Category: Gaming

If there was a Mount Rushmore for fighting games, you can be sure that either Scorpion, Sub-Zero, or Liu Kang’s face would be on that rock. For more than 30 years, Mortal Kombat has been ripping spines and severing heads, and the latest, Mortal Kombat 1, represents perhaps the most dramatic gameplay shift the series has ever seen. The new Kameo system offers an unparalleled level of player expression for the series, allowing you to essentially break the usual rules of the game by giving characters tools that they weren’t designed to have, resulting in a uniquely dynamic fighting system that allows for some truly wild combos and set ups. Everything built around that system apart from the predictably excellent story mode could’ve used some more polish and refinement, but even with those blemishes, Mortal Kombat 1 more than lives up to its gory legacy.

If there’s one thing you can applaud Netherrealm for in recent years, it’s how each new Mortal Kombat game since MK9 has played dramatically different from the last without sacrificing that very distinct Mortal Kombat feel. So it’s not surprising that, even before we get to the crazy Kameo system, Mortal Kombat 1 makes some drastic changes from MK11 that really set it apart. For starters, it returns the meter management to just one meter that governs enhanced special moves, breakers, and now jump cancels out of uppercuts; fatal blows are still around, but are no longer invincible on start up; krushing blows are gone completely; character variations are gone; wake up attacks and wake up rolls are gone; every character is now able to do much more damage without even spending any meter thanks in part to a new air combo system; and thank the Lord, blocked crouching jabs are now punishable with crouching jabs of your own, making them much less spammable than before. These are all good, smart changes that make the action in MK1 feel fresh, yet familiar, while addressing some of the pain points that the fighting game community had developed with MK11.

The biggest new addition, though, is that Kameo system. For the first time in a Mortal Kombat game, you choose a second character that you can call upon as an assist during a fight. Your Kameo is governed by their own meter, and every time you call them in you use up half of it (or in some cases, like Goro’s powerful unblockable stomp assist, the whole thing). And it’s great that every Kameo has at least three assist moves, which adds multiple new tools to the repertoire of any character you choose to play.

So, for example, let’s say I’m playing as Baraka, who notably does not have any overheads or lows in the middle of any of his combo strings. That would make him a character you can pretty safely just block low against. Unless… I add Scorpion as my Kameo character, who has an overhead as one of his moves. So now there’s an additional layer to my offense that I can use to try and open up my opponent in a way I wouldn’t have been able to before. Or I could pick Frost and use her low hitting freeze attack in neutral to try and catch my opponent off guard and start up a damaging combo.

Other Kameos can be used to extend combos that typically would not be extendable, convert respectable damage off of small hits that normally wouldn’t be convertible, and some even have more specialized uses. Maybe you give your character a teleport, or a way to become invulnerable to projectiles, or a way to quickly retreat to fullscreen distance. I’m not one who generally enjoys assists in fighting games, since they’re usually accompanied by tag systems and I’m more of a 1v1 fighting game fan, but their implementation here is extremely well thought out and does nothing but improve upon the already solid foundation that MK1 stands on.

That said, Mortal Kombat has always had a very particular feel to its gameplay – something that can be chalked up to the dial-a-combo system, having to hold a button to block, and some general stiffness in the movement – and the more I play other fighting games, the harder it gets to come back to. It’s stuff that I eventually got used to, but it took some time to gel with MK1’s unique style of 2D fighting. Once I did though, it was clear that Mortal Kombat 1’s actual combat is as strong as it’s ever been.

It Has Begun

The story mode this time around is a true new beginning for the series, and that’s uniquely satisfying. This isn’t just a timeline reset like Mortal Kombat 9 – the entire history of Mortal Kombat has been re-written: familiar characters get brand-new looks, backstories, relationships, and powers. It picks up literal eons after the events of Mortal Kombat 11, in which newly minted Fire God Liu Kang used the Hourglass of Time to reshape the universe as he saw fit. Earthrealm is at peace, Outworld is ruled fairly by Queen Sindel, and while the Mortal Kombat tournament between realms still exists, it’s more of a tournament of pride and honor as opposed to a tool for realm invasion. Eventually that peace is threatened by outside forces that I won’t get into, but suffice to say, after a few very chill and lighthearted opening chapters with the supportive dad Fire God Liu Kang, cheering on his plucky new champions in their first martial arts tournament, things get very real very quick and the stakes get raised in all the usual ways.

Above all, I loved seeing these new takes on classic kombatants, especially those who have historically been relegated to minor roles. Baraka and Reptile, for instance, never really got to be anything more than henchmen in previous games, but in Mortal Kombat 1 they’re major players with their own chapters and defining story moments. Plus, the writing is full of plenty of cheeky in-universe references that felt like nice rewards for being a longtime fan of the series.

Netherrealm fighting games have always been the best at delivering story modes that are essentially the video game equivalent of absurd popcorn movies, and Mortal Kombat 1 is no exception to that rule. The campaign has no new gameplay innovations to offer, but its six hours are big, bombastic, well-acted, and ridiculous in all of the right ways. If that sounds familiar, it’s because I said virtually the same thing three years ago in my Mortal Kombat 11 review about its single-player story mode. And if I had reviewed Mortal Kombat X, Injustice 2, Injustice 1, Mortal Kombat 9, or Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, I could’ve said the same for those as well. There seems to be an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy at play with Neatherrealm’s designers, so if you liked those as much as I did, you’ll probably enjoy this one too.

