Category: Gaming

Here in the US, we haven’t seen any price drop in the Nintendo Switch, which is kind of a drag. To be fair, though… Nintendo doesn’t really need to drop the price, because Nintendo Switch still sells extremely well in spite of being 5 years old. However, much like PS5 and Xbox Series X, the best way to get a Nintendo Switch OLED Model is with a bundled deal. Thankfully, Dell is offering two such deals right now.

Nintendo Switch OLED Deals

These deals don’t save you much, just $20, but that’s a year’s worth of vanilla Nintendo Switch Online service. Plus it’s a nice way to get a whole stack of Switch stuff in one fell swoop.

You can choose between either Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury or Kirby and the Forgotten Land and honestly that’s a really tough choice. I’m leaning toward recommending Kirby over 3D World, only because it’s a newer game. Either way you go, you’re getting a delightful Nintendo experience.

Having an extra set of Joy-con is also nice, since they’ve had some hiccups with availability (just like everything else electronic).

This is about as close as we’ve gotten to a proper Nintendo Switch deal, so even though it’s not great, a deal’s a deal.

Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. You can find him hosting the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast.

After nearly two years, Sucker Punch has released what appears to be the final planned patch for Ghost of Tsushima and has said it is not “actively working on any additional patches at the moment.”

As reported by PlayStation LifeStyle, Sucker Punch shared the news on the notes for Patch 2.18 of Ghost of Tsushima, indirectly teasing that they are full steam ahead on what is undoubtedly its next, unannounced project.

“While we aren’t actively working on any additional patches at the moment, we will continue to monitor feedback on the community-run Gotlegends subreddit and messages sent to @SuckerPunchProd on Twitter for any high priority bugs or issues that emerge,” Sucker Punch wrote. “We want to say a huge THANK YOU to the entire community for the incredible amount of support and feedback we’ve gotten since launch.

“When Legends launched in October 2020, we never expected to have such an active community more than a year and a half later, and we could not be more thankful to everyone who has been with us on this journey!”

Ghost of Tsushima was released for PS4 on July 17, 2020, and the Director’s Cut for PS5 and PS4 followed on August 20, 2021. While it began its life as a single-player game, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends brought a well-received multiplayer component to the title on October 16, 2020.

Ghost of Tsushima was a bonafide hit for Sony, and a film based on its world is currently in development at Sony Pictures with screenwriter Takashi Doscher and John Wick director Chad Stahelski.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Ron Gilbert, the mind behind Monkey Island, confirmed another installment in the classic franchise earlier this month. The sixth installment, Return to Monkey Island, will feature the return of Gilbert along with Dave Grossman, who collaborated with Secret of Monkey Island and LeChuck’s Revenge.

In an interview with Adventuregamers.com, Gilbert and Grossman shared a little more about Return to Monkey Island. Despite Gilbert’s distaste for April Fools, here’s what he had to say about announcing that he might be working on a new Monkey Island game on April 1 before formally announcing it a few days later.

“It was maybe about the time right after I wrote that If I Made Another Monkey Island thing [in 2013], and I just thought, you know—it was a weird fantasy, I was like oh, I’d buy the rights back, and I’d announce it on April 1, and it’d be great,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert also addressed his famous reluctance to make a new Monkey Island game unless he owned the IP.

“I think the more important thing, rather than owning it, was that I really wanted to have creative freedom. I didn’t want to be making a game and having somebody tell me what I should make. It’s not a work-for-hire gig. So that was probably more important than actually owning it, was being able to make the game we wanted to make.”

Two years ago, the whole situation came to a head when Gilbert met a Digital Devolver representative, who in turn put him in contact with the head of licensing at Lucasfilm. Shortly after that meeting, Gilbert flew to Grossman to seriously discuss what they would do with another Monkey Island game.

“We just thrashed all sorts of ideas and talked about what are the themes, and what do we want to say in the game, all that stuff,” Gilbert said.

For the sequel, Gilbert says he will take a more of a hands-on approach to the game’s development. Right now he has a team of twenty-five people working on Return To Monkey Island, which will feature a “modern” art style. Gilbert explained that the reasoning for changing the art style was that he wanted to “embrace something new.”

