Category: Gaming

According to a new report from Exputer, Warzone 2 – or whatever it will be called – will include an “interrogation” feature similar to Rainbow Six Siege. Warzone 2 is expected to be released in 2023, following the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 this year. While Activision has announced the next Warzone and Modern Warfare 2, the publisher has yet to fully reveal both titles.

Actor Norman Reedus has revealed that development has begun on Death Stranding 2. The game has not been announced, but Reedus plainly told Leo Edit that, “We just started the second one.” Death Stranding sold more than 5 million copies before the launch of the director’s cut, so it sure seems that the game was a hit. Sony published the PS4 and PS5 edition, with 505 Games handling the PC release in 2020.

The game’s Anniversary Edition, released in 2021 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC to celebrate the game’s 10th anniversary, is now reportedly headed to Switch next. The Skyrim Anniversary Edition includes the base game, all DLC and mods, and a new fishing system, among other things.

Friday ‘Nite is a weekly Fortnite column in which Mark Delaney takes a closer look at current events in the wide world of Fortnite, with a special emphasis on the game’s plot, characters, and lore.

The Fortnite island is under duress more often than Peely’s driving instructor, and with a Fortnite Season 2 event looking likely–on account of the massive Doomsday Device propped up by the Imagined Order–it’s safe to say things are about to pop off once again. Fortnite live events have been more and more spectacular as years have gone on, and after such a story-focused season, this next event looks to be one of the biggest and most story-important events yet. Naturally, this event will surely introduce new mysteries to the grand Fortnite universe, but it also looks poised to answer some long-lingering questions, too.

Then again, there are other things I’m confident this event won’t answer just yet. Here are four questions the Fortnite event will resolve, as well as a pair of others it will almost surely put off for at least another season.

Where has The Paradigm been?

The last we saw of The Paradigm, The Seven’s long-lost mech pilot, she was flying away on Mecha Team Leader to a destination unknown. A new lobby background now shown in-game reveals that mech has been salvaged, at least in part, on a mysterious landscape. Spoilers warning: According to datamined leaks, this location is a moon in the Fortnite world. Not our moon, but perhaps The Seven’s home–which would make the island’s Sanctuary exactly that, a waterfront beach house for the group of heroes. (End of spoilers)

It seems we’ll find out The Paradigm had been outcasted by The Origin, who felt she betrayed the group according to story threads already seen this season, and she was staying at this mystery landscape. The event itself may confirm this suspicion and, with any luck, give us even more details about what this off-world is like.

Are The Seven really all working together?

The Origin’s trust seems easy to lose, as we now know The Paradigm found out firsthand in Chapter 1, Season 9. But the group has felt fractured all season. The Imagined has been on her own agenda, seemingly hellbent on learning more about her own mysterious past, which she can’t recall herself. She enlisted, or maybe received unsolicited help from, her twin sister, The Order, who seems to have successfully extracted The Imagined’s data file from the IO’s servers. But will the sisters’ sneaking about only cause a further rift in The Seven?

The Origin doesn’t seem to like when his allies act unpredictably or unilaterally, and even if he would forgive the sisters for their stealth routine, what’s the big secret they may have found, and how will it affect the group’s cohesion going forward? Lately, The Seven has felt more like The Four or Five, but to topple the IO, they’ll need to all be moving toward the same goal. I expect we’ll see them come together and save the day as a complete unit for the first time ever in-game.

What is the Collider?

If you’ve jumped into Fortnite this week, you probably noticed the Collider north of Tilted Towers. It’s kind of hard to miss, given how it’s gigantic, constantly emitting strange noises, and occasionally pulsating with strange glowing energy. This is the IO’s Doomsday Device we’d been hearing so much about, but we still don’t quite know what the IO’s plans for it are. Undoubtedly, this device will factor into the finale event in a major way, so I don’t doubt we’ll see what it does.

What I’m more curious about is whether it’s actually the same device as Midas’ strange tidal wave-creating machine seen back in Chapter 2, Season 2. As far as we know, Midas is the leader of GHOST, a special operations unit within the IO. That should mean he was acting on behalf of the IO when he first raised his Device, which proved to be faulty, in Chapter 2, Season 2. But is this new device, which shares some visual similarities but also looks quite different, the same thing?

One reason to suspect they’re related, and perhaps Midas’ Device was a prototype, is that Midas’ Device manipulated the Storm and waters surrounding the island. In-game this week, the collider is seeming to suck up the water from nearby riverbeds. It may be that this machine will keep draining the waters until the island has no inland bodies of water left. Is this the hydroelectric cost of energizing this new machine, or were both calibrated to use water as an energy source, and perhaps only this time the IO has gotten it right? I expect whatever the Collider does will reveal whether we should think of these devices as the same things or not.

Why is Peely taking driving lessons?

