Category: Gaming

Embracer Group has once again conducted a round of layoffs, with Duke Nukem creator 3D Realms and Ghostrunner co-developer Slipgate Ironworks being hit, per posts on social media by former employees.

Employees at both studios took to X/Twitter to reveal that they had been laid off from their jobs, including Michael Markie, a lead composer at both studios, and Patrick Hewitt, a 3D artist. Scott Miller, the founder of 3D Realms, said in a post that he had “several sources” tell him that layoffs were happening, particularly at the 3D Realms headquarters in Denmark.

“This one hits me hard because I worked with the new 3DR from 2014 up until when they were bought out by Embracer 2.5 yrs ago,” Miller wrote.

It’s currently unclear how many people were affected, but Miller wrote that he heard “half the company” had been laid off.

In a statement sent to IGN, an Embracer Group spokesperson said the company does “not comment on rumors or speculation” when asked about the recent layoffs at 3D Realms and Slipgate Ironworks. They added that they’re in the midst of a “comprehensive restructuring program” which could include “the closing of studios and termination of projects.” You can read the full statement below.

The studio was founded in 1987 by Miller as Apogee Software before being renamed a few years later. It’s best known for creating the Duke Nukem series. The studio was acquired by Embracer Group subsidiary Saber Interactive in 2021.

While Slipgate Ironworks was founded in 2010, some games the studio worked on include 2020’s Ghostrunner, which it co-developed with One More Level. And Graven, an early access fantasy-themed first-person game, is set to receive a full release early next year. Like 3D Realms, Embracer acquired the studio in 2021.

These layoffs are only the latest for Embracer Group this year alone after a deal worth $2 billion fell through. Last month, Embracer revealed that over 900 staff were laid off as part of the restructure.

Other Embracer-owned studios that faced layoffs this year include Campfire Cabal, Frontier Developments, and Free Radical Design.

In the case of Free Radical Design, the creator behind Timesplitters, the studio closed its doors earlier this week. Embracer-owned studio Deep Silver revived Free Radical in 2021 after it initially went defunct in the late 2000s; the revived Free Radical Design was tasked with creating a new installment in the Timesplitters franchise.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Why are so many people finding satisfaction in simulation games about manual labor? Farming, building, power washing – there’s some deep psychological study to be done on creating the illusion of productivity, but I couldn’t care less. All I know is that if I can’t make sure this garage extension has perfect ebony paneling, I will have brought shame to the good name of my ancestors. House Flipper 2 has reawakened my dormant obsession with wallpaper and trash collection, building on the success of the first cult game with a new coat of paint and some noticeable gameplay improvements.

Like in the original House Flipper, you spend your time in House Flipper 2 renovating houses, which involves everything from cleaning to demolition to picking out new furniture. There are requests from characters that you can fulfill and houses you can buy, fix up, and sell for a profit. The changes to the meat and potatoes of House Flipper are minimal – a quality-of-life addition here, and an extra mode like Sandbox there – which feels like the right balance for fans of a slice-of-life sim like this. If you’re someone who spent hours perfecting their tiling techniques or real estate profit strategies, the last thing you want is to grab a sequel and find yourself in unfamiliar territory. Just the same way you don’t want to buy the new Sims game and find out you have to solve a sudoku puzzle when you want them to woohoo and you have to do their taxes now.

And thus the campaign is back, and it’s a similar story mode that serves as a breezy ride through the various tools and tasks. It’s a good refresher for the veteran foreman, and a solid education for the new kids. The missions arrive by email and vary in their brief: a new room for a baby; renovating a flood-damaged designer home; turning a dilapidated cabin with real “and they could only identify the body with dental records” vibes into a movie set. I’m not talking about Alan Wake 2 levels of plot detail here, but you can only take so much literary gymnastics on the weekend. It’s less about giving you some sort of emotional moment through the power of wardrobe placement, and more about delivering some sense of progression to the soothing repetition of clean, paint, fix, and furnish.