Gilbert also explained how it’s always been important to him that Return To Monkey starts where Monkey Island 2 ended, so it’ll pick up at the amusement park where the second Monkey Island left off.

Return To Monkey Island will retain the classic point-and-click style, but with a more evolved interface. It’s set to release later this year.

Luis Joshua Gutierrez is a freelance writer for IGN.

Microsoft is reportedly looking into letting advertisers insert ads into free-to-play Xbox games. This program is reportedly going to launch by the third quarter of this year.

According to Business Insider, these ads could show up as rendered billboards in a racing game. However, it wasn’t able to be confirmed whether these advertisements would extend to avatar skins or video ads.

Interestingly, Microsoft reportedly doesn’t intend to take a cut of the advertising revenue and is more interested in building out Xbox’s advertising network, as it is said to be trying to identify which companies and ad agencies to work with. Instead, the revenue from the ads will be shared between the game developer and the respective ad company.

Microsoft reportedly wants to provide game developers the opportunity to make more money from their free-to-play games. It has been trying to build out Xbox’s in-game ad network since between 2018-2019, but plans accelerated in 2020 due to the release of the Xbox Series S|X.

Microsoft reportedly also has some concerns about the potential backlash this initiative from consumers could look like, as console players aren’t accustomed to seeing in-game ads, unlike mobile players. For example, EA placed in-game ads for UFC 4 but removed them after fan outcry.

The company is also worried about securing its customers’ data and keeping it out of other companies’ hands. As such, Microsoft reportedly has no immediate plans to let advertisers use its data collected from Bing and other sites and software in order to target Xbox players.

A Microsoft spokesperson said in a comment to Business Insider, “We are always looking for ways to improve the experience for players and developers but we don’t have anything further to share.” Advertisements are currently limited to places such as the Xbox dashboard.

In-game ads aren’t necessarily a new concept. Former president Barack Obama hosted in-game ads on EA games such as Burnout Paradise, Madden 09, and Skate when he was campaigning to become the next Commander-in-Chief back in 2008.

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

In the grim, unforgiving world of Elden Ring, there are no characters that can truly be considered heroes — not even the protagonist. But one community member has risen to fame in the last week: a naked man wearing nothing but a jar on his head who waits outside the door to the game’s hardest boss under the polite request of a name: ‘Let me solo her’.

Let Me Solo Her (who asked in an email to go by either his Elden Ring moniker or LMSH for short) is an unassuming, altruistic player who has been dropping his summon sign outside the boss fight door of Malenia, for the last week or more. Malenia, while not a mandatory fight for finishing Elden Ring, is the culmination of multiple sidequests and has become notorious in the community as one of the most difficult battles FromSoftware has ever designed. So naturally, there are plenty of players who feel they want to finish it for completion, but are struggling to do so. Enter LMSH.

While Elden Ring is largely a solo adventure, players can opt-in to co-op using certain items that will reveal “summon signs” — gold markings on the ground that allow them to call other players (who have opted into being summoned) to their games and work together until a dungeon is completed, a boss defeated, or someone dies. In LMSH’s case, he simply drops his summon sign outside Malenia’s boss door and, once called upon, heads inside the boss chamber and immediately proceeds to wreck Malenia without anyone else’s help. This both allows whoever is hosting him in their game to get the kill and move on with the story, but also provides a hell of a show.

LMSH’s story is a straightforward one: he fell in love with Souls games after playing Dark Souls 3, and has previously been an avid PvP player in other FromSoftware games. When Elden Ring came out, he picked the Samurai class and played through the game like anyone else. He’s on New Game+ at the moment and is currently working to finish all the sidequests.

But as skilled as his battles against Malenia look from the outside, LMSH wasn’t always a Malenia murderer. He tells me his first attempt to kill Malenia in his own game was rough — it took him 242 attempts, and he needed two summons to finish her off. But it was because of that extreme difficulty that LMSH felt motivated to help others.

“I chose Malenia to help others because I fell in love with her design,” LMSH says. “All her attacks are very graceful and she is unforgiving as a boss. Her infamous waterfowl dance is considered to be the [hardest] to dodge moveset from a FromSoft boss to date, so I decided to prove to others that it was not impossible.”

