Category: Gaming

It’s incredibly tough to launch a new live-service game. In 2023 we’ve already seen a bunch shut down for good, including Rumbleverse, CrossFireX and Knockout City. But at least they all got their shot in the limelight – Hyenas, the hero shooter from Creative Assembly, was canceled by publisher Sega last week, after years in development. It never even made it to open beta, let alone a full launch.

As someone who plays a lot of competitive shooters, Hyenas didn’t really grab my attention that much. I know friends who played the closed beta and had good things to say about it, but I didn’t really like the idea of fighting in zero G. I played Splitgate a fair bit when that came out, and that too had unique ways to get around by creating portals that allowed you to sneak around the back of the enemy. But I found it incredibly tricky to take advantage of, especially in the middle of a firefight when there wasn’t time to plan a clever move. Rather than it being a unique feature that attracted a different audience, it became a barrier to entry for new players. And that’s exactly how I felt when they showed off Hyena’s zero G gameplay for the first time.

It’s an incredibly difficult balance to get right – a new live-service game has to offer something unique to get the audience interested, but if it’s too far removed from what they’re used to it could have the opposite effect. Fortnite is pretty much the only shooter I know that’s really succeeded in delivering an unusual game mechanic and survived – not just survived, thrived – in the live-service space. Of course, Fortnite’s building mechanic has been made fun of a lot but you cannot deny that it adds another dimension to the shooter experience and Fortnite has gone on to be one of the most-played shooters around.

Crucially though, you don’t have to build in Fortnite to have fun – it’s secondary, as are the challenges and ongoing storylines, and it’s the game’s sharp gunplay that keeps players returning. Furthermore, there’s no better feeling than getting a battle royale victory, so much so it’s the reason why you jump back into the lobby to do it all again. That sense of reward and satisfaction is something I still get a kick out of, even after hundreds of hours playing Apex Legends. It makes you feel a tier above the rest for surviving in a battleground of 60 others, and winning a match feels like a real achievement.

For a shooter to survive in the current climate everything needs to be exactly right. Characters and abilities need to be perfectly balanced, not just at launch but continuously throughout its lifecycle, and the gunplay needs to be consistently awesome. If anything is not quite right, the audience won’t stick around.

Hyper Scape, Ubisoft’s battle royale that launched in 2020, struggled in part because its time to kill (TTK) didn’t match the pace of the gameplay. Its TTK was way too slow and its weapons uninspired, so the matches dragged on. Unsurprisingly its servers shut down less than two years after launch. Call of Duty: Vanguard had the opposite problem, where its TTK was extremely high, so if you were not the first person to get a shot in, you’d be immediately killed. It’s examples like these that show how the fine mechanical details of a shooter are vital to its potential lifespan.

I’m sad Hyenas didn’t make it to release because at least then it would’ve been up to the public as to whether it lived or died, rather than a bunch of execs sat in a boardroom. But the truth is it costs hundreds of thousands to keep a live service game running, in addition to the cost of actually making it in the first place, and the stakes have never been higher. As someone who spends a lot of time playing Apex Legends and a bunch of other shooters, I definitely think there’s room for something new – but it has to be truly special for it to pull me away from the games I already cherish so dearly. While we’ll never truly know if Hyenas had what it takes to survive in such a brutal genre, I’m pleased there are developers out there who are still willing to try something different.

CD Projekt Red doesn’t regret making Cyberpunk 2077 a first-person only game, compared to the third-person Witcher franchise, but the developer is yet to make up its mind around Cyberpunk 2, codenamed Orion.

Speaking during the CD Projekt Red Investor Day presentation, Cyberpunk 2077 quest director Paweł Sasko, who will be working on Orion, was asked if CD Projekt Red would consider adding a third-person to first-person toggle in the new game, and if the developer regrets not including one in the current Cyberpunk.

“There are no regrets on our part,” he said. “What we wanted was for Cyberpunk to have its own identity and to be noticeable as this different thing. These days it’s YouTube, Twitch, and screenshots that sell games, and this is the way one can use to show that identity and individuality to players.”

Sasko continued: “I wanted to say that the first-person perspective is the main characteristics for Cyberpunk and its perception by the players too. It’s also noticeably different from The Witcher, and this helped us craft the product identity as such.”

The quest director didn’t give too much away surrounding Orion, but did suggest CD Projekt Red is yet to make its mind up on this front. After explaining why the team only included a first-person mode in Cyberpunk 2077, Sasko added: “But for Orion we’re yet to see.”