To work your magic there’s a radial menu of tools from cleaning to demolition, a store where you buy materials like wallpaper, furniture, and plants, all equipping you to go through the house ticking off tasks in each room. It keeps track of what you need to paint, what furniture needs to go in that room, and house many stains are left to scrub, but it’s a gentle master. It might tell you how many chairs and lamps a room needs, and what kind, but it’s not marking you on your feng shui or anything. If you want to just keep hitting “buy” and piling that stuff up in the corner to complete a room, that’s between you and your god.

The same goes for painting and wallpapering – it needs you to hit a certain amount on a certain wall, but should you get reckless and freehand the paint roller over the wrong area, feel free to start whistling in a jolly fashion and backing gently away. As a little pat on the back, you earn perks as you use each skill. They sound small, such as being able to get more paint on a roller or faster cleaning, but when you’re restoring a desolate villa you’ll be really happy you earned them. If you’re trying to speed-run a level you can complete a job with just one star, and move on to the next story quest. Like the original, House Flipper 2 only penalizes you in the payout you get, so don’t worry about getting in-game calls from teary old grannies who want to know why you sold her toilet and then downed tools.

One tool on the radial menu did remain a mystery to me through the story quests, and I’ve yet to need it in any of the fixer-uppers I’ve bought at auction. It’s a wiring tool that lets you link sockets and appliances throughout the house, but I can’t make heads or tails of it. Either it’s designed for more serious builders who live in sandbox mode, or every house I’ve worked on and sold to families is an electrical death trap. (Or perhaps both.) And people think this type of game offers no adrenaline rushes!

A minor change that pays off in House Flipper 2 is the new visual style, a big step up from the basic, “Haven’t I seen that exact same chair in 12 other indie games?” look of the past. It’s one of the stranger quirks of this type of simulation game, whether you’re clearing out old barns or renovating a train station, a lot of the objects start to look familiar. It comes from developers being able to buy pre-made game items from other companies, but in House Flipper 2 there’s definitely an improvement with an in-game furniture store full of decor and oddities that make everything feel a little fresher.

However, the biggest change that adds bang to the house price buck is the addition of House Flipper 2’s sandbox mode, a chance to start a house from scratch instead of mopping up after a bunch of reprobates and then adhering to their questionable design choices. It’s a nice addition, but after spending some time with it I found I didn’t enjoy actually having to figure out whole floor plans as much as I did messing with ones that were already there. The community is going to build some crazy stuff with it, though, so I look forward to leaving it alone and lazily admiring the Palace of Versailles as rebuilt in House Flipper 2 by a 47-year-old woman from Iowa.

I should also mention the new Assembly Mode, which brings back an element that’s been removed from the main game in House Flipper 2. In House Flipper: Origins (or whatever we’re calling the first one now) every time you had to install a shower or a sink you could look forward to a slowly animated process of screwing and unscrewing various components; now you can just whack those things into a room without even thinking about a screwdriver. I can imagine a building purist feeling cheated, but I won’t miss having to deal with urinal plumbing systems unless I want to. If I ever do, that laborious process is still available – just tucked away in this mode where you have the chance to install raw plugs and get rewarded with store discounts.

For me, House Flipper 2 absolutely nails the flow state that makes this type of sim game such an all-encompassing way to spend your gaming time. The dopamine hits come in little waves, you’d have to be trying very hard to fail, and the stakes are so low that worms tease them about their height. You can decide to get really pissed that some dude is trying to lowball you on your latest flipping project at auction, but that’s an issue between you and your therapist, not something House Flipper 2 does anything to inflict on you.

After finishing the story quests in around ten hours or so – you can do it in less if you’re not obsessed about getting mugs on shelves in meticulous formation – I’m working my way through the properties I can flip at auction, and with plenty of houses to cover with pink shag rugs and yellow zebra wallpaper, this will be on my regular gaming rotation whenever I need a break from murdering aggressive alien life or trying to have sex with bears. It’s not the most exciting game out there, but they don’t all have to be.

With the second set of the Disney Lorcana TCG, Rise of the Floodborn, now in players’ hands, the Lorcana metagame has been shaken up by new Legendaries, Lore-generating Items, and a certain Disney mouse (but not the one you’re thinking). We’re still in the early days of Set 2 and players are continuing to innovate with creative new decks (looking at you, Mufasa Roulette), but what does all this look like from the other side? IGN spoke to Game Design Manager and Disney Lorcana TCG Co-Designer Steve Warner over email to hear about his reaction to initial fan-favorite decks, the relationship between card power and card rarity, the unexpectedly powerful Hiram Flaversham–Toymaker, and how Mufasa’s brutal death scene in The Lion King inspired a fun new mechanic for the game.

