Monument of Triumph will be Bungie's last major content update for Destiny 2, but that isn't stopping the studio from launching what some fans think will be its "best singular update in years."

The studio outlined the biggest changes for weapons, artifacts, and more in the upcoming update ahead of its June 9 release date in a Dev Insights blog post today. It followed an additional, well-received Dev Insights article published yesterday, which also confirmed a smorgasbord of other changes set to come to the game just as players prepare for the beginning of the end.

Before digging into one of the biggest updates players have received in years, Bungie opened its post with a message to the fans who have shown up for the team since it announced plans to discontinue support for Destiny 2 last week. It's a bittersweet letter to those who have played Destiny since its original launch in 2014, and a thank you to the players ready to jump into Monument of Triumph.

"Every memory and every moment you've shared with us over the years has fueled our future," Bungie said. "Every ounce of our June update is for you, and we hope you feel it as you continue to read through our insight articles and upcoming [This Week in Destiny articles], let alone when you're playing the update with us on June 9.

"Yeah, it's a bit sappy and sentimental... but that's how we're feeling while reading all of your stories over the last week. We hope to keep building worlds to inspire friendship for years to come and truly couldn't do it without you and your voices."

Come June 9, players can expect a host of changes ranging from small to large as Bungie aims to tackle what have been some of the most-requested tweaks. These include an increase from 360 to 400 RPM for auto rifles, seven returning Artifacts, and, as confirmed by Bungie principal comms manager Dylan 'dmg04' Gafner, Catalysts for every Exotic weapon. These aren't just system reworks and buffs – these are changes players have begged to see put into action for months if not years.

All of these changes and more will drop with Monument of Triumph in June, but players have already made a judgement call. Weeks before the final major patch for Destiny 2, players are calling this one of the best updates the game has received since the sequel originally launched in 2017.

"They’re actually giving us everything we could want. Oh my god bruh," one Reddit user reacted.

"This is going to be the best singular update in years," another said. "The devs were finally able to put on their chef hat and really cook after all this time."

"Hard to shake the 'YOU COULD HAVE DONE THIS THE WHOLE TIME???' feeling of every piece of news with this update but I'm not going to complain, community sentiment being at recent highs with this update is the only chance in hell we have of getting a D3," another fan said.

For now, it looks like Monument of Triumph will help Destiny 2 go out with a bang instead of giving it a second wind, but that isn't stopping players from trying to breathe new life into Bungie's sci-fi shooter franchise. A number of fan initiatives have emerged in the wake of the announcement that support would soon end, including a popular petition (which has reached more than 300,000 signatures at the time of this article's publication), as well as a community-driven server slam.

Bungie warned that next month's long-in-development update would focus on quality-of-life improvements back in February, but how long the changes detailed today have been in the cards is unclear. For now, a Bloomberg report has stated that Destiny 3 is not in active development.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Xbox boss Asha Sharma has reacted to negative feedback at Microsoft’s decision to continue to show competing platform logos at its upcoming Xbox Games Showcase, suggesting it will stop doing so for future shows.

Sharma, who took over as boss of Xbox from Phil Spencer earlier this year, has embarked upon a rebrand of the gaming business in a bid to get core Xbox fans back onside following years of disenchantment. Early decisions include the end of the controversial ‘This is an Xbox’ marketing campaign, quickfire new Xbox console features, and switching from ‘Xbox’ to ‘XBOX’ in official branding.

But yesterday, following the delay of Fable to early 2027, Microsoft confirmed it would "continue the precedent" by highlighting competing platforms during its 2026 Xbox Showcase on June 7. Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty set the stage during an appearance on the Official Xbox Podcast, telling fans to expect the company to be transparent about what platforms its games are coming to, meaning you'll probably see a PlayStation logo or two pop up.

"We'll be very clear about what platforms a game is coming to and want to continue the precedent," Booty said. "I think we've got a good system going, where we make it clear in Showcase."

Sony, however, does not return the favor and include Xbox logos in trailers for games shown during its showcases, such as State of Play. So, while you’ll see the PS5 logo on the Microsoft hosted trailers for the likes of Fable, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and even Halo: Campaign Evolved, you won’t see the Xbox Series X and S logo on the same trailers hosted by Sony.

The logo confirmation came amid much debate about the potential of Microsoft to return to exclusive games, although Sharma has given no indication so far that she plans to do so. Earlier this month, it was reported that Sharma was “treading carefully” as she worked out what to do with exclusive games, but Microsoft has said it will “reevaluate our approach to exclusivity,” a tantalizing tease particularly for core fans who feel Xbox consoles have been devalued amid the company’s multiplatform push in recent years. Indeed, a return to Xbox exclusives topped the recently launched ‘XBOX Player Voice’ platform.

So, by highlighting the fact most of the games we’ll see in the Xbox Game Showcase are also coming to PS5, Microsoft is hammering home the point that it has no actual exclusive games, unlike Sony, which is retreating further into console exclusivity having pulled back from PC. At least, that’s the narrative coming from some hardcore Xbox fans, and it should be noted that Gears of War: E-Day is so far not confirmed for PS5.

Sharma reacted to disappointment specifically expressed by hardcore Xbox fan X / Twitter account Klobrille, who had said: “I feel like the bare minimum expectation many had was for Xbox to really focus on their own platform at least for the time of the Showcase.”

Sharma tweeted: “Seeing the feedback on logos. It was a miss, and I own it. We are talking about how we adjust for future XBOX shows.”

That response in itself has sparked discussion, with IGN’s own Ryan McCaffrey wondering how exactly pretending a game doesn’t exist on other platforms during your showcase helps gamers. “Exclusives are another matter, but if it's multiplatform, why try to convince anyone otherwise?” he tweeted.

"IMHO the people that are upset about this are really just upset that those games aren't exclusive to Xbox. I don't think pretending something is exclusive during your Showcase when it's really not is particularly beneficial to anyone."

Others, though, are happy with the response. “XBOX Showcase needs to be for XBOX fans,” said one fan. “You can’t win over new fans or keep current fans when promoting you don’t need an XBOX at your biggest spotlight of the year.”

Clearly, Sharma faces a tough job turning Xbox around financially while keeping hardcore fans on-side. It seems unlikely that Microsoft will all of a sudden ditch its multiplatform push, especially when it sees so much success on PS5 with the likes of the Forza Horizon games. As it stands, the big picture remains the same, whatever the case with logos. Earlier this week, Sharma reportedly warned staff that “hard choices” are ahead for Xbox. Reversing a decision you just reaffirmed a day earlier is just the start.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

IGN Live 2026 is nearly here, and we’re so excited to present a two-day celebration of gaming and entertainment filled with celebrity panels, exclusive game reveals, trailers, live stage shows, hands-on demos, giveaways, and so much more.

We have so much planned for IGN Live, and we wanted to provide an easy place to keep track of what's going on and how to watch all the fun. While we’ll be hosting IGN Live in-person in downtown Los Angeles at MAGIC BOX @ THE REEF on June 6-7 (Tickets are still on sale!), we’ll also be livestreaming the biggest moments!

To ensure you don’t miss a thing, you can check out everything you need to know about IGN Live below, and we encourage you to keep checking back as we will add new things (like the full schedule!) when it is revealed closer to the event!

When Is IGN Live 2026?

IGN Live will take place in downtown Los Angeles at MAGIC BOX @ THE REEF on June 6-7, and the event will be livestreamed each day at the following times;

• Saturday, June 6 at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 8pm BST
• Sunday, June 7 at 9:30am PT / 12:30pm ET / 5:30pm BST

How to Watch IGN Live 2026

Whether you join us in person at IGN Live or watch from the comfort of your own home, wherever in the world that may be, here are all the ways you can check out the livestream;

• IGN.com
• IGN's YouTube
• Steam
• Facebook
• Twitter / X
• Twitch
• IGN mobile apps
• Eurogamer
• VG247
• Rock Paper Shotgun

What to Expect From IGN Live 2026

We still have our full schedule to release and plenty of fun surprises, but we’ve begun revealing what fans can expect from IGN Live this year! For example, here are a few things we just announced earlier this week;

• Jackass: Steve-O, Poopies, Jasper, and Wee Man will be live in person at IGN Live
• Julie Chen Moonves will come by to celebrate the 1000th episode of Big Brother.
• A special look at the new Jason Universe x Dead by Daylight collaboration.
• WWE Superstar Bronson Reed will make a special appearance.
• Plus, IGN Live will include exclusive looks and some major upcoming movies and TV shows including:
  • Supergirl
  • The Vampire Lestat
  • The Walking Dead: Dead City

We’ve also shared some of our partners that will be part of IGN Live, and you can check those out below;

• Xbox will be on hand with multiple dev interviews and a showcase watch party
• Webtoon will present a special panel where they design new characters LIVE
• Poppy Playtime
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Series stars Gordon Cormier, Miyako stop by along with Executive Producers Christine Boylan, and Jabbar Raisani stop by to talk about Season 2 of the Netflix show.
• Control Resonant: Creative Director Mikael Kasurinen will be on hand to share updates on one of this year’s most-anticipated games.
• Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed: Tatiana Maslany will be on hand to talk about her new show, premiering May 20 on Apple TV.
• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis: Alix Wilton Regan stops by to take us behind the scenes of her portrayal of Lara Croft in the upcoming game.
• Rick and Morty: Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden will join us to talk about the newest season of the fan-favorite Adult Swim series.
• WWE Superstar Kevin Owens will make a special appearance.
• Magic: The Gathering: The team from Wizards of the Coast will break down a new series of cards.
• A special Star Trek 60th Anniversary panel from IDW Comics.
• Aniimo
• Aether & Iron
• Arknights: Endfield
• Cronos: Lazarus
• D-topia
• Demi and the Fractured Dream
• Diablo Immortal
• Forever Ago
• McFarlane Toys
• Grave Seasons
• Kick
• Mexican Ninja
• Miltisioner
• My Adventures with Superman
• New Rockstars vs. IGN -
• OVER REQUIEMZ
• Where Birds Sleep
• Wilderlings: The Lost Spring
• A Sea of Ashen Tulips
• Alkahest
• Astro Burn
• Bellwright
• Breathedge 2
• Bus Simulator 27
• Carnival Hunt
• Cast Outs
• Dogpile
• Don't Kill Them All
• Flock Off!
• Frog Sqwad
• Gate Guard Simulator
• GNAW
• Into the Dead: Crimson Heights
• Leaf Blower Co.
• Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed
• Poke a Nose
• Rewilders: The Lost Spring
• Shark Dentist
• Smallands 2
• Soul Walker
• Tanuki
• The Death of Robin Hood
• The Expanse: Osiris Reborn
• Trench Tales
• Truck World: Australia
• Under Canopies
• Warframe - Jade Shadows: Constellations
• Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy
• Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
• Roger Craig Smith (Sonic the Hedgehog, Batman, and more) and Patricia Summersett (Princess Zelda, Zyssyk from Star Wars Outlaws, and others) Gothic Remake from THQ Nordic
• Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced from Ubisoft
• The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4 from Critical Role, Titmouse, and Prime Video
• PowerWash Simulator 2 from from FuturLab
• Cape Fear from Apple TV
• Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity from Fathom and Viz Media
• The Terror: Devil in Silver from AMC+ and Shudder
• Sung Kang will be on hand to talk about his new movie Drifter
• Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh from Hulu’s Deli Boys will stop by to talk about the show.
• ID@Xbox will be on hand with multiple playable games.
• 2K

NVIDIA

The art director of Control Resonant and two guests from NVIDIA will be on stage at IGN Live for a discussion about the game and how it takes advantage of the full range of NVIDIA features, like DLSS 4.5, frame generation, ray reconstruction, path tracing, and more. We’ll chat about how the two sides work together to make games the best they can be, how technical limitations affect the dev process, and where the future of video game graphics is headed.

Presented by NVIDIA

Evil Dead Burn

The latest film in the Evil Dead franchise arrives this summer, and if you think your family reunions are horrific, just wait until you see Evil Dead Burn. From producer Sam Raimi, Evil Dead Burn unleashes the franchise’s most savage and terrifying ride to date, as one family comes together after the death of one of its members. It’s one hell of a family reunion.

Presented by Evil Dead Burn, only in theaters July 10.

What are you most excited about for IGN Live? Let us know below! Until the show kicks off, we’d love you to check out all the biggest moments from IGN Live 2025 to get an idea of what else to expect!

Oh, and we wanted to remind you once more that tickets are still on sale if you want to join us in-person at IGN Live!

When HoYoverse drops a new game, players have come to expect sweeping, high-fantasy orchestral arrangements and space-opera symphonies. But Zenless Zone Zero completely shatters that playbook, swapping out concert halls for the gritty, high-energy pulse of underground club culture and vintage aesthetics. From the lo-fi chill of Sixth Street to the high-octane EDM pounding through the Hollows, New Eridu’s music rises above most video game soundtracks as the driving heartbeat of the entire experience.

Behind this pivot into funk, acid jazz, and electronic sub-genres is Yang Wutao and the tight-knit team of producers and composers known as Sān-Z Studio. Operating more like a collective of late-night crate-diggers than traditional gaming composers, Sān-Z Studio's philosophy is fiercely straightforward: prioritize raw emotion over industry trends. Whether collaborating with global electronic icons like Tiësto or capturing the quiet, solitary headspace of a single character, the team approaches every track as a standalone piece of art meant to exist outside the boundaries of the game.

With the game's highly anticipated physical soundtrack dropping on vinyl via Laced Records on April 29th, fans are getting a tactile, analog way to bring a piece of the game's world into their own living rooms. IGN sat down with Yang Wutao to discuss the creation of the music for Zenless Zone Zero.

