Category: Gaming

Yesterday, Larian Studios outlined its current roadmap for patches and hotfixes and rolled out its latest, Hotfix #4. But, after that hotfix started causing crashes, the studio quickly undid the move.

So today, there’s some good news: not only has Larian redeployed Hotfix #4, but it’s also vowed to learn from the experience and change the way it rolls out fixes in the future, it said in a new Steam post today.

As Larian originally explained, “a build error” caused new crashes with the implementation of Hotfix #4. However, once they rolled the hotfix back, “players who had downloaded hotfix 4 were unable to continue from their hotfix 4 saves once we had rolled back the patch,” Larian said in today’s post.

“While this is not ok, rolling back the patch in order to diagnose the problem and limit those exposed to it was the lesser of two evils,” Larian continued.

The problem was apparently caused by a “rare compiler issue,” the studio added, which is one of the reasons they weren’t prepared for it, combined with the fact that it happened “at the worst possible time of day.”

“To avoid this from happening in the future, we’ll make sure that any change made to future version candidates – no matter how small, or innocuous – will always go through our full & comprehensive QA pipeline, which include a global in-house QA team, automated testing, unit tests, and save-game compatibility testing,” Larian concluded.

Hotfix #4 remedies a number of issues, including players getting stuck mid-Long Rest due to companions not waking up and fixing a script issue that prevented some players from loading savegames. It also slightly increased Isobel’s health so she doesn’t die quite as easily, and made it so resources are correctly restored after Act II. Read the full details here.

Patch 1, as unveiled yesterday, is set to include 1,000 fixes and tweaks. For more on Baldur’s Gate 3, check out our review-in-progress so far.

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Today we (and reviewers everywhere) take our first steps and/or giant leaps into Starfield, one of the biggest and most anticipated games in a year full of huge, highly anticipated games. If all goes according to plan I’ll have a review to post for you on August 31 at 9am Pacific time – which, if you’re counting down, is the day before it launches for those willing to shell out for for a fancy edition preorder, and a week before it launches on Game Pass on September 6.

This is, by all accounts, a massive game (including the great big 100GB+ download size that you can preload on Xbox starting today), but with nearly two weeks to spend roaming this unexplored region of space I’m feeling pretty confident about being able to see the credits roll on the story and do a fair amount of exploring and get up to the usual Bethesda RPG shenanigans before deciding on the score. I intend to spend a fair amount of time on both the PC and Xbox Series X versions to see how they compare.

In the meantime, make sure to check out everything we know about Starfield – and wish me luck out there.

Dan Stapleton is IGN’s Director of Reviews and a big fan of spaceships and Fallout games. He’s on Twitter @danstapleton and Bluesky @danstapleton.bsky.social.

Red Dead Redemption is out today on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, and unsurprisingly it is a nice graphical upgrade to Rockstar Games’ 2010 action game.

As noted in a press release, Red Dead Redemption’s Switch and PlayStation ports get a bump in resolution. You can get up to 1080p resolution on the Switch and the base PS4, but if you are playing Red Dead Redemption on a PS4 Pro, or PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility, you can run the game in 4K resolution. Meanwhile, Red Dead Redemption runs at a framerate of 30 FPS across PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch.

Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry notes that Red Dead Redemption’s Switch port runs at 1080p natively when you dock the console, but an extended in-depth analysis from the team is still in the works. The outlet did go in-depth on the PS4 port, noting that on Sony’s last-gen console, Red Dead Redemption looks smoother and cleaner compared to the Xbox One X and Series X counterparts, with the video and images the outlet provides showing the comparisons are clear as day.

One interesting tidbit Digital Foundry points out is the shadow quality, noting the Xbox versions have messier shadows than the PS4 version. However, the PS4 version still has some rough spots as it claims the original shadow filtering provides a “harsh look” in several scenes in the game. Not to mention the PS4 port is still locked at 30 frames per second, with the only way to achieve 60fps in the game being on a PC through emulation, as the first Red Dead Redemption is still not on PC.

