Category: Gaming

Warning: this article contains some spoilers for Halo: The TV Series Episode 8!

The live-action Halo series has made a number of significant changes to the established mythology of the games, and Episode 8 has ushered in what may be the biggest shake-up yet. Master Chief appears to have just lost his virginity.

This is a pretty big departure from the Halo games, where John-117 is depicted as an ascetic super-soldier who only shows a sentimental attachment to his holographic companion Cortana, and has likely never had sex due to being kidnapped into Spartan programmer as a child. The series hasn’t exactly followed that path over the course of Season 1, with Pablo Schreiber’s Master Chief frequently removing his helmet and dealing with a surge of memories and emotions after encountering a Forerunner artifact.

That artifact also happens to be the reason for John’s sexual encounter in Episode 8. The series has introduced a brand new character in Charlie Murphy’s Makee, a human who was kidnapped by the Covenant at a young age and elevated to a position of power in that alien theocracy. John and Makee are seemingly the only two beings in the galaxy who can interact with the artifacts. After experiencing a shared vision of the mysterious Halo station in Episode 6, the two characters give in to the hormonal rush and have sex in Episode 8. And just to make things extra weird, Cortana is watching the entire time.

“I’m just a Spartan boy, standing in front of a Covenant girl…”

This plot twist has been the source of some criticism and outrage from Halo fans. Not only is the very idea of Master Chief having sex a hard pill for some to swallow, Episode 8 also uses the Master Chief/Makee romance to set the stage for the show’s version of the Fall of Reach. Though torn between her newfound love for John-117 and her loyalty to the Covenant, Makee ultimately chooses the latter and signals Reach’s location to the Covenant. Because he made the mistake of trusting Makee, Master Chief is about to have a lot of blood on his hands.

Forbes writer Paul Tassi sums up the incredulous reaction some are feeling to the episode:

On the other hand, Twitter user @Spicy_Halo offers this rebuttal:

IGN was positive on the new episode and its admittedly revisionist take on setting up the Fall of Reach storyline. Our review said, “It’s a sudden swerve for both characters, not to mention that Halo fans aren’t really accustomed to seeing Chief show affection for anyone apart from his platonic love for Cortana. But it’s a development that works in the context of Episode 6’s dramatic ending. The two characters shared what amounts to a religious experience, and now they’re dealing with all the hormonal aftereffects. This episode actually does a surprisingly good job of chronicling the complete rise and fall of that short-lived romance without the collapse feeling rushed or forced.”

Do you object to the idea of Master Chief getting frisky? Vote in our poll and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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

It’s been a rough few years for Sega, in no small part due to COVID-19 forcing the shutdown of its already declining arcade businesses. Since last year, the company has been working on a strategy change to help its business become more sustainable long-term. The good news in this for fans of classic Sega games is that this means more remakes and remasters of older Sega IP.

In its annual earnings presentation for investors, Sega outlined some of its plans for the current fiscal year, which runs from April 2022 to March of 2023. One of those plans includes “multiple titles” that Sega considers “Remake/Remaster, Spin-Off/Change of theme.”

Though the wording is a big clunky there, Sega gives a few helpful examples from this past year: think more games like Sonic Colors: Ultimate, Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, or Lost Judgment. The publisher is hoping to sell five million units total from this category, up from four million this past year.

Including brand new releases, Sega is aiming to publish 13 games during that same period, up from seven this past year. We already know about Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Origins, Soul Hackers 2, Endless Dungeon, and Two Point Campus, and it’s possible that 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim’s Switch release last month is also being counted in that total. That would leave seven games we don’t know about yet, and possibly multiple remakes or remasters.

So what might we see remade? It’s hard to say, but a Sega presentation from a year ago has some clues. With the announcement of its new strategy, Sega listed a number of past IP as examples it might look at for remasters, remakes or reboot (including several we’ve already seen remasters or remakes of). They are:

• Crazy Taxi
• Jet Set Radio
• Space Channel 5
• Rez
• Panzer Dragoon
• NiGHTS
• Shinobi
• Virtua Fighter
• Altered Beast
• House of the Dead
• Streets of Rage
• Soul Hackers

There are no guarantees that we’ll see any specific games from that list revisited — it’s just a bunch of ideas Sega was exploring as of last year. But it’s nonetheless good news that Sega is willing to liberally mine its classic library as a part of its plans to grow in the coming years. Fingers crossed for more Space Channel 5, right?

