Category: Video Games

Doom: The Dark Ages Price Drops $25 on PS5 After Its Official Update 2 Patch

Doom: The Dark Ages remains one of the best shooters of 2025 so far, and it seems it’s only getting better with Update 2 dropping this week.

Not only does the update add new skins and bug fixes, but a new Ripatorium adds an infinite arena for, well, ripping through foes ad nauseum. Better yet, you can get this new and improved version of the Doom Slayer for under $45.

Best Buy is now offering a $25 discount on Doom: The Dark Ages for PS5, bringing the price down to just $44.99 from $69.99, and it’s a great time to jump in.

It’s the best price for a physical copy of the game from major online retailers right now, with Amazon OOS, Walmart listing for $49, and Target down to $55.99 today as well. For those looking to buy digitally, Dark Ages is also down to $52.99 for PS5.

So what about that new update? Combat is always at the heart of DOOM, and the new Ripatorium in Update 2 lets you pick your opponents, the quantity of them, a time limit if you want to challenge yourself, and tweak respawn settings.

Or, just throw everything on and work to stay alive as long as you can.

As you’d expect from a game where the soundtrack is so core to the experience, you can choose the music for your showdowns, too, as well as your arena, with three to choose from.

In his review for IGN, Mitchell Saltzman awarded The Dark Ages a 9 out of 10 score, and said “Doom: The Dark Ages may strip away the mobility focus of Doom Eternal, but replaces it with a very weighty and powerful style of play that is different from anything the series has done before, and still immensely satisfying in its own way.”

Should I Buy Now or Wait for Black Friday?

It really depends on your preferences. In my opinion, Doom: The Dark Ages will likely be even cheaper by the time Black Friday rolls around.

At $45, it’s still a significant saving with $25 off the MSRP. But, Black Friday could potentially hold even better discounts, if you can wait another three months to find out.

My best guess is it will drop to $30-40 during the Black Friday sales that tend to kick off around the beginning of November. If you can hold out, you could find yourself with a better deal. There’s also other 2025 sale events like Prime Day in October, or any post Gamescom sales to consider as well.

However, some folk are old enough to know you can pay yourself with time as well, so if you want to play Doom: The Dark Ages now, without having to pay the eye watering $70 price tag, there’s nothing wrong with dropping $45 on a Game of the Year contender today.

Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.

Battlefield 6’s beta been treating you to infinite loading screens? EA are on the case

Waiting’s been a bit of theme during the early stages of the Battlefield 6 open beta, which has otherwise been earning a lot of thumbs up from FPS heads. If you’ve recently run into an never-ending loading screen while trying to jump into a Conquest match, the good news is that the devs have been working to solve those issues.

While EA reckon the problem’s specific to that game mode and the Siege of Cairo map, that doesn’t look to have stopped plenty of players from running into it over the past 24 hours. Cue a number of frustrated Reddit posts that boil down to the word ‘stuck’ being yelled so loud it could bring down a helicopter.

Read more

Bethesda Resurrects Classic Doom Duo Heretic + Hexen With ‘Improved Performance for Modern Platforms’

Bethesda has confirmed Heretic + Hexen — the definitive re-release of two genre-shaping first-person shooters — are out now on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

id Software worked “in partnership” with Nightdive Studios to release this updated collection, featuring the “two classics that helped shape the genre.” The games have “been restored with improved performance for modern platforms with an enhanced soundtrack from Andrew Hulshult, online cross-platform and local split-screen deathmatch and co-op modes, in-game mod support, and more.”

Here’s what you get in the new collection:

  • Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
  • Hexen: Beyond Heretic
  • Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
  • Two all-new episodes created in collaboration between individuals at id Software + Nightdive Studios:
    • Heretic: Faith Renewed
    • Hexen: Vestiges of Grandeur

That’s not all, either; at today’s QuakeCon stream, we also learned that Doom: The Dark Ages‘ Update 2 is now live, bringing “all-new free content, tons of bug fixes, and quality of life improvements, inviting players to continue their fight against the forces of Hell in the Ripatorium.” The latter is a brand-new endless arena mode to the game, offering customisable waves and time-limit challenges.

Jump into Doom: The Dark Ages between now and September 2 to secure two free skins, and complete the three new arenas available in the Ripatorium to earn the Perfection Doom Slayer skin, too.

We awarded Doom: The Dark Ages an Amazing 9/10 in our review, writing: “Doom: The Dark Ages may strip away the mobility focus of Doom Eternal, but replaces it with a very weighty and powerful style of play that is different from anything the series has done before, and still immensely satisfying in its own way.” It secured three 3 million players in its opening week.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Classic shooters Heretic and Hexen re-released as an “enhanced” bundle with cross-platform multiplayer and mod support

Wake up, it’s the 90s again. Ok, so maybe I’ve lied to you there, but two classic shooters from the decade that I as a child of 1999 definitely remember fondly have been re-released as one handy bundle with some extra features. Heretic + Hexen is out now.

The surprise re-release of these virtual spell boxes came as part of QuakeCon, with Nightdive Studios and id Software collborating to revamp more old school shooty things after doing the same with Doom and Doom 2 last year.

Read more

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater’s Multiplayer Mode Won’t Be Available at Launch, But Shouldn’t Come Too Much Later

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is now just weeks from launch, though fans will have to wait a little longer to play Fox Hunt, the game’s online multiplayer mode.

While the main, single-player portion of Snake Eater will launch for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on August 28, Fox Hunt will arrive via a post-launch update sometime this “fall”. And yes, that’s as specific as publisher Konami is currently willing to get.