Read on to hear what Warner had to say, but if you’re new to Lorcana and don’t yet know the difference between Lore, Ink, and Songs, check out our primer on the fun new game we enjoy so much.

Reflecting on The First Chapter

IGN: Before we get into Rise of the Floodborn, I’d like to take a quick moment to have you reflect on The First Chapter. The metagame quickly formed around Ruby/Amethyst Control and Steel/Amber Steelsong, and those two decks dominated the format. Was that about what you expected or did it come as a surprise?

Warner: There are always going to be things that catch my eye, but I think we had a good idea of how things would play out and what ink combinations might become popular, thanks to our dedicated testing team. We were not surprised that Ariel – Spectacular Singer combined well with other steel songs like Grab Your Sword. Once a set is fully released, far more people are playing it than we can match. I do think there is still a lot to explore, but I’m not surprised with how things turned out.

IGN: When I first looked at the cards in Set 1, I was surprised to see Be Prepared and A Whole New World because cards with those same effects were so strong in other TCGs that they wound up getting banned. It’s no coincidence that the two best decks from the First Chapter format each feature one of these cards. Amethyst/Ruby uses the board wipe Be Prepared to control the board and Steel/Amber Steelsong takes advantage of A Whole New World’s effect where both players discard their hand and draw seven cards. Both of these cards have incredibly powerful effects to begin with, but when you consider they can also be sung for free, then they get even more nutty. Could you please explain your philosophy on having such powerful, meta-defining (and potentially problematic) cards in the game?

Warner: Song cards are a mechanic unique to Disney Lorcana TCG and play differently than other Action cards in the game. We expect people to find a way for powerful cards to work in their favor; it just makes strategic sense for players to determine how best to play their deck when building it – that’s part of the fun. We tested those cards quite a bit and felt like we landed on a design that plays well both on a card level and in the game overall.

Impactful New Cards From Rise of the Floodborn

IGN: Now let’s talk Rise of the Floodborn! We got our first new mechanic in Resist, which reduces the amount of damage a character takes by its Resist value. From my experience playing with it, Resist is surprisingly effective. Even +1 Resist is hard to deal with and can be a real roadblock when trying to remove characters via challenging, and if a character has +2 Resist (like Cinderella–Stouthearted) then you can forget about it! What’s the story behind introducing this new mechanic?

Warner: Resist is a mechanic we introduced to change the board up a bit with a slight adjustment to a card. Suddenly, it is a lot harder for Illumineers [players] to remove a bodyguard like The Prince–Never Gives Up by simply challenging it. Players will have to consider the new mechanic when building their decks, whether that’s by adding cards that deal directly with Resist, or strength-boost cards or something else. As decks and strategies change to account for the new mechanic, it could also change a number of other aspects of the game.

IGN: It’s only a few weeks after the release of Rise of the Floodborn and there’s already a new Set 2 deck taking the metagame by storm. I’m of course referring to the Ruby/Sapphire Pawpsicle Control deck that generates overwhelming card advantage with Hiram Flaversham–Toymaker. He’s unexpectedly powerful because his draw effect can be used when coming into play, as well as when questing. Most cards of this nature are balanced by only allowing them to use their effect when questing, but Hiram Flaversham has the rare ability to use it when he’s played. Could you please share your design process with Hiram Flaversham – Toymaker and your reaction to his initial popularity?

Warner: I think you are already seeing that although Ruby/Sapphire is a powerful combination, there are also other options available to players. Having powerful cards or decks can be fine as long as a single deck doesn’t have an answer for everything; there has to be counters that balance them out. Every player has a chance to build their own deck, be creative, and develop winning strategies; the game has been designed with that in mind. We’re excited to see what decks players come up with from here.

When it comes to card abilities, it’s important to us that they reflect the character and story that inspired them. Hiram Flaversham is an especially skilled craftsman who’s said to be the best toymaker in London, so his artificer ability reflects that.