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

Remedy has announced a 10-day delay for the hotly anticipated Alan Wake 2. It was due out October 17, but will now launch October 27.

In a statement, Remedy said October was packed with game launches and wanted to give players more space to play everything.

“October is an amazing month for game launches and we hope this date shift gives more space for everyone to enjoy their favorite games,” Remedy said.

Alan Wake 2 was set to launch the same week as Insomniac’s sure-to-be massive PlayStation exclusive Spider-Man 2. Back in 2010, launch sales of the first Alan Wake suffered due to launching in the same week as Rockstar’s behemoth Red Dead Redemption.

October 2023 also sees the launch of Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and, reportedly, Sega’s Sonic Superstars.

The team from Remedy joined us on IGN’s Summer of Gaming to discuss how Alan Wake 2 takes inspiration from True Detective, Hereditary, and David Lynch in the survival horror sequel. This time around, Alan Wake 2 has two playable characters: Alan Wake and FBI agent named Saga Anderson.

In May, Remedy sparked a backlash when it revealed Alan Wake 2 is a digital-only release across all platforms. Remedy explained at the time: “There are many reasons for this. For one, a large number of players have shifted to digital only. You can buy a Sony PlayStation 5 without a disc drive and Microsoft’s Xbox Series S is a digital-only console. It is not uncommon to release modern games as digital-only.

“Secondly, not releasing a disc helps keep the price of the game at $59.99 / €59.99 and the PC version at $49.99 / €49.99.

“Finally, we did not want to ship a disc product and have it require a download for the game — we do not think this would make for a great experience either.”

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.

GameMill Entertainment and AMC have announced a new game in The Walking Dead universe called The Walking Dead: Destinies. It’s a third-person, narrative-driven action-adventure game in which your choices can reshape the story of seasons 1-4 of the hit TV show. It’s in development for all major platforms (PC via Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch).

You begin by playing as Rick Grimes and visit key locations from the show, such as the Greene farm, the prison, Woodbury, and Atlanta. GameMill promises that you’ll be able to “weave your own path through serires’ events” when you come to certain key choice moments that can determine who lives and who dies, with those choices potentially differing from how things played out on the show.

Destinies will include over a dozen characters from the AMC TV show, including Shane, Michonne, Carol, Daryl, the aforementioned Rick, and more. Each character has their own unique abilities, and you’ll need to manage your resources, including limited amounts of weapons (like bats, katanas, revolvers, shotguns, and crossbows) and ammo.

GameMill says the expected price of Destinies is $49.99.

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.

Hyenas is a “challenging” title, Sega has admitted. In a just-released transcript of a financial briefing held on August 1, Sega responded to a question asking for an update on Hyenas, the hero-based multiplayer shooter from Creative Assembly’s Alien Isolation team.

“We are unable to talk about this title because the details have not yet been announced at this time,” Sega said. “As this is a challenging title, we are striving to improve its quality towards the release on the front line of development. We are also making final adjustments to its business model in parallel.”

Hyenas, announced last summer, resurfaced on August 16 with a new gameplay trailer, below, showing chaotic, zero-G heist action. Hyenas is described as a hero-based multiplayer extraction shooter that pits five teams of three against each other and NPC security teams known as MURFS. The idea is to steal pop culture memorabilia from Plunderships. A closed beta for PC players is set for August 31 to September 11.

While Creative Assembly had previously indicated Hyenas is not free-to-play, Sega’s mention of “final adjustments” to the business model suggests this may have changed. Sega issued IGN the following statement:

“We have dedicated the past year to reviewing our business model alongside months of extremely valuable player testing of the gameplay experience. We’re very excited with this progress and the reaction to yesterday’s gameplay reveal. We’ll build on foundation with our Closed Beta test beginning 31 August and use this insight to finalize our plans for launch.”

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.

Big-time Xbox exclusive FPS STALKER 2 has a rumored release date that’s coming up soon…but do we believe it? We discuss the rumor. Plus: we engage in a lengthy discussion about Xbox’s new eight-strike behavior-enforcement system for Xbox Live, go over the great Xbox Game Pass lineup leading up to Starfield’s release, and more!