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

On an average day, the IGN news tips line sees a slow but steady stream of messages from folks who want to let us know about something we might report on. Maybe a handful of tips a day. But this past weekend, the line was flooded in just a few hours with over a hundred messages from a group of very frustrated folk: the Team Fortress 2 community. Why were so many of them in our inbox? According to the contents of all those messages, their game has a massive, two-year-long botting problem – and they desperately want Valve’s attention in getting it fixed.

We weren’t the only site getting these messages, nor were they limited to just the media. The source of the flood is a community centered around Team Fortress 2 content creator SquimJim, who published a video on May 7 lamenting the rampant botting issues within Team Fortress 2. In it, he encourages his audience to reach out to both media and Valve employees in hopes that enough pressure will force the developer to take action. SquimJim offered an email template (which many of our tippers used, though others wrote their own messages) and a list of both media tiplines like our own, and publicly-available Valve employee emails. At the time this piece was written, the video had almost 150,000 views, 15,000 likes, and nearly 2,000 comments chiming in about their own frustrating experiences with bots.

It’d be easy enough to dismiss the problem as the natural fate of a 15-year-old game, or point out that the vast majority of online games have botting problems – how bad could this one be? But as IGN discovered, Team Fortress 2’s botting problems are egregious when compared to other online multiplayer games. Head into a casual match on Valve’s servers, and you’ll find that the game is practically impossible to play.

Attack of the Bots

While it’s true that all online multiplayer games struggle with botting to some degree, most of the Team Fortress 2 community members I subsequently talked to seemed to think that things got aggressively bad around two years ago, in early to mid 2020. Incidentally, this was around the same time that the Team Fortress 2 source code was leaked. There’s no specific proof that this was the cause of the botting issue, and it may just be a coincidence, but several community members pointed to that period as a tipping point all the same.

Other theories about why the botting crisis has kicked off include a bizarre revenge plotline. As Valve seemed less and less interested in pushing major updates to the game, some believe that botters rallied to try and make Team Fortress 2 so unplayable that Valve would be forced to pay attention to it again, or to drive new players to community servers. Some also suspect that bots are trying to acquire cosmetic items through play that they can then sell for real money on various marketplaces. Or perhaps they just enjoy trolling.

But regardless of motive, since 2020, matters have only gotten worse. Multiple articles have been written over the last two years about the botting wave, which has manifested in a wide range of obnoxious behaviors in any given match. Some bots spam chat with homophobic or racist remarks, outside links, or just plain rude or obnoxious messages. Most of the bots play as snipers, and because of their unnaturally precise aim, they’re able to headshot and kill players almost instantly, without giving them a chance to fight back.

Some bots take on the names of other players in the match and then initiate votes to kick the original player, resulting in legitimate players being removed and more bots flooding in. Some legitimate players have complained that they’ve been kicked from matches simply for playing a sniper class, because fellow human players assumed they were a bot. Other players have reported running across bots that cause the server to lag significantly, or simply cause the game to crash if anyone tries to kick them. And none of this is limited to an occasional bot here or there. As Jakob Von Bugmann, a regular Team Fortress 2 player explained to me, there are “people who pay for dozens of their own bots,” flooding servers, grouping up with one another, and overwhelming human players and in-game chat.

Literally Unplayable

Having never played Team Fortress 2 before, I decided to investigate the bot problem itself to see if it was really as bad as everyone described to me.

It was.

After running through the tutorials, I joined another IGN staff member who had last played Team Fortress a few years ago. What we found was a game that was, unironically, literally unplayable. I don’t use that phrase in the sense of Internet memes – you cannot play Team Fortress 2 as it was intended.

I was immediately killed by an unerringly accurate sniper half the map away, moments after I spawned, only to respawn and have it happen again and again. Half of my teammates or more were clearly bot snipers, who gathered in a single location on the map, their guns awkwardly pointed at the ceiling, moving only to perfectly snipe the opposing team. I had to turn off voice comms immediately because of the obnoxious music blasting through my speakers, and I could barely read text chat due to the flurry of annoying messages and link spam.

As I’d been warned about, on multiple occasions bots took on both my name and my teammate’s name and initiated votes to kick us. Both teams were constantly bleeding and adding new members because the multiple bots on each side (and maybe a human player or two, it was hard to tell) kept kicking one another. Once, so many players left at once that the game had to reshuffle our teams and I ended up on the opposing side unexpectedly. And this wasn’t just one match. This occurred across two matches I played with my colleague and a dozen more I played by myself at different times of day. Without team continuity, open comms channels, or even the ability to walk a few steps away from where I spawned, it was impossible to do anything resembling playing a normal match of Team Fortress 2.

