Category: Video Games

Broken Roads review: this Fallout-style RPG is Vegemite and (some) magic

Drop Bear Bytes, the studio behind post-apocalyptic RPG Broken Roads, are named after Australia’s deadliest creature. The Drop Bear might look like a normal koala, but they’re actually dangerous predators, fond of jumping from trees to maul unsuspecting chumps who forget to take adequate precautions, like urinating on themselves. Really, the story is a wind-up the aussies like to blag tourists with. If it looks like a koala, it’s just a koala. But it’s this sort of character, inspired by love for Australia’s unique landscape, culture and good-natured mick-taking, that forms the heart of the best bits in Broken Roads. I say ‘best bits’, but I should probably say ‘the only bits that I actually enjoyed’, unfortunately.

Bombs wiped out 80% of Australia’s population, and left the remaining nail-hard Nancys and tough Tobiases to fend for themselves in a world short of resources, but shockingly plentiful in both guns and pre-made Vegemite sarnies. You’ll pick one of four character classes – I went with ‘Jackaroo’ (cattle hand), because it was called ‘Jackaroo’ – before tackling a short tutorial section. You’ll then be thrust into some events, where you’ll meet the rest of your starting party and kick off the game proper.

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Skyrim’s Whiterun Being Remade With Far Cry 5 Map Editor

A dedicated Far Cry 5 player is using the game’s map editor to recreate the iconic Whiterun from The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.

YouTuber Mojo Swoptops shared a short video of their work so far, where they walk through the main street of their Whiterun recreation. Starting at the entrance to the city, they walk past The Drunken Huntsman, Warmaiden’s, and Breezehome before arriving in the marketplace, where The Bannered Mare, Belethor’s General Goods, and Severio Pelagia’s house are all on show.

“I decided not to replicate it 1:1 and instead have some fun using some of the other interesting assets I have at my disposal,” Mojo Swoptops said in the description. “So far I am happy with the progress, but nothing can match the quality and art direction of the original Bethesda product.”

While it’s just the main street at the moment, this Whiterun recreation will seemingly include the entire city one day. Mojo Swoptops shared the creation on Reddit too, where one user asked: “Have you built the Cloud District yet? Oh, what am I saying. Of course you haven’t,” a reference to the infamous Whiterun resident Nazeem. Despite the joke, Mojo Swoptops assured they were already working on this part of Whiterun and they’d share more when it was finished.

It’s not the first Skyrim location Mojo Swoptops has worked to recreate either, as another video shows their rendition of the Thieves Guild’s base of operations Riften.

With The Elder Scrolls 6 still five years away at least, fans have had to find their own ways, like this, to keep the ageing Skyrim entertaining. Another player recently accrued a 267,000 gold bounty murdering 5,000 NPCs in a quest to kill “everything that was killable”, for example, while one fan recreated the game in Age of Empires 2.

Waves of sentimental fans recently booted up their old Xbox 360s and PlayStation 3s to “retire” their original characters too, showing how much Skyrim has remained in player consciousness over its 12 years of being available.

In our 9/10 review of the beloved RPG, IGN said: “Skyrim is a rare kind of intensely personal, deeply rewarding experience, and one of the best role-playing games yet produced.”

Image Credit: Mojo Swoptops on YouTube

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

The Witcher Makes Wild Appearance in Language Learning App Duolingo

The Witcher has moved far beyond its core collection of books and games, with a Netflix show, official manga, tabletop game, and even a cookbook all on offer, but now it’s even showing up in language learning app Duolingo.

Spotted by Reddit user GeraltAndYennefer, one of the questions in Duolingo’s Finnish course asks for a translation of the phrase: The bride is a woman and the groom is a hedgehog. “Is this a Witcher reference?”, the Reddit user asked.

IGN has confirmed with Duolingo that this is indeed a deep cut nod to the beloved fantasy series, specifically to the short story A Question of Price, which was adapted for TV in Season 1 Episode 4 of the Netflix series.