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 interview with Todd Howard, who discussed the realization of his vision for Starfield after eight years, how Red Dead Redemption 2 was something of an inspiration, what his future holds, and more!

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.

Larian Studios has revealed the preload times and release schedule for the PS5 version of Baldur’s Gate 3, ahead of its full PlayStation release on Sept. 6 early next month.

Per a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) from Larian Studios, players who have payed for the $79.99 Digital Deluxe Edition of Baldur’s Gate 3 will be able to begin preloading the game on Aug. 31 starting at 16:00 UTC, and will be able to jump into the game at the same time on Sept. 2 courtesy of early access.

Meanwhile, those who have pre-ordered the $69.99 Standard Edition of Baldur’s Gate 3 will be able to begin preloading starting at 16:00 UTC on Sept. 4, in preparation of the RPG’s full PS5 release on Sept. 6, once again at 16:00 UTC.

Back in July, Larian revealed that players would not be able to preload any of the 122 GB PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 – a decision which upset some players with less than stellar internet, and saw Steam struggle to cope with the download demand for the game.

Thankfully, Larian has been able to enable preloading for the PS5 version of the game, so PlayStation gamers should have a smoother ride of it. The PC version of Baldur’s Gate 3 has been out in the wild for a couple of weeks now, and in that time it has delighted hardcore and casual RPG fans alike, while securing its place in history as one of the horniest titles ever to grace gamers’ collective screens.

As a matter of fact, Baldur’s Gate 3 players managed to get up to so much so fast that Larian was forced to push out an emergency hotfix for the game to expand player’s personal story database to an “infinite” size in order to allow them to continue perpetrating shenanigans. Since then, some members of the Baldur’s Gate 3 community have gone even further in their attempts to explore the game, with some even now competing for numerous speed run records.

Be sure to check out IGN’s list of 16 crucial tips and tricks, and to make use of our interactive map to track quests, find chests, and generally get the most out of your journey through Baldur’s Gate 3.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

As the release date for Starfield draws near, Bethesda Game Studios recently held a Q&A on its Discord server where Starfield’s Lead Quest Designer Will Shen and Lead Designer Emil Pagliarulo answered 16 questions fans had about the upcoming sci-fi action RPG.

If you missed the Q&A session, IGN attended and found ten new things we learned during the Starfield developer Q&A, which you can check out below.

There Are Over 20 Companions in Starfield

Similar to previous Bethesda RPGs, Starfield will have companions you can recruit, but little is known about them so far. Fortunately, the developer Q&A confirmed that “over 20 named characters” can join you in your adventures.

While the names were not revealed, we did learn from the Q&A that four of the companions are members of The Constellation, though all companions have “their own backgrounds” and can follow you around and carry any items you acquire on your travels.

“When we first began Starfield pre-production, we looked back at our previous games and realized how popular and effective the companions were,” Pagliarulo explained. “So they were a big priority for us, and we really wanted to tie them directly to the main quest.”

The Jail System Takes More from Skyrim Than Fallout 4

In the Elder Scrolls series, most notably Skyrim, there is a jail system where you can be imprisoned for crimes you commit. Starfield is no different, though you will have a few options if you are caught committing a crime: you can either go to jail, pay the fine when you are apprehended, or if you’re really bold, you can resist arrest and evade the law.

A Fully Pacifist Playthrough Isn’t ‘Totally Feasible’ in Starfield

If you prefer to play games where you can complete an entire playthrough without harming a single NPC, sadly you won’t be able to do so in Starfield (although we’re sure that won’t stop some from trying).

Shen and Pagliarulo noted that there’s no guarantee a player can complete every mission in Starfield without harming someone. But they did mention that “a couple of systems” are available to help those who want to avoid minimal physical confrontations.

One of those systems are Speech Challenges, where you can use the art of persuasion to avoid someone fighting you.

“The Settled Systems is mostly civilized, but it can be a dangerous place if you’re going off the beaten path,” said Pagliarulo. “And you’re absolutely going off the beaten path!”

Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Interstellar, and More Inspired Starfield’s Quests

When asked if any sci-fi media had influenced some of the quests in Starfield, Shen and Pagliarulo explained some of their influences, many of which are thoroughly unsurprisingly.

Shen, for example, explained how he is a history nerd and listens to a lot of history-centric podcasts, such as Hardcore History. Pagliarulo, a child of the late ’70s and early ’80s, explained how he has “very fond memories” of sci-fi during that time, citing Star Wars, the original Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, and even Event Horizon. He talked about what he called “headier” sci-fi, including Contact, Interstellar, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the writings of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein.

“In all of those examples, you realize that outer space is two things: 1.) A source of mystery and wonder, sometimes terror, AND 2.) A giant blank page on which you can write any story” said Pagliarulo. “And we have written a lot of VERY different stories in Starfield.”

There Are Mechs, but You Can’t Use Them

In one of the animated shorts Bethesda released last month, we saw a brief glimpse of mechs. Pagliarulo revealed more history on the role of mechs in the Starfield universe, noting that they are around, but you cannot use them.

Pagliarulo explained that the mechs are “leftovers” from the Colony War. Both the United Colonies and Freestar Collective had mechs, but to varying degrees, and they were outlawed when the war ended.

While the mechs are not useable, Pagliarulo teased that there’s an old mech battleground in the game.

Your Parents Will Look Like You with the Kid Stuff Trait

One of the traits available in Starfield is called Kid Stuff and if your character has the trait, the duo confirmed that your parents will look like you. While not further elaborated, the feature is similar to that in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, where the father and son’s looks are based on your playable character.

Starfield’s Environmental Storytelling Adds to the Immersion

When asked what are some of their favorite small details in Starfield that help add to the immersion, Pagliarulo talked about how the environmental storytelling, from the books lying around to the notes on the bulletin boards, offers a ton of immersion.

Pagliarulo also explained how Starfield is a “NASApunk” game: that although humans live in space, the aesthetic is still “a very lived-in universe.”

You Can Buy Property in the Main Cities

Shen and Pagliarulo confirmed that you can purchase property in all the major cities in Starfield. Some you can purchase with the money you earn and some are rewards for completing specific

More Info on the Religions and Denominations in Starfield

Shen and Pagliarulo went into detail about the religions in Starfield. We previously learned that the three in the game are the Sanctum Universum, Enlightened, and Great Serpent.

“Existing, IRL religions are part of the Starfield universe, (with folks of all religions and denominations out there) but we don’t really focus on them,” Pagliarulo said. “Instead, we highlight three new ones specific to the game.”

A quick recap on the three religions in Starfield is that Sanctum Universum (aka Universals) believes God exists in the in-game universe. The Enlightened “are essentially organized atheists” that focus on humanitarian efforts. And The Great Serpent, which the faction House of Va’ruun worships, is filled with mystery with Pagliarulo explaining that “in the game, you’re not really sure what the complete truth is.”

Crew Members Can Be Assigned to Work at Outposts

Outposts in Starfield can be used in different ways: you can either build a domicile or make an outpost designed to manufacture things or mine for resources. And during the dev Q&A, we learned that you can assign crew members to work in the outposts. You only have to pay them once when assigning them to the outposts and you can even use the Speech Challenge game to negotiate the price.

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

Back in 2022 there was a brief bubble of enthusiasm over a video game called Dorfromantik – “village romance” in German. The player had to create an ever growing landscape of forests and fields, railways and rivers, trying to complete tasks in order to earn more tiles and keep playing. At the time, there was a lot of talk about how much like a board game it felt. Now, we’ve got a dedicated tabletop version which went on to win the 2023 Spiel des Jahres, the most prestigious prize in board gaming.

What’s in the Box

The Dorfromantik: The Board Game box is like a Russian doll, because most of what’s inside the box is more boxes. But you’re not supposed to open them right away: a key part of this game’s appeal is that it’s a campaign. Each game lets you tick off boxes on a campaign sheet based on your overall score and, as you progress through various branch points, you get to open different boxes and find out what’s inside.

