ends up happening is that the match would end before they get to use it,” Yuen explains. “God Powers are the coolest thing you can do in the game, so we’re making it so they can be used multiple times, and you can think about how to do it strategically.”
Even better, Age of Mythology: Retold includes an additional age at the end of the game – the Wonder age. Here, God Powers are cheaper to use, so the option to use them even more is available during this in-game period. “It’s just chaos,” Bridle adds. “You can just unleash everything you’ve got, and it’s so much fun.”
The pair delved into loads more topics in the podcast, including where to get started in Retold as a brand-new player, and how Age of Mythology and Age of Empires’ long-running fanbases have been instrumental to the development of new entries. Be sure to check it out!
Age of Mythology: Retoldlaunches on September 4, and is available day one across PC, Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass.
Aloy is ready to take on the post-apocalyptic world LEGO brick by brick this holiday season in LEGO Horizon Adventures. Guerrilla and Studio Gobo have built a playful spin on the familiar Horizon games that unleashes eye-catching stop-motion animation, chuckle-worthy storytelling, and (literal) worldbuilding that will make the familiar series feel like a new adventure.
The hands-on demo laid the foundation for fun with an early solo tutorial stage controlling Aloy, followed by a co-op story mission where Aloy and her Nora tribe companion Varl set out to save a beloved leader from cultists using their weapons, environment, and yes, even hot dogs. Here are a few moments that caught my Focus:
A familiar world, brought to life by LEGO bricks
Immediately the LEGO version of this world looks incredibly authentic, with every brick placed in a way that builds the world Horizon fans know and love. Aloy moves through the world in a stop-motion style that clicks right into place. The original voice cast has also returned to retell Aloy’s story with a cheeky tone, adding humor and playfulness that keeps familiar plot points fresh and delivers laughs for a wide audience.
A LEGO girl and her bow
Aloy can use her bow for combat and to help navigate the brick-laden wilds. Holding the Square button lets Aloy aim her bow at specific targets. This is made easier by pressing R1 to activate her Focus, highlighting major targets in blue. Aloy unleashes powerful attacks by using the environment around her; shooting an arrow through a bonfire creates a flaming projectile, adding extra damage to enemies or setting grass or vines ablaze to open new routes.
Turn over every LEGO brick
Playful curiosity is often rewarded, so take the time to explore. While Studs – the LEGO form of currency – are scattered along main paths, more can be found by shooting barrels or other objects. Chests are found exploring off of main paths, and Aloy can discover special piles of bricks. Aloy can craft these bricks into various designs (a sailboat! A dog house!) to earn even more Studs.
Make a home at Mother’s Heart
A visit to the game’s main hub village, Mother’s Heart, is a must. A trip to the All Mother Tree allows Aloy and any co-op companions to upgrade their specific weapons or use Studs to purchase upgrades that benefit everyone. This area is also where you can customize costumes or your hut, specifically its roof, yard, plot, and hut color. Naturally, I dropped some Studs on a roof fit with a roller coaster on top. I was even able to lift up and toss village NPCs into a purchased wardrobe, outfitting them with attire from the world of Horizon or other LEGO game properties.
Tap in a couch co-op companion
Once in Mother’s Heart, I let my couch co-op friend control Aloy as I stepped into the LEGO brick shoes of Varl, her spear-wielding companion. Varl’s spear abilities largely operated the same as Aloy’s, but we each purchased different ability upgrades at the All Mother Tree. While exploring, additional temporary upgrades can be bought or dropped by enemies that are specific to different characters. In Varl’s case, that came in the form of a more powerful spear that allowed for 12 throws before breaking down. If one player loses all their health in co-op, they can be revived by the other player using the Triangle button. But be warned – upon being revived, you will drop any of the temporary upgrades you had collected up to that point.