IGN: One of the standout features of Zenless Zone Zero is how every Agent feels very unique. When you'ree developing the character EPs, what's the internal process for selecting a genre to match an Agent's DNA? For example, how did you land on EDM?

Yang Wutao: Music exists to express emotion — otherwise it's just sound. So we've never had a "genre selection" process when it comes to character EPs. There's only ever one question: who is this character, and what do they want to say?

The IP team gives us a foundation, but we'll continue to dig deeper from there. We'll figure out things that aren't written into the lore, but a real person would naturally have. For example, nobody told us what Yanagi thinks about on her commute home, but she's so busy, so used to taking care of everyone else, that I naturally found myself wondering: when she's walking home alone, what's going through her mind? That's the moment I wanted to capture. Caesar looks tough on the outside, but she's a Pisces, someone who's genuinely sensitive underneath. So we leaned into that side of her. Burnice is wild and full of energy, so EDM's explosive feel just made sense.

We don't really think along the lines of, "Oh, this genre is trending, let's use it." Emotion comes first, and the genre follows. Once we're clear on who the character really is, the sound will naturally find itself.

After hearing me say all this, maybe go back and give all the EPs another listen — you might even spot a few cases where we fell flat in terms of expression.

IGN: We've seen the game collaborate with massive names like Tiësto and partner with festivals like Creamfields. It's clear that club culture is baked into the game's soul. How does the energy of dance music influence the design aesthetic and music?

Yang Wutao: It's the other way around, actually. Electronic music didn't shape Zenless Zone Zero, but rather, it's more like a group of like-minded people came together, and what we made just naturally turned out this way. That's exactly why collaborating with DJs like Tiësto felt like a natural extension of what we were already doing.

EDM fits this game because it's inherently energetic. It has no lyrics, not a lot of melody, and is built on loops. But through verses, build-ups, drops, and other sorts of unconventional sound design, it affects us emotionally. You don't need to understand it, you just need to feel it. That's exactly the kind of experience Zenless Zone Zero wants to give players.

And honestly, a lot of games in the industry are going orchestral. We didn't want to go down that road — we wanted to be fundamentally different. The project team and our producers gave us the space to do that, and we ran with that direction.

The results proved it was the right call. Whether it was Creamfields in the UK, ZZZ FES here in China, or ZLive events in Japan, US, and other locations, we didn't have any flashy high-tech stage setups. We just played the music, and the crowd went wild. That's not us being impressive, it's just the energy that electronic music carries on its own. It has this thing where it puts you in the zone right then and there.

IGN:The character EPs often feel like they belong on a festival stage rather than a traditional game soundtrack. When you're in the studio, are you approaching these tracks as video game music or are you trying to write a standalone pop or rock song that could be a hit on the radio?

Yang Wutao: While in the studio, we've never once asked ourselves, "Is this game music or a pop single?" That framing just isn't part of our initial considerations at all.

We only ever start from one place: does this music have emotion, does it have energy, and is it well-made? When a piece of music really lands, it stops being purely functional — it becomes a song. The game has hundreds of tracks, and some of their respective scenes are short, so some tracks are more for utility. And that's fine. But character EPs are different — those are the ones where we hold ourselves to the highest standard.

Of course, we also recognize that the game and the music elevate and complement each other. The fact that ZZZ's music has reached so many people and resonated the way it has, that wouldn't have happened without the game as a platform, and we're genuinely grateful for that.

But we have a bigger goal in mind: if someday someone who doesn't play Zenless Zone Zero, or even someone who has no connection to this ACG world at all, hears the music and loves it purely on its own terms — that's the biggest sort of validation we can get. If we get there, great. If not, we keep working. Simple as that.

IGN:The Hyper Commission OSTs cover a massive amount of ground. How does the team divvy up the workload between composers and ensure the music feels cohesive? Specifically, how do you distinguish the vibe of daily life on Sixth Street from the high-stakes, chaotic energy of gameplay inside the Hollows?

Yang Wutao: The overall cohesion is honestly more of a natural byproduct than something we deliberately engineered.

ZZZ's art direction has a very strong sense of identity. From the moment I first saw it, the vibe hit me immediately, and I knew right away that electronic music had to be the foundation. But electronic music itself has a lot of branches. The chill daily life on Sixth Street and the pressure of combat inside the Hollows call for completely different sub-genres. Whatever feeling a scene gives you, that's the direction the music goes.

It was just me in the beginning, so I tried to cover as many styles as possible while staying within the category of electronic music — and that's probably how the "wide ranged but still cohesive" effect came about naturally. As the team grew, everyone who joined was a musician and understood the principles, and the foundation carried on. Even in later versions where we've explored some non-electronic directions, the core scenes and combat music have stayed true to what was set from the start — so it never drifts too far.

The workflow is pretty simple: when tasks come in, we split them up, everyone does their thing, and then we critique each other's work. We're direct with one another, and we trust one another. Sometimes the feedback is brutal, but that's exactly how you end up with music that actually has character.

IGN:New Eridu has such a distinct visual language, from the streetwear to the retro-tech. What kind of references is the development team handing the music department? Are you looking at fashion and street art just as much as you are looking at musical scores to find the right sound?

Yang Wutao: Honestly, there's no formal reference-sharing process. The art team just sends a few images our way, such as character designs or character/scenic drafts, and from those we pretty much get a feel of what to do.

But the deeper reason why that works is: that kind of understanding wasn't built overnight. It exists because we were already the same kind of people to begin with. The music team, the art team, the UI team — we're friends outside of work, gravitate toward the same things, and our tastes line up. Sometimes, even a look is all it takes.

We don't deliberately study or research street art or fashion trends. But we live pretty down-to-earth lives — and that life is part of street culture itself. We understand the atmosphere not because we consciously observe it from the outside, but because we're already inside it. So when New Eridu's visual language is sitting right in front of us, we don't need it explained — because that feeling is something carved into our bones.

You could almost think of it this way: we're New Eridu residents ourselves — just a group of close friends working different jobs.

IGN: Battle music in Zenless Zone Zero has a very specific sound to it. What was the core directive for the combat themes?

Yang Wutao: If I had to name one core principle, it's that the music has to be alive. The foundational style was established a long time ago, and as long as we're not straying wildly from it, we actually encourage everyone to make whatever they want to make. I'd much rather each musician bring their own personality, preferences, taste — even their life experiences — into the work. Because only then does the music actually come alive, instead of just being sound that sits underneath the action.

Take Hugo's combat track for example: it's very rock, very metal, totally different from the electronic feel of our main storyline. But it's alive and has a personality. The moment you hear it, you know who made it.

When each musician brings something that's genuinely theirs, the combat music will have a soul of its own. To us, that matters a whole lot more than stylistic consistency.

IGN:New Eridu is obsessed with "old tech" VHS tapes, CRT monitors, and of course, vinyl. Does this retro-future aesthetic influence your production techniques?

Yang Wutao: VHS tapes, CRTs, vinyl records — these are very specific visual symbols that are instantly recognizable. But music is abstract. You can't play a note that "draws out an image" of a CRT monitor. So rather than saying this aesthetic style influenced our production techniques, I'd say it triggered a kind of feeling in us — an impulse to go back and find the sounds we remember.

Our team spans different generations, so everyone's definition and relationship with "retro" is a little different. But that's actually a strength — it gives us a wider pool of memories to draw from. Someone might associate it with the grainy texture of lo-fi hip-hop; someone else might think of jazz or bossa nova; someone else could be hearing the musical quality of 90s anime. Put those things together and you get a kind of retro that feels layered and rich rather than flat.

So the aesthetic's influence on us is less about "technique" and more about "what feeling are we trying to express." Technique is in service of expression, and expression is our core. We hope to use the tools of today to bring back the sounds each of us heard growing up, and give them a home in New Eridu.

IGN: In-game, players spend a lot of time at Bardic Needle tuning Drive Discs. Music isn't just background noise in Zenless Zone Zero, it's a mechanic for character progression. Did the lore surrounding Elfy and her record store change how you viewed the soundtrack's role for the player?

Yang Wutao: I don't think it's the Bardic Needle's function that changed how we see music. If anything, it's the opposite — This design confirmed what we'd been doing all along.

The fact that the Bardic Needle works as a concept within the game's world says something: the citizens of New Eridu see music the same way we do. It's not just ambiance — it's tied to how a character grows.

That said, the worldbuilding doesn't really affect how we actually make the music on a technical level. We still approach things from the scene itself. The Bardic Needle as a space — all those plants, Elfy's whole aesthetic — naturally made me think of South American vibes. But she carries herself with such elegance, a little different from the passionate, high-energy feel of samba, so bossa nova was our choice. That's how the track "Tipsy Muse" came about.

The scene convinces us, not the lore or worldbuilding. They, however, did make us feel like the music matters to New Eridu, and that counts for something.

IGN: The genre transitions in Zenless Zone Zero are incredibly seamless. How did you compose the music in such a way that it could transition between very different atmospheres?

Yang Wutao: Honestly, we don't actually think the transitions are that seamless ourselves.

Zenless Zone Zero is a live-service game, and it can't have the kind of cohesion a standalone single-player game can. A standalone game has a whole experience based on a complete world from start to finish, so the style can stay consistent throughout. But we go lo-fi one moment, electronic the next, then rock after that — there's actually quite a bit of jumping between versions and modules. We're very aware of that.

But the reason players might still feel okay about it is probably this: every piece of music we write for a module is matched to that specific scene and those specific characters. It's not just sound we're creating to fill in a gap — it's the sound that belongs in that moment. As long as every piece lands where it should, even a big stylistic jump doesn't feel jarring, because every transition has a reason behind it.

So rather than saying we designed some kind of "seamless transition system," it's more that we just tried, in each individual moment, to get that scene's music right.

IGN: miHoYo is known for the orchestral sweeps of Genshin Impact and the space-opera feel of Honkai: Star Rail. Zenless feels like a sharp pivot toward Funk, Hip-Hop, and Acid Jazz. Were there specific artists or eras that helped define the game's musical identity?

Yang Wutao: Most games build their soundtracks around mainstream scoring, with standout moments in select individual tracks. ZZZ instead took a different approach: the overall tone is deliberately non-mainstream, and we've actually done some more "conventional" music in certain EPs as a kind of contrast — so people get to hear something that sounds a bit more "normal" too. So when people call it a bold pivot, we never really thought of it that way. We're just this group of people, and what we make naturally ends up sounding like this.

That's also why ZZZ's musical range is so broad. It wasn't a deliberate choice — it's just that each of us has completely different influences. Fortunately, our producer Zhenyu Li trusted us enough to give us the freedom to express ourselves, which is why all of this could be implemented. Even now, we're still exploring new directions — there's a lot we haven't gotten around to trying yet.

IGN: With the vinyl soundtrack dropping on April 29th, fans are getting a tactile way to experience the music. Are there any tracks on this record that you feel specifically benefit from the vinyl format?

Yang Wutao: With vinyl, it's really more about the collectibility and ritualization. The moment you hold it in your hands and put it on a turntable is a completely different experience from listening through earbuds while scrolling on your phone — it's not about audio quality, it's that the act itself carries a kind of weight. We're really stoked to be working with Laced Records to bring this to players.

As a vinyl record can only hold so much, our logic for the track selection was simple: this record is for the players, so we pick the songs that mean the most to them. Whatever tracks people have had on repeat, those are the ones we selected.

At the end of the day, it's something meant to be kept and collected. Music is abstract, it floats in the air — but this record makes it into something you can put on a shelf, give to a friend, pull out ten years from now and still remember exactly how you felt the first time. That in itself, we think, is worth something.

StarCraft 2 players have lost their collective minds after Blizzard Entertainment announced major changes coming in a new update.

Fans of the 2010 real-time strategy sequel took to its website to see new gameplay adjustments for what was probably the first time in years today. Instead of only finding bug fixes or mentions of standard server maintenance, patch notes for public test realm (PTR) update 5.0.16 revealed a laundry list of balance changes that will fundamentally change how StarCraft 2 is played.

The impact of the update can be read in its first bullet point, which reduces the number of starting workers from 12 to eight. StarCraft 2 upped its starter worker count to 12 with the launch of Legacy of the Void in 2015 to speed up the pace earlier in matches. The years following the change have seen some players asking for an adjustment, and now, 11 years later, the change is here, and it's just one example in a page full of other tweaks.

"How is this real?" one Reddit user said regarding StarCraft 2 PTR update 5.0.16. "Some of these changes are wild, I am so curious how they will feel."

"Holy s**t they did it," another said in response to the change in starting workers.

StarCraft 2 received its final major content pack with Nova Covert Ops in 2016, and despite retaining a solid audience in the decade since, it has largely remained on the back burner for Blizzard since. Now, there are so many changes on the way that players aren't exactly sure if the patch will result in a better or worse experience.

We won't know how update 5.0.16 will be received until after it makes it out of its PTR build and into the public's hands at an unspecified point in the future. What players are focusing on now, though, is that the update serves as proof that Blizzard still cares about breathing life into its classic RTS…for some reason.

"Some absolutely bonkers changes to basic mechanics, especially for a game in maintenance mode with little to no ongoing development besides this," another Reddit user said. "Very excited to see how this plays out, and I hope that they maintain the scale of changes, even if they have to iterate on/change plenty.

"That is to say I hope they don't get discouraged by certain changes not panning out and end up walking most of this back. I love the potential for new strategies and interactions so far."

So, why is Blizzard making a splash in StarCraft 2 for the first time in years? Unfortunately, we really don't know. Some speculate the tweaks arrive as a result of the game developer's renewed interest in some of its existing titles. Others believe it could signal a specific interest in StarCraft, which is rumored to receive a first-person shooter spin-off sometime in the future.