It’s not as important as the carousel of existential threats perpetually shuffling onto and around the island, but one subplot fans have followed this season is Peely’s hapless effort to learn to drive. For the past several weeks, the anthropomorphic banana has been found crashing vehicles all over the island. Dialogue tells us he is struggling to get the hang of being behind the steering wheel, but is this storyline a funny sideshow, or will Peely be operating some critical vehicle in the event?

If Peely does show up in the event, look for him to maybe finally master the art of steering. If he doesn’t appear at all, then it’s safe to say this has all just been a silly distraction–or maybe he’s just in a ditch somewhere.

Some Fortnite superfans think they have it figured out. Speaking to Ben Walker of Top5Gaming on YouTube, he told me there’s a good chance what we’re actually watching is the return of Truckasaurus, a landmark from the game last seen in Chapter 2, which was basically a Voltron-like machine made of vehicles smashed together. It may be that Peely is more adept at driving than we thought, and his crashing is more like…an odd way to build things.

Who is Geno?

In the past few seasons, we’ve been able to meet a lot of the people behind the names we’ve been hearing for a while in Fortnite. The Seven, the Last Reality, the sisters, and more are just some of these reveals. But we still haven’t met Geno, who was first mentioned in the beginning of Chapter 2, Season 6 when The Foundation name-dropped this mystery character.

Today the identity of Geno is one of the biggest lingering mysteries in the game, but it’s for that reason I don’t expect we’ll see it revolved just yet. I anticipate this one could go on as long as even until Chapter 4, which right now is expected to begin around the late fall of 2023.

Some fans have speculated Geno is the true leader of the IO, the father of the sisters, or perhaps even the Storm itself. Fortnite is so unpredictable that even all of these could be true and most fans wouldn’t bat an eye. In any event, don’t expect this question to be answered at the end of this season.

How did Slone disable building?

One of the great oddities of Chapter 3 has been the revelation that the game’s building mechanics are accounted for in the story. This is so true that Slone was able to deactivate building mechanics in an effort to leave Loopers more vulnerable as the IO regained power on the island. Epic is no stranger to rationalizing in-universe reasons for what should be nothing more than game mechanics–remember, the “Loop” itself is justification for playing rounds and rounds of Fortnite.

So it was weird when Slone basically turned off building with the click of a button while the Resistance fought to restore it over the next two weeks. When will Epic explain how this works in-universe? Perhaps never, but at least not soon, I think. It just doesn’t seem to have room in an already packed finale that will include likely include the return of The Paradigm and Mecha Team Leader, as well as a maybe space rock-destroying particle collider. *checks watch* Yup, it’s time for Fortnite to get weird again.

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops — Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis — are discussing the best games coming to All-New PlayStation Plus, their favorite PS4 games, video pinball games, Nintendo’s Play Choice 10 cabinets, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.

The music this episode is from Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Giga Wing, and Gain Ground.

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

Listen on:

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Find previous episodes here!

King Arthur is dead and you, Mordred, died killing him. Now Arthur has cursed the afterlife. In order to bring peace to the island of Avalon, you must do what you do best: Kill Arthur – or rather, the variety of vile villains his soul has been twisted into. For those who were fans of Neocore Games’ previous turn-based dark fantasy, King Arthur: A Role-Playing Wargame, the idea behind King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is very welcome indeed. Don’t expect a retelling of the classical romances like Malory or cinematic depictions, but do expect your favorite Arthurian characters to appear in some twisted afterlife form, and for them to take part in battles between a handful of powerful knights and hordes of enemies using a rich combat system. It’s a heck of a lot of game for what it is – a sprawling adventure that’s perhaps too repetitive for its own good.

It’s some 120 GB installed – a giant, unoptimized game that’s charming despite, or perhaps because of, its rough edges. Within that it packs everything I expect out of the setting: rescuing fair maidens, slaying dragons, fighting giants – it’s all here, all with a grimdark twist, spread across a strategy RPG that can easily eat up 70 to 100 hours of your time as you align with the forces present in Avalon: The Old Gods, Christianity, Righteousness, and Tyranny. Favorites like Tristan and Isolde show up, but Tristan is a rotting zombie now; Percival is here, but the Holy Grail quest can now never be fulfilled; and Gawain’s out trying to do some faerie genocide.

What Knight’s Tale gets right, just absolutely right, is the fantasy of being an armored knight. Your characters are, for the most part, tanks, and used correctly, they’re like plows that tear furrows in crowds of enemies, one turn at a time. It is extremely satisfying, and Knight’s Tale’s rules are built around that experience. The base mechanics of fights are a great strategy RPG, in that they force you to pay attention to factors like facing, spacing, unit type, and more.

Characters have what amounts to three health bars: Armor reduces incoming damage directly but can be lowered by armor-reducing attacks; Hit points are just what you think – and they replenish to max from mission to mission; Vitality is more long-term, a reserve of health to back up hit points that can only be restored by rest in the Camelot hospice. Plus, losing Vitality carries with it the chance of lasting injuries like broken bones and sickness. But fear not: as long as you’re careful around enemies who can break it, armor will protect all but the most reckless of knights from lasting harm.