Speaking of those upgrades…
Certain ability upgrades can be used by any character and they come in handy during combat encounters. The LEGO Brick Separatorunleashes a powerful melee move that can literally take an enemy apart. Dislodging highlighted parts of a machine can sometimes even reward a new weapon. When I unleashed the LEGO Brick Separator on a Longleg, its severed horns began to spin, and I could kick them toward enemies for an additional attack. Jumping over an enemy using theBlast Bootswill set them ablaze. My favorite upgrade was the Hot Dog Cart, a quickly assembled cart complete with a hot dog man who lobs hot dog bombs across the combat field to great and delicious effect. This was invaluable during frenzied or crowded encounters, and honestly just made me giddy.
LEGO Horizon Adventures invites players (and a co-op buddy) to its gleefully comical spin on Aloy’s world when it launches on PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch this holiday season.
“When I was young,” the villager washing garments in the river says, “I thought it was enough to clean the dirty laundry once and be calm. Not that it will get dirty forever.” I’m not sure I’ve ever felt the crushing weight of universal entropic decay so keenly as in that RPG maker textbox, nested upon Felvidek’s nicotine-stain hues. I’ll need to clean my keyboard soon. I keep taking screenshots of Felvidek. I can’t take enough. I want to make a scrapbook of every character and every line. Neither my laundry nor keyboard will ever be clean forever either, but if I hate Felvidek for emphasising that, I love it for reminding me that all the best art is buttressed by an irremovable layer of deep, thick grime.
Did you like Astro’s Playroom? I sure did. In fact, the meanest thing I can say about it is that there wasn’t enough of it – I finished its five levels and final boss battle within a single evening. But as if in response to my hunger for more of PlayStation’s newest mascot, developer Team Asobi has opened the floodgates in Astro Bot, a game that looks to be everything I loved about the Playroom, but galaxies more of it.
I played a 45-minute demo of Astro Bot at Summer Game Fest Play Days over the weekend, and what a blast it was! What Astro’s Playroom got right, and what Astro Bot continues to absolutely nail, is making it wildly fun to just run around and be Astro. Everything is tuned precisely to feel just right: his movement speed, his jumping height and distance, the exact way he smashes little crates and zaps enemies with feet lasers, the density of obstacles in my path and the exact way each stage follows a linear path but branches and loops back on itself to allow room for secrets. Running through a single level in Astro Bot clicks my brain cells into a flow state where I am constantly moving and always have an objective in mind, but don’t feel overwhelmed by my options. I love smashing stuff; I love jumping over stuff; I love bouncing off stuff.
Where Astro’s Playroom had five major levels themed loosely around PlayStation 5 components, Astro Bot sends our little hero cruising through space atop a giant DualSense controller, hopping from planet to planet in search of his lost bot buddies. I’m told Astro Bot has around 80 levels to visit, all bursting with hidden bots, puzzle pieces, boss battles, goofy power-ups, coins, and little challenges leading to delightful secrets.
I saw five levels in my playthrough. One, a lush area with clear pools, pink flamingos, and rolling green hills in the distance, was full of water-based mechanics. I swam through little reefs of colorful fish, slid down a giant water slide, and unzipped giant water bubbles to unleash the flood inside. There, Astro could inflate like a little robot bubble to drift quickly up to higher areas, a skill especially useful underwater. In another level themed around a construction zone, Astro flung paint around to uncover hidden platforms, sucked up metal items with giant magnets, and equipped some kind of dog jetpack to zoom across long distances his usual hover wouldn’t normally clear.
Another level centered around a boss fight with a giant octopus wearing boxing gloves. To compensate, I got ahold of a pair of my own frog-themed gloves that let Astro punch enemies at a distance and swing like a monkey from certain overhangs. Another (wildly minor) criticism I had of Astro’s Playroom was that some of its power-up/vehicle sections frustrated me due to cumbersome movement mechanics as they tried to showcase the PS5’s unique features. Freed from that obligation, Astro Bot is better able to focus on giving me new toys that are just pure fun to use. Quick, solid, alternating punches using R1 and R2 made me feel like I was Goku-fighting the octopus, and I sent him packing.