Players will have to wait to see if the new update is a sign of things to come. In the meantime, you can read about the rumors suggesting Blizzard is taking pitches for the series from Korean game developers. Finally, you can check out the full PTR patch notes below.

StarCraft 2 Update 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes:

We've tried to make this PTR focus on extending the early and mid-game experience, allowing players to remain competitive on one to three bases for longer periods. We’ve introduced changes to make non-warped Gateway play a more viable path, while also increasing overall strategic diversity across all three races.

In addition, a range of quality-of-life improvements has been implemented to enhance the overall player experience.

Economy

• Starting workers reduced from 12 to 8.
• Default Large Mineral patch resource count reduced from 1,800 to 1,600.
• Default Small Mineral patch resource count increased from 900 to 1,200.
• Total Default Minerals per base increased from 10,800 to 11,200.
• Default Vespene Geysers' resource count increased from 2,250 to 2,500.
• Total Default Gas per base increased from 4,500 to 5,000.
• Rich Vespene Gas Geyser harvest return value decreased from 8 to 6.

Zerg

• Supplies provided reduced from 6 to 4.

• Spread/Recede rate slowed from 0.45 to 0.55.

• Damage against Biological increased from 20 (+10 Biological) to 20 (+15 Biological).

• Level 1 cost decreased from 150/150 to 100/100.
• Level 2 cost decreased from 200/200 to 150/150.
• Level 3 cost decreased from 250/250 to 200/200.

• Microbial Shroud range increased from 9 to 12.
• Microbial Shroud can now be cast without requiring an upgrade from the Infestation Pit.
• Neural Parasite on builder SCVs will only expire at structure completion.
• Now has an auto-attack weapon.

• Abduct now considers Sieged Tanks a valid target.

• Speed without Pneumatized Carapace decreased from 0.9 to 0.7.
• Can now issue 'Load Nearby Units' commands.

• Changelings automatically inherit the current order queue of the casting Overseer.
• Changelings’ deaths are contagious to other nearby Changelings.

• Mutalisk Glaives now prioritize targets.
• Arc slop increased to 180.

Terran

• Supplies provided reduced from 15 to 13.

• Supply increased from 2 to 3.
• Health reduced from 125 to 100.
• Attack damage changed from 10 + 10 vs Light to 20.
• Attack range increased from 6 to 7.
• Steady Targeting:
  • Damage increased from 130 + 40 vs Psionic to 170.
  • Energy cost increased from 50 to 75.
  • No longer cancels upon taking damage.

• Can now issue 'Load Nearby Units' commands.
• Subgroup Priority:
  • Priority order updated from (Raven, Ghost, Battlecruiser, Marine, Marauder, SiegeTank) to (Ghost, Marine+Marauder, Raven, Battlecruiser, Siegetank).

Protoss

• Supplies provided reduced from 15 to 13.

• Warpgate Research moved to the Gateway from the Cybernetics Core.
• Warpgate Research speeds up Gateway unit production time by 35%.
• 'Transform to Warpgate' cost increased from 0/(0) to 50/(50).
• Warp-in Time is no longer determined by 'slow power fields'.
• Warp-in Time decreased to 3s (from 3.6s and 11.4s).
• Warpgate Cooldown Values:
  • Zealot: from 20 to 22.
  • Adept: from 20 to 22.
  • Stalker: from 23 to 22.
  • Sentry: from 23 to 22.
  • High Templar: from 32 to 35.
  • Dark Templar: from 32 to 35.

• Pre-Warpgate Production Time Values:
  • Zealot: from 27 to 28.
  • Adept: from 30 to 28.
  • Stalker: from 27 to 28.
  • Sentry: from 23 to 24.
  • High Templar: from 32 to 40.
  • Dark Templar: from 32 to 40.
• Post-Warpgate Production Time Values:
  • Zealot: 18.
  • Adept: 18.
  • Stalker: 18.
  • Sentry: 16.
  • High Templar: 26.
  • Dark Templar: 26.

• Hallucinations automatically inherit the current order queue of the casting Sentry.

• Psi Storm total damage reduced from 110 to 100.

• Now has a 'phantom attack' weapon.

• Can now issue 'Load Nearby Units' commands.

Bug Fixes & Quality of Life Updates

• Fixed an issue where Carrier Interceptors owned due to a player casting Neural Parasite would not inherit the opponent's upgrades.
• Fixed an issue where EMP visuals did not provide clear visual indication of effect radius/affected units.
• Fixed an issue where Motherships would warp in adjacent to the Nexus rather than overtop.
• Fixed an issue where Guardian Shield visuals would persist even after loaded into a transport.
• Fixed an issue where melee units targeting builder SCVs would lose their attack order when the SCV moved through the structure.
• Fixed an issue where SCVs could not have build orders queued sequentially onto structures already being constructed by another SCV.
• Fixed an issue where Guardian Shield visuals would not update player color post-initialization.
• Fixed an issue where the KD8 Charge could knock back immobile targets during Recall.
• Fixed an issue where the KD8 Charge lacked a placement model and AOE effect radius cursor indicator.
• Fixed an issue where the KD8 Charge would be thrown in front of a target unit rather than at the targeted cast point.
• Fixed an issue where some units' spells would not trigger Protoss shield-damage graphics (Purification Nova, Corrosive Bile, KD8 Charge).
• Fixed an issue where units with burrow move would lose their current orders when told to burrow.
• Fixed an issue where 'Zerg Rocks' were lacking polish. (Now uses correct wireframe, has a Zerg building armour icon, and uses animation state to communicate health level).
• Fixed an issue where a variation of large diagonal rocks still did not receive an attack command if certain portions of the rock were within vision but not others.
• Fixed an issue where attack commands with Adept Shades in the selection behaved erratically (Example: finishing a shade caused the attack target to be lost if the command was not issued by smart command/right click, units could unexpectedly move command etc.)
• Fixed an issue where the Nexus had no indication Nexus Recall nor Energy Recharge abilities' cooldowns were global. Command card now displays charge counters and minimap displays all Nexus range radius.
• Fixed an issue where the Nexus Energy Recharge ability range radius actor would display permanently rather than when the ability was being targeted.
• Fixed an issue where Lurker Attack Spike sounds could be heard through the Fog of War.
• Fixed an issue where Lurker eggs lacked polish during creation/destruction. Eggs now take less time to appear due to faster birth animation and play a death cry to communicate when destroyed early.
• Fixed an issue where the Warp Prism would not display an unload visual model indicator.
• Fixed an issue where the Warp Prism would not display a load range radius actor when the ability was being targeted.
• Fixed an issue where the Warp Prism movement was highly variant/ sluggish if ordered to queue pickup orders or pick up units slightly out of immediate range.
• Fixed an issue where Banelings in splash range of enemy units but killed by enemy units would not spawn an audio cue indicating splash damage had been dealt.
• Fixed an issue where non-disguised Changelings would not play their full birth animation.
• Fixed an issue where commanding Oracles to build Stasis Wards in areas inside their range could result in slower execution than being commanded to build outside their range.
• Fixed an issue where Oracles would teleport short distances if told to build a Stasis Ward while overlapping with other air units (such as other friendly oracles).
• Fixed an issue where Stasis Wards lacked a distinct audio cue for their death.
• Fixed an issue where players attempting to attack a Stasis Ward could easily accidentally move command underneath it instead.
• Fixed an issue where Colossus could not be created/unloaded in space an air unit already was (this mostly affects the predictability of colossus drop positioning due to collision with the warp prism).
• Fixed an issue where Voidray Prismatic Alignment lacked a termination audio cue.
• Fixed an issue where Immortal Barrier lacked a termination audio cue.
• Fixed an issue where beam attack visuals would not terminate if targets were picked up by transports or teleported away (Sentry, Void Ray).
• Fixed an issue where the Sentry's beam attack visuals were misleading due to being significantly delayed during creation and termination. They should now feel much more responsive to control.
• Fixed an issue where the Cyclone basic weapon was unable to damage friendly cloaked/buried units.
• Fixed an issue where the High Templar's basic weapon's visuals and sounds were not proportionate in size/volume to its impact.
• Fixed an issue where Vespene Geysers did not update their model to tolerate shaders if players' shader graphics settings changed mid-match, allowing for re-enabling of the higher graphics option.
• Fixed an issue where Phoenix would not face their channeled Graviton target.
• Fixed an issue where killing a Viper prior to its Abduct tongue connecting with a target would not cancel the abduct.
• Fixed an issue where Nexus would still play Blinding Cloud visuals (despite no longer having Photon Overcharge).
• Fixed an issue where Planetaries lacked or had misleading visual and audio indicators (splash damage impact visuals, sound).
• Fixed an issue where Archons lacked several visual and audio indicators (birth sound, splash damage impact visuals, movement sound, attack physics).
• Fixed an issue where Disruptor Purification Nova cooldown/firing status was difficult to discern. Ability status should now be much more obvious due to increased colour states.
• Fixed an issue where friendly Disruptor Purification Nova range radius actors were displayed permanently, even if the unit was on cooldown, causing unnecessary clutter as unit count increased.
• Fixed an issue where Swarm Host range radius actors were displayed permanently, even if the unit was on cooldown, causing unnecessary clutter as unit count increased.
• Fixed an issue where Swarm Hosts lacked an equipment (weapon) display indicator for the Locust.
• Fixed an issue where Microbial Shroud's appearance happened gradually and unnoticeably due to lacking a sufficient impact model for the cloud.
• Fixed an issue where Hellbat walk animation speed was faster than expected.
• Fixed an issue where casting Generate Creep would only affect a subselection of Overlords or Transport Overlords rather than both variations.
• Fixed an issue where Creep Tumors lacked placement and placeholder models when spreading themselves.
• Fixed an issue where it could be difficult to distinguish if a research structure was active (Twilight Council, Fleet Beacon, Armory, Evolution Chamber).
• Improved an issue where injecting Queens 'shuffle'. Allowed re-issuing inject during ongoing cast so orders are not offloaded to others queen. Long-range orders are invalid if another queen is nearby the target hatchery.
• Improved an issue where units with their primary attack order on a changeling would lose their order if the Changeling subsequently disguised itself.
• Improved an issue where gather orders were clunky for workers. Workers adjacent and move commanding to a geyser now update their command to a gather order if a refinement structure gets built.
• Xel'naga towers can now be selected through the Fog of War. Xel'naga Towers now show their vision range radius when selected.
• Active Creep Tumors will now take selection precedence over Inactive Tumors.
• Active Creep Tumors in a control group at the time of exhausting their charge will now transfer control group membership to the spread tumor.
• Critters and destructible neutral objects have been standardized to share similar targeting/selection/collision values. They will no longer collide with/block player structures or units.
• Larva/Eggs will no longer collide with/block player structures or units.
• Locusts that were previously uncommandable during their swoop animation are now also unselectable (if already selected they will stay selected).
• Neural Parasite will now add the target unit to the current selection if the selection only contains one infestor.
• Protoss structures now generate additional 'damaged' graphical models.
• As larva increases, they will now spread further upwards around the sides of the hatchery. Larva will still start from the bottom of the hatchery.
• Music selection for spectator players has been adjusted to feature a greater pool of suitable tracks for spectating. Duplicate entries have also been removed.
• Slightly polished Oracles' Revelation and Build animation transitions.
• High Templar and Ravagers are now less likely to aggro towards faraway targets.
• Adjusted Warp Prism and Raven visual fly height to minimize clipping inside other models and reduced Warp Prism shadow size on low graphics to minimize shadow-casting on unloaded units.
• Commands to unsiege Warp Prisms will now be issued to all Warp Prisms in the selection.
• Healing Shrine visuals/sounds have received a minor polish pass.
• The Warp Prism will now attempt to immediately siege when instructed rather than prioritizing deceleration.
• Mapmaker support tools now include proper Worker-Only-Path indicators, No-Resource footprints, air unit height modifier doodads, and variable rock reduction units.
• Mule Repair is now set to auto-cast by default (Mules with a harvest order still do not attempt to repair units).

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke has discussed having no control over her character Daenerys Targaryen's storyline, dialogue or eventual fate — including in the series' polarizing finale.

Speaking to Variety, Clarke said she "didn't have any creative input" on her role, though hadn't sought out any either, believing she was "not qualified." Still, she noted that the series' showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had been "fastidious" that actors stuck to their scripts, with retakes necessary for even small differences — such as if she said "it's" instead of "it is."

"Aside from what I brought as an actor, I didn't have any creative input, nor did I want any," Clarke said, answering again with a flat "no" when asked if she could have altered Daenerys' ultimate fate — an ending that many fans disliked.

Game of Thrones' final episodes see her character suddenly turn from a hero — who has just defeated an undead army and looks set to save the Seven Kingdoms from Lannister rule — to a city-burning conqueror. In a tragic twist, she is ultimately stopped by her lover Jon Snow. Her lifeless body is then carried away by her dragon — and that's that.

[Benioff and Weiss] were "fastidious about us saying the lines exactly as they’ve written them," Clarke continued. "I was given the seasons, and I, to the best of my ability, empathized and understood and tracked every choice she made so it felt like mine. I felt like that was what my job was."

Clarke's former Game of Thrones co-star Kit Harington previously said that mistakes were made in the show's controversial ending, but he was "not sure there was any alternative" as the series' cast and crew were exhausted following almost a decade of production. "I think if there was any fault with the end of Thrones, is that we were all so f***ing tired, we couldn't have gone on longer."