IGN: Easily the most delightful part of Set 2, for me, is the Merlin/Madam Mim (and Arthur) package. It’s absolutely fantastic how the iconic wizard duel from The Sword and the Stone was recreated through a series of cards featuring the various animal forms the magicians take. Where that idea came from? Also, as we all know, Merlin wins the duel by becoming a germ, but there’s no germ card for him to match Madam Mim’s dragon card. Was there ever a card for Merlin–Germ in the design process?

Warner: The idea of the Wizard Duel was my co-designer Ryan Miller’s idea. He unabashedly loves the movie “The Sword and the Stone” and knew from the start that he wanted to recreate the iconic duel in Disney Lorcana TCG. It took some trial and error, but we were able to steer the design in a fun way to get it to the point that it is now.

As for versions not seen… we can’t do everything quite yet; we’re only on the second set.

IGN: I always hear a collective gasp from the Lorcana community when a new Emerald card is revealed because that Ink focuses on discarding cards from the opponent’s hand. People who play card games know that card advantage is king, and if your opponent doesn’t have any cards then they can’t play the game, so discard is a particularly scary mechanic for card gamers. That’s why the reveal of new Set 2 cards such as Prince John–Greediest of Them All and Daisy Duck–Secret Agent were met with much uproar. What is your design philosophy on Emerald and why did you decide to make discard one of its premiere identities?

Warner: It’s important to us that players can approach the game in various ways, while remaining welcoming and true to Disney Lorcana TCG’s playstyle. Some people really like to play discard decks and we felt like if that’s the type of deck someone wants to make, it should be available. We were very cautious about it and worked hard to ensure that those cards could be used in a fair deck that was fun for both players and didn’t feel too oppressive.

The Relationship Between Card Power and Rarity

IGN: I couldn’t help but notice there are quite a few Beast cards in Rise of the Floodborn, in addition to the Beasts we already have in The First Chapter. All together, there are six in total, and three of them are Legendary rarity! That’s the most we have of any character, which leads me to believe Beast must be someone’s favorite character at Ravensburger! How do you go about selecting which characters get cards, and what’s your stance on using characters multiple times?

Warner: Characters are normally chosen to align with featured franchises, and it’s important to us that we build game mechanics that fit each character’s story and personality. We are totally fine with using a character more than once as long as it makes sense and aligns with the character, especially since we have multiple ink and glimmer types to play with. In the case of Beast, his journey of self-discovery is one that really allows him to fit the game in a lot of different ways and places.

Card rarity comes down to the mechanics; we try to make sure the more complex cards or cards with extreme strength or willpower or are out of the inks’ norms are higher rarity. For example, Stitch–Abomination is a rare card because while it doesn’t have any text, Ruby doesn’t normally have higher willpower than their strength.

IGN: Could you talk about how you design a Legendary card? Players have come to expect these elite few cards will have unique and powerful effects, so how do you decide what kind of effect is deserving of Legendary status, and how do you pick what characters get that premium treatment? I’ll also take this opportunity to point out poor Gantu, who has been given the unfortunate title of Worst Legendary. Do you have anything to say in his defense?

Warner: For the most part, Legendary cards are defined by their powerful abilities and effects, and that’s something we take into consideration when creating them. Take Mufasa–Betrayed Leader for example. The card is a new legendary in Rise of the Floodborn and is the only card with its ability at this time. (When Mufasa–Betrayed Leader is banished, players can draw a card from the top of their deck. If they draw a character card, players can place it on the board immediately without paying its ink cost.) Being able to bring another character out onto the field to replace Mufasa is not only a great ability, but also fits the character thematically by symbolizing the rise of a new leader in his place. The same is true for our other legendary cards, including Gantu, who is not only known for being strong but also tends to underestimate creatures smaller than him.

IGN: I’m curious to hear why the ink colors are all named after gemstones (Amber, Amethyst, Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby) except Steel? My friends suggested that diamond or onyx could have been used.

Warner: The narrative team made the final call on the ink names, so while I can’t say exactly why we went with Steel, I do think it’s a great name for that color. Like the metal, steel glimmers are strong and durable. They get the job done through brute force thanks to their size, armor or by simply being powerful.