The final two stages I tried were special challenge levels designed to test my platforming abilities. One of them tested my ability to dodge rapidly spinning enemies on crumbling platforms, while another forced me to execute sections of tricky jumps in limited periods of time. I managed to finish both in the demo time allotted, though not without some struggle on the first one. It’s hard to gauge just from these two stages how high the difficulty of Astro Bot’s platforming will eventually scale. But what pleased me the most about them was how the fast respawn time and overall brevity of the stages made trying again and again and again so easy and enjoyable. I found myself thinking, “Just one more try,” more than once, only to try two, three, ten more times. There was a moment toward the end of the demo where I stopped, looked around, and realized everyone else had left the room already. Just one more try…and I nailed it.
And yes, Astro Bot looks to be a nostalgia-fest. Sure, when compared to Playroom, I think Astro Bot seems a bit more focused on being an excellent platformer rather than reveling in PlayStation history. But that’s to its benefit – levels like the watery/flamingo one don’t need to have references to Bloodborne every two feet to keep me happy. Rather, Astro Bot’s PlayStation celebration largely resides with the bots I’m rescuing through each level, some of whom are dressed up like favorites such as Ratchet, Rivet, PaRappa, and more. And I have reason to suspect fans of PlayStation’s biggest franchises might be well-rewarded for finishing certain levels. When I beat the octopus, for instance, I rescued a bot pair clad as Kratos and Atreus, who then flew off to an icy-looking planet I couldn’t access in the demo. If my reading is right, we might be in for a full-blown God of War-themed level in the full game, and perhaps more besides.
When Team Asobi first started making the Astro games, it was easy for me to mentally make a shorthand comparison of their work to Nintendo’s long history of platformers. Both have similar throughlines, especially with how the two make games that feel like touchable, experimental toys and how both emphasize playfulness, joy, and surprise. But I’m pretty well convinced Team Asobi is beyond chasing Nintendo’s pedigree. Built on the foundation of Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot seemed poised to elevate the Astro games into a league all their own, if they weren’t there already. You’re telling me they’ve got 80 levels of what I just played? Sign me up to fly with Astro and crew.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
We’re fast approaching the sixth year of Fallout 76 and although the popular action RPG has received dozens of additions so far, it could be argued that the upcoming Skyline Valley update will be the most impactful of them all, at least from what I’ve seen of it so far.
From the first-of-its-kind map expansion to the ability to finally play as a Ghoul in 2025, here’s six exciting updates coming soon for all you vault dwellers to enjoy.
Appalachia is Getting Bigger
Fallout 76 has previously expanded its scope with new locations like 2022’s The Pitt Expedition and last year’s trip to Atlantic City. But unlike Expeditions, which take you to entirely different locations, Skyline Valley’s more seamless map extension approach means this is the very first time in six years that the core region is being expanded, spreading south into the Shenandoah region.
“We [knew] that there was a skirt around the whole map of unused space,” says Fallout 76’s Creative Director, Jon Rush. “And we wanted to do a region expansion for a while. We wanted to make it impactful and really tie it into the story, so [Skyline Valley] just felt like the right time and place.”
Previous Expeditions have been very isolated experiences, lacking maps or any real exploration opportunities outside of their specific questlines. Skyline Valley gives wastlanders the first chance to continue their 76 experience in new locations that are part of the main world map.
“There are very pointed reasons for going on the Expeditions [with] specific things you’re trying to get,” says Rush. “So we wanted an in-world place where [players] could adventure and explore. Camp builders can make new camps [here] and people can come up with their own new stories.”
20 New Points of Interest
Skyline Valley isn’t just a side quest. With the map expansion comes 20 new points of interest for players to explore, with some such as Mary’s Rock Tunnel, Rapidan Camp, and Skyline Drive being based on real-world Shenandoah locations.
There are also new factions, quests, and activities coming to the expansion, including a new event called ‘Dangerous Pastimes’ that tasks you as a storm chaser trying to power up a giant lightning rod and hopefully kick off an electrical light show.
A Brand New Vault to Explore
Hardcore Fallout 76 fans will be no stranger to Vault 63, a bunker that has remained mysteriously closed since launch. Skyline Valley will finally open its giant mechanical door for the first time and let players discover what’s hidden inside.
“Why [has] that Vault 63 door been closed for so long?” asks Rush, hinting that the answers are soon to be discovered. “It has drawn so much intrigue and mystery [with fans], ‘What’s going on back there? There’s something.’”