The Human Resistance

These infuriating behaviors are impacting more than just a small handful of folks clinging to an old game. Team Fortress 2 is still quite popular despite its age, having broken its concurrent player record just last year and consistently averaging between 70,000 and 90,000 concurrent players every month for the last year. Granted, it’s impossible to say how much of this is inflated due to, well, bots. However, from IGN’s own experience both checking in on existing game communities online, as well as seeing multiple human players struggling alongside us in our own matches, there are clearly plenty of real people still trying (unsuccessfully) to play Team Fortress 2 every day.

Certainly, there are ways around the botting problem for dedicated players. They can vote to kick bots from matches, but all too often their open spots are simply filled with more bots. In more recent months, players have reported bots crashing the games of individuals who try to kick them. Some have suggested the community make and implement bots designed specifically to kick other bots, but they have historically been inefficient, overwhelmed, or at best contributed to the problem somewhat by being yet another bot in a match with only a couple of human players trying to enjoy a game.

Private community servers exist, but as many players informed me, most of the available ones are heavily customized. They’ll be limited to certain maps or game modes, or have mods added that change the experience significantly. Plus, even if they could find a community server that appealed to them, it’s unlikely that server’s population would be high enough to support being able to jump into matches quickly at any given time without prior coordination. If someone wants to play a vanilla game of Team Fortress 2 in their downtime for fun, they’re pretty much stuck with Valve’s Casual play servers – and the bot army that invaded them. There’s no chance for the game’s community to meaningfully grow beyond those who already love it, given how chaotic and frustrating the experience can be for new players.

As Jakob Von Bugmann put it:

“Me and thousands of other players have had amazing moments in the game, whether it be in an awesome moment of high-skilled gameplay, or simply a silly moment between teams, completely ruined by these uncaring instant-killing nuisances. With good enough gameplay or learning the bot pathing, you can actually abuse them or deal with them at a decent pace – but they just should not even be allowed to exist in the game and should have been dealt with a long time ago. Valve needs to do something for us still holding on and enjoying their game 15 years later.”

And Valve does seem to at least be aware that bots in Team Fortress 2 are an issue. Back in June of 2020, the game got an update that seemed to curb some botting behaviors. It placed chat restrictions on new and free accounts and allowed players to toggle off text or voice chat so they wouldn’t have to see or hear the spam. A follow-up patch added rate limit checks to text chat, and there have been a few other small tweaks since, but the worst of the issues still remain, and most updates since have been limited to minor bug fixes or seasonal events. Even with the bot-deterrent updates, Valve has yet to make a clear statement about the situation. IGN reached out to Valve for comment ahead of this piece’s publication, but did not hear back.

Given the severity of the situation and Valve’s silence on the matter, it’s no wonder Team Fortress 2 players are fed up. Some have suggested that making Team Fortress 2 a paid game might dissuade bots, since a paywall would dissuade botters from making more and more accounts, though that solution doesn’t appeal to everyone. For the most part, all they want is some sort of acknowledgement from Valve that it’s aware of what’s going on. Ideally, this would come alongside news that fixes are in the works.

“First, I’d like to at least see Valve talk about the problem,” SquimJim told me. “Just a blog post letting us know if it’s being worked on instead of total silence. At this point even just that would go a long way with the community. Of course, an eventual update to their anti-cheat to prevent the bots completely would be ideal. In the meantime I’ve seen some people suggest adding a CAPTCHA system to the game, which would obvious be a little inconvenient for real human players, but at this point I’d take just about anything.”

Almost heartbreakingly, other players have indicated they’d be fine if all Valve offered was some closure, like a confirmation that it will no longer be updating the game at all.

While people like SquimJim, Jakob Von Bugmann, and their communities are still pushing forward efforts to beg Valve for help, the overall Team Fortress 2 player base seems pessimistic that a solution will ever arrive. For instance, a thread on the official Team Fortress 2 Steam forums from May of 2021 entitled “How high can we count before valve gets rid of bots?” is still going at the time this piece was written and is nearing 1,000 pages and over 14,000 comments. But despite the pessimism and snark, the numerous players that have stuck with Team Fortress 2 through it all continually express a genuine love for the game as it once was and could still be, with a little help from its creator.