To compensate for their ability to absorb all of that punishment, your knights are nearly always outnumbered. While early game combats are often on even stakes, by mid game it’s rare to see an encounter that doesn’t field 12 or more enemies against your four knights. Heck, some will throw several dozen enemies against you… some of whom can summon even more baddies to the field. Your knights are only able to do so much in one turn, limited as they are by a fairly restrictive action point system, so getting more action points via advanced equipment, skills, and special weapons becomes the clutch play.

Being outnumbered also means the direction your characters are facing is a key part of combat in Knight’s Tale. Though it might not seem so at first, having your character’s front arc towards the enemy is vital because it lets shield users block attacks, and everyone avoids brutal backstabs. Given how crucial it is it’s surprising that there isn’t any visual indicator when you’re being flanked, so you always have to double check all your characters’ facings before ending your turn or risk the consequences.

Unfortunately, combat encounters don’t always live up to the promise of their interesting rules because while there are plenty of highlights, there are just too many of them that bring down the average. Terrain is often bland, lacks variety, or is simply nonexistent. You’re frequently up against the same four unit types, perhaps with a boss thrown in, in different mixes, for seven or eight fights in the same mission. Some fights are just frustrating wastes of your time: 12 of the same enemy at once, or worse, short interludes of two or three easily defeated foes that take longer to start and finish than they do to actually fight.

Between these long quests you return to Camelot, where you can build upgrades to buildings, make lordly decisions like solve disputes between lords, and buy new equipment. Nothing too deep there, no big research tree or whatever to traverse, but it’s a nice enough little meta-game between adventures.

And make no mistake: adventures are the heart of Knight’s Tale. You’ve got a round table of 12 knights, with some alternates in the wings, but there are 30-some characters to collect, so you kick the ones you don’t like to the curb all the time. To keep your benched party members leveled up you can train them off screen, but also there are enough missions that – especially on the harder difficulties – you need to run two or three separate teams of knights at once. I sunk 65 hours into completing King Arthur: Knight’s Tale, though after a while I started just dropping side quests and rushing into the endgame because I’d had enough of those repetitive battles.

That experience of sending teams on epic quests is essential to the Arthurian feel, and I like that part of it, but individual quests in Knight’s Tale are just… far too long. You wander around the map, getting ambushed and surprised by enemies constantly, picking up little trinket-filled chests, and generally doing what I’d call the very un-knightly equivalent of busywork for little reward. There’s a reason that you don’t have to run around looting after the mission in XCOM or Fire Emblem: It’s not much fun.

Perhaps I’d be gentler on the quests if the stories were excellent, but they don’t earn that leniency. Some of them are fun, interesting twists on the stories of your Arthurian all-stars, but the majority are tired fantasy tropes or obvious journeys from start to finish. The one-note dark fantasy writing is serviceable at its best; more often it’s both dull and riddled with grammatical errors.

The 10 Best Tactics RPGs

The overall story, though, is cool. It’s fun to fight in this weird afterlife where no one’s quite sure what the new rules are. The story goes deeper than you might expect, incorporating not just Arthurian legend and Christian myth but diving into pre-Christian Britannic practices, including the gods and spirits of Wales and Ireland. It also segues nicely into the optional post-campaign game where, having defeated the evil Arthur, you fight an invasion of giants and other mythical beasts. But this tale was already too long for its own good.

The cloaky lad, 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 This Weekend?

Xûr’s location today can be found at Watcher’s Grave on Nessus on May 20 through May 24. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Watcher’s Grave. When you arrive, make for the red moss-covered tree straight ahead. Climb up the roots and you’ll find Xûr waiting at the top to sell you exotic items and legendary weapons.

What Is Xûr Selling This Weekend?

Xûr’s Exotic offerings this weekend.

Exotic Engram

Telesto – Exotic Fusion Rifle

Gemini Jester – Exotic Hunter Leg Armor

• 16 Mobility
• 14 Resilience
• 2 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 24 Intellect
• 2 Strength
• Total: 60

Actium War Rig – Exotic Titan Chest Armor

• 7 Mobility
• 3 Resilience
• 20 Recovery
• 6 Discipline
• 9 Intellect
• 16 Strength
• Total: 61

Verity’s Brow – Exotic Warlock Helmet

• 16 Mobility
• 7 Resilience
• 9 Recovery
• 19 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 7 Strength
• Total: 60

Unfortunately, our Exotic armor offerings this week are a bit disappointing, but on the bright side Xur is selling Telesto, which single-handedly breaks the game ever season without fail and has broken the poor Bungie devs down to their rawest components to build them back in Telesto’s image. You should definitely buy it if you don’t have it yet.