Ultimately, Clarke said that she was now "grateful" for the experience of playing Daenerys, which catapulted her to stardom and has since landed her roles in numerous other TV series and movies.

"I have gone through every circuitous route to get to the place that I am now, which is finally being able to be very grateful for everything that Game of Thrones did and has given me," Clarke concluded. "I no longer feel trapped in it, or trapped in the result of being in it. I feel just really lucky that it happened to me — even luckier that I've had time to understand what that was, and now I feel firmly on the other side."

In January, Clarke admitted feeling "really pissed" at the expert who developed Game of Thrones' fictional languages, after reading that he thought her Dothraki pronounciation "sucked." David J. Peterson, who HBO hired as a full-time linguist on its hit fantasy show, subsequently responded to Clarke's comments, saying that the actress had misunderstood what he meant, and that she "never had to be good at it," as his intention had never been that Daenerys Targaryen would speak Dothraki flawlessly.

The same month, Clarke said she was likely finished working on fantasy projects after spending nine years as Daenerys, telling the New York Times it was "highly unlikely" viewers would see her "get on a dragon, or even in the same frame as a dragon, ever again."

Image credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Xbox has announced a delay to its upcoming Fable reboot, which will now launch in February 2027.

The long-awaited RPG had been due to launch this fall on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, though Microsoft had not set a specific date for its arrival. Now, due to Xbox's busy release schedule (and a certain game named GTA 6), it's coming next year instead.

"This year is packed with incredible games for Xbox players to enjoy, from Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-Day and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 to Control Resonant, Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Grand Theft Auto VI," Xbox wrote in a post on social media.

"In order to plan our game launches through the holidays, in a way that works best for players, we’re moving Fable to February 2027 so it can have the dedicated moment it deserves. We’re excited to be giving players a major new look at Fable, as well as our broader lineup, at Xbox Games Showcase on June 7."

The news follows speculation last month that Microsoft had delayed Fable internally — something that the official Fable social media account stepped in to deny, pointing instead to its previously announced fall launch window.

Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb reported last month that there had been concern at Microsoft about Fable potentially running up against the behemoth that is GTA 6, which now appears to be locked in to its November 19, 2026 release date.

"I'll say that I’ve heard that Fable has been pushed internally," Grubb said. "That doesn’t mean that it’s coming out next year. Apparently, they’re still trying to get it out this year, but they are worried about the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6. And so if it's getting delayed beyond the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, that could push it into December, which might make it a prime candidate to get delayed into 2027. So while Xbox will have a lot of games coming out this year, that’s one that there's still a big question mark around."

Microsoft still has many other release dates to solidify, such as for Halo: Campaign Evolved and Gears of War: E-Day. Fans will undoubtedly get a clearer idea of Microsoft's release plans during its Xbox Games Showcase. Fable and Gears of War: E-Day will definitely be there, and perhaps we'll see more of InXile's Clockwork Revolution, Undead Labs' State of Decay 3, and maybe even Hideo Kojima’s OD.

Yesterday, the Microsoft-owned Activision announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which will launch on October 23.

Earlier this year, IGN spoke with Fable developer Playground Games about its bid to bring back the beloved British role-playing series, and we learned that not only are there 1,000 fully voiced NPCs, but you can marry every single one of them.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

As IGN celebrates its 30th anniversary, it’s my job to assemble a list of 30 racing games that can lay claim to being bona fide masterpieces.

It’s honestly a tricky sort of thing to curate. Racing games (and automotive cultures worldwide) are just too tribal for any one batch of racing games to be universally accepted as objectively the best of the best. When you’re dealing with a limited shortlist, you simply can’t inject someone’s favourite racing game without trimming a favourite of somebody else; any one entry will always come at the expense of another deserving candidate. The fact that the genre dates back over 50 years, all the way to the earliest origins of video games, only makes it more difficult. That is, for as long as we’ve had video games, we’ve had racing games.

And we’ve had a lot of really, really good ones.

In past racing retrospectives we’ve looked at things like overwhelming influence above all else – the racing games that literally wrote the rules of the road for others to follow. On other occasions we’ve restricted our round-ups to just a single game per series in an attempt to recognise a wider spectrum of greatness.

But the nature of a true masterpiece got me thinking about this in a slightly different way. In this instance, we’re not just talking about great racing games. We’re talking about the premier racing games that define entire developers to this day. We’re talking about the greatest works of the world’s most respected racing studios, from Papyrus Design Group to Polyphony Digital.

With that foundation in mind, here are IGN’s racing game masterpieces – 30 esteemed and extraordinary racing games that maintain a stranglehold on our imaginations and are regarded as high-water marks for the whole genre.

While we’ll tackle these in no particular numerical order, let’s start in the arcades, where the long legacy of racing games began.

The Autocrats of Arcade Racing

OutRun (1986)

I’ve said a lot of this before on IGN – and I’ll no doubt say it again – but the history of racing games is the history of video games. That’s how far the racing genre goes back. In 1974 Taito released Speed Race, widely considered to be the first vertically scrolling video game, ever. The first eight-player arcade game? Atari’s Indy 800, in 1975. The first-ever game to provoke the sort of media panics we’re still seeing 50 years down the track? Exidy’s Death Race in 1976. This is before Space Invaders. Before Pac-Man. Before Donkey Kong.

Trace back the tyre tracks and you’ll find all roads lead back to the arcade. It’s these legendary cabinets – wheels slick with palm sweat and seats sanded smooth by the sliding of several thousand butts – that forged the future and made the arcade the automotive cradle of our modern-day, high-speed civilization.

There are a number of arcade classics that are unmistakably masterpieces of the arcade era. Namco’s Pole Position from 1982 is without a doubt one of the most influential and important racing games of all time, establishing conventions for the genre still followed today. The 3D polygonal graphics of 1988’s Winning Run – also from Namco – was a first for the company and a stunning representation of the future of racing games.

However, if we’re talking about masterpieces it’s tough to ignore the likes of Sega’s highly innovative 1986 all-timer OutRun.

Following the strong success of motorcycle arcade hits Hang-On and Enduro Racer, Sega switched back to four wheels for OutRun. It was a sharp stylistic shift from Namco’s motorsports-oriented approach, eschewing F1-style open-wheelers for the raked gills of a fully licensed Ferrari Testarossa. It also opted for public roads with beautiful backdrops over bespoke and largely barren racetracks.

Creator Yu Suzuki regards 1986’s Out Run as a “driving game" rather than a “racing game,” and that’s a subtle but important distinction. That is, OutRun may still very much be a classic, race-against-the-clock arcade experience, but it’s also the common ancestor of Cruis’n USA, Test Drive, The Need for Speed, and more or less every modern racing game centred around planting your foot on the loud pedal in the kind of exotic cars you can only afford by being better than almost everyone else at a popular sport, or ripping off people’s pensions.

With undulating tracks, selectable “radio stations”, and a killer cockpit-style cabinet, the innovative and extraordinarily successful OutRun was unlike any racing game out there in 1986.

Daytona USA (1994)

No discussion of arcade racing masterpieces is complete without paying tribute to Sega’s Daytona USA.

After sneaking a few out to arcades in 1993, Daytona USA was widely released in 1994. Arguably the most recognisable arcade racing game of all time, Daytona USA is arcade racing perfection. There’s even more to this masterpiece than its cutting-edge, texture-mapped 3D graphics, its perfectly-honed, easy-to-play-tricky-to-master driving model, or its infectiously delightful theme song. As an arcade cabinet, Daytona USA is just as much a masterpiece in physical form and function – from its eye-catching yellow-and-orange colour scheme to its sturdy and famously judo-choppable gear stick.

Daytona USA went head-to-head with Namco’s similarly cutting-edge Ridge Racer in the mid-’90s. While Ridge Racer might have eventually enjoyed the better home release conversion, Daytona USA’s eight-player action rendered it untouchable amongst its peers.

Sega Rally Championship (1995)

While the legendary Sega Rally Championship is acclaimed for a lot of reasons, not least of all being the fact it was the first-ever racing game to simulate different levels of friction on distinct driving surfaces, Sega reportedly took some convincing to back the project. The company didn’t see rallying as an especially high profile motorsport category in Japan, which feels slightly odd considering three out of the four manufacturer teams in the WRC at the time (following the departure of Lancia) were Japanese. There was also a hesitancy to build a game around rally cars which, on account of their nature as regular street cars on off-road steroids, didn’t seem as aesthetically exciting to the suits as formula racers and exotic supercars.

Fortunately, the passionate team was able to persuade them of rallying’s merits and the rest is history. They were even able to convince both Toyota and Lancia to agree to license cars to the game: a Celica GT-Four as made famous by Didier Auriol, and the all-conquering Delta Integrale as made famous by Juha Kankkunen. They were two cars that actually never raced each other in the WRC (Lancia withdrew from the WRC at the end of 1992, and the ST205 Celica was campaigned in 1995 before… being spectacularly banned for an illegal turbocharger restrictor). However, both are now inextricably linked by their presence together in one of the most iconic arcade racing games ever made.

Sega Rally Championship’s slippery yet heavy handling model was an absolute hoot to wrestle with in the arcade, and hitting those jumps never, ever got old (and inspired the greatest Simpsons crossover meme ever, to boot).

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (1998)

The writing was certainly on the wall for arcades by the time Namco’s seminal arcade racing classic Ridge Racer found itself ported to Sony’s hot new home console in the mid-’90s. Gamers were shown a future where near-arcade quality 3D graphics could be transported into their own homes via a PlayStation, and race fans in particular found they could enjoy similarly speedy experiences without leaving the crevices they’d carved into their own couches.

Namco’s Ridge Racer series peaked in late 1998 with R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, which came as a franchise reinvention. Pushing what was possible for lighting and shading on hardware that had long since been eclipsed in terms of power and performance, Ridge Racer Type 4 made a strong case for being the most beautiful racing game on the original PlayStation – and it arrived with new cars, fresh and interesting tracks, and a light visual novel approach driving the campaigns. Perhaps best of all? It injected the whole thing with oodles of smooth Japanese acid jazz.

Hot Wheels Unleashed (2021)

Italian developer Milestone has been making racing games – primarily of the two-wheeled variety – for decades. Based on every established metric, it should be ludicrous to claim that Milestone’s masterpiece is an arcade-style racing game based on a popular toy license and unashamedly aimed at kids. Nothing about that makes sense.

However, regardless of what you call 2021’s Hot Wheels Unleashed – an anomaly, an exception, or otherwise – there’s no skirting the fact that it’s a remarkable racing game. Taking the toy-scale approach of Codemasters’ pioneering Micro Machines, Hot Wheels Unleashed is a blistering and imaginative racer with a sense of grand scale like few others as you race your tiny diecast cars through enormous, life-sized environments. With a dedication to detail that even places subtle fingerprints on the photorealistic car models – which also sport realistic injection mould lines left from the assembly process and authentic raised text on the chassis identifying their model names – Hot Wheels Unleashed still stops me in my tracks.

Highly approachable yet packed with advanced techniques, tempting shortcuts, and one of the best track creation suites in the business to master, Hot Wheels Unleashed remains one of the strongest arcade racers I’ve played in over a decade.

Burnout 3: Takedown (2004)

Over 20 years later, Burnout 3: Takedown remains the ultimate arcade racer. The fact that the Burnout series has been consigned to simply gather dust in the junk drawer of franchise custodians Criterion Games is a crime against car culture.

The racing is still pure and precise, its rampaging Crash Mode remains utterly addictive, and the aural embrace of its playlist of pop-punk bangers is a bittersweet reminder of the CD pouch that used to slide around the passenger footwell of your 1992 Ford Festiva. The one that smelled like wet socks and Lynx Africa. Maybe that was just my 1992 Ford Festiva.

Burnout 3 is at its most brilliant in Road Rage mode, where the goal is to execute the game’s titular takedowns. Various racing games since have tried to mirror the sensation of the bone-crunching impacts found in Burnout 3, but even veterans of its development have struggled to recreate its brilliance ever since.

Burnout Revenge was a high-quality follow-up, but the addition of "traffic-checking" – allowing players to simply punch through same-direction traffic – changed the formula. Watching NPC cars scatter like billiard balls slightly diluted the tension of skillfully weaving through traffic at breakneck speeds, losing some of that essential Burnout soul. Burnout Paradise later successfully transitioned the series into an open-world format and remains highly regarded, particularly following its 2018 remaster. Nevertheless, Burnout 3: Takedown stands alone. As one of the highest-rated racing games ever made, it isn't just a genre highlight; it is a genuine masterpiece of the medium.

The Sultans of Simulation

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season - 2003

Defunct PC racing simulation gurus Papyrus (the developers of the highly influential Indianapolis 500: The Simulation and historical racing darling Grand Prix Legends) probably painted their masterpiece with 2003’s fan-favourite NASCAR Racing 2003 Season.

The last Papyrus NASCAR sim before EA Sports scooped up the license exclusively for 2004 through to 2009, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season may seem like a bit of an oddball entry for a list like this – but don’t underestimate how highly regarded it is amongst the oval racing faithful.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season – the code for which actually formed the original foundation of iRacing as we know it – wasn’t just an incredible racing simulation upon its release. It remains an incredible racing simulation today, and a barometer against which modern NASCAR sims are still judged over 20 years later.

F1 2020 (2020)

2002’s Grand Prix 4, from racing simulation legend Geoff Crammond and MicroProse, is a stone-cold Formula 1 masterpiece – despite the slightly iffy technical state it arrived in. MicroProse went belly-up right after its launch, leaving the game marooned without a developer to issue any further patches. It’s also a famously fickle thing to get running reliably on modern computers, but modders have kept this masterpiece alive to this day. A modern and non-F1 licenced re-release of it dubbed Geoff Crammond Racing 4 is even due to hit Steam this year, with workshop support no less.