While I wouldn’t say anything needs outright fixing, there’s definitely some room for refinement that still hasn’t been capitalized on. Every chapter just throws you into the shoes of a new character without a hint of guidance on what’s special about them – what their combo strings are, their launchers, or their special moves, for instance. I had to learn on the fly by bringing up the move list, trying things out string by string, special move by special move, and by the time I’d finished achieving a base level of competency with a character, the chapter’s over and I’ve moved on to the next. This mode would benefit so greatly from optional, short, developer-led character guides that can get you up to speed on the fundamentals of a character before you have to spend the next 30 minutes playing as them – especially when its tutorials are so good outside of the story mode.

Invaders of the Realms

Beyond the cinematic story mode, the big new single-player mode for Mortal Kombat 1 is Invasions, which combines the themed environments and rewards of The Krypt, some light RPG elements from older Konquest modes, and the quick back-to-back gimmicky battles of the Towers of Time, packaged in the form of a virtual game board. It’s a mishmash of ideas that sound good on paper but, unfortunately, tries to be a few too many things all at once.

Here’s how it works: Almost every invasion “board” is made up of a series of spaces that each have a themed fight assigned to them, like a fight against Reptile on a space called “Look to La Luna,” or a fight against a super powered Kung Lao on a space marked “Kung Wow.” You move around the board conducting an exhausting grind of clearing repetitive battles against enemies that don’t put up much of a fight, collecting a slower-than-usual drip of worthwhile rewards, finding keys to unlock gates, and completing challenges like Test Your Might or survival minigames, until you reach the end. Along the way you might find themed towers where you must fight in a series of battles, with one loss sending you back to the bottom, or you could be ambushed in between spaces and have to fight a challenging opponent with unique modifiers. But even those are often pushovers. For the vast majority of encounters I went into auto pilot mode with Li Mei, doing the same launching combo that would be risky against a smarter opponent, regardless of who I was fighting or what the modifiers were, only occasionally being forced to consider the RPG elements in the chapter-ending boss battles that dramatically power up one of the kombatants in unique ways.

Sure, there’s a lot of extra stuff going on underneath the hood in Invasion mode. Every character and Kameo has a damage type, with a complicated type advantage/disadvantage chart, there are talismans that can be upgraded to provide a variety of different status bonuses, and relics that frequently come with both a positive and a negative bonus to weigh against each other. But that’s all just a lot of complexity that doesn’t really add any value to the actual gameplay. Late game boards up the difficulty and force you to engage more with the RPG mechanics, but that’s not much more fun either, since Mortal Kombat 1 is at its best when there are no gimmicks involved. I’m happy to have the option to play the occasional silly match with wild modifiers and themed challenges, but Invasions strings too many of these fights together and expects you to play through them all in order to unlock many of the best cosmetic options for its characters. That turns it into a chore.

However, one thing that MK1 does get right is that the more you play with a character, the more you unlock for that specific character. And there is a ton to unlock for everybody. There’s new gear, skins, taunts, brutalities, and even fatalities that come with every level up. Granted, you’ll probably be able to find the input command for the locked fatalities before you unlock the in-game instructions if you search online, but nonetheless, you’re rewarded well for maxing out a character’s progression track.

One aspect that Mortal Kombat 1 does better than just about any other fighting game out there right now is its tutorial. It continues to build upon the great work done in Mortal Kombat 11, expertly explaining everything from the most basic controls to intuitive breakdowns of system mechanics, to highly practical tips that outright explain in detail how to approach pressuring your opponent, what to do when they’re knocked down, how to frame trap, how to jail, what all of those things mean, and plenty more. It’s the kind of comprehensive tutorial that all fighting game developers should include, and all fighting game fans should play all the way through. I do wish that same level of commitment was also applied to character specific tutorials, but there are seven combo trials for each character at least, which is nice to have.

On the subject of online, it’s mostly unchanged from Mortal Kombat 11, for better and for worse. The netcode is good, King of the Hill is back, and Kombat League returns with seasonal rewards for achieving high ranks in the form of currencies, skins, gear, profile pictures and more. It remains a great ranking system, one that generally succeeds at matching you with appropriate fighters and rewards your investment with unique prizes that are worthwhile because they mean something more than just a skin you got from a random chest pull.

That said, it’s still incredibly frustrating that Mortal Kombat 1 does not let you matchmake while in another mode. Mortal Kombat is pretty much the only major modern fighting game franchise now that doesn’t let you do this. Not only that, but there’s no way to create a custom room with multiple slots for multiple matches to go on simultaneously, and when you join in on a match in progress, you have to wait for the match to finish and just stare at a blank screen. This might have been fine back in 2019, but the bar has been raised, and Netherrealm feels like they’re getting left behind by the competition. Crossplay is coming down the line, but it’s also disappointing that it’s not available right out of the gate.