Exotic Weapons

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

Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon

• Paracausal Shot
• Smallbore
• Alloy Magazine
• Eye of the Storm
• Textured Grip

Dead Man’s Tale – Exotic Scout Rifle

• Cranial Spike
• Corkscrew Rifling
• High-Caliber Rounds
• Outlaw
• Composite Stock

No God rolls for either of these weapons this week, but the Dead Man’s Tale on offer isn’t half bad (especially for PvP) and should do in a pinch. Unless you need one for collections though, we’ve seen better in the past and likely will again.

Legendary Weapons

Xûr’s Legendary Weapon offerings this weekend.

Long Shadow – Sniper Rifle

• ATD Raptor/ATA Scout
• Extended Mag/Flared Magwell
• Snapshot Sights
• Explosive Payload
• Stability Masterwork

Seventh Seraph Saw – Machine Gun

• Corkscrew Rifling/Polygonal Rifling
• High-Caliber Rounds/Light Mag
• Auto-Loading Holster
• Vorpal Weapon
• Reload Speed Masterwork

Seventh Seraph SI-2 – Sidearm

• Chambered Compensator/Full Bore
• Tactical Mag/Alloy Magazine
• Hip-Fire Grip
• Elemental Capacitor
• Range Masterwork

Whispering Slab – Combat Bow

• Flexible String/Polymer String
• Fiberglass Arrow Shaft/Helical Fletching
• Quickdraw
• Demolitionist
• Accuracy Masterwork

Widow’s Bite – Sniper Rifle

• Full Bore/Hammer-Forged Rifling
• tactical Mag/Flared Magwell
• Firmly Planted
• Disruption Break
• Range Masterwork

Royal Entry – Rocket Launcher

• Countermass/Linear Compensator
• High-Velocity Rounds/Impact Casing
• Field Prep
• Thresh
• Velocity Masterwork

Eternal Blazon – Scout Rifle

• Transmission MS7/Flash HS5
• High-Caliber Rounds/Flared Magwell
• Killing Wind
• Unrelenting
• Stablility Masterwork

No must-have God rolls this week, exactly, but the Eternal Blazon roll is almost as good as it gets with scout rifles, and arc scouts can be hard to come by, so scoop it up if you don’t have a good roll. Similarly, it can be hard to get ahold of a good machine gun and the Seventh Seraph Saw roll this week is actually not half bad. Grab that as well if you don’t have one.

Warlock Legendary Armor

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

Xûr’s Legendary Armor for Warlocks this week.

Holdfast Gloves

• 22 Mobility
• 9 Resilience
• 2 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 12 Intellect
• 19 Strength
• Total: 66

Holdfast Chest Armor

• 2 Mobility
• 13 Resilience
• 13 Recovery
• 13 Discipline
• 6 Intellect
• 10 Strength
• Total: 57

Holdfast Helmet

• 19 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 12 Recovery
• 18 Discipline
• 7 Intellect
• 7 Strength
• Total: 65

Holdfast Leg Armor

• 6 Mobility
• 26 Resilience
• 2 Recovery
• 6 Discipline
• 9 Intellect
• 16 Strength
• Total: 65

Holdfast Bond

We’ve got some pretty spikey Warlock rolls this week, including the helmet and leg armor, but the helmet above all else. That said, not a lot of these pieces go together super well, so hopefully one or two of them works with an existing build you’re crafting.

Titan Legendary Armor

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

Xûr’s Legendary Armor for Titans this week.

Holdfast Gauntlets

• 14 Mobility
• 9 Resilience
• 9 Recovery
• 8 Discipline
• 6 Intellect
• 17 Strength
• Total: 63

Holdfast Chest Armor

• 14 Mobility
• 15 Resilience
• 2 Recovery
• 20 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 9 Strength
• Total: 62

Holdfast Helmet

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

Holdfast Leg Armor

• 2 Mobility
• 16 Resilience
• 9 Recovery
• 16 Discipline
• 8 Intellect
• 8 Strength
• Total: 59

Holdfast Mark

My fellow Titans…we’ve been fleeced by The Nine this week! Fleeced, I say! There aren’t any really good pieces or armor this week. The gauntlets and the chest piece are just okay, but…we can probably save our legendary shards this week. Boo, Xur! Boo!

Hunter Legendary Armor

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

Xûr’s Legendary Armor for Hunters this week.

Holdfast Grips

• 2 Mobility
• 20 Resilience
• 11 Recovery
• 18 Discipline
• 6 Intellect
• 9 Strength
• Total: 66

Holdfast Chest Armor

• 17 Mobility
• 6 Resilience
• 7 Recovery
• 9 Discipline
• 12 Intellect
• 12 Strength
• Total: 63

Holdfast Helmet

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

Holdfast Leg Armor

• 9 Mobility
• 7 Resilience
• 14 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 21 Intellect
• 6 Strength
• Total: 59

Holdfast Cloak

The Hunters don’t have a ton this week, but what they do have is fantastic. Those gloves are insane and you should buy them. Might also consider the chest armor, but they’re certainly not at the same level as the gloves.

That’s a wrap on Xûr for this week, Guardians! Hope you’re all enjoying your adventures in the Witch Queen‘s throne world. Congrats to Warlocks for winning Guardian Games! It only took you three years!