But if you’re looking for a modern F1 masterpiece you can play with a lot less fuss, it’s hard to ignore the likes of Codemasters’ F1 2020 – a game many regard as the very best F1 game Codemasters has produced during its current, long-running stewardship of the series. With a terrific, grippy handling model, the debut of the excellent “My Team” career mode (that introduced an extremely engaging management angle to the series, casting players as team owners AND drivers), and the long-overdue reintroduction of two-player split-screen functionality, F1 2020 was a wonderfully complete package at the time. It was also the last time we’d see the series’ garage of legendary historical F1 cars, plucked from some of the sport’s most famous eras.

TOCA Race Driver 3 (2006)

TOCA Race Driver 3 may have had different names depending on where you played it (in Australia you’ll know it as V8 Supercars 3, and in Germany it was called DTM Race Driver 3). Regardless of what you called it, however, it was like no other racing game around.

Race Driver 3 was rammed with a ridiculous amount of championships (well over 100 championships across more than 35 different motorsports, featuring fully licensed series like V8 Supercars and DTM) and was overflowing with tracks (more than 80 ribbons on 37 real-world circuits, plus more than a dozen fictional ones).

As I’ve discussed in the past, I could spend a morning conquering Mount Panorama in a V8 Supercar, and the afternoon sliding a supertruck around Oran Park, and I’d have barely experienced a sliver of what Race Driver 3 had to offer. Racing at Bathurst and Oran Park I wouldn’t have even left my home state let alone the country, and there was a literal world of racing available elsewhere in Race Driver 3 – from muscle to monster trucks, and Formula Ford to IndyCar.

Seriously, you can say, “They don’t make them like this anymore” about a lot of things, but they truly broke the mould after this one. Not even Codemasters quite makes them like this anymore. This many official licenses living under the one roof – with all the correct cars and tracks – just doesn’t happen. It’s clearly too expensive to achieve in the modern era.

Now, to be fair, Race Driver 3’s simulation sensibilities were a little streamlined for console audiences at the time, and it wasn’t quite in the same wheelhouse as hardcore PC products like, say, Grand Prix 4 or NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. However, you can find the spirit of Race Driver 3 in many modern games. Series like Forza Motorsport have shipped with a similarly eclectic range of world-famous race cars dressed in the iconic, official liveries we recognise, and modders have shoehorned mountains of real-life race cars from current and historical seasons (most of which never appear in retail games) into Kunos Simulazioni’s Assetto Corsa. Codemasters’ own GRID Autosport and Slightly Mad Studios’ Project CARS 2 are also excellent and effective riffs on the Race Driver formula, but they don’t have quite the same magic.

Dirt Rally 2.0 - 2019

Warthog’s Richard Burns Rally is rightly regarded as an astonishingly accomplished rally game, but that’s on the back of a potent modding community that has kept the game alive for over two decades. On the other end of the timeline, Assetto Corsa Rally is currently taking shape in Steam Early Access as a rally game with the potential to redefine the genre.

However, this doesn’t detract from the fact that Dirt Rally 2.0 is Codemasters’ rallying masterpiece, and that makes it an integral part of the Codemasters rally story that began back in 1998 with the very first Colin McRae Rally.

Hardboiled and demanding, Dirt Rally 2.0 is Codemasters at the peak of its rallying prowess and pushing its in-house engine to the limit. The result was a gorgeous and challenging salvo of stages from a better variety of continents than the original Dirt Rally, superb sound design, and great loose surface handling.

It is a crime against coils, clutches, and camshafts that Codemasters has paused development plans on future rally games, but hopefully we haven’t seen the last of what the creators of such memorable rally games have to offer.

The Demigods of Destruction

Test Drive: Eve of Destruction (2004)

After being merged into iRacing Studios mid-last year, Minnesota-based Monster Games are officially defunct. Monster Games, the developer of fan-favourite stock car racing classic NASCAR Dirt to Daytona, was never one of the 800-pound gorillas of racing development. While developers like Polyphony Digital and Black Box moved millions and millions of games, relishing the sort of success that made them household names in the business, Monster Games never built the same sort of profile. They were, however, the sort of racing studio with at least one absolute banger in their catalogue, which gave them the kind of if-you-know-you-know reputation enjoyed by teams like Sumo Digital (OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast), Genki (the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series), Rainbow Studios (Splashdown, the MX Unleashed series).

Test Drive: Eve of Destruction (or Driven to Destruction, as it was released as in PAL territories) might be one of the least-played games in this list – but anyone familiar with it ought to be able to vouch for its masterful approach to replicating the feeling of proper, grass-roots derby racing. The most memorable parts of Test Drive: Eve of Destruction are the race types it features that remain yet to be replicated elsewhere – even in the likes of the current pharaoh of fender-bending, Wreckfest. These include trailer races (where all cars are towing box trailers, boats, or campers), chain races (where pairs of cars must race around the ovals chained together), whip around races (where the entire field must race back and forth on the same stretch of track against oncoming traffic), and many, many more. An under-admired masterpiece.

Wreckfest (2018)

When the FlatOut series was yanked from Bugbear Entertainment after 2007’s eternally underappreciated FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage, it was hard to see what the future might hold for the Finnish demolition specialists. Just over 10 years later, it hit back with a mayhem-fueled masterpiece of metal-rending spectacle. Wreckfest didn’t just T-bone the destruction racing sub-genre; it pummeled it into the ground and drove a hastily-spray painted school bus over the smoking debris.

The menu presentation is a little vanilla but the elbows-out competition on track more than makes up for that. Wreckfest’s rusted-out rides ooze character from every dent and scrape, and tossing them into panel-punishing battle and pushing the damage model to the limit simply never gets old.

The Superstars of Style

Project Gotham Racing 2 (2003)

Back on the original Xbox, Bizarre Creations’ Project Gotham Racing franchise was one of four separate racing series backed by the first-party muscle of Microsoft. Four! That is, in addition to the first two PGR games, Microsoft also published Midtown Madness 3, the RalliSport Challenge series, and the original Forza Motorsport. It was a golden era, the likes of which are sadly long gone.

For clarity, one could easily make a strong case here for the likes of Project Gotham Racing 4 – which introduced bikes to the series before it sadly disappeared forever – but I recently told my son if he buys a motorcycle I’m backing over it. With that in mind, I nominate Project Gotham Racing 2 as one of the very best games that sadly defunct Bizarre Creations ever produced. PGR2 is a clinic in pick-up-and-play racing; sexy and slick on the surface, and surprisingly sophisticated beneath it. Packed full of all the hottest cars of the era and focused on tight racing through a range of real-world cities like Barcelona, Stockholm, Sydney, Edinburgh, Washington D.C. and many more, PGR2 rewarded quality racing and looking good while doing it. At least, it did between bouts of Geometry Wars.

Driveclub (2014)

Evolution Studios, which Sony unceremoniously shut down in 2016, boasted a strong catalogue of racing excellence. 2005’s WRC: Rally Evolved was a superb rally contender that boasts flourishes that still have never been replicated, and 2006’s MotorStorm (with its cutting-edge deformable tracks) introduced us all to the idea of a festival racer before we even knew what that was. However, it’s 2014’s Driveclub that has since emerged as Evolution’s magnum opus. Driveclub didn’t reinvent the wheel by any stretch; broadly speaking it offered a very familiar and an entirely conventional brand of racing. It had a disastrous start to life, too, and was immediately stricken by catastrophic server issues that crippled all of its social features. This was a big problem considering its single-player replay value was debatable.

However, shortly after its troubled release, Evolution augmented Driveclub with a set of genuinely astonishing weather effects. Alone, that doesn’t sound like a particularly interesting fact. What makes Driveclub a fascinating case is the fact that these wet weather effects have never been eclipsed. In the rain, Driveclub is an unprecedentedly stunning looking racing game. It looks so good to this day that gamers are constantly rediscovering it, floored by how good it still looks well over 10 years later. Just watch as the rain sloshes and moves with the wipers and cornering forces.

Long delisted thanks to the frustrating realities of expiring licenses that plague racing games with real cars, Driveclub has earned a robust reputation as a flawed masterpiece.

The Regents of Ruckus

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (2017)

Determining which of gaming most-loved kart racers wins the cup is a deeply subjective exercise. Some point to the original Super Mario Kart, the groundbreaking progenitor that established the genre’s enduring tropes, or Mario Kart 64 – a game which conquered every lounge room, bed room, and dorm room it ever entered. Of course, devoted fans of Rare's Diddy Kong Racing regularly argue it ran rings around Mario Kart 64 during the late '90s and, personally, I’m a ride-or-die proponent of Crash Team Racing’s tendency to reward those who can reach its high skill ceiling, rather than punishing them by putting a blue shell up their anus.

The definitive kart racing masterpiece, however, is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – which still stands as the final word on karting, even after the release of its Nintendo Switch 2 successor.

Representing the acme of 25 years of development, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is vibrant and delightful to look at, and it teems with content and personality. With piles of imaginative and meticulously designed tracks, responsive handling, a silky frame rate, and a ton of customisation options and racing assists, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe really is the premier family party racer.

Split/Second (2010)

Split/Second is a sidewinder missile of a racing game; fast, dangerous, and explosively destructive. The ability to weaponise the trackside environment as crushing traps for your opponents meant no two laps of a race typically played out the same way – before a collapsing building or crashing plane made a giant mess of the circuit.

With its fantastic circuit design, potent sense of speed, and multiple clever flourishes (including a clean HUD that moved all important information down to a small bar that trailed behind your car), Split/Second is a cracking arcade racer that never got its due.

Split/Second is proof nothing is fair in the video game business. When Split/Second emerged as a bona fide Burnout competitor back in 2010, the response from arcade racing connoisseurs was gushing. Perhaps if we’d know we were never going to get a sequel, we all might have been a bit more zealous about convincing more people to buy a copy. Unfortunately, Split/Second sold too poorly to kickstart the series a racing game of this quality deserved. While it was easily the best game Black Rock Studio (formerly Climax Racing) ever produced, it was also the last game it ever produced.

The fact that we also never got another proper Burnout game after Split/Second either is just salt in the wound.

Blur (2010)

2010 was a cursed year to release a killer new arcade racing game that dared to innovate and strike a claim as a fresh new force in the genre, because it was also the year Bizarre Creations released critically acclaimed cult-favourite Blur.

Turning the page from the much-loved Project Gotham Racing series, Bizarre reinvented its brand of arcade racing to include combat, resulting in a chaotic experience that blended PGR’s typical smorgasbord of real-life locations and recognisable, licensed cars with Mario Kart/WipeOut-inspired weapons and power-ups.

As fun as Blur’s high-speed spectacle was, it was enormously underappreciated at the time of its release. These days Blur is regarded as an unfairly forgotten arcade racing modern masterpiece, but unfortunately we never got to see an evolution of it as Bizarre Creations was shut down by Activision in early 2011 (less than four years after it acquired the studio in late 2007).

The Archdukes of Anti-gravity

F-Zero GX - 2003

If we’re talking about the origin of the species, the original F-Zero (released on SNES way back in 1990), was the first futuristic fish to flop out of the primordial racing soup and blast up the beach at 1000 kilometres per hour. The anti-gravity racing sub-genre as we know it was born in the cockpit with Captain Falcon.

However, it’s not particularly controversial to argue that it’s F-Zero GX, released in 2003 for the GameCube, that represents the peak of the series.

Characterised by its eye-melting speeds and unforgiving difficulty, F-Zero GX demands practice, persistence, and a high degree of track knowledge to perform well. However, its hectic 30-opponent grids, snappy controls, and silky smooth frame rate made committing to its brutal brand of racing a wholly rewarding experience.

WipEout 2097 (1996)

While F-Zero may have pioneered anti-gravity racing, it’s WipEout that made it mainstream. It can never be understated just how instrumental Sony’s original PlayStation was in making games cool, and the WipEout series (developed by esteemed British software house Psygnosis) was an extremely important chapter in that story.

However, while the original WipEout was a genuine smash hit – and a launch title for the PlayStation’s European debut – its immediate follow-up WipEout 2097 (or WipEout XL as it was known in Japan and North America) was where this anti-gravity icon hit top speed.

A perfectly timed blend of exciting and never-before-seen futuristic racing with a soundtrack sourced from the titans of ’90s rave culture (including Prodigy, Underworld, The Future Sound of London, and The Chemical Brothers), WipEout 2097 was the embodiment of cool.

Blasting through rollercoaster-style tracks to the pulsing energy of Prodigy’s Firestarter, WipEout 2097 was a glimpse of the future in more ways than one. The PlayStation wasn’t a toy; it was becoming modern culture.

The Captains of Car-PGs

Gran Turismo 2 (1999)

Few racing games are as important to the genre as the original Gran Turismo. First released in Japan in late 1997 and elsewhere around the world in May 1998, Gran Turismo went from zero-to-global phenomenon faster than a fully tuned twin turbo Mitsubishi GTO. It would go on to become not only the PlayStation’s best-selling game ever, but the grandfather of all modern console racing sims.

However, as unprecedentedly impressive as the original Gran Turismo was, there was nothing that could have prepared us for the leap that was Gran Turismo 2. To put it in perspective, EA’s Need for Speed II (which was released a little prior to the first GT, in early 1997) boasts nine licensed cars. Gran Turismo arrived with 140, all with their own tuning options, racing modifications, and nuanced handling. It was pure madness. Unheard of.