One thing that can’t be overstated is how gorgeous Mortal Kombat 1 looks. The character models already looked incredible in Mortal Kombat 11, but here they’re taken a step even further towards photorealism without ever causing that uncanny valley feeling. The real star though are the stages — the environmental team at Netherrealm has truly outdone itself with some of the most gorgeous vistas and disgusting looking dungeons the genre has ever seen. Not to mention those fatalities, which are extra gruesome this time around.

A new batch of Fortnite Funko Pop figures is set to launch in the coming months. The new collectibles include figures based on popular character skins, including The Foundation, Gumbo, Shadow Midas, and Toon Meowscles. All four will be available for $13, and you can preorder the figures ahead of time at Amazon. The release date is listed as January 1, 2024, but that may be a placeholder date.

Considering how popular Funko Pops and Fortnite are, it’s probably a wise decision to preorder before they sell out.

These four new figures join Funko’s ever-expanding roster of Fortnite collectibles, many of which are still available from third-party sellers at Amazon. You can grab most for reasonable prices, like the Skull Trooper skin Funko Pop for $13.94, the Omega figure for $11.40, or The Scientist for $10.25. You can also get the Fortnite Loot Llama mascot Funk Pop for $21.94. Note that prices and availability may change.

Be sure to check all of the current Funko Pop deals at Amazon for discounts on even more figures.

Persona 5 Royal: 1 More Edition has been difficult to find for a reasonable price ever since launching on the Atlus Shop last year. Big Persona 5 fans are in luck, as the 1 More Edition is now available at major retailers (starting September 15). The 1 More Edition is up for grabs for PS5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch for $120 at multiple online stores, including Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.

That’s a ton of exclusive content, all of which would make a great addition to a game room or home office. Akechi’s Briefcase Bag is a particular standout, as the 15-inch bag is big enough to carry small laptops and other accessories–making it the perfect companion for your daily commute.

Our Persona 5 Royal review found it to be an incredible JRPG, awarding it a coveted 10/10.

“Persona 5 Royal is many things: a collection of small inspiring stories, an ambitious harrowing journey with some good friends, a stunning visual and auditory experience, a resounding call to action,” said critic Michael Higham. “By refining what was already great and building on its best qualities with a brilliant new story arc, Persona 5 Royal asserts itself as an unforgettable and empowering RPG that should be recognized as one of the best games of our time.”

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will have “nearly 100 hours of adventure,” according to game director Naoki Hamaguchi.

Following the reveal of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s jam-packed State of Play trailer, the official Final Fantasy VII “X” account (aka Twitter) posted a series of statements from some of the key creative minds behind the game, including creative director Tetsuya Nomura, producer Yoshinori Kitase, and director Hamaguchi.

When it came to Hamaguchi’s statement, he seemed keen on expressing how Rebirth will embrace the concept of “free exploration” now that Cloud and his companions are outside the steel walls of Midgar that defined Final Fantasy VII Remake.

“While the main storyline is bigger and more ambitious than the previous game’s narrative, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth also embraces the concept of ‘free exploration,’ with compelling stories, fun mini-games, powerful monsters and so much more to find throughout the world map,” Hamaguchi said. “We hope you will explore this world in great detail, as nearly 100 hours of adventure awaits.”

Much of what Hamaguchi described can be seen in the game’s latest trailer, which teases the various minigames of the Golden Saucer, iconic locations like Costa del Sol, and even the appearance of Weapons, powerful optional bosses that appeared in the original Final Fantasy VII. In a Q&A with the official PlayStation Blog, Hamaguchi said that the amount of side content in Rebirth is nearly double that of the game’s main story.

“The world map is vast and expansive, so not all of the locations on it will be used in the main story alone,” Hamaguchi said. “In fact, volume wise, the amount of side content in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is nearly double that of the main quest content. Players who want to enjoy Final Fantasy VII setting on an even deeper level can explore all the corners of the world, discovering many different and exciting experiences such as new stories, battles, and mini-games to play. It will also be possible to return to any of the regions in the world even after the main quest moves on from that area, so you don’t have to worry about leaving things behind or unfinished.”

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth won’t allow players to import save data from Remake, but those who have played Remake will be rewarded in the form of summon materia. The game is currently set to release on February 29, 2024 for PlayStation 5, and will be exclusive to Sony’s latest console for at least three months. Preorders for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are live now.

Well, they did it. The fools finally did it. Nintendo has finally given Princess Peach a sword. Oh, and a game! A whole game!

Okay, I guess she’s technically had one before. Both a sword (in Smash Bros.) and a game (Super Princess Peach). But this one is different. For starters, just look at her. Peach looks amazing in her swordfighting outfit, and her detective garb, and her chef suit, and everything else. She’s not just regular royalty, she’s fashion royalty.

But that’s not why I’m so over the moon for Princess Peach: Showtime! I’m stoked because based on what we’ve seen so far, it looks like Nintendo has finally, finally figured out exactly what was needed to give Princess Peach an adventure all her own. It only took nearly 40 years.

