A brand new re-release of The Lord of the Rings: War in the North has been launched out of the blue on modern consoles and PC.

Aspyr has remastered The Lord of the Rings: War in the North to modern platforms, much to the joy of hardcore Middle-Earth fans. The game is now available on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and PC for $17.99 until August 25th, and then the price will rise to $19.99. The new release features 60fps, bug fixes, and various quality of life changes such as the ability to lock on to enemies, and the option to hot swap to different characters on the fly.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North originally released on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC in November 2011, but it wasn't exactly a smash hit. The game got mixed reviews from critics, with IGN giving it a 7/10, noting that the game doesn't take enough risks and feels a bit bland. It also didn't perform super well commercially, as it released around the same time as juggernauts like Modern Warfare 3 and, perhaps most notably, Skyrim.

Time has been kind to the game, though, as some fans remember it fondly, even managing to earn a spot on IGN's list of best Lord of the Rings games. As for what's unique about this title, War in the North features online co-op, which allows you to play through the game with a small group of friends. The story also runs parallel to the events of the books and the original Peter Jackson trilogy, even utilizing the likenesses of actors from the films and the general aesthetic from those movies.

It was also the first Lord of the Rings game to be rated M for Mature, opting to embrace a grittier and bloodier tone than the films. This would somewhat pave the way for the much more beloved Shadow of Mordor, which featured a darker story and indulgent violence.

Aspyr also teased in a press release that fans can look forward to more Lord of the Rings re-releases in the future, but didn't specify which titles. War in the North was originally published by Warner Bros., while many of the beloved games released during the 2000s were published by EA. Whether or not that will cause any rights issues remains to be seen, but it would be awesome to see a remaster of The Return of the King of Lord of the Rings: Conquest.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

Leaked images of a The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Nintendo Switch 2 console and Pro Controller appear to be circulating online.

Photos of the unannounced Nintendo hardware were posted to X/Twitter today by Necro Felipe, the owner of well-known Brazilian gaming site Universo Nintendo, who stated that, per his sources, the designs were legitimate. IGN has contacted Nintendo for comment.

The images show a Switch 2 dock with golden Triforce design printed on one side, and a Switch 2 console with black/teal Joy-Con controllers, each also adorned with Triforce patterns.

VAZA encarte do Nintendo Switch 2 temático de Zelda (40 Anos) pic.twitter.com/4cmTceyxeb

— 'Necro' Felipe #UnivNintendo (@necrolipe) August 11, 2026

A matching Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller: The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition mirrors the black/teal coloring for its base, with a golden central Triforce design and gold shoulder buttons and triggers.

Mais ângulos (e encartes) do encarte para o Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller - The Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Edition https://t.co/nRJmlPwxWw pic.twitter.com/RiCOSEiZto

— 'Necro' Felipe #UnivNintendo (@necrolipe) August 11, 2026

An unrevealed Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary logo can be seen on packaging for both items, featuring a small NES-era Link icon. It'll be interesting to see where else this logo pops up, and how Nintendo markets its big Zelda anniversary.

To date, Nintendo has not marked Zelda's 40th anniversary year — and the actual date that the first Zelda game launched on NES has now come and gone. But there are still several months of 2026 left, and the company has now confirmed it will release its The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Switch 2 remake before the year ends.

Nintendo fans expect a big Zelda 40th anniversary push soon, with more details of that Ocarina remake, the official reveal of this hardware, and a first trailer for the franchise's live-action movie that's set to debut on April 30, 2027. Perhaps we'll see all of this revealed in an upcoming Nintendo Direct?

Last week, various pieces of casting information also leaked, adding to the sense that leaks are happening now as Nintendo begins readying a big reveal. The late, great Sam Neil was reported to be part of the film's cast, alongside the previously leaked Dichen Lachen (Succession) as Impa, Uli Latukefu as Ganondorf, plus Yvonne Strahovski and Lydia Peckham in unknown roles.

Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, the young House of the Dragon star set to play Link, has recently offered his first thoughts on playing the Nintendo legend, meanwhile.

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

Struggling against the Legendary Ships in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced? Don't worry, you're not alone.

According to player stats released today by Ubisoft, Legendary Ship encounters have just a 47% win rate, meaning that more than half of all attempts to sink the boss boats have ended in failure.