So he started working on his build and practicing. He has around 200 hours total on this character, is level 179, and does not plan on leveling up further. Currently, LMSH wields dual katanas — a Rivers of Blood+9 in his left hand and a Cold Uchigatana +25 with Hoarfrost Stomp. His talismans, for those wondering, are the Green Turtle, Viridian Amber Medallion, Kindred of Rot’s Exultation, and Claw Talisman.

At some point, he stripped naked and donned a pot on his head. I ask him why.

“It is a running tradition of Soulsborne games that the naked players are the most powerful beings in the game,” he replies. “Why wear armor if you don’t plan on getting hit at all? And the pot is a good luck charm from the character Iron Fist Alexander whom I admire.”

Now, with hours of practice, LMSH is a Malenia master. He says he’s become very skilled at reading her animations, attacks, and sound queues with ease. He’s lost count of how many Malenias he’s defeated, but he estimates it’s somewhere between 300 and 400. LMSH doesn’t have a perfect record, though, and admits he’s lost to her “more than I’d like to admit.”

“Sometimes the lag between the host and myself is too much so I get killed instantly sometimes, or miss the crucial dodge timing on Malenia’s waterfowl dance,” he says. “I would like to express my apology to those I have failed.”

One myth he’d like to debunk, though, is that he bails on people who try to help him out. Even though his name explicitly asks players who summon him to allow him to do the fight on his own, LMSH doesn’t dip if others join in. Anyone running around with the same name who leaves at the first sign of cooperation is, apparently, an imposter.

“The ‘Let me solo her’ in that video is not me,” he assures me. “I always wear a jar on my head and I do not bail on any Malenia boss fights. If the host or other summon decides to help, I have no problems whatsoever.”

LMSH has quickly become a legend in the Elden Ring community as a result of his support of so many and unusual appearance. A surge of fanart depicting him destroying Malenia has cropped up in recent days, including a 3D printed sculpture that LMSH says he’s going to get for himself. He’s thrilled by the community support for his unusual endeavor, and the numerous kind words expressed by players who he’s helped.

Though he does eventually want to move onto New Game+2, LMSH says he really enjoys fighting Malenia, especially because dodging her waterfowl dance “feels so satisfying.” He intends to help other players in his spare time for a while longer, and notes that you can find his summon sign outside Malenia’s door on PC, usually between 3:00 and 10:00 PM CST.

“I would like to thank the Elden Ring community for all the support and hype around my character,” he concludes. “My summon sign will always be down for fellow Tarnished in need.”

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

Everyone’s favorite Lovecraftian Santa, 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 can be found at The Tower on April 15 through April 19. To reach him, travel to the landing point at The Courtyard and make your way to the Hangar. You’ll find ol’ snake-face chilling near the stairs at the back of the Hangar area.

Xûr can be found in the Hangar of The Tower.

What’s Xûr Selling Today?

Xûr has at least one good find this week. Check it!

Xûr’s Exotic offering this weekend.

Please Note: Xûr’s inventory is (once again) bugged for the time being and displays armor rolls that are different from what you get if you actually make the purchase. Below are the rolls you actually get by buying his inventory.

Exotic Engram

The Queensbreaker – Exotic Linear Fusion Rifle

Ophidia Spathe – Exotic Hunter Chest Armor

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

ACD/0 Feedback Fence – Exotic Titan Gauntlets

• 7 Mobility
• 11 Resilience
• 13 Recovery
• 7 Discipline
• 13 Intellect
• 9 Strength
• Total: 60

Skull of Dire Ahamkara – Exotic Warlock Helmet

• 7 Mobility
• 8 Resilience
• 14 Recovery
• 6 Discipline
• 12 Intellect
• 13 Strength
• Total: 60

The major highlight this week is the incredible Ophidia Spathe roll for Hunters, which have stats in all the right places (more Intellect would have been nice, but I’m not complaining). The Skull of Dire Ahamkara also isn’t bad, but skip in the Titan gauntlets. Obviously, if you’re missing The Queensbreaker from your collection grab that too, though it hasn’t been a part of the meta in quite some time.