The Witcher protagonist Geralt of Rivia attends a banquet hosted by Queen Calanthe of Cintra in the story, who’s likely more familiar to fans as Ciri’s grandmother. Ciri isn’t born at this point though, as the story actually tells the tale of her parents’ betrothal.

Myriad suitors have travelled to Cintra to try and win the hand of Princess Pavetta, Ciri’s mother, but through a complex series of events, it’s a masked knight called Duny who Pavetta chooses. Duny is exposed to be cursed, however, which essentially turns him into a hedgehog monster at night. But Geralt saves the day and the princess and the hedgehog become engaged, thus the Duolingo reference.

“Duolingo is somewhat notorious for odd and funny sentences in our courses, but there’s real learning value behind them,” a Duolingo spokesperson told IGN. “And at times we’ve deliberately inserted anime, gaming, or other pop culture references into our content, to help connect language learning with people’s passions and interests.”

This includes adding the entire High Valyrian language from Game of Thrones to their app, alongside a Crunchyroll partnership which offers anime specific Japanese lessons.

The Witcher is plenty busy too, of course. Video game developer CD Projekt Red has several projects in development including the first game of a new trilogy, a multiplayer game with a wider appeal than the typical role playing games, and a remake of the original Witcher in Unreal Engine 5.

Season 4 of the Netflix show is due to begin production in spring 2024 too, though without its leading man as Henry Cavill walked away from the series. Liam Hemsworth will instead take on the Geralt of Rivia role as the witcher looks to reunite his family but makes a new one along the way.

Elsewhere, a new book from original author Andrzej Sapkowski is expected in early 2025, another board game based on The Witcher called Path of Destiny is in development, and Netflix is creating a new anime film with Geralt’s video game voice actor Doug Cockle at the helm.

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

Front Mission 2: Remake Lands New Game + Mode In Latest Update

Here are the full patch notes.

You have to give it to developers Storm Trident and G-Craft, these Front Mission 2: Remake updates are coming thick and fast. We thought that the base game was a little rough around the edges when it launched last year, though the devs have since added a lot of content in the ensuing months and the latest patch is available right now.

This ver. 1.0.5 update might not be quite as beefy as some that we have seen in the past, but there are still a couple of decent features to check out here, most notably the addition of a New Game Plus mode to keep you coming back for more.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time Remake Dev Update Shared In New “Exclusive”

“The remake has been… remade from scratch”.

A new “exclusive” from Insider Gaming journalist Tom Henderson has provided an update about Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake.

The previous update claimed the project had reached an “important” milestone and now according to this latest report, the remake of the game has been completely “remade from scratch” but is still in the early stage of development.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Epic Mickey Switch Remake Translates “Motion Controls To Analog Sticks” And Enhances Camera

Original motion controls will also be supported.

Earlier this year during a Nintendo Partner Showcase, it was announced the 2010 Wii title Epic Mickey would be making a return on the Switch this year in a brand new “faithful remake” called Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed.

GameSpot has spoken to the senior producer Pan Schröder about this project, who went into a bit more detail about what exactly this remake will feature. If you were hoping for some quality-of-life improvements, the good news is it will include camera enhancements, analog stick controls, and more:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Blizzard Games to Return to China Under New Agreement With NetEase

Blizzard has announced that its games are coming back to mainland China in summer 2024 after almost a year and a half off the market. Additionally, Microsoft (which now owns Blizzard) and NetEase have entered another separate agreement to bring NetEase games to Xbox and other platforms.

Blizzard’s games were taken offline in China in January 2023 after NetEase and Blizzard were unable to reach a new publishing deal. However, both companies have now reached one. The deal will include all of the games that Chinese players had access to from the previous agreement, including ones like Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft.

While both parties are working to relaunch the games, more details will be revealed later. Phil Spencer chimed in on Microsoft’s new partnership with NetEase, saying, “Returning Blizzard’s legendary games to players in China while exploring ways to bring more new titles to Xbox demonstrates our commitment to bringing more games to more players around the world.” However, Spencer provided no other specifics.