“TF2 is a game that has been around for a long time – I personally have played it for almost 12 years – and in that time it has developed a very loyal and passionate fanbase,” SquimJim said. “There’s really no other game like TF2. Not in gameplay, not in humor, not in characters, and nothing is quite going to have the same type of community around it. It’s a game that’s been really important to a lot of people and no one wants to see it in the state that it’s in.”

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

The alien that’s too proud to ask for directions, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week’s reset. If you’re looking to get your 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 Today?

Xûr’s location can be found at Winding Cove in the EDZ on May 13 through May 17. 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 freakish salesman we all adore peddling his wares.

What’s Xûr Selling Today?

Looking for some good weapons to use in The Witch Queen‘s endgame content? Let’s see if our buddy Xûr has something useful in store!

Xûr’s Exotic Offerings this weekend.

Exotic Engram

Cerberus +1 – Exotic Auto Rifle

Graviton Forfeit– Exotic Hunter Helmet

• 7 Mobility
• 13 Resilience
• 10 Recovery
• 20 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 11 Strength
• Total: 63

Synthoceps – Exotic Titan Gauntlets

• 13 Mobility
• 17 Resilience
• 3 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 18 Intellect
• 10 Strength
• Total: 63

Nezarec’s Sin – Exotic Warlock Helmet

• 10 Mobility
• 3 Resilience
• 19 Recovery
• 20 Discipline
• 6 Intellect
• 2 Strength
• Total: 60

A few decent pieces of armor this week in the Synthoceps and Nezarec’s Sin fairly high-stat rolls, but nothing that’s particularly must-have. Cerberus +1 is a silly weapon that you should buy if you don’t have it just for laughs.

Exotic Weapons

Each week Xûr sells Hawkmoon & Dead Man’s Tale.

Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon

• Paracausal Shot
• Fluted Barrel
• Alloy Magazine
• Killing Wind
• Smooth Grip

Dead Man’s Tale – Exotic Scout Rifle

• Cranial Spike
• Smallbore
• Steady Rounds
• Moving Target
• Composite Stock

Another week where these two exotic weapons have decent rolls, but nothing incredibly noteworthy. If you already have versions of these bad boys that you like, wait for some better rolls in the future.

Legendary Weapons

Xûr’s Legendary Weapon offerings this weekend.

Bite of the Fox – Sniper Rifle

• Full Bore/Polygonal Rifling
• Accurized Rounds/Tactical Mag
• Threat Detector
• Opening Shot
• Reload Speed Masterwork

The Last Dance – Sidearm

• Quickdot SAS/Shortspec SAS/Target SAS
• Alloy Magazine/Armor-Piercing Rounds
• Moving Target
• Dragonfly
• Stability Masterwork

Shattered Cipher – Machine Gun

• Fluted Barrel/Polygonal Rifling
• Extended Mag/Alloy Magazine
• Field Prep
• Surrounded
• Reload Speed Masterwork

Sojourner’s Tale – Shotgun

• Fluted Barrel/Polygonal Rifling
• Accurized Rounds/Light Mag
• Moving Target
• Adrenaline Junkie
• Reload Speed Masterwork

Gridskipper – Pulse Rifle

• Corkscrew Rifling/Extended Barrel
• Extended Mag/Ricochet Rounds
• Tunnel Vision
• Frenzy
• Range Masterwork

Farewell – Sidearm

• Chambered Compensator/Fluted Barrel
• Appended Mag/Alloy Magazine
• Heating Up
• Adrenaline Junkie
• Handling Masterwork

Sorrow’s Verse – Auto Rifle

• Extended Barrel/Smallbore
• Tactical Mag/Alloy Magazine
• Outlaw
• One For All
• Reload Speed Masterwork

Oh, Guardians. Xur has appeared to come to play this weekend! That Gridskipper roll might be one of the best I’ve ever seen and if you value pulse rifles at all, you should definitely pick that God roll up. The Last Dance is also a great choice seeing as how sidearms have a pretty strong role in the PvP meta right now. My buddy Ebontis also pointed out to me that Shattered Cipher is currently the only Void machine gun that can be acquired without doing a raid (and the roll this week is decent too), so pick that up if you need it!

Warlock Legendary Armor

For Warlocks, Xûr is selling the Kairos Function set which includes:

Xûr’s Legendary Armor for Warlocks this week.