When you start out, you only get to use what’s available inside the main box itself, which is lots and lots of hexagonal tiles. They’re all decorated in much the same way in a chunky, simplistic yet appealing art style that delineates various landscape features, just like the tiles in the video game.

There are also a bunch of counters, one for each landscape type, with numbers on the back. You also get a pad of scoresheets and campaign sheets. That’s your lot, and the relative dearth of content is more than enough to make you super-curious about what’s in those six additional sealed boxes nestled in the component tray.

Rules and How it Plays

Dorfromantik is easy to learn and play and, since it’s also a cooperative board game with all the players working together to build the landscape, it’s a great candidate for play with friends and family. On your turn you draw a tile, which will feature a mix of terrain elements, and fit it into your growing landscape. Most terrain elements can abut anything else you want them to. The exception are rivers and railways, each of which must be contiguous and can’t be cut off mid-flow with a different kind of tile.

There are two kinds of tiles: landscape tiles, which feature a mix of terrain elements, and task tiles, which are the same but also include a blank box. You fill this by drawing a counter of the matching terrain type and flipping it to reveal the number. That task is finished when that terrain type expands to the number on the counter, then you score that many points and draw another task. There must always be three tasks in play, so the first three turns always consist of adding task tiles. Otherwise, unless an existing task is finished, you must draw an ordinary landscape tile.

The only other feature of note to begin with are flags, which feature on three landscape tiles. These fit into the board like any other tile, but if you manage to close off the terrain type with the flag on it, so that none of that terrain is on the edge of the board, you’ll get points for each contiguous tile of that feature. When you run out of tiles, you add together the closed-off flags, your completed tasks and a point per hex of the longest river and railroad on your board, and that’s the final score.

At first, you’ll probably find this recreates that famous Zen-like calm of the original video game very well. It’s pleasant and undemanding, yet it’s just enough to occupy your brain and hands with the simple rules of the game to try and tot up some extra points here and there. The expanding landscape is attractive on the table. You can have a laugh and a joke as you play. It’s good fun. Your first game will almost certainly cross of a feeble single box on the campaign sheet, and you’ll wonder what you can do to score better and get down the track faster to find out what’s inside.

You won’t know it, but at this point you’re a Dorfromantik: The Board Game addict and there’s nothing you can do about it.

The genius of this game is that there’s a lot of shallow but subtle strategic decision-making beneath that placid exterior. There are indeed lots of ways to improve your score, some down to luck and some down to skill, several of which you probably realized mid-way through your first game. You’ll spot a couple more each time you progress those initial games, as none are particularly hard to grasp. But when you’ve got them down, you’ll realize that knowing what to do and putting it into practice are two very different things.

What makes it tricksy is the sheer openness of the landscape. Besides rivers and railways, you can stick any tile anywhere. Most tiles feature multiple terrain types and so can help advance more than one task. Despite the straightforward scoring conditions, the sheer array of options makes it far harder than you initially realize to work out what the best thing is to do with each tile as it comes up. It’s not difficult, as such, so the game still feels pleasantly undemanding, but you’ll often realize later there were better choices, and the way your skill grows with each attempt is even more enjoyable.

If you’re familiar with the video game, you’ll recognize quite how much of these mechanics mimic the gameplay elements of the original. But there’s one crucial difference. In the computer version, scoring tasks earns you extra tiles to prolong your game and increase your score. It isn’t long before the landscape you build gets out of control and your placement options alongside it. Trying to keep on top of this is a key skill. Here, though, you’re always using the same fixed pool of tiles to try and work towards bigger and bigger scores. This is, in many ways, far more manageable and satisfying.

I won’t say too much about what’s in boxes for fear of spoilers. Suffice to say that each adds another, simple rule to the game and increases your opportunities to score points. So, as you progress, additional strategic wrinkles are revealed and your high scores slowly go up and up, meaning you can meander across the paths of the campaign sheet a bit faster each time. It’s hugely gratifying to do so and feel like your mastery is increasing over time, in addition to the reward of opening new campaign elements when you reach them. If anything, Dorfromantik: The Board Game only gets more addictive the more you play.

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