A lot of the true nature of Vault 63 is still a mystery, but what we do know is that Skyline Valley will trigger an incident that finally exposes Vault 63 to the wasteland, catapulting its once-sealed door across Appalachia. As for what’s inside, we know Vault 63 wasn’t completed before the bombs dropped, and so all of its residents were soaked in radiation and turned into (albeit quite content) ghouls. Their leader, Hugo Stolz, looks slightly different, though. Hugo is (at least cosmetically) one of the brand-new enemy types coming with the Skyline Valley update called The Lost.
The Lost
The Lost are former denizens of Vault 63 who now live out their days as electrified, almost feral ghouls.
“The Lost dwell in their own skewed reality,” explains Rush. “[They’re] unable to communicate outside to others and will defend themselves against all outsiders.”
Why they’re electrified and why Hugo’s mind hasn’t deteriorated like the rest of his kin is still yet to be explained. But what we do know is that The Lost will regularly roam the Skyline Valley region once Vault 63 is exposed, and are very much the main fodder you’ll have to deal with. They act almost feral-like, with a focused impulsion to hunt you down and swing their melee weapons in your direction.
The Lost aren’t the only new enemy types coming to Skyline Valley, though.
Storm Goliaths
We’ve only seen some short glimpses so far, but the Storm Goliaths are three giant, raging robots that appear to harness bad weather and weaponise it directly into your face.
“[Storm Goliaths are] a trio of super-sized robo-brains built by the great minds of Vault 63,” shares Rush, letting on that Vault 63 contains a bevy of bad ideas that have now been unleashed into Appalachia.
But it’s not just technical monstrosities you’ll have to tangle with. Skyline Valley continues the tradition of irradiated mutations, with a particular new highlight being the Thrasher; a weird, cow-sized mutant turkey hybrid that now roams the hills of Shenandoah.
In a later update coming in 2025, though, you won’t just be fighting radiated nightmares, you’ll become one.
Play as a Ghoul
For the first time ever, Fallout 76 will give level 50+ players the chance to don the leathery, noseless skin of a ghoul. According to Rush, this is significantly more than a cosmetic appearance.
“If you’re a ghoul, you’re obviously not too concerned about radiation,” he says. “Radiation can actually heal you as a ghoul. It will also be positioned to have other very striking benefits as well, punctuated a bit more by dozens of ghoul-specific perk cards that we’re going to be adding.”
Rush explains that the key to ensuring playing as a ghoul was far more than a cosmetic experience was realising how it could alter the gameplay for experienced players.
“Most players wear power armour to get away from radiation. As a ghoul, you wouldn’t want to wear power armour, because [you want the radiation], right? ” explains Rush. “So that encourages a playstyle that doesn’t [need] power armour and frees up a ton of perk points that can be used in a bunch of different other ways.”
Playing as a ghoul will disrupt the meta for Fallout 76, changing the way players optimise their character and encouraging further, unprecedented experimentation. It’s clearly something that the team at Bethesda have had in their minds for a while, but It feels like no coincidence that this is arriving hot on the heels of Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul in the extremely successful Amazon Prime Video show. With the popularity around ghouls never being higher, it makes sense that fans of the show would want to live out their irradiated fantasies in Fallout 76.
Rush also all but confirmed a gameplay mechanic is directly inspired by the show. Fallout on Prime established rules for how a ghoul maintains lucidity, via copious amounts of the drug-like remedy that prevents a downward spiral into the zombie-like, feral status. When asked if regularly drinking the mysterious concoction would be used as a gameplay survival feature he simply replied “Possibly” while maintaining a smile that would make a Vault Boy proud.
For more from the Appalachian wasteland, why not check out our documentary about the weird and wonderful community that still plays Fallout 76, including roleplaying cannibals, a Shakespeare troupe and a full-time courier service.