Kairos Function Gauntlets

• 10 Mobility
• 13 Resilience
• 7 Recovery
• 6 Discipline
• 10 Intellect
• 13 Strength
• Total: 59

Kairos Function Chest Armor

• 8 Mobility
• 15 Resilience
• 9 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 9 Intellect
• 21 Strength
• Total: 64

Kairos Function Helmet

• 20 Mobility
• 6 Resilience
• 7 Recovery
• 12 Discipline
• 15 Intellect
• 6 Strength
• Total: 66

Kairos Function Leg Armor

• 12 Mobility
• 6 Resilience
• 10 Recovery
• 10 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 19 Strength
• Total: 59

Kairos Function Bond

Warlocks have been rewarded for their triumphant performance in Guardian Games this week with a helmet fit for kings. Pick up that spiky, Mobility-focused piece of armor, floaty friends!

Titan Legendary Armor

For Titans, Xûr is selling the Kairos Function set which includes:

Xûr’s Legendary Armor for Titans this week.

Kairos Function Gauntlets

• 14 Mobility
• 9 Resilience
• 6 Recovery
• 16 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 9 Strength
• Total: 56

Kairos Function Chest Armor

• 7 Mobility
• 19 Resilience
• 6 Recovery
• 21 Discipline
• 6 Intellect
• 2 Strength
• Total: 61

Kairos Function Helmet

• 6 Mobility
• 14 Resilience
• 9 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 12 Intellect
• 12 Strength
• Total: 55

Kairos Function Leg Armor

• 19 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 12 Recovery
• 20 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 11 Strength
• Total: 66

Kairos Function Mark

Most Titan armor this week is pretty weak, but by goly those boots are out of this world! A little more focused in mobility than a typical Titan might desire, but still very good.

Hunter Legendary Armor

For Hunters, Xûr is selling the Kairos Function set which includes:

Xûr’s Legendary Armor for Hunters this week.

Kairos Function Gauntlets

• 15 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 15 Recovery
• 25 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 6 Strength
• Total: 65

Kairos Function Chest Armor

• 10 Mobility
• 7 Resilience
• 12 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 25 Intellect
• 2 Strength
• Total: 58

Kairos Function Helmet

• 20 Mobility
• 6 Resilience
• 7 Recovery
• 6 Discipline
• 6 Intellect
• 22 Strength
• Total: 67

Kairos Function Leg Armor

• 17 Mobility
• 6 Resilience
• 7 Recovery
• 9 Discipline
• 7 Intellect
• 12 Strength
• Total: 58

Kairos Function Cloak

Apparently it pays to come in dead last in Guardian Games, because Xûr’s loot for Hunters this week is unbelievably good. That helmet is perhaps the spikiest piece of equipment I’ve ever seen (and in all the right places for lots of Hunters) and the gauntlets offer the highest Discpline roll I’ve ever seen. Absolutely unbelievable. Buy! Buy! Buy!

That’s a wrap on Xûr for this week, Guardians! Why shouldn’t Warlocks be winning Guardian Games and/or how are they cheating so well? Sound off in the comments! For more on Destiny, check out some of the new weapons and gear you can find in The Witch Queen and read about how Sony’s purchase of Bungie fits into its larger plans.

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

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops — Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Mark Medina — are discussing Gotham Knights, the fate of PS4/Xbox One, Starfield, Redfall, Dead Space remake, the Nintendo Switch Pro, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.

The music in this episode is from Metroid, Metal Gear, and Ninja Gaiden on NES.

Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.

Listen on:

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Spotify

Stitcher

Find previous episodes here!

Epic Games is releasing an “open to everybody” Unreal Engine 5 editor for Fortnite, and will let creators monetize what they make.

CEO Tim Sweeney told Fast Company that around half of players’ time in Fortnite is spent playing other users’ content and Epic Games wants to make that experience more fully-fledged through the editor, and the ability to monetize that custom content.

“We’re going to release the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, the full capabilities that you’ve seen [in Unreal Engine] opened up so that anybody can build very high-quality game content and code,” Sweeney said, “and deploy it into Fortnite without having to do a deal with us. It’s open to everybody.”

He added that it’s Epic Games’ aim to make Fortnite a marketplace similar to Steam or the App Store, comparing it to other games like Roblox that, while free to download and play normally, feature player-made content that can be bought with real money.

Sweeney said: “We’re building an economy, and it will support creators actually building businesses around their work and making increasing amounts of profit from the commerce that arises from people playing their content.”

Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 was released in April and developers are already doing some pretty impressive stuff. Working by himself, Lorenzo Drago created an incredibly realistic scene of a Japanese train station that’s almost indistinguishable from real life.