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.

NetEase Games, one of the biggest video game developers and publishers in the world, is back with another NetEase Connect showcase to share not only updates on existing and upcoming games, but also to unveil brand-new, never-before-seen games. From Harry Potter: Magic Awakened to NARAKA: BLADEPOINT to The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War to Once Be Human, there were a wide variety of games on display this year that are worth a look.

IGN Japan was on hand to get the drop on every NetEase Games’ title discussed in NetEase Connect 2022, and we’ve gathered each and every one below for you to ensure you don’t miss a thing.

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened is an upcoming immersive collectible card role-playing game that is set in the magical world of Harry Potter and will arrive on PC and mobile in 2022. Players will become a young witch or wizard who was just accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the journey will begin by customizing your character, purchasing school supplies at Diagon Alley, getting sorted into a house by the Sorting Hat, and competing in the Dueling Club.

As players embark on riveting new stories, they will meet familiar faces from the original Harry Potter series, learn spells and charms, master challenging trials, and duel other players. Harry Potter: Magic Awakened will also feature cross-platform play support and will soon be headed to more global markets after taking the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions by magical storm with over 50 million downloads.

NARAKA: BLADEPOINT

NARAKA: BLADEPOINT is a 60-player PvP mythical action battle royale game that sold over six million copies in just 90 days. It is set to arrive on mobile devices soon and NetEase Connect 2022 was able to debut not only exclusive new gameplay footage, but also a brand new hero in Takeda, a samurai who has a demon living inside of him and who comes equipped with a katana and armor.

The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War

The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War brings the world of legendary author J.R.R. Tolkien to life on mobile via a geo-strategic seasonal wargame. Rise to War is feature-packed with tons of content, and you can check out IGN’s beginner’s guide to get started today.

Once Be Human

Once Be Human was revealed exclusively during NetEase Connect 2022. It is a new weird survival game where players need to collect resources and try to fight against the unknown danger. Once Be Human takes place 40 years after civilization has fallen. In this world, a mysterious silver door opened and brought with Stardust that polluted the land and created hordes of terrifying monsters. The last hope for humanity are those with special powers called Beyonders, whose hearts and thoughts are still the continuation and destination of human civilization. For more details, please follow Once Be Human on IGN Summer of Gaming this June.

Mission Zero

Mission Zero is another new game that is a 2v4 competitive stealth game that casts players as either the invader or the chaser. Through infiltration, hacking, and high-risk escapes, the best team will emerge victorious. Four invaders are tasked with blending into an environment with disguises and must work together to recover confidential information. Two chasers have to find and apprehend these invaders before they complete their mission.

ZOZ: Final Hour

ZOZ: Final Hour is another brand-new game that debuted at NetEase Connect 2022 and it is a third-person shooting game with an exciting twist. You and 14 other mercenaries infiltrate the zombie-infested city of San Yager to stop the undead threat and collect valuable Blood Crystals. However, zombies aren’t the only threat as your fellow team can choose to betray you at any moment. Additionally, players who die during the match will come back as zombies, complete with new skills and infinite respawns.

Dead by Daylight Mobile

Dead by Daylight Mobile kicked off NetEase Connect 2022 and celebrated its recent launch in Japan and Southeast Asia. NetEase plans to continue to work closely with Behaviour Interactive to add meaningful content to the game, and the team teased that there will be an “exciting update” for Dead by Daylight Mobile in the west in the near future and that a test for this update will be “coming up very, very soon.”

LifeAfter

LifeAfter is entering its fourth year in 2022 and the open-world doomsday survival game for PC and mobile devices is set to receive a new expansion that will feature a massive ocean that players can explore. With over 200 million registered players and the recent launch of 2021’s The Revenant update that let players become half-human/half-zombie hybrids, those who haven’t tried LifeAfter yet may find now to be the perfect time.

Infinite Lagrange

Infinite Lagrange is a sci-fi grand space simulation mobile game and its universe is shaped by millions of players that inhabit it. With the current update “Identity Agreement”, the game enabled players to choose diversified identities and use different skills embedded with those identities to better explore the universe. This summer, Infinite Lagrange will introduce the concept of “Legacy”, which will allow players to search for legacy items and use them to develop their own forces.

Badlanders

Badlanders is a new next-gen competitive survival looter shooter game that is available now on PC and mobile. In Badlanders, 25 players compete to be the very best, and must kill and steal the loot of other players to secure victory. The game features a selection of realistic real-world weapons and an open in-game economy that encourages players to invest in to level up their arsenal and start the next battle with an advantage.

Identity V

Identity V is a unique asymmetric game that features rich character stories with compelling gameplay. The game will feature a crossover event with Japanese steam-punk style artist Mitsuji Kamata. Additionally, the ONCE series costume of the Photographer will be available for detectives in the future.