Nintendo has long known it needed to give Peach a spotlight, but has struggled to figure out just what that looks like. And simply pasting Peach as the protagonist in another Mario-like platformer has been out of the question especially in recent years. It’s one thing to make a Super Luigi Bros. U as a bit when Luigi already does almost everything his brother does. But Nintendo has also successfully managed to give Luigi and Wario their own spin-off series that make use of their unique characterizations. Luigi, the brave coward, has shone in the exploration-puzzler Luigi’s Mansion games, while Wario just makes sense as the Taskmaster-esque mascot for Wario Ware. With those two series going strong (both featured in the same Direct), anything less for actual Mushroom Kingdom royalty would have seemed like a pathetic consolation prize for Peach fans.

So what is a Peach game? I’m glad it’s not whatever Super Princess Peach was. The 2005 DS platformer reviewed well at the time, but it wasn’t lost on anyone that Super Princess Peach was basically a Mario game but easier with an emphasis on Peach’s emotional powers. You know, a girl game. A softer, lighter Mario. Not really the 2023 energy we need to see coming from Her Highness, especially after her Bowser-butt-kicking attitude in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. But what? What should they then do with Princess Peach? What genre can Peach make wholly her own without falling into weird stereotyping, while still staying true to her character?

Nintendo’s answer is delightfully Nintendo, which is to say, delightfully unconventional. Peach gets all genres. She’s an action game. A puzzler-mystery. A fighting game. An arcade-style cooking game. And many more. It just makes sense that Peach would get really into acting, right? Being a full-time princess in a kingdom as weird and fraught as the Mushroom Kingdom is almost a performance unto itself. And Peach has proven over the years that she’s capable of adapting to whatever the situation needs. Sometimes she needs to sit in the castle and keep the Toads in order, and sometimes she puts on the golf cleats, and sometimes she pretends to marry Bowser only to demolish him both physically and emotionally at the last minute.

While I can’t speak for the whole game just yet, my hope is that this newfound, all-encompassing power Peach has embraced is as much a feminist triumph as it looks to be on the surface. After all, Princess Peach: Showtime! gives Peach the magic to demonstrate a power she’s had all along: the power to become anything her heart desires, and succeed at it. She’s all things, because she can do all things.

And you know who hasn’t been anywhere near any of these trailers so far? Mario. Good! Keep him out. He’s got his own games, lots of them. The Toads can hang, they’re pals, and maybe Rosalina or Daisy wants to stop by. But I genuinely want to see Nintendo make a game where Peach is defined only by herself, and not by labels like Mario’s love interest, Mario’s damsel, Mario’s princess. I don’t even want her to be Mario’s savior! There’s no need! She can just be Peach! I want to see Peach’s identity when she’s separated from her iconic pink dress, her softness, her royalty, and her plumber. Princess Peach: Showtime! is the perfect opportunity for Peach to be her own, theatrical self, trying on costumes to see what suits her, thriving in all of them, and concluding with a bow on a stage all her own.

Give me Peach, with a sword, without Mario, and then give me as many sequels as our pal Luigi gets. Our princess — no, our QUEEN — deserves them all.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

The humanoid shmear, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week’s reset. If you’re looking to get you some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.

Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he’s got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.

We’ve rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.

Where Is Xûr Located Today?

Xûr’s location can be found at Winding Cove in the EDZ on September 15 through September 19. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Winding Cove. When you arrive, make for the rock cliffs at the far end of the cove and look for a cave winding up to a platform next to some Fallen. There you’ll find the retail monster who inspires us all.

What’s Xûr Selling Today?

Exotic Engram

Trinity Ghoul – Exotic Combat Bow

Young Ahamkara’s Spine – Exotic Hunter Gauntlets

• 10 Mobility
• 19 Resilience
• 3 Recovery
• 14 Discipline
• 9 Intellect
• 6 Strength
• Total: 61

Crest of Alpha Lupi – Exotic Titan Chest Armor

• 7 Mobility
• 17 Resilience
• 11 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 30 Strength
• Total: 69

Getaway Artist – Exotic Warlock Gauntlets

• 3 Mobility
• 18 Resilience
• 13 Recovery
• 10 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 20 Strength
• Total: 66

Titans most definitely have the best exotic armor roll this week with a very high stat total on their chestpiece and sky high Strength. Warlocks also have a piece that’s worth checking out, especially since it’s got such delightfully low Mobility!

Exotic Weapons

Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon

• Paracausal Shot
• Fluted Barrel
• Alloy Magazine
• Snapshot Sights
• Textured Grip

Not an amazing Hawkmoon roll this week, so you’d be best served to wait and see if he offers a better one down the road.