The sequel is still years away, of course, as CD Projekt Red is currently focusing on the next Witcher game, Polaris, which will be released in 2025 at the earliest. Orion will be developed at the company’s new North American studios, which are still in the process of being built.

Development on Orion has officially begun, however. CD Projekt Red’s chief creative officer Adam Badowski also said during the presentation that it has entered a “conceptual design level”.

The Investor Day presentation was a relatively busy one for CD Projekt Red, though perhaps not as busy as 2022’s when they announced five new games. Nevertheless, the developer did reveal a live-action Cyberpunk project, confirmed Cyberpunk 2077 had surpassed 25 million units sold, and that CEO Adam Kiciński was stepping down.

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

If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on a physical copy of the Batman: Arkham Trilogy for Nintendo Switch, now’s your time. It’s officially up for preorder at a variety of retailers, with a brand-new release date of December 1. This is due to a recent announcement from publisher Warner Bros. Games that it’s been delayed from its original October 13 release date.

Step into the Dark Knight’s shoes and preorder your copy of this collection for Switch at the links below.

Preorder the Batman: Arkham Trilogy for Switch

No special editions are available for this collection, so the standard edition is the only option.

Batman: Arkham Trilogy for Nintendo Switch Trailer

What is the Batman: Arkham Trilogy?

This trilogy of games is a must-have addition to your physical collection of games. For $59.99, this collection on Nintendo Switch comes with all three Rocksteady-developed games – Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, and Batman: Arkham Knight – along with all DLC. It’s an excellent bang-for-your-buck deal, considering everything that you’re getting. In these games, you’ll get to face off against classic villains such as The Joker, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, and more, while also being able to explore the streets of Gotham as you work your way into the trilogy’s final game, Arkham Knight.

Upon release, each of these games received a score of over 9 from us in their respective reviews as well. Arkham Asylum received a 9.3 out of 10, Arkham City received a 9.5 out of 10, and Arkham Knight received a 9.2 out of 10. To this day, this trilogy remains the best comic book video games ever made in our eyes.

Other Preorder Guides

If you’re curious to see even more games that are available to preorder right now, we’ve got a wide selection of preorder guides to look through below, from Super Mario Wonder to Spider-Man 2 to the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1.

CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kiciński has announced he will be moving to a supervisory role at the company in 2025 and will therefore be stepping down as CEO as part of a larger management shake-up.

Kiciński, who will have been at CD Projekt Red for 30 years as of 2024, will resign as a member of the management board at the end of that year. Before he does so, he will transition from his current role as CEO to the role of chief strategy officer as of January 1, 2024.

Current chief creative officer Adam Badowski and current chief commercial officer Michał Nowakowski will take over as joint-CEOs of CD Projekt Red also as of January 1, 2024.

The supervisory board Kiciński is joining oversees the activities of CD Projekt Red and performs its duties by issuing recommendations and adopting resolutions. CD Projekt co-founder and former joint CEO Marcin Iwiński made the same move in October 2022, joining the supervisory board and therefore leaving behind his management board duties.

Kiciński was involved in CD Projekt Red from its foundation in 1994 and has since served in several roles including marketing director from 1999 to 2004, co-director in 2004, director in 2006, and more.

CD Projekt Red also announced today, October 5, that Cyberpunk 2077 has sold 25 million units, outpacing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at this point in its life cycle. A live action Cyberpunk project was also confirmed to be in development.

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

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for the ending of Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage takes us all the way back to 9th century Baghdad to live the origin story of Basim. We first met Basim in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Mirage connects back to that game in a couple of important ways. To explore how those connections are forged, as well as answer any lingering questions, we’re going to fully break down the ending of Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Full spoilers are ahead, so leap away now if you haven’t finished the game or don’t want to know.

The Head of the Snake

Basim’s quest to cut off the head of the snake brings him to the Palace of the Green Dome. Here he comes face to face with Al-Bahamut, the leader of the Order in Baghdad. They are revealed to be Qabiha, the concubine of the Caliph who was killed by Nehal during the prologue. But it turns out that Qabiha has been hunting for Basim as much as he has been hunting her.

Qabiha’s son, Abu ‘Abdallah, saw the ancient disc activate when young Basim touched it in the palace. He told his mother what he saw, and so for years Qabiha has known that Basim is connected to the Isu; an ancient civilisation that ruled the world before the era of humanity. And so she attempts to coerce him, promising that he will learn everything of who he is in a secret chamber beneath the Hidden Ones’ temple of Alamut. But before she can say anymore, Roshan assassinates her. The master assassin warns Basim that if he goes looking for answers she will kill him.