Tank Company

After first releasing in China, Tank Company will be rolling out globally in the near future and will introduce even more players to this online multiplayer game that puts 15 players against 15 more in a selection of real historical tanks from World War II and the Cold War on a variety of maps. Players will also be able to level up their tanks and customize them, in addition to joining a clan and exploring scorching deserts, snow-covered towns, and much more.

Ace Racer

Ace Racer is set to speed out of early access and present players with the full version of this over-the-top high-speed racing game that has cars flashing through walls, transforming while driving, and even dashing into the sky. Take to the streets in Tokyo, California, Shanghai, and more, all while becoming the best racer in the world.

Vikingard

Vikingard was first shown at NetEase Connect 2021 and it is back this year following its launch on March 21, 2022. This simulation RPG for mobile devices that puts you in charge of a Viking tribe fighting for glory allows players to travel through Scandinavia and Europe in search of

battles, all while growing your tribe, creating alliances, and conquering new lands. You can even forge romances and raise pets. In June, Vikingard will also receive the Midsummer expansion, which will expand the game world even further.

Lost Light

Lost Light is a survival shooter for PC and mobile that is currently in open beta. In Lost Light, players take on the role of a member of the Firefly squad, who are at war with the Marauders in a post-apocalyptic future. Players are encouraged to choose their own ways to survive the so-called ‘Exclusion Zone’ – which allows you to either look for resources stealthily, or fight with others to loot their scarce items. Lost Light provides a PvPvE experience that also boasts cross-platform play across PC and mobile.

Lost Light will start its first iOS test in Q3 2022 and those who watch NetEase Connect 2022 could redeem a limited in-game bundle that includes key items to improve the efficiency of their shelter upgrades.

After joining forces nearly 15 years ago, Activision-Blizzard has remained one of the biggest and most successful names in video games. In addition to housing legendary PC franchises like Warcraft and Diablo, Activision-Blizzard is home to Call of Duty, one of the most successful and culturally relevant video game franchises of the 2000s.

As of late, the mega-publisher has narrowed its focus onto its biggest franchises — CoD, Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch — though it also owns classic series like Starcraft, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Tony Hawk, and Guitar Hero — franchises that may see new life under Microsoft’s ownership.

For now, however, we’re focusing on the games we know are currently in development at Activision Blizzard. For this list we’ve compiled PC and/or console games (and their major expansions) only; mobile games are not currently included, and we’re not referencing any rumored projects.

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

More on games in development:

Diablo Immortal

Blizzard’s next game is Diablo Immortal, a free-to-play Diablo spinoff coming to mobile and PC (open beta) on June 2. The MMO action-RPG tells an all-new story set between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3.

Immortal features six character classes: Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Necromancer, and Wizard. For the first time in the series, you’ll be able to change classes mid-game while retaining your overall progress. Additional classes will be added after launch, according to Blizzard.

Wyatt Cheng, previously the patch lead for Diablo 3, serves as Immortal’s game director. Rod Fergusson, meanwhile, is overseeing the project as Blizzard’s general manager of the Diablo franchise.

Diablo Immortal was notoriously revealed at BlizzCon 2018 to a wave of negativity from fans expecting to see the next proper Diablo game, which would be revealed at the following year’s event (more on Diablo 4 below). We came away from some hands-on time with Diablo Immortals thinking it showed “enormous amounts of promise.”

World of Warcraft Classic: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion

Blizzard is also working on an updated version of its Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft Classic. As with the expansion’s original release in 2008, Wrath of the Lich King adds the Northrend map; new dungeons, including Violet Hold and the Culling of Stratholme; new raids; an achievement system; and the Death Knight character class.

Unlike the 2008 version, Blizzard’s Wrath of the Lich King revival will not add a dungeon finder system. This decision was made to “keep what the team perceives to be the spirit of the WoW Classic community,” according to game lead Brian Birmingham.

Wrath of the Lich King ushered in the most popular era in WoW history, resulting in 2010’s peak subscriber count of 12 million players. The following expansion, Cataclysm, represented a drastic shift for the MMO. Blizzard has said it’s open to revisiting Cataclysm in WoW Classic if the community wants it.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the next entry in Activision’s historic FPS franchise. MW2 will be a direct sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare reboot.

While Activision has made MW2 official, few concrete details have been revealed about the next Call of Duty. What we do know is that Infinity Ward is once again leading development on the sequel, reportedly with the support of 10 other studios, using a new game engine. The developer has also revealed the MW2 logo.

2019’s Modern Warfare campaign ends with Price requesting the formation of Task Force 141 (the protagonists of 2009’s original MW2), likely setting up another story with Price, Soap, Ghost, and Gaz.

Infinity Ward is simultaneously leading development on the next iteration of Call of Duty Warzone (more below). Despite the pending acquisition of Activision by Microsoft, MW2 will be released on both Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

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Call of Duty Warzone 2

Alongside Modern Warfare 2, Infinity Ward is developing the next iteration of Call of Duty Warzone. Activision describes Warzone 2 as “a massive evolution of [battle royale], with an all-new playspace and new sandbox mode.” Warzone 2 is being “built from the ground-up,” according to Activision, and will feature “groundbreaking innovations.” It will once again be free to play.