Legendary Weapons

Iota Draconis – Fusion Rifle

• Chambered Compensator/Extended Barrel
• Enhanced Battery/Liquid Coils
• Ensemble
• Harmony
• Charge Time Masterwork

Interference VI – Grenade Launcher

• Confined Launch/Linear Compensator
• Spike Grenades/High-Velocity Rounds
• Grave Robber
• Swashbuckler
• Velocity Masterwork

Hoosegow – Rocket Launcher

• Confined Launch/Quick Launch
• High-Velocity Rounds/Impact Casing
• Underdog
• Quickdraw
• Blast Radius Masterwork

Tears of Contrition – Scout Rifle

• Extended Barrel/Smallbore
• Accurized Rounds/Flared Magwell
• Triple Tap
• Explosive Payload
• Extrovert
• Handling Masterwork

Seventh Seraph SI-2 – Sidearm

• Corkscrew Rifling/Full Bore
• Steady Rounds/Flared Magwell
• Hip-Fire Grip
• Elemental Capacitor
• Range Masterwork

Extraordinary Rendition – Submachine Gun

• Chambered Compensator/Polygonal Rifling
• Extended Mag/Steady Rounds
• Firmly Planted
• One For All
• Stability Masterwork

Hollow Denial – Trace Rifle

• Corkscrew Rifling/Hammer-Forged Rifling
• Projection Fuse/Tactical Battery
• Lead From Gold
• Repulsor Brace
• Extrovert
• Stability Masterwork

My top picks this week are the Tears of Contrition scout rifle with Triple Tap and Explosive Payload (can’t go wrong with those) and Interference VI with Spike Grenades and Swashbuckler (even if Grave Robber is a bit of a waste).

Warlock Legendary Armor

For Warlocks, Xûr is selling the Simulator set which includes:

Simulator Gauntlets

• 17 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 14 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 11 Intellect
• 20 Strength
• Total: 66

Simulator Chest Armor

• 10 Mobility
• 22 Resilience
• 2 Recovery
• 16 Discipline
• 15 Intellect
• 2 Strength
• Total: 67

Simulator Helmet

• 2 Mobility
• 28 Resilience
• 2 Recovery
• 10 Discipline
• 20 Intellect
• 2 Strength
• Total: 64

Simulator Leg Armor

• 18 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 10 Recovery
• 24 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 7 Strength
• Total: 63

Simulator Bond

Everything is worth considering this week for the Warlocks, except the boots, which have high Mobility combined with a low stat total. The other three pieces are all worth checking out though, including the helmet, which combines low Mobility and high Resilience, even if the stat total isn’t amazing.

Titan Legendary Armor

For Titans, Xûr is selling the Simulator set which includes:

Simulator Gauntlets

• 6 Mobility
• 20 Resilience
• 7 Recovery
• 14 Discipline
• 16 Intellect
• 2 Strength
• Total: 65

Simulator Chest Armor

• 22 Mobility
• 10 Resilience
• 2 Recovery
• 12 Discipline
• 6 Intellect
• 14 Strength
• Total: 66

Simulator Helmet

• 12 Mobility
• 14 Resilience
• 6 Recovery
• 20 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 10 Strength
• Total: 64

Simulator Leg Armor

• 22 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 10 Recovery
• 15 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 14 Strength
• Total: 65

Simulator Mark

The only really worthwhile roll this week for Titans are the gauntlets — everything else has far too high Mobility for any of my punchy brethren to really get excited about.

Hunter Legendary Armor

For Hunters, Xûr is selling the Simulator set which includes:

Simulator Gauntlets

• 7 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 24 Recovery
• 12 Discipline
• 20 Intellect
• 2 Strength
• Total: 67

Simulator Chest Armor

• 2 Mobility
• 18 Resilience
• 12 Recovery
• 10 Discipline
• 11 Intellect
• 10 Strength
• Total: 63

Simulator Helmet

• 2 Mobility
• 28 Resilience
• 2 Recovery
• 23 Discipline
• 7 Intellect
• 2 Strength
• Total: 64

Simulator Leg Armor

• 10 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 18 Recovery
• 6 Discipline
• 14 Intellect
• 10 Strength
• Total: 60

Simulator Cloak

Hunters got what’s probably the best roll this week overall with the gauntlets, which have a high stat total and spikiness in all the right places.

That’s a wrap on Xûr for this week, Guardians! What did you think of season of the Witch’s major story beat this week? Let us know in the comments! For more on Destiny, check out some of the new weapons and gear you can find in Lightfall or our walkthrough of Lightfall’s campaign.

Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.

The Arkham Asylum Files: Panic in Gotham City is an officially DC-licensed augmented reality board game that blends physical and digital media to draw players into the depths of Arkham Asylum and beyond. Created by Infinite Rabbit Holes, the team behind 2008’s “Why So Serious?” ARG campaign for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the game blends AR content on your iPhone or iPad with the physical elements, and includes over 40 minutes of animated and live-action story scenes. There’s seven chapters that average about 8-10 hours of

collaborative gameplay, encouraging players to either binge straight through them or play over

time with the in-app save progression!

The game comes in a collector’s edition box stuffed with over 100 elements, including top secret Arkham Asylum files, classified Gotham City police evidence, custom game boards and pieces, artifacts, and buildings designed in Gotham City’s Gothic, Art Deco style. Gotham City becomes increasingly active as you delve deeper into its mysteries, allowing players to see life buzzing in its streets. By downloading the free companion app, your device interacts with the game’s physical components to deliver animated and live action story scenes, an original music score, and a surprise or two from the Clown Prince of Crime himself. In the future, Infinite Rabbit Holes says the game will grow beyond the initial chapters with the introduction of expansion packs for the board game itself, and downloadable content for the app.