And yet, two years later, Gran Turismo 2 arrived with over 500. 500! On the same elderly console, crammed onto a pair of CDs, alongside over 20 tracks (including new dirt circuits).

Setting Gran Turismo 2’s intro to the driving beat of The Cardigan’s ‘My Favourite Game’ might have been a cheeky flex on Polyphony’s part, but I must’ve damn nearly burned a hole through GT2’s discs back when it was first released – so there was certainly a time around the turn of the century where they weren’t wrong.

Gran Turismo 4 (2004)

Sure, there are idiosyncrasies about Gran Turismo 4 that even back in 2004 I would’ve loved to have been able to change. The car list was inescapably lopsided and, while Japanese car culture was comprehensively covered, you couldn’t really say the same thing about the US or Europe – and the lack of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche was an admittedly big hole that RUF models alone couldn’t fill. Six cars on track? Well, that was low in contrast to, say, the Race Driver series – and bouncing off them with a harmless thud always made a mild mockery of its simulator positioning.

And yet, despite any of that, GT4 is the stuff of legend. Pushing the PS2 to the brink of what it was capable of, GT4 was a racing experience so overstuffed with content it was hard to know where to start, and possible you may not ever fully finish.

GT4 is special because there’ll never be another racing game exactly like it. Sure, there have been several subsequent GT games – and there have been later games cut from the GT cloth that have proven legendary in their own right, like Forza Motorsport 4. But the days of singular and complete car-PGs like GT4 are long over.

GT4 couldn’t be fixed with updates after the fact, and it couldn’t be augmented with add-ons or extras. It had to be complete from the moment it was stamped onto a disc. It was done. No DLC, no patches. It’s a different approach. It’s an approach that demands you aim for perfection so that, even if you miss, the end result is still good. And GT4 wasn’t just good, it was incredible.

Forza Motorsport 4 (2011)

It’s true that Forza Motorsport games throughout the Xbox One era – and all the way up to the most recent but divisive Forza Motorsport for Xbox Series X|S and PC – have maintained the series’ fabulous feel and expanded the garage. Indeed, in the absence of any backwards compatibility support for the Forza Motorsport series prior to Xbox One, I often find myself dipping back into Forza Motorsport 7 for hilariously mismatched splitscreen racing against my son.

The consensus amongst the Forza faithful, however, is that Forza Motorsport 4 is Turn 10’s true masterpiece.

Some backstory: the PS3 era was a notoriously tricky one for the Gran Turismo series – the grandaddy of car-PGs. Even series creator Kazunori Yamauchi has previously conceded the PS3 era was a “nightmare” for the Polyphony team. Not only were GT5 and GT6 oddly uneven in quality (stuffed full of hundreds and hundreds of cars that had been drawn from its PS2 predecessors), but they also had frustrating priorities. For instance, like Forza Motorsport 4, Gran Turismo 5 features the Top Gear Test Track – the BBC’s massively popular motoring show was everywhere in the late 2000s. However, GT5’s ‘Advanced Level’ challenge for the Top Gear Test Track was a race in a 1944 Volkswagen Kübelwagen – a vehicle whose history of moving fast is limited to unsuccessfully trying to outrun being strafed by Allied fighters in World War II. The approach of Forza Motorsport 4, however, made it feel like you were stepping onto the set of that show and directly into a reasonably-priced car.

With fully modelled interiors for every one of its cars and the ability to apply highly detailed liveries to them, Forza Motorsport 4 was the absolute king of the car-PG format at the time. The fact that it dropped just as seismic shifts in car culture were imminent only makes it more poignant. You don’t have to just take my word for it, either. Just listen to Jeremy Clarkson in the game’s intro.

“We are an endangered species, you and me,” he riffs. “We fear for our love of roaring V8s and the smell of burnt rubber. We’re told to think of economy and the environment, not excitement and enjoyment. In an age of hybrid this and lentil-matic that, we are the odd ones out.

“Yet, there is hope. There is a haven. A place that celebrates speed, grip, gears, and fun. And it’s all here, for you to explore.”

The Overlords of Open World

Test Drive: Unlimited (2006)

Few games arrive as stunningly ahead of their time as Eden’s Test Drive: Unlimited. Today there’s nothing especially novel about games like Forza Horizon or The Crew being MMO-inspired multiplayer racers where players can meet up, cruise, discover, and race around their large open worlds. However, in 2006 this concept was cutting edge.

That said, even though TDU’s multiplayer aspirations were what made it trendsetting, it still functioned as a single-player game if that’s all you were after – and its lack of any forced online component is why it still remains playable today.

Set on a 1:1 recreation of the Hawaiian island of Oahu, TDU’s vast road network dwarfed its limited competition at the time, and it was as fun to cruise around as it was to race across. A lot of this was thanks to the authentic sense of ownership it communicated when it came to its vehicles, which had to be discovered at specialist dealers spread all around the island, and purchased off the lot by visiting them. Cars also had to be physically stored at garages in your Hawaiian properties.

TDU was at its very best during its lengthy car delivery missions and its epic, full-island events, like The Millionaire’s Challenge – an entire lap of Oahu that had to be completed within 60 minutes. However, combine the Xbox 360’s custom soundtrack functionality with TDU’s ability to roll down the windows and this was also a game that was built for open-world vibe driving.

Test Drive: Unlimited has since been far eclipsed by the games it inspired but, at the time of its release, it was an open-world masterpiece like literally no other.

Burnout Paradise (2008)

A game so nice they released it twice, Burnout Paradise is the overwhelmingly acclaimed final core instalment of the legendary Burnout franchise – and the first (and last) time Criterion unleashed its slick, speedy, and savage series upon an open world.

Moving to an open world and prioritising total freedom above all else did mean Burnout Paradise’s racing lost a little something. After burning through bespoke tracks, grinding and pinballing off walls and into the opponents that were always nearby, the open-ended point-to-point races of Paradise were something altogether different (and sometimes a little frustrating). I don’t know what the common consensus is – or even if there is one – but I’ll maintain all day that Burnout Paradise isn’t actually the best Burnout game.

It’s hard to argue against the multi-award-winning critical darling being a racing masterpiece, though. Packed full of collectibles and smashables, Burnout Paradise is also brimming with one of the last truly great racing game soundtracks. Checks out for a city that’s literally named after a Guns N’ Roses song.

Driver: San Francisco (2011)

The original Driver, released in 1999, was nothing short of revolutionary. When it comes to open-world, 3D driving games, the history of this entire sub-genre explodes right here with Driver and Midtown Madness in the last gasp of the 20th century. However, as much as I adore the original Driver (and it’s one of my personal favourite games, in any genre, of all time), there’s simply no ignoring Driver: San Francisco’s status as one of the most unhinged and unique driving/racing games ever made.

It is absolutely true that placing the main character of your gritty car chase simulator in a coma – and setting the majority of the story in a bizarre dream-state where he has the ability to supernaturally possess any other driver on the road – sounds absurd. It’s honestly difficult to grasp how this concept made it through a single meeting without getting laughed out of the building. However, in practice, this entirely unique system is not just incredibly entertaining; it’s immensely refreshing in a genre where brand-new, never-before-seen ideas are sadly rare.

For instance, if you need to win a race in Driver: San Francisco, you can do so in the entirely typical way of simply trying to drive faster than everyone else, or you can teleport into oncoming traffic to smash into other racers and pummel them out of the competition. It’s the automotive equivalent of being able to leave the football pitch in EA FC and help your team score by shining a laser pointer in the goalkeeper’s eyes.

But Driver: San Francisco’s goofy hook is only part of the tapestry here. There’s its brilliantly assembled garage that smuggles in a host of the most famous movie and TV cars of all time, and its pitch-perfect playlist of funk, rock, and soul.

It’s also a powerhouse of technical engineering, maintaining a smooth 60 frames per second on top of the ability to shift around the map almost instantaneously. It even boasts a two-player split-screen multiplayer mode set within the full open world, where both participants retain the ability to teleport at will, which is a truly wild achievement.

Forza Horizon (2012)

2012’s Forza Horizon – from UK racing supergroup Playground Games – flipped the script for open-world racing games and set the tone for well over a decade of dominance of this entire subgenre. Established street racing series suddenly found themselves competing with the might of the Forza Motorsport machine – only now it had been set loose on the open road. That meant not only the fine-tuned feel of the Forza brand, but also the gorgeous graphics and monster-sized garage of car enthusiast favourites (all with fully modelled interiors).

The original Forza Horizon was a stunning debut for a new developer, albeit one staffed with experts drawn from specialist racing studios from all over the UK. It was a pumping and thriving, day-and-night celebration of the automobile where the competitors weren’t just a selection of the coolest cars the planet has ever produced, but also planes, helicopters, and… hot air balloons.

The Forza Horizon games have been the gold standard in modern open world racing for well over a decade, and that trend started right here with this modern masterpiece.

The Kings of Customisation

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition (2005)

California’s Angel Studios (which became Rockstar San Diego in 2002) deserves a mountain of credit for being a pioneering force when it comes to the very concept of open-world racing. As the creators of the Midtown Madness, Smuggler's Run, and Midnight Club series, this team wasn’t just in on the ground floor – they poured the foundations.

However, it would be remiss of us not to recognise the sheer mastery of Rockstar San Diego’s Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition and its memorable take on customisation as a core component. On the back of a partnership with custom car culture magazine Dub, Midnight Club 3 introduced real, licensed cars to the series for the first time. The effect on Midnight Club 3’s credibility as a dedicated and blinged-out deep dive into urban custom car culture was immediate.

With a soundtrack as painstakingly curated as its garage and its violent and high-velocity take on powered-up street racing, Midnight Club 3 remains regarded as a racing masterpiece of the PS2 and original Xbox era – no small feat considering the quality and quantity of competition at that time.

If you like your house real big, your cars real big, your belly real big, and, indeed, everything real big, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is calling.

Need for Speed Underground 2 (2004)

The Need for Speed series may have slipped in popularity from its blockbuster era throughout the 2000s, but it remains one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. The monumental commercial success Need for Speed has enjoyed over its 30-year history is something other racing franchises would kill for.

Everyone with a history with the Need for Speed series will undoubtedly have their favourites, and they’re likely to be quite different in a series as storied as Need for Speed. Sentimentally I’ll always love 1999’s Need for Speed High Stakes and 2002’s Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2.

However, if we want look seriously at the NFS games that can lay claim to being masterpieces, that means returning to the absolute peak of the NFS series back in the mid-2000s and saluting the legacy of long-term Need for Speed developer Black Box (which EA ultimately closed, shipping the NFS franchise over the Atlantic to Burnout developer Criterion Games, then to Ghost Games, then back to Criterion Games again). It means 2003 and 2004’s Need for Speed Underground games, and 2005’s Need for Speed: Most Wanted – games even the developers themselves know and regard as the undisputed crown jewels of the series.

While the original Underground was a major hit, Underground 2 took its action to an open world, pumped up the variety of cars on offer, and significantly bolstered the amount of customisation players could do to them.

Oh, and it’s also home to a slapping Snoop Dogg-infused remix of Riders on the Storm we never even knew we needed.

Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005)

2005’s Need for Speed Most Wanted took the world of Underground – the tuner-focused soft-reboot of the series that reinvigorated it in the wake of spiking interest in JDM car culture – and blended it with the police pursuits the series was famed for before its Fast & Furious-inspired pivot.

In this instance, Most Wanted was a savvy fusion of the two worlds of Need for Speed, reintroducing exotic cars alongside its roster of popular tuner models – and bringing back cops without discarding its newly established customisation pillar. Its story may be hilariously cheesy by modern standards, but its mega success made it the bestselling game in the 30-year history of the series, and it set the tone for the next two decades of NFS games.

Overall Masterpiece

If you’ve been counting along, that’s 29 games, arranged in no particular rank and gathered into loose groups that at least made sense to me when I started this process. But 29 games does not a 30th birthday make, and my final instruction is to settle upon just one racing game to be my overall masterpiece.

That sounds like it ought to be difficult. After all, it was a struggle narrowing this list down to just 30 in the first place. I don’t think I’d find it much easier on IGN’s 100th birthday.

But picking just one masterpiece? Picking just one wasn’t hard at all.

Forza Horizon 3

It’s Forza Horizon 3. It’s the answer today, and it’s the answer tomorrow. Honestly? It might always be the answer.

There’s just no real way to overstate how successfully Forza Horizon 3 speaks to me as both a racing game fan and a car geek from the moment I was old enough to crack open a Hot Wheels blister. Forza Horizon 3 was more just the follow-up to a pair of games I already rated amongst the best in the business; it was a game I’d wanted someone to make since I was around 10 years old.

This isn’t just a game that unfolds in my own backyard. These are the cars I’ve wanted to see in a game forever. Forza Horizon 3 arrived with the greatest collection of Aussie cars I’d ever seen in a game. Nobody was giving us this many. Most other racing games these days don’t give us any. The cars I’ve watched race on local circuits. The cars my dad owned. The cars my nan owned. The kind of stuff I see on the roads every day. The fact that it arrived just as the curtain was coming down on Australia’s 90-year history of building its own domestic car models made it all the more poignant.

Hell, even the trailer is a masterpiece. I still get chills when the truck launches off the sand dune in slow motion just as the music begins to swell.

I haven’t even mentioned its two high-quality expansions: Blizzard Mountain, a terrific, snow-covered take on the Australian Alps, and the first Hot Wheels collaboration that gave us a stunt-filled Forza experience the likes of which we’d never seen.

Maybe Forza Horizon 3 isn’t your favourite Horizon game. Maybe the Horizon Festival visiting your own country makes another installment the nearest to your heart, or perhaps the siren call of the brand-new Forza Horizon 6 is too strong to ignore. I certainly couldn’t blame you; Japan is the greatest map Playground has ever produced.