Warzone has been a massive success for Activision, amassing over 100 million players as of April 2021 — a number that’s certainly grown over the past year — and helping propel the company to record-high revenues in 2021.

The sequel is coming at a time when players are experiencing numerous issues with the original Warzone — issues Infinity Ward vows to fix with Warzone 2.

Diablo 4

Shortly after leaking by way of an art book advertisement, Diablo 4 was officially announced at BlizzCon 2019. The fourth mainline entry in Blizzard’s legendary action-RPG series takes players to Sanctuary, a more open-world setting that exists separate from heaven and hell.

Diablo 4 is said to be tapping into the franchise’s darker roots; former game director Luis Barriga described the game as gothic, medieval, and “a bleak and shattered hellscape bereft of hope and beset by demons.” Some of its design is even inspired by horror manga artist Junji Ito.

Barriga also explained how Diablo 4 pulls from the series’ legacy, saying it’s inspired by Diablo 1’s sense of dread, Diablo 2’s class line-up and loot chase, and Diablo 3’s combat.

Barriga, along with lead level designer Jesse McCree and WoW designer Jonathon LeCraft, left Blizzard last August amid ongoing allegations of harassment and abusive work culture. Longtime Blizzard employee Joe Shely, previously Diablo 4’s lead designer, has since been promoted to game director.

Diablo 4 will have five playable classes at launch, four of which have already been revealed: Barbarian, Druid, Sorceress, and Rogue. In a first for the series, players will be able to customize their characters’ looks and armor colors — a system that lends itself to Diablo 4’s cosmetic-only microtransactions.

In addition to a linear story campaign, Diablo 4’s shared open world is filled with crafting, trading, world events, side quests, PVP areas, and camps. Sanctuary comprises five distinct regions, all of which feature weather effects and day/night cycles.

Diablo 4 – Character Art Gallery

Enemy families in Diablo 4 include the Cultists, the Drowned, the Fallen, and the Cannibals. Series villain Lilith also returns as an antagonist in Diablo 4.

The last official word from Blizzard came when it pushed Diablo 4 from 2022 to 2023 or later. The action-RPG has only been announced for last-gen consoles and PC, though we imagine PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions are in the works as well.

Overwatch 2

Announced alongside Diablo 4 at BlizzCon 2019, Overwatch 2 is the next iteration of Blizzard’s multiplayer FPS. The sequel features PvP and PvE modes alike, including co-op story missions, replayable hero missions, and an all-new 5v5 competitive mode called Push.

Campaign missions will support four-player co-op and tell the story of Overwatch members fighting against Null Sector. Each mission will feature cinematic intros and outros that seamlessly cut to and from gameplay.

Hero missions, meanwhile, are replayable PvE encounters designed to help players level up and progress through characters’ new skill trees. Former game director Jeff Kaplan likened hero missions to adventure mode in Diablo or world quests in World of Warcraft.

Kaplan, who left Blizzard last April, was replaced by assistant director Aaron Keller. Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny also left Blizzard in the middle of Overwatch 2’s development.

The sequel also introduces new maps for its PvP and PvE modes — NYC, Rome, Toronto, Gothenburg, Monte Carlo, Rio de Janeiro, India — and new heroes, the first of which is the rail gun-wielding Sojourn. Additional new Overwatch 2 heroes will be revealed ahead of the official PvP launch, which will occur separately from its PvE launch. Blizzard has yet to reveal release dates for either game mode.

All 32 original Overwatch heroes return for the sequel with aesthetic changes, though some — Sombra, Bastion, Doomfist, and Orisa, for example — are being reworked gameplay-wise as well.

An Overwatch 2 beta on PC is running now through May 17. Despite its PvP still being in beta, Overwatch 2 is being used for Overwatch League 2022, which kicked off on May 5.

Like Diablo 4, Overwatch 2 was delayed from 2022 to 2023 or later. It, too, has only been announced for last-gen consoles and PC, though PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions are a safe bet. The shooter is also coming to Switch with “some compromises.”

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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

Dragonflight is the ninth expansion for Blizzard’s long-running MMORPG. As the name implies, this expansion is all about dragons: Dragonflight introduces a new hero class, Dracthyr, who can switch between dragon and human forms, and an all-new Dragon Riding mount system. Draconic characters from the series’ past, including Alexstrasza, Kalecgos, Ebonhorn, and Wrathion, return for the new storyline.

The expansion takes players to the Dragon Isles, an area made up of four new, environmentally diverse leveling zones: Waking Shores, Ohn’ahran Plains, Azure Span, and Thaldraszus. To complement the new Dragon Riding system, these areas were designed to be more vertical than previous expansion areas.

Dragonflight also overhauls talents, crafting, and the UI. It raises the level cap to 70 and, as always, the expansion adds new quests, dungeons, and raids.