Announced back in June, Fox Hunt is an entirely new multiplayer offering unrelated to Metal Gear Online, which came bundled with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots back in 2008. MGO lasted four years, before its servers were switched off in 2012.

“Fox Hunt is a completely original online multiplayer mode,” said veteran Metal Gear Solid developer Yu Sahara, who now acts as the mode’s director, back in June. “Although it shares the same world with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, the gameplay is completely different.

“When we say Metal Gear multiplayer, many fans will probably think of Metal Gear Online, but Fox Hunt will be its own new type of mode. We very much appreciate all the long-time fans of MGO who have always wanted to see it make a comeback, but the landscape of multiplayer games has changed a lot since MGO. It took a lot of careful consideration to think about what a new online mode should look like.”

Sahara continued by saying that Fox Hunt would focus on Metal Gear series’ stealth and survival elements, and take “camouflage and hide and go seek to the next level” in order to ensure the mode offered “more than just a shootout.”

Outside of Fox Hunt, Delta is a remake of the 2004 classic Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Original Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has said he won’t be playing, however.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Microsoft have halted development on Just Cause devs’ 70s co-op smuggler Contraband

Microsoft have brought development work on Contraband, the co-op smuggling game that Just Cause developers Avalanche Studios announced back in 2021, to a standstill. That’s the official line, while a report from Bloomberg claims the game’s been cancelled outright.

Nothing had been been seen or heard of Contraband since its reveal to the world at E3 four years ago, and this sudden status update comes just weeks after Microsoft cancelled Perfect Dark, Everwild, and an unannounced MMO from ZeniMax as part of mass layoffs that saw around 9,000 staff lose their livelihoods.

Read more

Nintendo Announces Mario Claymation Show, As Part of New Kid-Themed My Mario Product Line Push

Nintendo has announced a new claymation Mario show that’s set to premiere on YouTube. The series, which will feature kid-friendly animated episodes just one-minute in length, will launch alongside a major new push by Nintendo for the kid’s product market, with a range of toys, picture books, and more released under a new “My Mario” banner.

Notably, this range includes a set of wooden blocks that you can use as amiibo figurines. Other products on the way include a set of plastic tableware, a board book, a backpack, a plushie Mario, rattles and items of baby and toddler clothing including T-shirts and Mario hoodie.

My Mario has interactive elements too, including a My Mario app for smartphones and Switch consoles where you can play with Mario’s face, like a 2D version of the Mario 64 start menu.

The Hello Mario app will launch for iPhone and Android devices on August 26 in Japan, with the rest of the My Mario range set to arrive there on August 28. Nintendo has plans for an international My Mario launch, it has said, but not until the beginning of 2026.

While designed for kids, it’s easy to see some of these products becoming collector’s items — in particular the wooden blocks set which features Mario, Peach, Luigi and Yoshi alongside a range of Mushroom Kingdom props like a Mushroom and Fire Flower.

Nintendo has said that these figures can be used as their appropriate amiibo in compatible games, adding to their worth — though you’ll need to green shell out around $135 for the set (and also, at least until next year, be in the position to buy it from Japan).

The original Super Mario Bros. celebrates its 40th anniversary on September 13, while the coming year will see the launch of the next Super Mario Movie. Potentially titled Super Mario World, it’ll launch in theaters on April 3, 2026.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

LEGO Party Gets The Party Started On Switch This September, Physical Release Confirmed

Pre-orders are now live.

LEGO fans are in for a treat with not one but two new titles announced today for the Switch and both are due out later this year.

First up we’ve got LEGO Voyagers – a new two-player co-op adventure all about “friendship and play”. There’ll even be a “Friend’s Pass” a bit like Hazelight’s games (Split Fiction) where you can play together with just one copy of the game.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Kaiju No. 8 The Game is Out on August 31

Akatsuki Games has announced that its game based on the hugely popular manga and anime series Kaiju No. 8 will be released globally for Android and iOS on August 31st (JST), with a PC version to follow later.

Kaiju No. 8 tells the story of Kafka Hibino, a member of the crews that clean up after kaiju threats have been eliminated in greater Tokyo, but who longs to be a soldier in the Japan Defense Force (JDF), and actually be on the front lines. With goofy humour, slick action, an endearing protagonist and some pretty wild twists and turns, it’s a fun series. Its second season is airing now, but you can read our review of season one here.

Kaiju No. 8 The Game will let you take control of a host of fan favourite members of the JDF including Kikoru Shinomiya, Reno Ichikawa, Mina Ashiro, Gen Narumi and Soshiro Hoshina, and form them into four person squads to do battle against a new kaiju threat. What’s going on? Strange Dimensional Gates are opening up all over the place and otherworldly kaiju are flooding in.

The game also introduces a special unit named CLOZER, which exists to deal with the Dimensional Gates, and is commanded by a brand new character – Kikoru Shinomiya’s sister, Sagan Shinomiya. Other new characters introduced in the game include Chester Lochburn, CLOZER’s strategist who is able to wield a wide range of weapons, and Suited, the brains behind CLOZER’s weapons development.

Kaiju No. 8 The Game features a turn-based battle system that lets your squad work together to expose the core of the kaiju you’re facing in order to dispatch them, and fights scale all the way from confrontations with smaller Yoju through to skyscraper-sized beasts capable of razing cities.

Can this free-to-play live service title capture the intensity of the source material’s battles? And when will it be set in the timeline? Find out on August 31.

Cam Shea headed up Australia’s editorial team for many years but these days mostly lives and breathes craft beer.