But as far as I’m concerned, Forza Horizon 3 is the ultimate racing game masterpiece. Hang it in the Louvre.

For more on this month’s racing game masterpiece you can’t miss, check out our review for Forza Horizon 6, and for a look back at masterpieces from a different genre visit our IGN30 special on the horror games you must play before you die.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

Team Cherry has officially unveiled a slate of physical editions for Hollow Knight: Silksong, with Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox versions all now confirmed and preorders live ahead of a release later this year.

Alongside the game itself, players will also get reversible cover art, a 32-page game manual, and a mini folded poster that features a full map of Pharloom.

Priced at $45 for the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and $40 for PS5 and Xbox, the physical edition is set to ship for October 16, 2026.

• See at Best Buy
• See at Fangamer

To avoid confusion, it is worth noting that the Switch 2 Edition includes the base Nintendo Switch version of the game alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 upgrade pack; therefore, Silksong can still be played on the original Switch hardware.

One caveat, however, is that the Sea of Sorrow DLC is not included in the box, though Team Cherry says it will be available as a separate free download.

Already teased for 2026, Sea of Sorrow promises new areas, bosses, and tools as "Hornet’s adventures continue in our nautically themed expansion, coming free for all players next year."

Also announced is Hollow Knight - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, which similarly bundles the Nintendo Switch release with the Switch 2 upgrade pack while remaining compatible with the original console.

That standard edition is priced at $40, also ships on October 16, 2026, alongside reversible cover artwork, a 28-page manual, and a mini folded poster. It's also releasing on PS5 as well for $35. Preorders for Hollow Knight are available now at both Fangamer and Best Buy in the U.S.

Hollow Knight: Silksong originally launched, as a digital only game, on September 4, 2026, and to critical acclaim. Team Cherry has since said that Silksong sold more than 7 million copies since release, and had millions more playing via Xbox Game Pass.

IGN's Tom Marks awarded the game a 9/10 in his review last year, stating: "Hollow Knight: Silksong is packed full of sharp platforming, enticing exploration, and nail-biting combat that's all unapologetically challenging in just the right way."

It was also awarded the "Best Action-Adventure Game" in the IGN Awards from 2025, and was runner-up as the "Best Nintendo Game" and "Game of the Year" for 2025 as well.

Jumping into Silksong this year? Here are some essential guides for your journey upwards: the Silksong Interactive Map, how to grind for Rosary Beads, our ever-expanding Walkthrough with boss videos and guides, how to get your first life bar upgrade (first four mask shards), and a great guide to the Simple Keys and the doors they open.

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Robert Anderson is IGN's Senior Commerce Editor and resident deals expert on games, collectibles, trading card games, and more. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Bluesky.

XBOX… no, sorry, Xbox (I’m not doing the all-caps thing) is gearing up for another Games Showcase this summer, with a good look at brand-new games, trailers, and reveals promised for Sunday June 7 at 10am PT/1pm ET/ 6pm BST. Followed by a dedicated deep dive into Gears of War E-Day, it's set to be a big day for all of those looking forward to seeing what this new era of Xbox has in store.

For context, last year’s event saw the reveal of Call of Duty Black Ops 7, Persona 4 Revival, Grounded 2, Beast of Reincarnation, Keeper, and Super Meat Boy 3D, as well as new looks at The Outer Worlds 2, Clockwork Revolution, and Ninja Gaiden 4. But what can we expect this year? Well, let’s dig into the games we think we’ll be seeing more of, some potential world premieres, and perhaps even more details on Microsoft’s new console, currently titled “Project Helix”.

Gears of War E-Day

Let’s start with the one game we know is definitely showing up: Gears of War E-Day. As noted on the Xbox website, the E-Day direct is set to “take players into the start of Emergence Day, offering new details, gameplay, and insights.” The prequel was first teased at last year’s showcase, but very little has been heard or seen since. We can expect a lengthy look following the main showcase this year, though, as well as presumably finding out its 2026 release date.

Xbox Game Studios

Playground Games may have just released the critically acclaimed Forza Horizon 6, but the British studio isn’t done by any means. That’s because its reboot of Fable, which was meant to hit in 2026, has just been delayed to February 2027, and I imagine it’s almost guaranteed to make an appearance here. Another look at it in action certainly wouldn’t go amiss, as we learn more about this new version of Albion.

The recently rebranded Halo Studios is due to release the remake of the original Master Chief story, Halo: Campaign Evolved, in 2026. We can likely expect to see more of this one in action, as well as find out when exactly we can expect to play this year. Maybe the game I’m most looking forward to seeing more of is inXile Entertainment’s Clockwork Revolution, which is looking like a fantastic blend of Dishonored and Bioshock. This one has popped up a couple of times at recent Xbox Summer Showcases, so hopefully that means we’re getting closer and closer to a release date. After a good look at gameplay in 2025, we’d love to know when it’s going to launch at this year’s show.

And what next for Rare? It had been working for many years on Everwild before it was cancelled last summer, leaving the legendary studio a mysterious proposition. Ongoing development will presumably continue on Sea of Thieves, but surely a new game is also in the works somewhere? The Killer Instinct, Viva Piñata, and Banjo Kazooie creators have as long a history as anyone at Microsoft when it comes to developing new series, but could we see it return to one of these? Another of its creations, Perfect Dark, seems even less likely, though, following the shutdown of The Initiative and cancellation of the reboot last year.

First revealed back in 2020, State of Decay 3 reemerged in 2024, but has been quieter than the dead since. Undead Labs has been working on this one for a while, and we might see it again on June 7 after skipping last summer’s showcase. Obsidian, meanwhile, has been far from quiet, and had a very busy 2025, launching Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, and Grounded 2’s Early Access, so it’s safe to say that we aren’t necessarily expecting to see much from the RPG studio here. If it did want to spring a surprise Fallout New Vegas remake onto us, though, then we’d happily take it. Both Compulsion Games and Ninja Theory have released games in the past couple of years, so it may be a bit too soon to see what they’re working on next, but we certainly won’t rule it out. Especially the latter, who is reportedly working on a third Hellblade that is more of a ‘game’.

Activision, Blizzard, and Bethesda

Infinity Ward revealed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 last week, which will continue Captain Price and team’s story as they head to Korea this time around. Coming later in October 2026, it’s safe to say we’ll get a peek at it in action at the Showcase, with the new DMZ mode promised to be shown off. Call of Duty is where most of Activision’s resources find themselves going these days, but maybe a surprise second project will be sprung upon us. Though a long shot, a revival of one of the publisher’s dormant series, such as a new Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, or Spyro, would certainly make people my age and older smile.

Blizzard can be expected to show off continued support for its live-service games, as Overwatch celebrates its 10th anniversary, Diablo 4 follows up on its just-released Lord of Hatred expansion, and World of Warcraft evolves further beyond its Midnight expansion, which arrived in March. While that’s all in the recent past, there are a couple of future possibilities. Although not expected this year, one of those is a look at WOW’s upcoming The Last Titan expansion, which will serve as the finale to the Worldsoul Saga trilogy. Another is a look at Overwatch Rush, the mobile version of the hero shooter — although we admit this may well not show up at an Xbox showcase.

When it comes to Bethesda, all eyes are on The Elder Scrolls 6. First revealed to be in development way back in 2018, Todd Howard has effectively said that it shouldn’t have been shown that early. But eight years later, is it finally time to learn more? We realise it’s likely still many years away, but perhaps a look at a long-rumoured Fallout 3 remake could serve as a welcome stopgap. Elsewhere under the larger Bethesda umbrella, Id Software will have moved onto its next project after 2025’s Doom: The Dark Ages. Will it be another Doom, a long-overdue Quake revival, or something new entirely? And will it even be shown at this year’s Showcase?

And then there’s MachineGames, who will be following up on the excellent Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I’d love nothing more than a sequel to that adventure, but perhaps a return to Wolfenstein is more realistic right now. Reports of the final part of B.J. Blazkowicz's Nazi-killing trilogy being in production emerged early this year, so this could be the year we see the original FPS hero return. Finally, when it comes to Bethesda, surely we’re due for a look at Arkane’s Blade game. First teased back in 2023, the Lyon studio has been pretty silent since. It looks like we’re never getting that Mahershala Ali movie, so please at least give us this.

Third-Party

In regard to what other games we could see, well, that’s much more of a guessing game. Based on what’s been showcased at previous Xbox shows, though, we can at least take educated shots in the dark. I’d personally love to see Persona 4 Revival in action, as well as finding out when I can get my hands on the remake of Atlus’ classic JRPG. Staying in Japan, Gamefreak’s first game outside of the Pokémon universe, Beast of Reincarnation, was featured heavily during January’s developer direct, so it could well be here, too.

Action adventure spin-off Resonance: A Plague Tale could well be in line to make a reappearance, as could ex-Witcher 3 devs' studio Rebel Wolves’ vampire RPG, The Blood of Dawnwalker. Stealth shooter Mudang: Two Hearts made a flashy debut this time last year, as did Aniimo, yet another contender for Pokémon’s monster-catching crown.

There may be no Hollow Knight Silksong to speculate about this year — unless its DLC makes a surprise appearance — so let’s throw some random guesses out there in its place. The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past Expansion was just officially announced by CD Projekt Red, and while it seems too early for gameplay, with more promised at gamescom in August, you just never know. Ubisoft could show up, either with a new look at Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the in-development Assassin’s Creed Hexe, or perhaps even the rumoured next entry into the Far Cry series. But no, there won’t be any sign of GTA 6.

Project Helix

Xbox has been teasing its next-gen console, Project Helix, for months now, after formally announcing its existence in March. At GDC, Jason Ronald, Xbox’s VP of Next Generation, said, “Project Helix is designed to play your Xbox console and PC games, delivering high performance and providing the ultimate player-first experience. We're partnering closely with AMD to define the next generation of rendering and simulation.” We were hoping for some more news about it soon, but, Xbox has since let us now not to expect anything from Project Helix at the show.

What do you want to see most at Xbox’s Summer Showcase on June 7? Let us know in the comments below!

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

We've spotted plenty of great game deals in PlayStation's Days of Play sale so far, but there are some that have really stood out as must-buys. Both Ghost of Yotei and Ghost of Tsushima fall in that camp right now, as each one is currently sitting at their lowest price so far at Amazon as part of the sale.

This Collector's Edition is stacked with goodies, too. In terms of physical collectibles, it comes with a Ghost Mask, Sash, Tsuba, Papercraft Ginkgo Tree, art cards, and a Zeni Hajiki Coin Game and Pouch.

As for digital extras, you'll get the Snake Armor, Digital Deluxe Armor Dye, Digital Deluxe Horse and Saddle, a Sword Kit, Traveler’s Maps, and a Charm all alongside a digital copy of the full game. You can get a closer look at everything in the photo below.

Outside of these deals, if you're craving even more Ghost of Yotei items, there's also the vinyl soundtrack that's now available to preorder. While this isn't on sale as part of Days of Play, it's still in stock to preorder if you're interested, and releases very soon in June. Perfect timing to pick it up.

And if you're looking for even more great PS5 deals, make sure to check out our full breakdown of PlayStation's Days of Play sale this year. Alongside Ghost of Yotei and Ghost of Tsushima, there are plenty more video game deals to check out and even more discounts on hardware and accessories.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 publisher Focus Entertainment has teased new content coming to the game in its third year, including the promise of a new class in 2027.

The hugely successful third-person co-op action game has seen one new DLC class so far — the Techmarine — and fans had wondered if more were on the way. In a community post, Focus said the new class is planned for the first half of 2027, so we can expect it before the end of June.

But what is it? Focus wouldn’t say, but did stress it’s been “highly requested by the community.” There are a number of potentials, including the Apothecary, the Judiciar, or, at a push, the Chaplain. My money’s on the Apothecary as a heavy duty support class with a powerful healing ability, perhaps even with unique gameplay around harvesting Gene-seed.

“As we did with the Techmarine, this new Class will receive its own special Champion Skin after its release,” Focus added.

That’s exciting enough for fans, but throughout Year 3, Space Marine 2 will also receive five major updates (Patches 15-19). “Once again, there’ll be plenty of free content for everyone, including new weapons, missions, and more,” Focus said. “On top of that, there’ll be a Season Pass packed with Chapter cosmetics and Champion skins.”

“We’ll also continue placing a strong focus on improving the user experience and fixing bugs throughout Year 3, making the game smoother, more stable, and more enjoyable for everyone,” Focus continued.

The Year 3 roadmap will be revealed alongside the Second Anniversary Update, which is slated for this September.

The tease comes hot on the heels of the release of Patch 13, dubbed the Purgation Update. It added a new PvE mission, a major update to Siege Mode, a new weapon (the Bolt Carbine Sidearm), and the Iron Hands Chapter Pack. There’s also a new Practice Arena in the Battle-Barge.

Space Marine 2 continues to receive new content following its blockbuster sales success, with over 12 million players since its 2024 launch. The breakout success of Space Marine 2, set in the grimdark far future universe of Games Workshop’s tabletop war game, cannot be understated. Tim Willits, development chief of developer Saber Interactive, told IGN soon after the game came out that Space Marine 2 had changed everything for the studio as sales exploded — and they’ve increased at a steady pace since. Space Marine 2’s recent addition to subscription services PlayStation Plus and Xbox Game Pass has only boosted player numbers further. It wasn’t long after Space Marine 2 came out that Space Marine 3 was announced, although we’ve yet to see or hear anything meaningful about it.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Magic: The Gathering isn’t a cheap hobby to get into, which makes the return of TCGplayer’s Mayhem cashback offer all the more noteworthy.