The Arkham Asylum Files: Panic in Gotham City is packed with familiar characters and locales from the Batman universe for fans of the franchise. Those who are newcomers to either board games or alternate reality games, will discover The Arkham Asylum Files: Panic in Gotham City’s emphasis on its ease of playability, especially with friends (since board game players are biologically driven to snag anyone the least bit interested in board games, then convert them fully).

Panic in Gotham City has already received awards and positive reviews from players.

Pocket Gamer’s review states, “every piece is meticulously made and gorgeous enough to collect, and the combination of physical and digital elements does its job extremely well when it comes to player immersion.” The Nerdist says it “delivers puzzles and exploration worthy of Batman’s world.” Tabletop and puzzle YouTuber Chris Ramsay, whose YouTube channel has over 7 million subscribers, says “with Infinite Rabbit Holes, the world has never experienced AR quite like this before.”

Grab The Arkham Asylum Files: Panic in Gotham City for yourself and recruit some detectives to your side, or put your head together with a veteran group. Either way, good luck. You’re matching wits against the Joker’s madness-tattered brain.

Hey, that Nintendo Direct we had yesterday? Pretty cool, right? But unless you watched the Japanese version of the Direct, you probably missed one of the coolest hidden gems to come out of the show: a little game called Stray Children.

Stray Children appeared exclusively in the Japanese Nintendo Direct. The game follows a young boy who is sucked into a TV into a world made up entirely of children, where he goes on a strange adventure. We don’t know too much about the project just yet, but it seems to be an RPG, and something about the way the boy is interacting with the monsters he encounters looks familiar…

Yup, if you’re watching the trailer and thinking it looks a bit like Undertale, you’re not wrong. You see, developer Onion Games is a Tokyo-based indie run by Yoshiro Kimura, who was a game designer on a 1997 game called Moon: RPG Remix Adventure. Initially, Moon was only ever released in Japan, and was a strange “anti-RPG” that was in many ways ahead of its time. But the unique ways it questioned the formula of traditional RPGs ultimately inspired many of the themes and ideas in Toby Fox’s Undertale nearly two decades later. And the success of Undertale in turn inspired Onion Games and Kimura to return to Moon in 2021 and release the game worldwide for Nintendo Switch.

Now, with Stray Children, Kimura and his studio appear to be exploring something like a spiritual successor to Moon that has learned from a number of other, similar games in the same tradition. Thus far, it doesn’t have a release date either in Japan or in the West, but Onion Games is reassuring that this game won’t be locked to Japan the way Moon was for so long. And an English version of the trailer is expected soon. So while we wait eagerly for Deltarune Chapter 3, keep this little gem of a game in the back of your mind.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Remedy has long been a studio that wears its influences on its sleeve. From the hard-boiled police files of Max Payne to the New Weird foundations of Control, movies, TV shows, and books have long served as inspiration. This is no different in Alan Wake 2, which blends horror and detective fiction in creatively unsettling ways. We talked to Remedy to find out why these genres work so well together, discuss some of the game’s cultural touchstones, and how they bleed their way into the survival horror story, characters, and gameplay.

“A really great detective mystery in my opinion is when you can put yourself in the shoes of the detective and pay close attention to things, look at the connections, put it all together”, says Principal Narrative Designer Molly Maloney. “What makes really great horror in my opinion is when you wish you could look away, but you can’t. It’s that balance of I don’t want to look, but I need to. So detective and horror I think are a great mix because you wish you could look away, but you really need to pay attention. And the delicious dance of those two feelings.”

Remedy’s Creative Director Sam Lake concurs: “There is this aspect of horror as a genre having a lot to do with detective fiction, because usually, the premise is something strange is happening, which is very close to a crime has happened. And on one part we are afraid to find out, but we are driven to find out.”

The genres of detective fiction and horror have long been bound together within book spines and film reels. Like twins separated at birth, they are rooted in the same emotional DNA: suspense and fear of the unknown. Both suspense and the suspension of disbelief are something Game Director Kyle Rowley is seeking to build in Alan Wake 2.

“The game starts out very grounded and we’re this investigator investigating these things, it sets the tone of like, “Okay, this isn’t quite right.” And then we can basically use that to start layering on top this actual more supernatural horror.”

Much like the genres it draws inspiration from, Alan Wake 2 is a game split into two halves. Saga and Alan are two sides of the same coin, each trying to work their way out of the nightmarish surroundings they find themselves in. Saga is heads, using her FBI-trained brain to sniff out clues to solve a series of ritualistic killings. Alan is tails, a rat caught in a hellish, surrealist maze of his own making. Two such distinct styles demanded two different approaches to tone, however. For the former, there was plenty of source material to riff on.

“One of the first things that came to us when we were thinking about creating a concept of an FBI agent coming with her partner to investigate these murders was season one of True Detective”, Rowley reveals. “The kind of dynamics between the two detectives there and how they work together to solve that case was something that’s very compelling to us. And then obviously just stylistically wise, again, it’s got a lot of ritualistic elements to it that we could lean on quite well.”