The Isu Chamber

Angered by Roshan’s actions, Basim and Nehal journey to Alamut. Beneath the temple, Basim discovers that his touch awakens a stone wall, which fades away to reveal a technologically advanced vault door. Roshan interrupts and tries to prevent Basim from proceeding but he defeats her in combat.

Nehal teaches Basim how to open the vault door with his blood and a deep chamber is revealed. The architecture is clearly Isu in design, similar to what we’ve seen in many other Assassin’s Creed games. Inside, Basim discovers a prison with a sarcophagus at its centre. He opens the sarcophagus, only to find Nehal inside.

Nehal is Basim

It is revealed that Nehal is actually Basim. In a Fight Club-like twist, it turns out that she’s an aspect of Basim’s personality that manifests as an imaginary friend. And so everything Nehal did, Basim did – right down to killing the Caliph.

And this is where Mirage connects to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. In Valhalla, we learned that Basim is actually the reincarnation of Loki. Nehal represents the memories of the original Loki locked away inside Basim. Okay, yeah, this is going to take a bit of explaining…

In Assassin’s Creed lore, the ancient Isu civilization is the inspiration for human mythology. Loki was part of the Aesir branch of the Isu, which directly influenced Norse mythology. Thousands of years ago, the Isu were threatened by an apocalypse event, and so they developed a supercomputer called Yggdrasill to help them survive it. The Aesir Isu uploaded their consciousness onto Yggdrasill, which would then distribute them into the human gene pool centuries later. This effectively allowed the Aesir to leapfrog over the apocalypse and be reborn again in human bodies.

The name Nehal is derived from the Persian language, and means “newly planted tree”. Thus Nehal is Yggdrasill’s newly planted seed of Loki.

The Isu Holograms

In the Isu chamber, Nehal uses the ancient disc to activate a hologram. This suggests that the disc is similar to a Memory Seal, an Isu device that stores memories.

The hologram depicts two figures; a prisoner and a jailor. The prisoner is shown to be Basim, while the jailor is the jinni; a supernatural spectre that has haunted Basim all throughout the game. Basim realises that the jinni represents the torture he endured in this prison during his previous life as Loki. He makes peace with these dark memories, destroying the jinni’s hold over him.

So if the prisoner hologram is Basim, and thus represents the experiences of Loki during the Isu era, then who is the jailor? For that, we can look to the Norse myths that have inspired this part of the Assassin’s Creed story. In the mythology, Loki is taken into a cave and bound to a stone as punishment for his involvement in the poisoning of Baldr, son of All-father Odin. During the events of both Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and its expansion, Dawn of Ragnarok, we learn that the Isu version of Loki also orchestrated Baldr’s poisoning. It seems sensible to assume, then, that this Isu chamber is the Assassin’s Creed version of the binding of Loki myth. And so the jailor is almost certainly Odin.

And who is Odin? Well, none other than Eivor, the human reincarnation of the All-father and protagonist of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

The Future

After making peace with his memories of being imprisoned and tortured, Basim becomes one with Nehal. This symbolises the merging of Basim’s human body and Loki’s consciousness. Loki has now been fully restored and reincarnated.

We can see that Basim has fully transformed into Loki when his eagle, Enkidu, rejects him. Animals are generally considered to be highly intelligent and sensitive, and so we can see here Enkidu sensing the evil trickster within their master.

In the final scene, Basim swears vengeance on those who tortured him should they walk this earth. This foreshadows his quest to find and kill Odin, which will bring him to Eivor during the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

And that’s the ending of Assassin’s Creed Mirage explained. For more, check out our review, as well as how long it took us to finish the game.

Blizzard has apologised to its players after Battle.net suffered login issues.

An issue affecting the company’s authentication services caused slow or failed login attempts. At the time of this article’s publication, Battle.net was down.

Blizzard said it was investigating the cause. “We apologise once again for the inconvenience caused by today’s outages, we’re working to resolve this ASAP,” reads the latest tweet from Blizzard’s customer service page.

Battle.net’s outage renders many of Blizzard’s game unplayable. The always-online Diablo 4, for example, is currently unplayable on PC. Blizzard announced Diablo 4 will join Overwatch 2 on rival platform Steam later in October.