Of course, it's still relatively early days. Black Flag Resynced has only been available for a month, meaning that many players will have likely attempted to take down a Legendary Ship before their Jackdaw was fully equipped. And even then, Legendary Ships are designed as an endgame activity. They're not meant to be easy!

Other player stats revealed by Ubisoft have revealed that players have spent 8.07 million hours manually crouched (something not possible in the original game), which equates to 10% of the games' entire playtime. Hey, stealthing around is fun.

Over the game's first month, Black Flag Resynced fans have sailed 40.07 million in-game kilometres, the equivalent of 1,000 trips around the real world, or 52 roundtrips to the Moon (remember Assassin's Creed was expected to end on a spaceship!).

To date, players' favorite weapon is currently the Le Bourgeyoys Blades cutlass, while players' favorite outfit is the Privateer costume. (Seriously, redeem your Animus points and unlock something snazzier.) My favorite stat, though, is that 28.29 million animals have been petted — with cats of course being the number one choice.

Last week, Ubisoft released its latest Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced patch, though fans are still waiting for word on the game's previously-confirmed New Game Plus mode.

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

Development on a beloved Terraria mod is shutting down following sexual misconduct allegations revolving around its lead developer. Meanwhile, the creators of the mod have reportedly turned down an offer to save it from streamer xQc.

Terraria is one of the biggest crafting games in the world and has a thriving modding community. One of the best and most popular mods is known as Calamity, which massively expands the game with additional bosses, biomes, items, and music, almost serving as an unofficial expansion for the title. However, it has been bogged down in controversy for some time now, which has led to the team ceasing development.

The mod's lead developer, Ozzatron, was accused of allegedly participating in an NSFW Discord server reportedly with minors present. Screenshots leaked of Ozzatron allegedly participating in highly inappropriate conversations with members who claimed to be as young as 15 years old. The mod's previous leader, Fabsol, was similarly accused of grooming minors in 2022, meaning this has been an alleged repeat issue across multiple leaders.

Additionally, Ozzatron has been accused of being manipulative and difficult to work with, causing team members to grow uncomfortable and frustrated with the lead developer. As a result of this, the rest of the mod team has decided to abandon development on Calamity. The team alleged that Ozzatron has gone AWOL and is withholding Patreon funds that are used to pay the team for their contributions.

Some team members also asked that their assets be outright removed as they don't want to be associated with the project following all of the controversy. Due to the sheer amount of work needed to make those kinds of changes, the team has decided that a total shutdown is the best compromise.

"We’re sure most of you are aware of the troubled past of Calamity's development," said the mod team in an official Discord server. "At this point, many of us have felt personally betrayed time and time again after being promised something better that never ended up coming. We’re just tired at this point, and almost all passion we had for the mod has been soured, with many of us having chosen to leave as a consequence. Most of us want to simply move on and would be far happier working on our own projects that aren’t and won’t be tied to something with what we feel is an irrecoverably tainted reputation."

Famous streamer and content creator xQc volunteered to step in by buying the Terraria mod and hiring the development team himself. However, members of Calamity's mod team have rejected the offer. This isn't totally surprising if members are asking for their work to be outright removed from the project and others are fed up with other behind the scenes issues. It seems like everyone is ready to move on and there's too much negativity wrapped around the project for the team to continue working on it.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

Series 3 of the hotly anticipated Pokémon First Partner Illustration TCG Collection officially landed at the Pokémon Center and most places where Pokémon TCG products are sold on 7 August 2026.

This Collection series has proven incredibly popular with fans - and who can blame them! Any TCG product that gives me an excuse to reminisce over all the adventures I’ve shared with my First Partner Pokémon over the years has me opening my wallet quicker than a Regieleki.

Same as the other two series, inside each box, you'll score:

• 1 Pokémon TCG Pack: Contains 3 of 9 illustration rare-style promo cards featuring the First Partner Pokémon from Gen 3 (Treecko, Torchic, Mudkip), Gen 6 (Chespin, Fennekin, Froakie), and Gen 9 (Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly). Remember - because it's a random pull, you’re not guaranteed any specific Pokémon!
• 2 Pokémon TCG Booster Packs (pulled from Pitch Black and Chaos Rising).
• 1 Exclusive Sticker Sheet featuring the Collection’s starter crew. The highlight of the whole collection, I know!