It’s been nearly three years now since the launch of the original Shin Megami Tensei V and as is tradition at Atlus, the obligatory enhanced re-release (complete with a new storyline centered around a new girl) has now come to all modern platforms in the form of Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. Boasting a full-length, alternate storyline and a host of gameplay and balance adjustments, SMTV: V is easily the definitive version of an already excellent entry in the long-running series. If you’re at all a fan of SMT, Persona, or JRPGs in general, you owe it to yourself to pick this up at the earliest opportunity.
For this review, we’ll be focusing more on the additions and adjustments being made to the core SMT V experience with this release—if you’d like to get a more detailed evaluation of the underlying gameplay mechanics and such, we’d encourage you to read through our review of the 2021 version, which still largely applies here, as well.
Lies of P is one of the more memorable Soulslike games in recent years, as well as a fascinating take on the classic novel The Adventures of Pinocchio. In other words, it’s a perfect choice as the latest entry in Dark Horse’s ever-growing lineup of video game-themed art books.
IGN can exclusively reveal the cover art and first details for The Art of Lies of P. Check out the cover below:
The Art of Lies of P is a hardcover book that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the game, featuring 224 pages of concept art and creator commentary from the employees at ROUND8 Studios.
“When we decided to make an art book for Lies of P, we knew we wanted to create something that served as a thank you to our fans while giving a behind-the-scenes peek at the development process for the game,” said Jiwon Choi, Director of Lies of P, in a statement. “The team at Dark Horse Books took our vision for ‘The Art of Lies of P’ and is crafting something that is truly vibrant and speaks to the love and effort from the team at ROUND8 Studios. We hope it brings joy to our Lies of P community!”
The Art of Lies of P is priced at $49.99 and will be released in bookstores on November 12 and comic shops on November 13.
In IGN’s Lies of P review, Travis Northup scored the game an 8 out of 10, writing, “Lies of P might not branch out particularly far from its soulslike inspiration, but like a marionette controlled by a skilled puppet master, it plays the part extremely well in a wonderfully dark fantasy world. It must be said that its uneven difficulty didn’t always make me feel like an underdog, especially when playing as a brawny, overpowered version of Pinocchio with a massive weapon, and combat pigeonholed me into a specific playstyle while the levels are less open and twisting than most. But with an awesome weapon crafting system, some really memorable boss fights, and one of the better stories we’ve seen in this genre, I can enthusiastically recommend you spend your time hanging out with Gepetto and friends. If you’ve been waiting for a Bloodborne remaster or sequel that may never come, Lies of P is the next best thing.”
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
No, it’s not Silversun. Sit down, Brian. Let somebody else have a go at answering. Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector is a sci-fi RPG with plenty of dice and a heavy nod towards tabletop role-playing. The first Citizen Sleeper saw your bio-robotic protagonist landing on a donut-shaped space station where they learned to make a new life for themselves among interstellar farmers and ramen-serving rapscallions. In the sequel, a demo of which I’ve played [smug face], the hook is a little different. This time you’re being pursued across a bunch of backwater truck stops, colonies, depots, and derelicts. All the while your misfit crew will clash and commingle. You still haven’t got it, have you? Ugh. I suppose I’ll let the game’s designer tell you then.
Posting to X/Twitter, modder Craneo showcased a retro version of The Dark Ages’ saw shield being used in the opening level of Doom 2 on PC. The mod replaces the original game’s chainsaw with the new shieldsaw, but this isn’t just a re-skin. In an effort to truly replicate what we saw in The Dark Ages’ trailer, Craneo’s modded saw not only cuts through enemies, but can also be thrown into distant foes and used to defend against damage.
This work arrived in quicker than quick time: Craneo posted the video of the mod to X/Twitter barely 12 hours after the trailer for Doom: The Dark Ages had debuted as part of the Xbox Games Showcase. Minutes later the .wad file for the mod was also posted.
While developed quickly, the mod seems built on smart logic. The defend ability likely triggers a temporary use of Doom’s godmode cheat to negate incoming damage – a skill the game’s original chainsaw certainly doesn’t have. As for the throw, it requires a little tinkering in the sourceport options, but it’s an effective weapon in the OG Doom’s confined corridors, especially because it can ricochet. This version of the shield sadly can’t boomerang back to you, though, so you’ll need to stay alive long enough to pick it back up.