The outage comes the morning after Blizzard unveiled sweeping changes coming to Diablo 4 with the launch of Season 2, dubbed Season of Blood, later this month. World of Warcraft, meanwhile, is set for a major blowout of information at BlizzCon in November.

Blizzard has yet to announce a timeframe for a Battle.net fix. IGN will update as more information becomes available.

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.

First we give our initial impressions of Forza Motorsport and Assassin’s Creed Mirage now that the review embargoes on them have lifted, and then we spend the bulk of the episode giving our top-5 rankings of Xbox’s internal game studios (including Bethesda/Zenimax) while also contemplating Phil Spencer’s Xbox legacy to date as PlayStation boss Jim Ryan finalizes his ahead of his retirement.

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out my recent Alan Wake 2 preview!

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

While Lies of P might be a far cry from the wholesome tale of the puppet Pinocchio that you know, this grimdark soulslike has more than a few sly references to the classic fairytale up its sleeves. Some easter eggs are more obvious — the cricket-like Gemini or azure-haired Sophia, for example — but what do you really think of when you think of Pinocchio?

That’s right, Pinocchio’s telltale nose – which in the original story would grow more every time he lied – can be found in Lies of P. In fact, Pinocchio’s “nose” is a powerful weapon called the Golden Lie. How can you get your hands on this secret weapon? By lying, of course. Here’s how you can unlock the Golden Lie weapon for yourself.

Puppets Cannot Tell a Lie

Your first step towards acquiring the rare Golden Lie weapon starts on the steps of Hotel Krat, when the voice beyond the door asks you… are you a human, or a puppet? This is the first of many questions you are asked in Lies of P in which you must decide to either tell the truth or tell a lie.

In this world, puppets are incapable of telling lies. However, you are not an ordinary puppet. The more lies you tell, the more “human” you’ll become. To unlock the Golden Lie, you will need to complete an entire “Lie Playthrough”. At every opportunity that presents itself, you must lie. Your choices will impact how different characters treat you and ultimately effect what ending you get. Only by telling only lies can you eventually access the accurately named Golden Lie weapon.

Find the Portrait of a Boy

It’s time to take a trip down to the Malum District. In Chapter Five of Lies of P, you encounter the infamous Black Rabbit Brotherhood, a gang of fiendish “stalkers” that have survived the Puppet Frenzy. After defeating the eldest of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, subsequently scaring off the rest — for now — you are free to explore the Malum District for collectibles and other goodies.

One such goodie is the Portrait of a Boy, a key item found inside the Black Rabbit Brotherhood’s headquarters nearby the arena where you fight the masked quartet. It seems the stalkers stole the painting from your creator, Geppetto, and the boy in the portrait looks… a lot like Pinocchio.

After obtaining the Portrait of a Boy, return to Hotel Krat and speak with Geppetto. He will hang it up on a wall inside his office at the hotel. While you cannot interact with the portrait right now, it has some secrets in store.

Listen to All the Records

They do say music soothes the savage beast, but what about a savage puppet? Throughout your ventures in the city of Krat, you’ll pick up collectible Records. These recovered vinyls can be played at the gramophone in Hotel Krat.

Whenever you listen to a Record, you gain a little bit of “Humanity”. If you can find and listen through each of the eleven discoverable Records in their entirety, in addition to telling lies at each given opportunity, you can fully max out your Humanity.

Defeat the Final Boss

Once you have found the Portrait of a Boy and listened to all the Records in Lies of P, it’s time to cap off your “Lie Playthrough” by defeating the final boss. Once you have beat the game, do not start a New Game+. Instead, let those credits roll.

Return to Hotel Krat and visit the Portrait of a Boy hanging inside Geppetto’s office. You will find that a long, golden staff has grown out from the painting… right on top of the boy’s nose. Pick up the staff to aquire the secret weapon, the Golden Lie.

Perhaps this was some sort of Picture of Dorian Gray situation, in which every time you told a lie in Lies of P, the nose of the boy in the portrait grew instead of your own. Regardless, the Golden Lie is a powerful blunt weapon which makes for a nigh unstoppable companion. It even allows you to attack and defend yourself simultaneously with each swing, thanks to its attached “Furious Golden Hits” Fable Art.

Now the only thing left to do is head back out into the streets of Krat and wreak some havoc.

Looking for more helpful guides for this game? You can take a look at our Lies of P wiki guide to find all the help you could ever need, including Boss Guides, Walkthroughs, and more.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 features a wealth of unlockable costumes for both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. Marvel Comics is giving us a better look at some of the new designs being added to the sequel through a series of upcoming variant covers.

These Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Variant Covers will appear as variants for series like The Amazing Spider-Man, Venom and Miles Morales: Spider-Man. Each of the ten covers will showcase one of the game’s new costume designs. Check out all ten in the slideshow gallery below:

Here’s the full list of suits included in these covers, along with their original designers:

Miles Morales Suits

• EnC0ded Suit design by Kris Anka (Superior Spider-Man #2)
• Biomechanical Suit design by Jerad Marantz (Miles Morales: Spider-Man #12)
• Tokusatsu Suit design by Julia Blattman (Venom #28)
• Agimat Suit design by Anthony Francisco (Miles Morales: Spider-Man #13)
• Red Spectre Suit design by Sweeney Boo (The Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War – First Strike #1)

Peter Parker Suits

• Aurantia Suit design by Raf Grassetti (Superior Spider-Man #1)
• Apunkalyptic Suit design by Jerad Marantz (The Amazing Spider-Man #37)
• Tactical Suit design by Joel Mandish (The Amazing Spider-Man #39)
• Stone Monkey design by Victoria Ying (The Amazing Spider-Man #38)
• 25th Century Suit design by Anthony Francisco (The Amazing Spider-Man #40)

Look for these covers to appear across the Spider-Man comic book franchise in November and December 2023.

Ahead of the game’s October 20 release, Sony released a full-CGI “Be Greater Together” trailer featuring both Spideys in action.

Fans otherwise looking forward to Spider-Man 2 should beware of spoilers after a leaked Trophy list made its way online, prompting Insomniac to issue a warning for those looking to go in fresh. The developer has also shared a wealth of accessibility features coming at launch, including the ability to slow down gameplay.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

In an extended livestream today, Blizzard revealed a whole lot more details for Season 2 of Diablo 4, called Season of the Blood, and major reworks to progression and the endgame player experience.

Season of the Blood will focus on vampires, who become the latest major scourge of Sanctuary in the wake of Lilith’s actions in the vanilla Diable 4 campaign. The player is infected with vampirism and gains evil powers to weild against this classic foe, giving plenty of excuses for new, deadly powers for players to add to their seasonal ARPG arsenal. Blizzard will also introduce a new NPC, Erys, a crossbow-weilding vampire hunter who will become the player’s bestie for the next few months.

But beyond the details about the upcoming season, Blizzard also spent a lot of time detailing big changes coming to the game that specifically target the endgame experience, which has become a sore spot for many players after a series of debuffs and widely criticized changes to the meta put a damper on the live-service game despite an extremely strong launch.

The biggest of those changes are improved XP gains after level 50, which will supposedly make the endgame grind to level 100 “40% faster”.

In a lengthy interview with IGN, game directors Joe Shely and Joseph Piepiora discussed a wide range of topics, from endgame content to the Steam release, their learning from the launch of Diablo 4 to microtransactions.

“We found that the game feels like it slows down a bit,” said Shely. “We felt that there needed to be more content in the 50-100 and especially the 70-100 range. We also felt like it was simply too slow to get to 100. The way that players have approached the game is that they set a goal for themselves to reach level 100 and that goal needs to feel like it’s an achievable goal for a lot of our players. It felt, in Season 1, we think, like it was not as achievable.”

Blizzard hopes the addition of five endgame bosses, including one high-difficulty enemy with an arduous summoning process, will help that grind feel better as well, and much attention is being paid in Season 2 on activities to take on at higher power levels.

Other changes are less dramatic to the meta, but nonetheless badly needed, like the long-promised gem rework, which will move those items to the crafting materials page, freeing up some much-needed space in the player’s inventory.

When asked if Blizzard was too quick to nerf the fun out of the game after the launch of Diablo 4, the team acknowledged it’s still learning how to walk that particular balancing tightrope. “I think we learned a lot from the release of the game and these are ways I think we can deliver more of what players want to see,” Shely said.

“We’re really excited about players getting to see everything we have in Season 2,” said Piepoira. “There are some big adjustments in it, but they’re things we really believe in that we think make the game feel a lot better to play — we think players will too.”

Among the slew of announcements is the surprising decision by Blizzard to bring Diablo 4 to the competing PC distribution platform, Steam, starting October 17, in a move to provide “more ways for players to engage with Diablo 4”. Diablo 4 is the second Blizzard game to make a delayed debut on Steam, following in the footsteps of Overwatch 2.