The eBay-owned retailer is one you can trust, but for today only (Friday, May 29, from 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM ET), you can get 8% cashback on your purchases across Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon TCG, Disney Lorcana, and just about anything else.

Even better, TCGplayer subscribers get 10%, so you’re getting some change back for your card purchases.

With all that in mind, here are some cards I’d recommend checking out.

Edgar Markov

​Whether your binder is missing a few cards or your competitive deck needs extra Fighting-type muscle, mark your stopwatch: popular third-party marketplace TCGplayer has kicked off its massive 2026 Mayhem summer promotion this Friday, May 29, but for a limited time only.

During the event, from 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM ET, you can earn 8% cashback (well, in-store credits) on everything across the marketplace, including popular TCGs like Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, Disney Lorcana, and One Piece. Plus, if you’re a TCGPlayer subscriber, that rate jumps to 10%+, stacked on top of your standard loyalty bonuses. Neat!

Right now, with so many Pokémon cards out there and prices shifting by the hour due to the recent release of Chaos Rising, it can be tricky to figure out where to spend your cash. The right answer to ‘which Pokémon card should I buy’ is always ‘your favourite!’ But if you’re looking for a bargain or want to strengthen your deck ahead of the Chaos Rising meta, there are a few cards worth your attention.

Mega Greninja ex SIR (#114/083) - Chaos Rising

Bungie's issues with its storied sci-fi shooter, Destiny 2, began around the time of the last summer's Edge of Fate expansion, which reportedly underperformed. The decision to pull the plug was allegedly made "earlier this year" after it decided not to relaunch the franchise as "Destiny Infinity."

That's according to Forbes, which said the Sony-owned studio began discussing different scenarios about "what the future of Destiny 2 would look like" after December's Renegades, its Star Wars-themed crossover expansion, "did even worse [than Edge of Fate] and didn't change sales or retention trajectory."

Destiny Infinity would have been a relaunch alongside a return to the one big expansion model Destiny used to have, but the idea fell by the wayside after it was allegedly decided that the costs and risks were too high, especially in the context of support for Marathon.

Destiny 3 "was considered, as ever, but things didn't swing that way," and there has been no behind-the-scenes hints that a third Destiny game is coming, with the cost of the game's production cited as the key issue. Interestingly, it's thought Marathon's subjective success or failure was "not the tipping point of all of this."

The revelations come a week after Bungie confirmed content updates for its live service shooter would end on June 9, nearly nine years after launch. The studio behind Halo, which recently released extraction shooter Marathon, said Destiny 2 will remain playable despite active development ending.

Destiny 1 launched on September 9, 2014 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. It enjoyed enormous commercial success, but met with a mixed response from critics. As part of a high-profile publishing deal with Call of Duty company Activision, Destiny expansions and updates followed.

Destiny 2 launched on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 6, 2017, with a PC version following a month later. Behind the scenes, however, tension between Bungie and Activision emerged, and the two companies officially parted ways in January 2019, ending their 10-year publishing deal five years early.

With Destiny in its own hands, Bungie self-published the game, but it couldn't escape financial troubles and layoffs as Destiny 2 expansions failed to hit the mark and the player base dwindled. Sony bought Bungie in early 2022 in a deal valued at $3.6 billion, although Sony has admitted the acquisition has yet to pay off, and it recently reported a $765 million impairment loss due to underperformance of Bungie specifically.

Extraction shooter Marathon launched early March, with a reported budget of more than $250 million. It too, according to analysts, has failed to meet sales expectations.

Destiny fans distraught over Bungie's decision to end support for the franchise are planning to try and "crash the servers" to demonstrate that there's still huge interest in the game. In a lengthy thread on reddit, Destiny fan w1nds0r issued a call to arms for all Destiny players to return on June 9, when the game's final ever content drop arrives.

"We need to at least smash Marathon's all time high to show them they made the wrong decision," w1nds0r wrote, suggesting that this would show Sony that Destiny remains "a franchise worth continuing to invest in... It's our last chance to send a message the franchise is still valuable." (Marathon launched in March with a Steam peak of 77,358 players. Its daily peak is now hovering around 10,000 players.)

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

As the fight for Managed Democracy rages on, Arrowhead has just dropped a new Helldivers 2 patch that makes some long-awaited improvements to performance.

From upscaling technologies and latency-reduction features to "various optimizations and stability fixes," patch 6.2.5 is designed to help players stay on "target when the battlefield gets chaotic," Arrowhead explained. The patch notes, from Steam, are below.

This is the "slightly delayed" patch from Wednesday (May 27) following an "unexpected submission bug outside of [Arrowhead's] control." The update, developed alongside Nixxes Software, adds support for upscalers (FSR 3.1.5, DLSS 4.5, and XeSS 3.0), Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support for PS5 and PS5 Pro, and Variable Rate Shading (VRS) for supported devices, among other performance improvements designed to smooth out the gameplay experience.

It's also worth noting that the patch fixes an issue where Helldivers were unable to manually climb small obstacles and ledges without auto-climb. The hope is this means vaulting in Helldivers 2 is finally fixed.

Don't forget that Helldivers 2 is also getting a Warhammer 40,000 Legendary Warbond later this year, finally making one of its most-requested crossovers a reality. Helldivers 2 game director Mikael Eriksson said the two worlds “fit perfectly together,” and that Arrowhead is “full of die hard Warhammer fans.”

Helldivers 2 update 6.2.5 patch notes:

Added support for upscalers:

• FSR 3.1.5
  • GPUs that support it will run FSR 4.0.3
• DLSS 4.5
• XeSS 3.0
• Added Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support for PS5 and PS5 Pro
• Added Variable Rate Shading (VRS) for supported devices
• VRS can help improve performance by reducing shading rates on certain areas of the image, resulting in less work for the GPU for similar looking close pixels
• Added support for DRS on PC and PS5
• With the introduction of DRS on all platforms we have also upped the resolution on Xbox Series X and PS5 to 1440p in the Performance preset
• We have also upped the resolution in PS5 Power Saver mode to 1440p
• Added NVIDIA's Reflex for NVIDIA GPUs
• Added AMD's Anti-Lag 2 for AMD GPUs

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Helldivers were unable to manually climb small obstacles and ledges without auto-climb.
• Fixed multiple rendering issues and improved performance and image quality across all platforms.
• Added additional resolution options in the display settings for monitors with a wide range of available resolutions.
• Improved the performance of the high reflection setting.
• Improved VRAM management on PC to improve performance on systems with limited VRAM.
• Inviting non-friends via the social menus recent-tab will now send a PSN system invite if both are on PSN

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

007 First Light has got off to a strong start, selling 1.5 million copies in its first 24 hours. It’s the fastest-selling game in developer IO Interactive’s history, which means it sold faster in its first 24 hours than any Hitman game.

The impressive sales milestone was achieved without the aid of the Nintendo Switch 2 version, which is due out this summer.

The James Bond adventure is also the highest rated IOI game ever, with an 87 on Metacritic. IGN’s 007 First Light review returned a 9/10. We said: “Demonstrably obsessed with bringing the Bond fantasy to life in a way no one has ever managed before, 007 First Light is the best Bond game I’ve ever played.”

“The milestone of 1.5 million units sold in 24 hours reflects overwhelming global enthusiasm for 007 First Light and represents a significant achievement for IO Interactive,” the developer said. “With an 88 OpenCritic rating and 87 Metacritic score, 007 First Light has been embraced by both critics and players alike, already establishing itself as one of 2026's most successful gaming releases. The sales recorded across all platforms underscore the game's broad appeal and the successful execution of IO Interactive's vision to honor Bond's legacy in gaming.”

Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, said 007 First Light had sold an estimated 500,000 copies on Steam alone, generating around $25 million in revenue on Valve’s platform.

“The Steam performance really stood out for this one,” Elliott said. “It’s the latest example of a traditionally ‘console’’ game doing fantastic numbers on Steam.” About a third of 007 First Light players on Steam have also played Hitman, Elliott added.

“For Amazon, which owns the Bond rights and licensed IOI to make this game, the early signs are bloody good,” he continued. “The franchise hasn’t had a quality adaptation in decades, and IOI has now delivered one that looks like a serious commercial proposition.”

So, the first 24 hours are strong for 007, but it will be interesting to see how sales develop over the coming weeks and months. To put its performance into context, Crimson Desert sold 2 million in its first 24 hours back in March, and went on to sell 5 million in less than a month.

Clearly, IOI hopes for enough success to continue 007 First Light’s story with a sequel. Indeed, the developer has said it wants to make a trilogy of James Bond games.

Our 007 First Light Guide has all the Essential Tips and Tricks you need to survive your first assignments, plus 6 Tips for Mastering Stealth so you can stay out of sight. There are plenty of achievements to unlock and collectibles to get your hands on, so check our guide to All Collectible Locations to make sure you don’t miss out. For a helping hand with your missions, head to our in-progress Walkthrough, and our guide to all the Safe Combinations and Keypad Codes.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Ubisoft is cooking up a fresh version of its brilliant platformer Rayman Legends for launch later this year, leaks suggest.

Rayman Legends Retold, as this new version will be known, is reportedly set to arrive on October 1, with a physical version available for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2.

That's according to Dealabs' ever-reliable billbil-kun, who has suggested that the game should be revealed at some point next week. Other leaks have suggested the game could pop up in Sony's big State of Play presentation, scheduled for June 2.

According to N1Up, Ubisoft's 2.5D platformer has been expanded with several 3D sections, as well as character crossovers that are set to feature friendly faces from Astro Bot and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Four-player co-op will also now be available online, after previously being a local-only option.

Price-wise, Rayman Legends Retold is reportedly set to launch at $39.99 — an attractive cost for one of the best side-scrollers ever made, even counting all those with Mario. Released back in 2013, it is the final mainline Rayman game directed by the character's creator Michel Ancel, and a demonstration of his former Ubisoft Montpellier studio at the height of its powers.

We'll be keeping a close eye out for full confirmation of Rayman Legends Retold next week — be sure to join us for live coverage of PlayStation's big State of Play event on June 2 for all the announcements. Here's everything we expect to be there — it's looking like it'll be a good show.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Amazon has just slashed the price of Magic: The Gathering's Marvel Super Heroes Play Booster Box for a second time, dropping it to a new all-time low just weeks before launch.

With the set arriving next month in June, the retailer has cut the price of the 30-pack Play Booster Box to just $139.55, down from its original $209.70 MSRP. That's roughly $70 off, and a noticeably steeper discount than the smaller preorder cuts we saw when listings first went live.

CD Projekt's newly-revealed The Witcher 3 expansion Songs of the Past will help set the stage for the upcoming The Witcher 4, the developer has suggested.

While telling a standalone story starring Geralt set after the events of The Witcher 3, the new adventure will also act as a sort-of prologue to CD Projekt's next big blockbuster, according to the company's joint CEO Michał Nowakowski.

Speaking to investors, Nowakowski was questioned on how the expansion is being positioned in the franchise, why it is now launching in 2027 (after previously being expected this year) and whether any of CD Projekt's new trilogy of The Witcher games will also receive expansions, as The Witcher 3 has (don't hold your breath).

"First and foremost, we really wanted to deliver a great experience to the fans, a really cool expansion that's going to make people happy that they can come back to The Witcher 3 setting," Nowakowski said, discussing why Songs of the Past was being made.

"Of course, indirectly, yes, it is a reminder [of the franchise for fans]. It is, in a way, a prologue, although it's not a prologue in a verbatim way of [being] a prologue for the actual The Witcher 4. Yes, you can look at it as it's a way to maintain certain chatter on The Witcher 3. All of those are side effects, additional side effects. The core thing for us, from our perspective, is really delivering a high-quality, fun experience to the existing fans of The Witcher."

During a livestream yesterday aimed at The Witcher fans, CD Projekt gave a few further hints on the expansion's focus, teasing the importance of Geralt's new third sword — as glimpsed in a recent piece of artwork released to celebrate a springtime festival. Geralt's bard buddy Dandelion is also present.

"We had a moment where our plans assumed that Songs of the Past would be released this year," Nowakowski said, when questioned why the expansion was launching later than expected.

"We decided together with the development team, that the game will be launching in 2027, to be honest, to achieve the best possible result from the consumer standpoint, which in the end, frankly speaking, is the only ultimate thing that really matters."

CD Projekt's latest financial results show the company reported Q1 revenue of 191 million PLN ($52.5 million), up year-on-year, and net profit of 106 million PLN ($29 million). "These results stem from solid sales of our key titles and the revenue from their inclusion in the subscription catalogues," said CD Projekt CFO Piotr Nielubowicz.

The company currently employs 975 people, a headcount that has grown by more than 40 since February. The vast majority of its staff (now over 500) are working on The Witcher 4, while 163 people are assigned to Cyberpunk 2. Around 80 people are working on multiplayer Witcher spinoff Project Sirius, while 24 are building the studio's new IP codenamed Hadar.

There's still no word on when The Witcher 4 might arrive, but CD Projekt has an extremely ambitious plan to launch it plus The Witcher 5 and 6 all in a six-year time period. It's this plan which essentially rules out the possibility of further expansion content being made anytime soon, Nowakowski concluded.

"The plans are pretty ambitious," Nowakowski acknowledged. "It would be difficult, to be very honest, for us to add an expansion to the upcoming trilogy. This is where we are here and now with this particular issue."

Separately, CD Projekt also celebrated the fact that its Cyberpunk Trading Card Game campaign raised $28 million via Kickstarter, making it the platform's most successful gaming project ever, and the third-largest Kickstarter campaign of all time.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social