This release marks the final chapter in the First Partner Illustration TCG Collection. Series 1 took us back to the classic roots with Kanto (Gen 1), Sinnoh (Gen 4), and Alola (Gen 7). Series 2 took us back to the Johto (Gen 2), Unova (Gen 5), and Galar (Gen 8) regions. Series 3 officially rounds out the whole collection, bringing us the beloved first partner Pokémon from the Hoenn, Kalos, and Paldea regions.

On a personal note, Generation 3 was my first Pokémon game. While I started with Pokémon LeafGreen (which yes, is a Generation 3 game, I always forget), Pokémon Ruby was the first one I met my 24-year-old Treecko, while my best friend from primary school chose Torchic, and gave him to me.

Thanks Alice, I’m still looking after him! Years later, my partner got me a 3DS for my 21st birthday, where I finally completed my starter trio with Mudkip in Pokémon Omega Ruby. I have a huge amount of love for these three First Partner Pokémon, so I’ll definitely be trying my absolute best to hunt these promos down.

Price and Retailer Watchlist

Same as the other collections, the MSRP for this series is $14.99 USD (£14.99 in the UK). But, just like the others, you’ll be lucky if you can pick one up for that price. You can find these at the usual spots, but keep a Keen Eye on stock levels. The first and second series got snapped up faster than a Carbos-loaded Sharpedo.

Retailers have been hit-or-miss lately with First Partner Collection stock. Some stores get flooded, while others seem to sell out before the doors even open. Recently, the prices of these First Partner Collections has been dropping, so you might be able to snag yourself a good deal in time! You’ll want to check the usual spots, but keep a close eye on the smaller hobby shops too.

US Retailers to Watch

Unsurprisingly, the Pokémon Center is usually the first place to go live... And the first to go out of stock. Keep checking for restock waves.

Target and Best Buy are great options for local pickup, if you’ve got one close to you. If you can't get a pre-order anywhere online, it’s worth checking the physical shelves at these two retailers early in the morning near when your local store restocks. You can also call your local store or check online inventory checkers to see if they have available stock.

Amazon is usually a decent shout, but $59.95 is a steep price to pay. It is, however, currently in stock, with more expected to drop on 15 August.

Finally, if you miss the initial retail drop, TCGplayer is a reputable third-party marketplace. Just be careful with pricing here, as market rates fluctuate wildly based on initial demand. At the time of writing, a $14.99 collection is going for $51.74, plus $19.95 shipping, down from a high of $89.99.

UK Retailers to Watch

Much like the US version, Pokémon Center UK is your safest bet for baseline MSRP.

Chaos Cards is a good option for UK hobbyists. They often have reward programs, so if you buy a lot of cards, check your points before you check out!

Smyths Toys is also surprisingly good for TCG stock. They don't always do online pre-orders for these smaller boxes, but they usually have plenty of stock in-store on release day.

The big question you might have now is: “Will I even be able to get my hands on one of these?”

People (myself included) have a lot of nostalgic love for Generation 3, and the shiny "newness" of Generation 9 means this wave is selling out fast. Sorry Generation 6 lovers, but we still appreciate you!

How Many Series Are Left?

We’ve had Series 1 (Gens 1, 4, 7), Series 2 (Gens 2, 5, 8), and now Series 3 (Gens 3, 6, 9), completing the nine mainline generations.

There is a bit of chatter about the upcoming Generation 10, and where this fits into the Collections. With Pokémon Winds and Waves rumored to be launching in 2027, a potential fourth series could tease the Generation 10 starters. Nothing is officially confirmed though, so take that rumor with a massive pinch of salt.

What’s Coming Next for the Pokémon TCG?

2026 is a huge year for Pokémon TCG! The biggest expansion on the horizon is the monumental Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration expansion, launching globally on September 16, 2026. This is a historic set featuring a simultaneous worldwide release, where every single card is foil, every pack guarantees one of 30 unique Pikachu cards, and we see the debut of the brand-new opalescent "Futuristic Rare" tier featuring Mew and Mewtwo by artist YOSHIROTTEN.