New Blizzard Survival Game

Blizzard’s sixth and final project on this list is an unannounced survival game. The AAA project, in development for PC and console, was revealed earlier in 2022 as part of a recruitment effort by Blizzard. The studio describes the game world as “a place full of heroes we have yet to meet, stories yet to be told, and adventures yet to be lived. A vast realm of possibility, waiting to be explored.”

Alongside the recruitment post, Blizzard unveiled two pieces of concept art: One depicts a warrior adorned in typical fantasy-like armor, the other shows two modern-day characters seemingly stumbling across a fantastical world.

Concept art for Blizzard’s unannounced survival game. (Image: Blizzard Entertainment)

Blizzard has yet to reveal any information beyond that initial post, though studio president Mike Ybarra said he’s “played many hours of this project with the team and I’m incredibly excited about the team’s vision and the brand-new world it presents for players to immerse themselves in together.” The last part of his quote — “to immerse themselves in together” — may imply co-op functionality within the game.

A Pokémon Red and Blue fan reimagining has placed the games’ classic artwork into a modern remake that will sadly never come to exist.

The @pokeyugami Twitter account, which describes itself as a group “creating fan art with the theme of Pokémon in [a] space-time different from ours,” posted a short clip of protagonist Red walking through Viridian forest from the original games.

Instead of being top-down 2D, however, or in a modern 3D style like the remakes, Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, this style blends new and old with a painted-style artwork over 3D models.

A handful of Pokémon can be seen in the video including Caterpie, Weedle, and, of course, Pikachu (who’s eating an Oran berry), all lore accurate to the Viridian Forest area. A Pokéball can also be spotted in the background before Red gets locks eyes with a Youngster trainer.

The clip is just a fan project and not tied to Nintendo or The Pokémon Company in any way, so we’ll never actually see a Pokémon game look this way, unless the off chance the companies themselves are inspired by the fan art.

Pokémon appears to be going in very different directions though, with the aforementioned Let’s Go games and the more recent Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl showing that future remakes will more likely follow a modern cartoon-looking art style.

The Pokémon Company is experimenting a bit though with Pokémon Legends: Arceus being released earlier this year, which threw players back in time to an ancient version of the Sinnoh region from Diamond and Pearl.

The next mainline entries will return to traditional Pokémon gameplay though, albeit in an open world, as Nintendo announced in February that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet would be released towards the end of 2022.

Image Credit: @pokeyugami on Twitter.

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

Art Credit: Pokeyugami

Fan casting for MultiVersus has gotten pretty wild after the Internet realised HBO characters could make it into the game. Now everyone from Tony Soprano to John Oliver are being suggested as playable fighters in the surprisingly impressive WB Smash Bros-alike.

Twitter users were surprised by the inclusion of Arya Stark, a character who comes from arguably very different source material than the rest of the cast, which is primarily drawn from the history of Warner Bros. cartoons and DC comics.

If Arya Stark, a character in a famously violent and sexually explicit TV show is absolutely fine to appear in this game, what character from the Warner Bros. and HBO back-catalogue would be off the table? People have since been sharing their ideal surprise appearances from HBO classics. Honestly, we’d love to see most of them.

The clear favourite – based on the sheer weight of tweets alone – is seemingly Tony Soprano who, much like Ayra Stark, ended his critically acclaimed TV show with an uncertain future. But what’s to say the real ending of The Sopranos, after the fade to black, isn’t Tony falling through a portal?

Some characters are more obvious than others. The Wire’s Omar Little (portrayed by the late Michael K. Williams) is a fan favorite. His iconic appearance borders on the larger-than-life even for the grounded and slow fiction of the series he’s known from. He’s kitted out with body armor and a series of ballistic weaponry. What I’m saying is that I think he could defeat Finn from Adventure Time.

You might be thinking, John Oliver is just a regular human man without any superpowers and possibly not even average levels of physical strength… but the same could be said of Scooby Doo’s Shaggy, who has been elevated to mythical levels of power through the willing adoption of the Powerful Shaggy Meme. He’s been included among MultiVersus’s confirmed roster as a credible opponent for Batman. Basically: get Oliver in.

And what about characters that aren’t known for violence? Well, MultiVersus includes a playable version of The Iron Giant, a character whose pacifism in the face of armed opposition serves as a defining symbol of love’s triumph over fear. And yet he’s in here punching Bugs Bunny. If developer Player First Games are happy to include him, they’re probably more than comfortable with Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw using a pair of Louboutins like daggers.

Frankly, the requests are endless, and the ideas are consistently weirdly entertaining, so here are some more of our favourites:

And if you want my opinion, all I’m saying is Logan Roy of Succession doesn’t inherently make any less sense than Arya Stark and they should see if Brian Cox would come in and do the voice.

Mat Jones is IGN’s UK Social Coordinator, and will turn back into a pumpkin at midnight.

Thumbnail credit: Anthony Neste/Getty Images