“Moving into The Overlap as Saga when you’re pushing through the forest and that first Overlap with the intense reds and the blending of the worlds, that felt like a deleted scene out of True Detective season one to me”, adds Maloney.

“Silence of the Lambs is another example for sure in this”, says Lake. “Twin Peaks as well. We are still drawing from that idea and from Lynch’s works overall.”

Rowley agrees, “I think Twin Peaks and David Lynch works are still important for us. But then also just from an art direction perspective, we looked at a lot of Coen Brothers works like Fargo. We didn’t want it to feel very modern, it needed to feel like it was a place lost in time.”

There’s one influence that towers over all, however. David Fincher’s disturbing 1995 thriller, Seven. Maloney explains: “When I look at Saga I see a lot of Seven. She is a consummate professional, she’s very talented at what she does. She’s here with her partner, Alex Casey, trying to solve this increasingly impossible seeming series of mysteries. I mean, it’s not that they’re being funny, but there’s a pleasant back-and-forth that really reminds me of Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, didn’t feel dissimilar.”

“Seven is definitely a good example of the merging of detective fiction with horror”, Lake adds. “Serial killer stories overall often come really close to a horror film while being very much a detective story as well.”

Seven is perhaps where these worlds collide most prominently in film. In Alan Wake 2, this overlap can be found in a place literally called The Overlap – areas where Bright Falls reality merges with nightmare New York. For Alan’s Big Apple, there needed to be a whole new dossier of reference material, albeit, again, with some overlap. This posed a new challenge for Rowley and the team.

“For Wake’s Nightmare in New York, we wanted it to feel more grimy, more rundown. It rains a lot. And so things like seven, how they utilize rain to heighten different moods, we utilize weather not just as a visual thing. We also want to use it actually narratively to as things escalate, there’s more water, there’s more rain.”

“We are drawing from many various things in the Dark Place”, explains Lake. “It goes back to say visuals of what does this kind of a pop culture New York feel like? And we go all the way to Taxi Driver for the visuals of wet asphalt and neon signs being reflected there.”

Scorsese’s masterpiece brings the most sordid layers of 1970s New York bubbling to the surface. But Alan Wake 2’s New York is far from one rooted in reality, and one that plays on the horror and uncertainty of the unknown.

“We weren’t really going for anything like body horror or zombie horror”, says Rowley. “We were very much leaning on what we established in the first game, which was slightly supernatural psychological horror. So more focused on for us, the building of atmosphere, the sense of dread that comes from not just the world that you’re in and what we do on an audioscape level and an atmospheric level to make you feel that, but also on a narrative level.”

Sam Lake expands on other influences: “The dreamlike nature of the Dark Place, Inception plays a role. Him struggling to understand and remember, I feel Memento is a great detective story kind of trying to understand and trying to piece together what has happened. Him being the narrator and kind of not a reliable narrator from the perspective that he doesn’t have the full picture. Even Fight Club I think is this kind of a pretty anxious horroresque, urban story and a psychological thriller.”

It’s not just film and TV that Remedy looks to for inspiration, either, but, of course, video games. The Resident Evil and Silent Hill influences are clear to see, but there are some interesting teases from Maloney.

“I’m really inspired by Daniel Mullins and some of the work that he’s done with Inscryption and Pony Island. And I think that, without giving too much away, there’s a later scene with the case board that has moments of that. I feel like his influence maybe was seen there.”

Alan Wake 2 is set to be a game that surprises. Not only is it radically different from its predecessor, but appears to be lulling the player into a false sense of security. You may think you know the cliches and twists that come with detective fiction. You may think you’re well-versed in the rhythm of scares associated with survival horror. But you’ve never experienced a story in either of these genres written by Remedy before.

Simon Cardy actually thinks season two of True Detective isn’t that bad. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 takes everything Insomniac learned from its previous two Spider-Man games and finds new ways to raise the bar of superhero game design. No frame is left untouched. No character model is left with subpar lighting. Simply put, after playing for 3 hours, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 looks set to continue Insomniac’s winning streak.

We were dropped a ways into the game on level 25 versions of Miles Morales and Peter Parker. Each is dealing with their own difficulties in life, with Peter trying to pay a mortgage and help cure his friend’s disease while Miles is simply trying to write his College entry essay but Spider business keeps distracting him from the task at hand.

Besides the personal battles being fought by Peter and Miles, there are also other factors at play that will push them further to the edge. Parker has donned the symbiote suit known as Venom and it’s affecting his personality in ways he doesn’t realize. And Kraven is doing everything he can to upset the peace in New York by attacking Peter, and forcing Doctor Connors to transform into an even more powerful version of his alter ego, the Lizard. The Doctor Connors storyline is particularly bittersweet, as you’re really hunting down a father who wants nothing more than to return to his family, but now he’ll be doing so with a few Spider-Man and Kraven-inflicted injuries.

This fight will actually take you across a large portion of New York City that Insonmiac boasts is two times larger than the previous games. Taking full advantage of the PS5, Spider-Man 2 will allow you to travel across the city faster than ever, not only because of the zippy new web slinging animations, but also because of the Web Wings that you can access at any time with a press of the triangle button. Web wings are a lot of fun to use versus swinging, but they will lose momentum over time, so you will still need to use your webs, unless you’re in a wind tunnel. The wind tunnels will let you go to specific places in the city extremely fast by flying incredibly quickly to that destination on the air currents. But in addition to all of these traversal options, you can also simply swap to Peter or Miles on the fly instantaneously, a la swapping between Trevor, Franklin, and Michael in Grand Theft Auto 5.

I had the opportunity to ask the Insomniac team about how the PS5 SSD allowed them to accomplish instant travel, and faster web swinging. Mike Fitzgerald, Core Technology Director at Insomniac, clarified a few other details, including that the slingshots where Peter or Miles will pull back on two extended webs and catapult themselves forward allows Spider-Man to travel three times faster than in the first game. And that characters are “more detailed and lifelike that help [them] tell better more nuanced stories.” Insomniac also noted that the Dual Sense controller is being used in some unique ways, like a mini-game that we got to play in the reactor that will force you to pull the triggers with just enough pressure to move onto the next segment. And they outlined that the audio team took the time to develop the soundscapes for missions so that 3D audio can be fully utilized. Ambisonics and positional audio were used for objects in the scene, making for a more realistic audio experience making for clearer indications of the player versus a target location.

More noticeably on the Graphics side of things, Spider-Man 2 will only have two visual modes, Visual and Performance. The third mode was removed because no matter which you choose, Ray Tracing will be turned on by default. The baseline for Performance mode will be what was previously referred to as Performance Ray Tracing mode with a better framerate and resolution simply because the PS5 can handle it. Fitzgerald clarifies, “There’s no mode in this game that has the Ray Tracing turned off because there’s really no need for it. We figured out how to deliver what is the right Spider-Man picture and visuals and we want to make sure every player is seeing that.”

The visuals of Spider-Man 2 are impressive. The character models are more expressive when delivering their lines, resulting in more believable performances from the actors that will in turn do a better job of pulling at your heartstrings. The ray-traced reflections add more depth and realism to the world. Breakable environmental additions make it feel like you’ve succeeded in unleashing havoc in an arena after a devastating combo.

But my favorite improvement in Spider-Man 2 is the heavily reworked combat. Now both Peter and Miles have a wide array of abilities and gadgets at their disposal, but more on that in a moment. While exploring in the open world there are several different mission types to explore, meaning that yet again we will have no shortage of side missions to get lost in. Personally, I will always favor the combat arenas, and I spent so much time enjoying them that I lost track of time and never got to experience the aforementioned Lizard boss fight for myself. I was too busy trying to perfect my combat skills in the arena, gawking at the ray traced reflections on everything, staring in awe at the sheer amount of traffic, pedestrians and puddles in every scene, or stopping an assault-in-progress as it popped up on my mini-map. That was the best part. New York is covered in cool things to do as Spider-Man, and while I could have pursued the main storyline with my limited time, I was just having too much fun doing all of the other little things that pulled my attention away. Insomniac also noted that there will be missions that only Miles or Peter can complete, so it sounds like my quest to clear the map is going to be filled with variety.

But to dive into combat a bit more, the enemy density is really ramped up and will sometimes offer you a bit more of a challenge than you may expect. In Spider-Man you could maybe get away with only using your main attacks, but in Spider-Man 2 I found that more often than not I absolutely needed to use my Venom abilities and gadgets in the combat sections. The one small critique I have is that the not-dodgeable parry indicator color is red, and that’s the same color as other things you need to dodge like a bullet from a rooftop sniper. It took a bit of getting used to, but by the end of my demo window I was parrying and unleashing my gadgets and Venom abilities with ease.

The cherry on top of an already impressive gameplay session was when they let us get a sneak peek at some of the new costumes that Peter and Miles will be able to wear when web-slinging around the city. In total Insomniac says there are 65 suits to unlock, and that each has different variations bringing the grand total to 200 different combinations you can wear. In the build we saw, Miles had a 2099, 10th Anniversary, Boricua, and Encoded suit while Peter had the classic Black suit, Webbed Black suit from the Sam Raimi films, Secret Wars Civil War Suit, and Apunkalyptic suit available for wearing. And for the suit tech upgrades your classic Health, Damage, Focus, and Traversal perks were available, with the latter option focusing on things like speed with your web wings. Gadget-wise we only had access to web grabber and upshot attacks that would pepper opponents with bursts of electricity. Miles also has access to Venom abilities like Chain Lightning, Power Overwhelming, or the Venom Smash Jolt. Those attacks and gadgets are very easy to execute by simply holding L1 for Venom abilities, and R1 for fast gadget access. It makes combat incredibly fluid, and will force players to pick and choose the strongest combination of eight to pair together as you patrol the streets of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

I had high hopes for Spider-Man 2, and this preview did nothing to stifle my optimism. I cannot wait to see what the rest of Spider-Man 2 has in store. For our final thoughts, swing on back to IGN when Spider-Man 2 launches this October.