For up-to-the-minute stock alerts, deals, and breaking card reveals, turn on notifications for IGNDeals on X. Did you manage to get your hands on Series 3, or are you, like me, waiting for a massive restock wave? Let me know in the comments if you got the pull you were looking for, or who your First Partner was!

Sara Heritage is a freelance journalist for IGN, specialising in Pokémon TCG. When she's not gaming, you’ll probably find her building yet another LEGO set she absolutely did not need, or chaining ranked matches in Pokémon Champions.

Control Resonant’s combat is a massive departure from the classic Remedy gunfights of the original Control. The shapeshifting gun has been ripped out of your hands and replaced with The Aberrant, a skeleton key of a melee weapon capable of unlocking enemy weaknesses, be that in the form of nifty dual blades or a defence-smashing hammer. With multiple forms to experiment with, numerous abilities to unlock, and an extensive skill tree to explore, The Aberrant represents Control taking one step further into the realm of action RPGs. To learn how it all works, I spoke to the team at Remedy all about Resonant’s new combat system and the weapon that powers it all.

Having now played three or so hours of Control Resonant, I can confirm that whatever form The Aberrant takes, it’s a joy to cleanse Manhattan with. The action is swift, immediate, and packs a punch on every step of its power trip. It hits that glorious balance of looking and feeling great, without ever becoming needlessly complex. Its malleable form fits perfectly around the bloodied fist that is Dylan, our antihero, like a glove scuffed with the concrete you rip up from the world’s streets with each ground-shattering impact. Those who have played any of the Finnish studio’s games will not be surprised to hear that the action is slick, but the fact that its first full swing at melee combat has come together so well is certainly impressive.

But while Resonant marks Remedy’s first foray into melee, it’s been thinking about close-quarters combat for a long time. “When we were working on the first Control game, we already had ideas for making melee combat,” reveals Sergey Mohov, lead gameplay designer on Control Resonant. “Control does have melee, but we actually wanted to make a Service Weapon melee form back in the day. We even had concept art and everything for that.”

Alas, that never came to fruition. Already a new beginning for the studio, the desire to inject melee into Control fell by the wayside due to other ambitions.

“It was important to me that we started to think of [Control] as an RPG experience,” says Mikael Kasurinen, director of both Control games. “With the first game, we wanted to start from a place of familiarity. So we were known for doing third-person shooters. And it felt like that's the right way to start that experiment in a way, like what's the Remedy version of an RPG franchise? So we started to bring in things like side quests, or you can customize your character even further than in any [of our] other games before, and you can actually pick choices and conversations with other characters. They were like new things that we'd never done before.”

One non-negotiable for Control, though, has been placing aggression at the core of combat. Remedy never wants you to hide as you chase down enemies. Rather, you should use the architecture of Resonant’s arenas as parkour pathways to reach them, rather than nooks to take cover in. That’s evident from even just a glance at Resonant’s action, as Dylan dashes, double-jumps, and dives headlong into hordes of glowing red Hiss with reckless abandon, soaking up the blue shards of health that cascade from his victims. Switching to melee feels a natural evolution for the series, and a logical step that builds on the lessons learned through the original’s shooter-centric design.

“What people tended to do when we had the early prototypes [of Control], was they kind of took it as a full-on shooter, hiding behind cover and peeking around and so on,” Kasurinen explains. “But what we wanted to do was make people be more aggressive and use the paranatural powers that they have.

“We did, I think, a pretty good job of bringing in the combination of abilities and shooting,” he continues. “But there was this thinking at the back of my head when we were working on the first Control that, yeah, melee, that would make a lot of sense because there's something about it being intuitive that you want to organically get close to the enemies.”

Enter The Aberrant, an Object of Power gifted to Dylan by his sister Jesse. Your first choice will be to select which of its three primary modes you’ll wield for the story’s opening act. You have the quick-hitting, high-critting dual blades, known as Flurry; the Slice, best used for taking on enemies one-on-one for big damage; and Slash, which is best utilised for crowd control due to its sweeping nature.

Beyond these basic attacks is where the aforementioned RPG aspirations enter the mix. From here, you can construct a version of your chosen weapon (and a version of your Dylan) that best suits your playstyle.