Exotic Weapons

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

Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon

• Paracausal Shot
• Smallbore
• Alloy Magazine
• Quickdraw
• Combat Grip

Dead Man’s Tale – Exotic Scout Rifle

• Cranial Spike
• Fluted Barrel
• Ricochet Rounds
• Vorpal Weapon
• Composite Stock

Hawkmoon‘s roll this week is one of my favorites for PvP. Richochet Rounds on Dead Man’s Tale is an amusing idea and Vorpal pairs excellently with this weapon so we’ve got a great roll this week for that as well!

Legendary Weapons

Xûr’s Legendary Weapon offerings this weekend.

Last Perdition – Pulse Rifle

• SRO-37 Ocular/SPO-57 Front
• Extended Mag/Flared Magwell
• Moving Target
• Zen Moment
• Handling Masterwork

Truthteller – Grenade Launcher

• Countermass/Quick Launch
• Blinding Grenades/Concussion Grenades
• Feeding Frenzy
• Swashbuckler
• Handling Masterwork

Hoosegow – Rocket Launcher

• Volatile Launch/Linear Compensator
• Alloy Casing/Impact Casing
• Tracking Module
• Kill Clip
• Blast Radius Masterwork

Friction Fire – Submachine Gun

• Hammer-Forged Rifling/Polygonal Rifling
• Alloy Magazine/Flared Magwell
• Killing Wind
• Wellspring
• Handling Masterwork

The Third Axiom – Pulse Rifle

• Arrowhead Brake/ Extended Barrel
• Appended Mag/High Calibur Rounds
• Rangefinder
• One For All
• Handling Masterwork

Fractethyst – Shotgun

• Smallbore/Corkscrew Rifling
• Assault Mag/Steady Rounds
• Slideshot
• Harmony
• Handling Masterwork

Wolftone Draw – Combat Bow

• Agile Bowstring/Flexible String
• Combat Arrow Shaft/Straight Fletching
• Threat Detector
• Demolitionist
• Charge/Draw Time Masterwork

A few interesting rolls this week, between Hoosegow‘s decent roll with tracking for those who don’t want to aim, to the blinding Truthteller with some nice perks that work well with a grenade launcher. Also, Last Perdition and The Third Axiom are both great pulse rifles that can come in handy when you need to match elemental types in PvE so consider grabbing one or both of those if you don’t have good primaries for those elements.

Warlock Legendary Armor

For Warlocks, Xûr is selling the Wing Theorem set which includes:

Xûr’s Legendary Armor for Warlocks this week.

Wing Theorem Gauntlets

• 19 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 9 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 11 Intellect
• 20 Strength
• Total: 63

Wing Theorem Chest Armor

• 10 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 10 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 22 Strength
• Total: 48

Wing Theorem Helmet

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

Wing Theorem Leg Armor

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

Wing Theorem Bond

There’s a few good pieces here for any Warlocks looking to max out their Strength stat (if that’s even a thing), but aside from that there’s nothing amazing here.

Titan Legendary Armor

For Titans, Xûr is selling the Wing Discipline set which includes:

Xûr’s Legendary Armor for Titans this week.

Wing Discipline Gauntlets

• 12 Mobility
• 6 Resilience
• 12 Recovery
• 6 Discipline
• 26 Intellect
• 2 Strength
• Total: 64

Wing Discipline Chest Armor

• 10 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 10 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 22 Strength
• Total: 48

Wing Discipline Helmet

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

Wing Discipline Leg Armor

• 11 Mobility
• 10 Resilience
• 12 Recovery
• 6 Discipline
• 10 Intellect
• 16 Strength
• Total: 65

Wing Discipline Mark

Titans have some pretty good options this week, especially the extremely high-stat boots and the helmet that’s made for the smartest Titan of all time. Where are my intelligent Titans at?!

Hunter Legendary Armor

For Hunters, Xûr is selling the Wing Contender set which includes:

Xûr’s Legendary Armor for Hunters this week.

Wing Contender Gauntlets

• 8 Mobility
• 17 Resilience
• 7 Recovery
• 12 Discipline
• 6 Intellect
• 12 Strength
• Total: 62

Wing Contender Chest Armor

• 10 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 10 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 2 Intellect
• 22 Strength
• Total: 48

Wing Contender Helmet

• 11 Mobility
• 9 Resilience
• 10 Recovery
• 7 Discipline
• 8 Intellect
• 17 Strength
• Total: 62

Wing Contender Leg Armor

• 21 Mobility
• 2 Resilience
• 6 Recovery
• 2 Discipline
• 13 Intellect
• 12 Strength
• Total: 56

Wing Contender Cloak

Not a lot of love for Hunters this week, unfortunately!