This idea of monetizing this Unreal Engine 5 custom content also connects with Epic Games’ push into the metaverse – an all-encompassing digital world with its own economy – that Sony and LEGO’s parent company KIRKBI invested billions in.

Fortnite in itself is already fulfilling a lot of the concept of putting “the real world” into a shared online space. Countless collaborations between the biggest entertainment franchises and Epic Games combined with the addition of real events like Coachella have already brought the idea to life, and having its own economy will only bolster that.

Ex-Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé is also a believer in this type of monetization in games, commenting recently that he’s a believer in the concept to of “play to own”. After spending 300 hours building an Animal Crossing island, for example, he’d like to be able to make some money from it.

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

Despite being involved in a lawsuit over its development, and negative reviews, Square Enix says it recommends Balan Wonderworld “with confidence”.

The game was brought up in a Q&A session during a company earnings briefing, during which an investor asked about ex-director Yuji Naka’s lawsuit against the company, seemingly brought after his dismissal from the project.

Square Enix confirmed that Naka had a lawsuit case with the company but wouldn’t give any further details about it. However, according to Bloomberg’s Takashi Mochizuki, Square Enix also commented on Balan Wonderworld itself, saying, “it is a game that we recommend with confidence.”

Balan Wonderworld hasn’t had the best time in the spotlight. Naka left Square Enix after the game was released last year and has since become an independent developer. Recently, Naka opened up about his time at Square Enix developing the game. He said that he had an internal conflict with co-developer Arzest and felt like Balan Wonderworld was submitted in an unfinished state. Furthermore, Naka called out the company, saying, “I think Square Enix is no good.”

In IGN’s Balan Wonderworld review, we said, “It’s a mess of undercooked concepts and clunky mechanics that slow it to a crawl, and it seems to take inspiration from better games without properly recapturing what actually makes them fun.” In that context, Square Enix’s recommendation feels a little off-base.

In other Square Enix news, the company recently sold off its western studios to Embracer Group in order to fund future projects, such as cloud services, AI, and most notably, blockchain initiatives, the last of which Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda has expressed an interest in pursuing.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Nintendo won’t be drawn on when it will release a successor to the Switch, but president Shuntaro Furukawa has made it clear that the company aims not to repeat the same mistakes as it did when moving from Wii to Wii U, and DS to 3DS.

In the company’s latest financial briefing Q&A, an attendee asked Furukawa how Nintendo aimed to move on from the Switch smoothly when it chooses to release next-generation hardware. While Furukawa didn’t directly acknowledge new hardware, or when it might arrive, he pointed out that the company is aiming to learn from its past mistakes:

“Looking back on past experiences of generational change such as the change from the Wii and Nintendo DS eras, we recognize that one of our tasks is ensuring the transition to future generations of hardware is as smooth as possible,” he said.

Nintendo saw enormous success with the Wii and DS (the latter of which remains its best-selling hardware of all time), but their successors, Wii U and 3DS, both suffered very rocky launches. While 3DS recovered to some extent, Wii U became one of Nintendo’s most notable failures, with production ending just 5 years after launch. Much of the problem for both machines were their similarities to their predecessors, with many customers unclear on what had been upgraded, and whether they even needed the new hardware.

Switch, which has combined Nintendo’s home and handheld hardware businesses, is still going strong in its fifth year on sale, but Nintendo is clearly thinking about how to bring a large portion of its 100 million owners with it to the next generation. The aim appears to be to get Nintendo fans to connect with Nintendo in more places than simply their Switch:

“We are focusing on building long-term relationships with our consumers (through Nintendo Accounts),” continued Furukawa. “While continuing to release new Nintendo Switch software for consumers to enjoy, we aim to maintain relationships across hardware generations through services that utilize Nintendo Accounts and by providing opportunities for them to experience our IP through other non-gaming channels.”

As for when Nintendo will release a new console, that remains more hazy. Rumours have swirled for over a year around the existence of an upgraded Switch model – which many have dubbed the Switch Pro – but Nintendo has repeatedly denied them.

Given that Switch itself continues to see massive success, both in hardware and software, it would make some sense for Nintendo to attempt to keep that audience in place, but whether its next console is an upgrade or a fully-fledged new machine remains unclear.

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Variable Rate Refresh has been one of the most requested features on the PlayStation 5 since it launched nearly two years ago. Sony has now resolved that, finally rolling out VRR to PS5 consoles, allowing players with a compatible TV or monitor to activate the feature in potentially any PS5 game. There’s a short list of games that will receive a patch enabling VRR support in the coming weeks, but you can turn it on for unsupported games as well – just know that those without official support might not achieve perfect results.