“We have three slots for The Aberrant,” explains Mohov. “We have the primary, the secondary, and the combo ender. Those are different shapes that The Aberrant takes when you press the [corresponding] button. So for instance, you start a combo with dual blades, and then if you continue that combo, you will switch to the combo ender, this cleaving spinning weapon that hits enemies in a big arc.”

There are definitely character action influences to be felt when playing Control Resonant, with some of the enemy juggling and outlandishly stylish abilities conjuring up images of Platinum games of the past. But for those whose tastes are more solidly rooted in Max Payne than Bayonetta, this sequel still very much uses its predecessor as its main inspiration. Part of what made 2019’s Control so enjoyable to play was how powerful it made you feel via relatively simple inputs on the controller. See: tapping a button to launch a two-ton chunk of concrete at an enemy. It’s a sentiment carried over here, with complex button combos neglected in favour of satisfying simplicity, born out of the builds you’ll set up in the menus.

“We want everything to feel immediate,” Mohov states. “You press the button, the thing happens. That's the philosophy of design. You press Square, Dylan does the attack. You press R1, Dylan does the ability. There’s no, ‘I'm switching to the mode of this and then I am pressing another button or holding a modifier key’. We did prototype all of these things and those slowed down the combat quite a lot, and we don't want you thinking about that. We want everything to feel immediate and visceral.”

Further to that philosophy of immediacy is Mohov and the team’s refusal to incorporate a parry into Dylan’s skillset. There is a shield — one formed from levitating rock that I had a glorious time using to bulldoze into groups of enemies and bash them into a stunned state — but no way to turn your foes’ attacks against them. Again, it’s all in the name of momentum and staying on the front foot, a design choice that proves a welcome breath of fresh air in a genre where so many games employ a parry mechanic at their core.

“We did prototype parry and deflect mechanics, and decided to remove them,” Mohov reveals. “The idea behind the combat system of Control Resonant is that offense is the best defense. When we implemented these kinds of defensive mechanics, we noticed that we're waiting for enemies to do something to press the button in return. And that just didn't seem to fit the philosophy that we had for the combat system.”

Resonant is not quite an open world game – it’s made up of multiple expansive city zones. Remedy’s decision to have Control breach the walls of The Oldest House and let its destructively parasitic Hiss loose on the streets of New York opens up a new increased verticality in level design and, as a result, a new approach to encounter design. It may sound counterintuitive for a series transitioning from ranged to melee combat to increase the number of airborne enemies, but that’s exactly what Dylan’s movement abilities allow for.

“He's very nimble and he's very fast and he can also stay airborne for a long amount of time,” says Anne-Marie Grönroos, lead level designer on Control Resonant. “There are a lot more enemy types that can follow Dylan wherever he goes, a lot of flying enemies too, which of course makes it easier to do at these massively epic scale, vertical levels.”

Mohov expands upon the idea behind these expanded player spaces. “When you think about melee games, you'll find (with some exceptions) they are going to be you walking into a combat arena, standing in the middle and enemies are coming to you. Your job is to press the button with the right sequence and they just die one by one and the next enemy comes and then the next enemy comes. That's kind of how those games used to work. We wanted to challenge that a little bit with Resonance.”

“That's a very difficult thing to design because we can't just point to another game and say, okay, we're going to do it like this other game,” Mohov continues. “We had to figure it out. So the player in this game is going to be chasing monsters around, and we wanted that to be fun. That means that they needed to be at different heights. They needed to be of different sizes. Some of them needed to be on walls or on the roof so that you can figure out a little traversal puzzle about how to get there. And of course flying enemies are a big part of that because they have another dimension in which they can navigate. We just noticed that it's really fun to knock them down as well from the height so they fall on the ground and then you can ground slam into them, and everybody dies.”

Movement is a huge part of Control Resonant, with each of Dylan’s key traversal abilities unlocked by completing dungeon-like Fault missions, such as the trippy train-riddled one revealed in the first drop of this month’s IGN First. In that level, I got to play around with “Reach”, Resonant’s equivalent of a grappling hook, and an ability inspired by one action game close to Resonant’s director’s heart.

“I was really captivated early on by Sekiro, and it happened to come out in the same year as we did with the first game,” Kasurinen reveals.