The Future of Disney Lorcana

IGN: Taking a birds-eye view of Lorcana, what would you say is your plan for how to continue to keep the game interesting, exciting, and competitive as we continue to Set 3, 4 and beyond?

Warner: We recently announced the introduction of Location cards for the next set, named Into the Inklands – I’m excited for players to see and experience that new dynamic. Beyond that, I can’t say much about what we have planned, though it will continue to involve Organized Play and additional franchises. The guiding star for us will always be keeping the game fun and simple to learn. The experience so far has been amazing. I can’t wait to see what people think of what we have coming in the future.

Yesterday, mobile versions of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition were made available on iOS and Android, with Netflix subscribers accessing these versions at no additional cost. And many quickly praised the ports for fixing several issues found on the console versions.

Specifically, users on X/Twitter have been quick to rejoice in the quality of these Grand Theft Auto Vice City, 3, and San Andreas mobile ports. The common things people point out are the lighting, shadows, reflections, and draw distance, which look stunning. This starkly contrasts the quality seen in the console and PC versions when those were released roughly two years ago.

The lighting being fixed was one of the new improvements made to this version of the remastered trilogy of these games. A new Rockstar Games blog post mentions that these ports include a new classic lighting mode “that restores the look and feel of the sky in the original games.”

“GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition is defective, disappointing, and surprisingly disrespectful to three classic games and their many legions of fans,” we wrote in our review of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition.

Some other changes noted in these ports, as pointed out by the GTA Forums, include improved destruction effects and restored visuals on props like billboards. One user even went as far as to say that it “doesn’t even look like a mobile game,” praising the visual fidelity and evolution of mobile games.

If you fancy checking out the games, here’s the Android and iOS links for them.

Grand Theft Auto III – The Definitive Edition

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City – The Definitive Edition

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – The Definitive Edition

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Creative Assembly has addressed the disgruntled Total War community, apologising for what has admitted were a series of missteps this year with the release of Total War: Warhammer 3 DLC and the struggling Total War: Pharaoh.

In a blog post written on behalf of the Sega-owned company, Roger Collum, Vice President at Creative Assembly, said it had been a “difficult” few months for the studio, which also recently saw a devastating wave of layoffs following the cancellation of live service heist shooter Hyenas.

“It has been a difficult few months, and we recognize that we have made mistakes when it comes to our relationship with you all,” Collum said. “It’s been a constant conversation internally on how we can get back to solid ground. What’s clear is that it won’t be easy and that it will take time and effort.

“We see the confusion, the frustration, and the distrust of us across the community and honestly, it breaks our hearts. We make games to bring you joy, to inspire a love of history, of fantasy, and strategy games. Total War is our everything, we care about it as deeply as you. Recently, it’s clear that we have failed to demonstrate that in our actions.

“We are sorry.

“We cannot fix our issues overnight, but we will work towards a more transparent, and consistent relationship with you all.”

To that end, Creative Assembly is giving owners of the controversial Shadows of Change DLC for Total War: Warhammer 3 more content after players complained it didn’t offer enough value. A big update to the DLC is planned for February 2024 to add this content for free. As a result, the Thrones of Decay DLC is delayed from winter 2023 to April 2024. “We’ll make sure that you know exactly what’s coming in Thrones of Decay before pre-orders are available, and make sure that you have full transparency around the content before you see ‘Buy Now’ buttons,” Collum promised.

After Thrones of Decay comes out, more content will be released. “Our work on this beloved series isn’t finished yet,” Collum said.

Moving on to the recently released and struggling Total War: Pharaoh, Creative Assembly said it will issue partial refunds to all customers via Steam Wallet funds because it has lowered the price of the game to $39.99/€39.99/£29.99. “We don’t think it’s fair that our fans, who put their trust in us on Pharaoh, should in any way feel disadvantaged for buying the game at the previous price,” Collum explained. Meanwhile, Creative Assembly has pulled the higher priced editions of Pharaoh from sale, leaving just one edition to buy.

Pharaoh launched in October and has a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam, which is unusually low for Creative Assembly games. Concurrent player numbers on Valve’s platform are particularly bad, with just 370 players at the time of this article’s publication, from a 24-hour peak of 500. In contrast, Total War: Warhammer 3 was at the time of this article’s publication the 79th most-played game on Steam, with 14,386 concurrents.