This new deal comes after Blizzard and NetEase had a bit of a falling out back in November 2022 when their oiriginal publishing contract was set to expire. Blizzard China and NetEase were pointing fingers at each other, where the former offered to extend services, but the latter declined it, with one NetEase executive claiming that the original deal extension fell apart because of one specific “jerk.”

Either way, Blizzard was committed to look for alternative ways to bring its games back to the Chinese market, but it finally reached a new agreement with NetEase.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 ‘Future Saga’ DLC Reveals New Playable Characters

Android 18 and Videl join the battle.

Last month, Bandai Namco announced brand new DLC called ‘Future Saga’ would be coming to the Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2.

Now, in a small update on social media, it’s lifted the lid on two new playable characters which will be available in the first of four chapters. It’s the Dragon Ball Super versions of Android 18 and Videl. Here’s a look at both in action:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Buy Two Board Games, Get a Third Free at Amazon

Starting today, Amazon is offering a new board game promotion: buy two board games, get a third one free (or “three for the price of two”). The list of eligible board games include several popular and highly rated titles like Wingspan, Azul, Splendor, Pandemic Legacy, Dead of Winter, and more. We’ve sorted out our favorite picks below.

Wingspan Board Game

Wingspan from Stonemeier Games is an incredibly good board game. It came out in 2019, but it’s still one of the best board games to play in 2024. Wingspan looks like a deceptively simple game; the endgame goal is to attract as many birds as you can to your wildlife preserve and help them proliferate. There are only four actions you can perform: draw a bird card, play a bird card, get food, and lay eggs. Sounds simple enough, right? Well let’s just say these four actions mask an incredibly complex engine-building game with which you will have to juggle between bringing new birds into the fold and keeping your existing birds well stocked and in a breeding frenzy. Wingspan is infinitely replayable, and you’ll find yourself developing and honing new strategies with every subsequent playthough.

Azul Board Game for $31.99

This is one of the best board games for beginners. With colorful plastic tiles and a simple premise – collect sets of similar tiles to score points – Azul is a great game for folks who want to dabble in the hobby of board games. The goal is to fill up a small grid, earning points by completing lines and connecting filled-in spots on your grid to each other. It’s been said before, but it rings true for Azul: It’s quick to learn, but it takes time to master and figure out strategies. This makes Azul a great addition to any existing board game player’s collection as well.

Spendor for $31.99

Splendor is a 2014 release that’s still considered one of the best board games for all experience levels. Economic engine games, where you build an increasingly powerful economy to buy stuff to build it even more, are a popular gaming sub-genre. They don’t come much simpler than this gem about… gem dealing. On your turn you take tokens to pay for gems, and each gem gives you a permanent boost to your token bank. It’s a race to engineer the most efficient economy and grab the best gems. The trouble is, everyone wants the best gems too. So every turn you pump your engine, you risk losing prime resources to other players. Throw in a variety of finicky patrons to please for bonus points and you’ve got an engine that generates as much tension as it does tactics.

Dead of Winter for $49.61

Dead of Winter is one of the best horror board games. It’s like the board game version of The Walking Dead. The game is described as a “meta-cooperative psychological survival game,” which means that, while it is cooperative, there are elements of competition that carry through the game. Each player controls a group survivors during the zombie apocalypse, and all must work together in order to meet the shared goal. In addition, you’ll be working towards your own hidden goal as well. Sometimes that means hoarding the most medicine, or stockpiling the most ammo. Other times, you might simply want to betray the team and ruin group morale. No matter what, though, there’s no way to trust anyone at the table thanks to the group politics and interpersonal drama Dead of Winter brings.

Pandemic Legacy for $71.99

If competitive gameplay isn’t your thing, how about working together to purge the world of infectious diseases? Building on the success of the original Pandemic, the Pandemic Legacy series introduces “legacy” concepts to the game, in which components are added or removed as you progress through the game, based on your decisions, successes and failures. After a few plays, your copy will be a unique record of your group’s play. So in addition to offering a very personal tale to engage you, Pandemic: Legacy also individualizes your strategic experience. We picked the Pandemic Legacy series as one of the best cooperative board games of 2024.

Buy Two Board Games, Get One Free on Amazon