What is VRR and how does it work?

VRR is a relatively new technology (2013) that changes a long-standing limitation of computer and console display methods. Prior to VRR (also known as Free-Sync/G-Sync), your TV or monitor fixed the rate at which games could update their images each frame, based on the speed at which the screen could refresh its display to draw a new image. Most popular TVs tended to be 60Hz, which is why 60fps has been the target for gaming performance for so long. This means that the fastest a PC or console could send a new image would be every 16ms, which after 1 second gives us 60 new frames.

The next rate below this is 30fps or 33ms, which divides into 60fps evenly. This meant that game engines had to lock all their functions, loops and inputs into this fixed drumbeat that was dictated by the screen, called V-sync, and means that so long as both console and TV align at the same 16 or 33ms point in time, we get a new frame each time. The problem here, or at least one of a few, is this can come at a large cost to performance and impacts console and PC alike. This is why turning off V-sync can sometimes improve performance, as it lets the system ignore this fixed period of waiting for the screen.

The downside of turning off V-sync is that it can result in a torn image, where the screen has only part of the new frame at the bottom section, which is still being rendered by the PC/console, and part of the old one at the top. Until now this has been the dilemma: choose cleaner image quality at the cost of performance headroom or better performance at the cost of visual issues.

Enter VRR. This technology enables the console or PC to “play the drum” instead, letting it tell the screen when to refresh for a new frame (within a defined scope) when it is ready. This means we can almost get the best of both worlds: the frame-time can change per frame and the TV will adjust its cycle within that defined window. The net result is the system can fluctuate between the 8ms ceiling of 120fps and down to 20.9ms or 48fps. In other words, the removal of that 30 or 60fps cap while also eliminating screen tearing. On face value this sounds perfect, but some caveats come into the solution offered here.

VRR on PS5

Insomniac has leapt feet first into the VRR ring with not one but three updates which adds VRR to all 3 current modes, helped greatly by the single engine powering them all.

Starting with Spider-Man Remastered, the game has been updated with a 120Hz mode – similar to what we received last year in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart – which boosts the 4K Fidelity mode to increase from 30fps up to 40fps due to it being a divisible rate of the 8ms frame time that 120Hz requires. With VRR enabled this can extend beyond that, effectively unlocking the framerate to potentially reach that 120fps ceiling. In 4K Fidelity mode, activating VRR results in performance gains of 12-13%, and as much as 25% in some cases, over the old 40fps limit. Those gains are respectable, but Fidelity mode is actually the least impressive here, compounded by the fact it is mostly outside of the useful range of VRR here. Insomniac does appear to be using a Low Framerate compensation, similar to a 2:3 Pulldown used in 24fps cinema modes on TVs. Meaning when it drops into the 40s, it duplicates the frame 3x with the 8ms refresh. This helps reduce the judder when it falls outside of the VRR active range.

The two other modes see much bigger leaps – and this is true across all three games (Spider-Man, Miles Morales, and Rift Apart). The Performance Ray Tracing mode’s old 60fps limit is now doubled in the best of scenarios, though I only saw such a dramatic improvement briefly, when swinging across the city. In a variety of tested sections, performance increased more around 50%, meaning frame-times are halved and input response increased – one of the biggest benefits of 120fps or faster framerates. The leap is significant and really hammers home the extra work the team have put in here to maximize the engine and capitalize on the gains that are possible when V-sync is no longer set to such a (relatively) low rate. Furthermore, all three games now have increased resolution targets in all modes, which means the dynamic scaling levels have been increased. This is a great look under the hood of what headroom is available on these fixed console games that, unlike on PC, we rarely get to see.

Up next is Spider-Man: Miles Morales, which has the same updates and similar results as seen above, but the Performance mode delivers even better results. Ray Tracing is no longer active, but the resolution scale can go even higher, as does the framerate. This means often a further 17% improvement over the Performance RT mode, with framerates into the 90s and even 100fps levels in cinematic, combat and traversal segments. These boosts are significant for such an early and gorgeous looking cross-gen game, and do a great job of selling the very best of what VRR can offer.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is the next big hitter and again we see substantial performance increases in all modes. Now the Performance RT mode shines even brighter with framerates often north of 80fps and beyond, with the drops back into the 60s still feeling silky smooth due to it being within the sweet spot of VRR. It must be said that Insomniac continues to impress, with its three big games really showing off the potential of the PS5 and of Variable Rate Refresh itself.