That’s a wrap on Xûr for this week, Guardians! Are you excited for weekly rotating raids/dungeons in Destiny? Huge news! Also, congrats to all of those who were on #TeamMechs like me! Huge win! 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.

XSEED Games announced plans to publish No More Heroes 3 on next-gen consoles in Fall 2022.

No More Heroes 3 was originally released exclusively on Nintendo Switch, but the action-adventure game will be coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in North America this fall.

Its arrival on new platforms will also come with some upgrades, including “improved HD visuals, framerates, and faster loading times to keep players dishing out eye-popping ultraviolence” according to an XSEED press release.

XSEED Games, which previously handled PC ports for No More Heroes 1 and 2, announced pre-orders for the new upgrade’s Day 1 Edition on Friday. News about a digital release isn’t quite ready yet, though.

The announcement comes months after Grasshopper Manufacture, the Japanese studio behind the No More Heroes series, became a subsidiary of China’s NetEase Games.

No More Heroes 3 was first released in 2021 and follows up on the cult-classic series, which has been running since 2007. The newest installment expands on the story of “otaku hero” Travis Touchdown, who’s back to defend Earth against Prince FU (and to climb his way to the top of the Galactic Superhero Rankings) in another hack-and-slash adventure.

IGN reviewed No More Heroes 3 at release, calling it “amusing but extremely uneven” due to lackluster performance and repetition. Hopefully No More Heroes 3 will receive an improvement with a jump to new systems.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer for IGN.

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 Breath of the Wild 2, one game’s “devastating” experience with PlayStation Plus, The Witcher, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.

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!

Guerrilla Games is already thinking about the Horizon: Forbidden West sequel.

Speaking to VG247, creative director Mathijs de Jonge said that, just like how Horizon: Zero Dawn set up story beats for Forbidden West, seeds have been planted for the third game too.

“This game ends with another big cliffhanger where we’re setting up some things for the next game once again,” he said.

De Jonge didn’t give much else away but said there are several story elements the otherwise unconfirmed third game can pull from.

“Horizon is really about mystery; each of our stories has been about uncovering mysteries in both the old world and the present day, when the game takes place,” he said. “Indeed, there is plenty of backstory that we can tap into to develop new storylines and create new mysteries from what we’ve already established.”

The same happened in Forbidden West, as de Jonge explained that the terraform system needing to be repaired was a good starting point for the story to jump off from.

“On top of that, we had storylines from the past, from the Old World, that we wanted to tap into. So we had a lot to work with, as well as knowing how we wanted to evolve Aloy’s story arc, and it all just mixed together from there,” he added.

Horizon: Forbidden West launched in February and has received several post-launch updates since based on player feedback. IGN named it as one of the ten best open world games of all time alongside The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Elden Ring.

In our 9/10 review, we said: “A triumphant combination of enthralling combat, top-tier creature and character design, and a captivating open world, Horizon Forbidden West is an absolute blast and fantastic showcase for the power of the PS5.”

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

Club Penguin‘s fan-made recreation has been shut down and seized by police over copyright issues.

Three individuals were arrested following action taken by Disney, who owned the original site and shut it down in 2017, but they have since been released. As reported by TechCrunch, Club Penguin Rewritten was set up later that year but as of April 2022 has ceased to exist.

The website’s Discord was emptied except for one message from an admin that said “we have voluntarily given control over the website to the police for them to continue their copyright investigation.”

A statement was also published on the Club Penguin Rewritten website from DC Daryl Fryatt of the City of London Police’s IP crime unit (PIPCU) that said a complaint was made under copyright law.

It continued: “Three people were arrested on April 12 on suspicion of distributing materials infringing copyright and searches were carried out. They have been released under investigation and to aid with the police investigation, they agreed to sign over the website to the control of PIPCU.”

It’s not the first Club Penguin fan remake to be shut down but given the over seriousness and involvement of police in this case, but it may be the last.

A server was taken down in 2020 seemingly in relation to reports of e-sex taking place while other remakes have involve horrifying blood sports.

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