The next Pharaoh update, originally planned as the game’s first paid DLC, is now free and set for launch early 2024.

Will Creative Assembly walk away from Total War: Pharaoh? Collum said the studio is working out what comes next for the game, but said it’s not “closing the door” on other, bigger updates in the future. “We’ve still got big plans, but we want to be honest with you in saying that we need to spend more time with them before putting them out on show.”

Last month, Sega admitted Creative Assembly’s live service push was a mistake, and said the veteran UK studio will focus on RTS games from now on. The developer has yet to announce its next project.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The creator of an unofficial PC port of Game Boy Color classic Link’s Awakening that went viral on social media this week has pulled it offline after receiving a takedown notice from Nintendo.

Creator ‘linksawakeningdxhd’ uploaded a PC port of 1998’s Link’s Awakening DX complete with HD visuals, 120fps scrolling, and widescreen support, to itch.io. But the game’s files were suspended following a copyright claim.

The takedown notice was published on itch.io, and is reproduced in full below:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am an authorized representative of Nintendo of America Inc., owner of the following copyrighted material:

PA0002212311 (The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening) and PA0000772666 (Legend of Zelda : Link’s awakening (Game Boy version).

It has come to our attention that the following game, https://linksawakeningdxhd.itch.io/links-awakening-dx-hd, offered on Itch.io infringes and makes unauthorized use of Nintendo’s copyrights in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening video game.

For additional information visit Nintendo’s website at the following URLs:

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/game-boy-nintendo-switch-online-switc…

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-legend-of-zelda-links-awakening-s…

Please act expeditiously to remove the download and information page for the infringing game.

I have a good faith belief that the material is not authorized by the intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law. The information provided in the notice is accurate, and I swear under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to make the complaint on behalf of the intellectual property owner.

Sincerely,

Nintendo Legal

Nintendo of America Inc.

4600 150th Avenue NE

Redmond, WA 98052

425-882-2040

dmca@noa.nintendo.com

The port drew attention because it let players zoom out to get a complete view of Koholint Island, with all the NPCs and enemies remaining active.

It comes as no surprise to see Nintendo take action here. The company behind Mario has a reputation for taking swift action against fan projects, which it has done multiple times over the years.

Indeed, Nintendo released an official Link’s Awakening remake of its own for the Switch back in 2019. “Updating the look but never losing the feel of the original, Link’s Awakening is a masterclass in remaking a classic,” we wrote in our review.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

It may have been developed by Harmonix – now a subsidiary of Epic Games – but Fortnite Festival is not Rock Band 5. Let’s get that out of the way immediately, because I’ve certainly already seen claims to the contrary. In fact, Fortnite Festival has more in common with the boy band Five than Rock Band 5; that is, it’s a transparently commercial exercise that simply switches the question “What if the Spice Girls were blokes?” with “What else can we sell for V-Bucks?”

It is also not Rock Band 4.1. Hell, it isn’t even really Rock Band Lite. To be fair, Fortnite Festival doesn’t actually make use of the Rock Band moniker, so it certainly does have the scope to be its own thing. It just doesn’t make use of it. Sticking so closely to the existing Rock Band formula does invite certain comparisons, especially with the DNA of its spiritual ancestor on full display (even down to identical instrument icons for the guitars, drums, and vocals). Unfortunately, those comparisons aren’t all that kind to Fortnite Festival, which isn’t a very fun or even particularly social music game in its current state.

Simply put, Fortnite Festival is a rhythm game now embedded in the Fortnite ecosystem. It’s one of three free new games rammed into Fortnite, along with LEGO Fortnite and Rocket Racing. Credit where credit is due, Festival is the only one of the three that really retains Fortnite’s aesthetic (LEGO Fortnite obviously makes use of the iconic minifigs instead, and Rocket Racing feels like an add-on for Rocket League that got accidentally pasted into the wrong product). With Fortnite’s history of celebrity musician appearances and in-game concerts, it isn’t even a weird fit for a Fortnite mode. Plus, as a lover of all things rock and/or roll and a firm disliker of PvP shooters, anything that gets people to trade the staccato of an assault rifle for a snare drum is okay with me.

At least, it’s okay in principle. In practice, Fortnite Festival is currently undone by its ditching of the best parts of the music games that inspired it – like local multiplayer and singing – and its fixation with grossly-inflated digital purchases and other typical service game shenanigans.

Fortnite Festival features two modes: Main Stage, which is where the core, scored button-bashing rhythm action occurs, and Jam Stage, which is a low-stakes musical sandbox where you can (in theory) build new mixes of songs with other players by layering separate guitar, drum, and vocal tracks on top of each other. Main Stage can be played alone or with up to three friends or random players online, although it largely feels and looks the same either way. With no ability to see your bandmates’ note highways, there’s little distinction between playing solo and playing with other humans. As stressed, there’s no splitscreen or local multiplayer, completely shelving the best thing about music games like Rock Band. That is, turning the volume up to 11 and playing co-op with friends and family in the same room.

There’s been no radical reinvention of the standard rhythm game template here; notes scroll down the screen in typical Guitar Hero and Rock Band fashion, and we tap them as they pass. With no official support for pre-existing instrument controllers right now (although that is coming, we’re told), and vocals mapped to buttons instead of actually letting you sing into a mic, it’s presently only built for controllers and keyboards. This makes Fortnite Festival feel more like Harmonix’s own controller-only rhythm games, including Frequency, Amplitude, and Rock Band Blitz, although it’s not quite as elegant as those. While those games were purpose-built for controllers and included extra elements like the ability to switch between instrument tracks on the fly, Fortnite Festival is just… Rock Band on a gamepad, and it’s a little like playing a light gun game on an analogue stick. Yeah, it works, but it doesn’t feel like quite the right way to play it.

Requiring four buttons on the lower difficulties and five on expert, Harmonix sensibly splits its note charts down the middle, so the songs stop short of ever requiring double-presses on the same side of a gamepad (not that it’s even possible to hold down left and right on the D-pad at the same time, anyway). This does mean, if you’re limber and accurate enough, you may be able to get away with just using your thumbs. That said, I had better results on expert holding the controller unconventionally and hovering over every button from above with a different finger (a little like how my wife uses a controller when she’s playing Tekken, resting the controller on her knee like she’s trying to beat people up via a tiny typewriter).

Essentially, that’s about all there is to it. There’s no real sense of any progression, like moving from simple songs to tricky ones like Guitar Hero, or the tour approach of Rock Band. You just sit in your home, alone, playing the same slim selection of songs over and over to… tick boxes and unlock… new jpegs of The Weeknd for your loading screen? I’m gathering that accumulating stuff is the Fortnite formula, but I’m not seeing the appeal.

New songs have been arriving in Fortnite Festival since the weekend, but they don’t appear to be hovering long in the available playlist. Songs owned by other players in your band do appear in the list of tracks everyone in your party can browse while creating your session’s four-song setlist, but if you want the freedom to play a song indefinitely you’ll need to buy it yourself. As someone who’s been regularly buying Rock Band DLC since the 2007 original, that’s something I would have no problem with if the songs were priced respectfully. Unfortunately, they aren’t.

At 500 “V-Bucks” per song that equates to USD$4.50, AUD$6, and £3.50 in the UK – so approximately double the price of Rock Band DLC and around three times what the actual bands themselves charge for the songs on iTunes. Rock Band 4 has 65 songs on it, which means replicating that selection in Fortnite Festival in Australia would cost me just under $400. No thanks.

Of course, Fortnite doesn’t just let you buy 500 V-Bucks. You can only buy them in minimum increments of 1,000. I’ll admit I’m a stranger in a strange land when it comes to Fortnite, but if this is the free-to-play world, you can keep it. I feel like I’m surrounded by a bunch of boiling frogs, when all I want to do is jump out of the water immediately.

I guess it could be worse – after all, there appears to be a single car for Rocket Racing on here for 4,000 V-Bucks. One car, for the price of an entire video game. Regardless, there’s just no chance I would ever invest this sort of money. That it comes in the wake of what may be the most consumer-friendly DLC in the business (Rock Band DLC owners have had their song libraries follow them across three console generations for no additional charge, meaning Rock Band 4 still supports Rock Band 1 DLC people bought over 15 years ago) is doubly galling.

The second way to play Fortnite Festival is the Jam Stage, which is an open area packed with a variety of stages you can use to group up with friends or strangers and mix song samples with each other. It’s a little like if you explained Fuser (RIP) and DropMix to someone in a crowded bar, and they went home and built a Fortnite mod out of it from notes they made on a napkin with a blunt pencil. Like in Fuser, you can change the key and tempo – and as a mediocre musician I do have an admiration for anything that helps non-musicians engage with music in a way that may guide them to identify its layers and perhaps appreciate it differently – but it feels like any momentarily decent mash-ups that are created in this environment are strictly by accident. Also, with the song prices being what they are, it would take an extraordinary amount of money to have a sample crate at your disposal that’s anywhere near as robust as the one in Fuser.

Naughty Dog has stopped development on the Last of Us Online, its troubled attempt to create an onine version of the popular franchise. The studio says that it would have needed to put all of its resources into post-launch content for years to come, and that approach would have severely impacted its ability to develop future single-player games.

“We realize many of you have been anticipating news around the project that we’ve been calling The Last of Us Online. There’s no easy way to say this: We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to stop development on that game,” Naughty Dog said in a statement.

The studio knew that fans of The Last of Us Factions multiplayer community would be upset with the news, and wanted to provide some context as to why it chose to stop development.

“The multiplayer team has been in pre-production with this game since we were working on The Last of Us Part II – crafting an experience we felt was unique and had tremendous potential,” explained Naughty Dog. “As the multiplayer team iterated on their concept for The Last of Us Online during this time, their vision crystalized, the gameplay got more refined and satisfying, and we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed.”

“In ramping up to full production, the massive scope of our ambition became clear. To release and support The Last of Us Online we’d have to put all our studio resources behind supporting post launch content for years to come, severely impacting development on future single-player games. So, we had two paths in front of us: become a solely live service games studio or continue to focus on single-player narrative games that have defined Naughty Dog’s heritage.”

Naughty Dog then went on to confirm that it has more than one ambitious brand new single player game that it’s working on. However, the studio didn’t reveal what they are at the moment.

The Last of Us Online’s struggles

Back in May, Naughty Dog reportedly was scaling back on development of The Last of Us Online due to an internal review from Bungie. In October, Naughty Dog reportedly suffered a round of layoffs and that the multiplayer project was “put on ice.”

Now, Naughty Dog has confirmed that it will no longer be working on the game, and will continue to go down the single-player path that has shaped its legacy as a powerhouse within PlayStation’s first-party studios.

Naughty Dog’s next release is The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, which is set to release on January 19, 2024, for PlayStation 5.

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

It’s official – Asgard’s Wrath 2 scored a 10/10 in our review. This is excellent news, especially if you’ve been looking for a huge, exciting new VR game to jump into. But more importantly, this wonderful game comes bundled for free with the Meta Quest 3, so you can play it right away with a brand-new, fancy headset. What better way to experience it?

The bundle runs for $499.99 for the 128GB version or $649 for the 512GB version at various retailers, which we’ve listed below.

Pick Up the Meta Quest 3 and Asgard’s Wrath 2 Bundle

In our Asgard’s Wrath 2 review, our reviewer explained that, “With four unique characters and stories, fantastic and satisfying combat, intricate and rewarding RPG systems, a great story, and an entire roguelite dungeon-crawling mode thrown in just to show off, this masterpiece completely nails almost everything it tries – much of which has never been pulled off in VR.” It’s one that fans of VR games are sure to enjoy, especially on a headset as nice as the Meta Quest 3.

This headset is one we also gave a great score to – a 9/10, to be exact. In our Meta Quest 3 review, we detailed that it “continues Meta’s legacy of offering a cost-effective headset that doesn’t require an expensive gaming PC, but can still benefit from one if you have it.” It also offers, “a ticket to mixed-reality gaming with a full-color passthrough mode that’s sharp enough to read things in the world around you, the lightest and most precisely tracked controllers available, and more.” It’s clear that these two are a gaming match made in heaven, so make sure to grab a bundle before they’re gone!

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.