Another example is Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. In the 120fps mode, turning VRR on results in nearly identical performance, but the tearing when VRR is off and the ripples in the 8ms frame-time are now cleaned up to deliver those fast and fluid controls the series is known for while also achieving a stable Image Quality.

Other games also gain benefits, such as Dirt 5 and its 120fps racing mode now eliminating screen tearing while maintaining the same fast and fluid input times.

What about games without official VRR support?

As mentioned before, the PS5 VRR update allows you to turn the feature on even for games that haven’t yet received an official VRR patch. Dying Light 2, which we covered earlier this year when it launched, has an adaptive V-sync feature, which meant that it could tear a little when it went slightly over budget in more GPU-limited sections, such as the opening foliage heavy segment in Performance mode. The game hasn’t received a developer-side VRR patch yet, but it still benefits from enabling the tech, though to a lesser degree. Enabling VRR on the PS5 system level eliminates the aforementioned screen tearing, but the game is still capped at 60fps in Performance mode (unlike the Series X version which can run up to the 90s). I suspect Techland will release an update soon to also allow the PS5 to break free of that artificial limit.

Cyberpunk 2077 is another that gains from VRR with no developer input. It’s only a 60fps game, which means the window that VRR has to work in is the smallest yet, but the PS5 version tends to stay above the 48fps minimum most of the time, which means that the small dips that can still occur are harder to notice, while the judder reduction and elimination of screen tearing from activating VRR is much more significant.

One main limitation of Variable Rate Refresh is that 30fps games fall outside of the range required for improvement from VRR. In the demanding Unreal Engine 5-powered Matrix Demo, the game acknowledges VRR is active, even without any patch. The frame-time can now flip at 8ms, but it still runs at the same 24fps or 30fps capped levels depending on the segment and it can still tear across the screen at times with frame-drops. This proves that, although the engine is aware that VRR is available, it would require Epic to release a patch for this to benefit. As such, the OS choice to be able to turn VRR on or off is welcome as some games, such as here, may not work at all.

Additionally, Backwards Compatibility games, even enhanced ones, do not recognise VRR. Testing Bloodborne, a game that would greatly benefit from increased frame-times and smoother frame delivery, we see that nothing has changed. The same inconsistent frame delivery issues still occur and the same 30fps limit remains. This shows the limits VRR has, namely that it can do nothing for 30fps titles, as that is outside of its operating window. VRR cannot increase frame rates over their target, meaning unless a developer updates the game, a 30, 60 or other targeted frame-rate limit will remain no matter what. Backing this up is Batman: Arkham Knight which is capped at 30fps and would have some tearing on PS4. This has not changed since the update, with the screen not engaging VRR and the game having no change in its output rate or input latency.

Overall, Variable Refresh Rate is a welcome addition to the PlayStation 5, despite arriving a fair bit later than expected – especially considering that Xbox had VRR up and running even before the Series X and S consoles launched. However, it is a welcome boost to the console’s tool kit nonetheless, offering choice for developers and gamers alike. The fact an Operating System option is enabled to force games to use it where possible is excellent, though as noted, not all games will be able to take advantage of it. As a solution to tearing and improving both performance and input latency, VRR is a win, just don’t expect it to be a silver bullet for performance issues across the board. Either way, I look forward to seeing what the future holds as more and more developers roll out patches to expand VRR support in their games.

Ubisoft’s Skull & Bones could finally see release, after a rating for the PC version of the game has found in South Korea.

According to South Korea’s Game Management Committee (via VGC), the rating was filed on May 12 and it appears to indicate a game that will fall under a Mature rating. A rating is usually given to a game that is complete or nearing completion, meaning the long-delayed game could finally be on the way.

The game seemingly includes drug use and contains people drinking alcohol, and smoking. The rating also mentions that the game is an open-world set in the Indian Ocean during a golden age of pirates.

Skull & Bones has had a turbulent development. It was first announced at E3 2017 with a 2018 release window. Since then, the game has repeatedly been delayed, amid reports of difficulties in making it. Back in 2020, Ubisoft reportedly rebooted Skull & Bones to follow a live game model, and it apparently only still exists because of a deal with the Singapore government in which Ubisoft must launch original games in return for subsidy payments.

However, the game looks like it has been ready for public testing, and gameplay leaked last month.

Skull & Bones isn’t the only game that Ubisoft has stuck in development. The Prince of Persia remake has been delayed multiple times and has only recently seen a new update, where Ubisoft Montreal is now taking over development.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey