Author: News Polite

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords will have the original version’s cut content added to the Nintendo Switch re-release in Q3 this year.

The content was removed from the original version of KOTOR 2 and includes new missions, dialogue, and other content that’s woven throughout the entire game. Given how intrinsic it is to the game, players will need to start a fresh save file in order to experience it.

Eurogamer spotted a tweet from developer port developer Aspyr, which confirmed: “You will need to start a new game with the DLC content enabled to access the additional content, however after the DLC releases and you still wish to finish your non-DLC playthrough, you can access those base game save files by disabling the DLC in the in-game main menu.”

The extra content – which will be added for free – includes a mission where players play as their droid companion HK-47 and explore a mysterious HK manufacturing plant, a new and improved ending that includes more party interactions and extra acknowledgement of the player’s past choices, livelier crew conversations overall, and a variety of other quests and challenges across the galaxy.

The Switch version of KOTOR 2 was released on June 8 and only announced shortly before that, during Star Wars Celebration. In our 8/10 review of the original, IGN said: “If you like roleplaying games or if you like Star Wars, you’ll be hard pressed to find a game as enjoyable as Knights of the Old Republic II. Sure, it’s got some technical problems and, sure, it starts fairly slowly but if you can see past those flaws, you’re in for one hell of a treat.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Lollipop Chainsaw is seemingly making a return, following an announcement on Twitter from the game’s executive producer.

As spotted by Siliconera, Yoshimi Yasuda said simply: “Lollipop Chainsaw is back by Dragami Games. Please look forward to it.” The veteran developer was previously CEO of Kadokawa Games (who published the original in 2012) but left to start Dragami Games in May 2022.

Yasuda didn’t share further details on the nature of the game – whether it’s a sequel, remake, remaster, reimagining or anything else – but it would be the first chance for players to try the franchise in more than a decade. The original doesn’t exist outside of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 hardware, as it lacks a PC version and isn’t available through any form of backwards compatibility.

Lollipop Chainsaw is a hack and slash action game in which high school cheerleader Juliet Starling must fight through hoards of zombies using the game’s titular chainsaw (and with her boyfriend’s severed, still-living head attached to her belt). The game was a collaboartion between No More Heroes’ Suda51 and James Gunn, who’d go on to direct Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad.

The game picked up a cult following but in our 5/10 review, IGN said: “Lollipop Chainsaw doesn’t even attempt to differentiate itself from the genre, and most of what it does try new in the realm of its characters and writing ultimately ends up taking away from an incredible-on-paper action game.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Arkane Austin has a lot of experience open-ended gameplay design, but when it came to designing Redfall‘s open world, the famed studio behind Prey had a unique problem ⁠— Redfall’s open world was actually a bit too open.

In a new interview with IGN, Redfall designer Harvey Smith talked about designing the Massachusetts town in which Arkane’s new supernatural shooter is set, describing it as “very open.” Redfall is an on-foot game he says, and the team has worked to make sure that the setting’s design fits within that dynamic.

But at first, Redfall was “too open,” Smith says.

“It was like there was not enough blocking you or channeling you, but it’s very, very open rooftops and alleys and streets of this small town, Redfall, Massachusetts, which is like a fishing community, a tourist community — quaint, historic, New England stuff with this stealthy takeover by vampires. But the one thing that we do in terms of that gating pretty heavily is we divided the world into two districts. District One is the first half of the missions, and it’s the downtown part of Redfall, while District Two is more rural. It’s farms, lighthouses, churches, things like that.”

Arkane has worked to refine the town’s design, with the end result being an open world co-op game in which multiple players work together to take back Redfall’s neighborhoods from the vamps. In so doing, they are free to venture off on their own, but at the cost of potentially making things more difficult for themselves; as they say in Dungeon & Dragons, you should never split the party. It’s very much in keeping with Arkane’s earlier games, where players are encouraged to explore, experiment, and develop unique solutions to their problems.

“What would the Arkane DNA look like in the open world?” Smith asks. “The way we do resources, scrounging for ammo and medical stuff and lock picks, and the way we approach buildings — there’s multiple entries and problem to gameplay encounters, there’s multiple ways you can approach it. What would it be like to work together?”

He continues, “Because if you play solo, it’s a lot spookier, it’s a lot more atmospheric, it’s more slow-paced. As soon as you add another person, you’re not really afraid anymore because you have a friend there, but there’s got to be something to make up for that. So the social aspect, the narrative changing in terms of the banter between the characters, just the fun of playing with another person… Layla drops the elevator and everybody can get on the roof or get up to a higher vantage or whatever. There’s lots of little synergies like that that are good.”

Redfall takes aim at a 2023 release date

In the rest of the interview, Smith talks about how the various characters work together, and how Redfall has some “very dynamic systems” driving the narrative design as characters get to know each other over time. That said, Smith says Arkane is deemphasizing branching missions this time around, meaning Redfall won’t have multiple endings in the traditional sense.

Redfall was first announced as an Xbox exclusive during its E3 2021 showcase, after which it dropped out of sight. It reappeared with a new gameplay trailer at Sunday’s Xbox + Bethesda Showcase, in the process confirming that Redfall will be a classic Arkane single-player game even when playing co-op.

Redfall was slated to release in 2022, but was pushed to 2023 along with Starfield, joining a long list of games that have been delayed. Still, there’s plenty to look forward to in the world of games, so keep an eye on all the rest of our coverages as the Summer of Gaming continues.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.