“It did things with movement through the world that I felt were super cool. So it did make me think a bit about like, okay, where do we go from here?” he continues. “I loved the simplicity of it and the straightforward journey that the character had through a very dense world with a lot of layers and stories.”

From my few hours with Control Resonant, the level of depth within its combat alone was clear to see. The same can be said for so much else of the game, too. From its monstrous bosses and shifting world, to the stories and characters that inhabit it, there’s a deep well to sink into here. Much of which we’ll take a dip into later on in this month’s IGN First.

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.

PlayStation 5 exclusive Marvel's Wolverine will be accompanied by a limited edition PS5 console bundle, plus cover plates for both digital PS5 consoles and those with disc drives.

Available from September 15 alongside Insomniac's new game, the Marvel's Wolverine Limited Edition PS5 Digital Edition Bundle and accessories sports a yellow-colored design inspired by Logan's classic suit. Both the console and accompanying controller feature the appearance of a striking claw slash, while a roaring Wolverine appears on the console's upper third.

By "bundle" here, Sony appears to be just meaning you get the controller with your console. Despite appearing in pictures, you still don't get the console's vertical stand included.

Like the look of this design but don't want to buy a whole new console? In this economy, I do not blame you. Well, Sony will also be selling console covers for the PS5 (Slim) and PS5 Pro to slap this look on your existing machine. And yes, this will include covers for consoles with a disc drive too.

PS5 Pro owners get an additional color option that switches the yellow for silvery white — sorry, "adamantium", if that floats your boat. An accompanying silvery white Wolverine controller will also launch.

All of the gear will be sold via PlayStation Direct website where available and select retailers, while stocks last. Pricing is as follows:

• PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – Marvel’s Wolverine Battle Yellow Limited Edition Bundle
  • $649.99 US / £569.99 GBP/ €649.99 EUR / ¥96,980 JPY RRP
• DualSense Wireless Controller – Marvel’s Wolverine Battle Yellow Limited Edition
  • $84.99 US / £74.99 GBP/ €84.99 EUR / ¥12,480 JPY RRP
• PlayStation 5 Console Covers – Battle Yellow Limited Edition
  • $74.99 US / £64.99 GBP / €74.99 EUR / ¥9,980 JPY RRP
• PlayStation 5 Pro Console Covers – Marvel’s Wolverine Battle Yellow Limited Edition
  • $74.99 US / £64.99 GBP/ €74.99 EUR / ¥9,980 JPY RRP
• PlayStation 5 Pro Console Covers –Marvel’s Wolverine Adamantium Limited Edition
  • $74.99 US / £64.99 GBP / €74.99 EUR RRP
• DualSense Wireless Controller – Marvel’s Wolverine Adamantium Limited Edition
  • $84.99 US / £74.99 GBP/ €84.99 EUR RRP

Previous promotional pushes for Marvel's Wolverine have been hit by complaints surrounding PlayStation's recent highly-controversial decision to kill discs for new PS5 games from January 2028 onwards. (To be clear, developer Insomniac Games has confirmed that Marvel's Wolverine will include a disc in its box.)

Today's announcement is no different, with comments on the YouTube version of PlayStation's Marvel's Wolverine PS5 Digital Console Bundle trailer pointing out that Sony has once again deprioritized discs by not launching a disc version of the Wolverine console.

"Wolverine would have fought for physical media rights," wrote one fan. "Wolverine loves to get Physical," said another. So, are you tempted?

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 a kid, one of my favourite moments in The Empire Strikes Back was when Han Solo and Chewbacca got the drop on an Imperial probe droid on Hoth by flanking it on either side and blasting it to bits, so you can imagine I was pretty stoked when Star Wars Zero Company allowed me to pull off plenty of ice cold combat manoeuvres just like it during the first 10 hours of its campaign. When it was first revealed last year I assumed this turn-based tactics adventure would only appeal to hardcore fans of the genre, that it was merely XCOM with X-Wings, perhaps. However, after getting hands-on with a near-finished build, I’m happy to report that Zero Company’s strategic shooting seems extremely approachable for newcomers without sacrificing any of the complexity that more experienced fans might expect. It’s a bit like a Sarlacc pit: very easy to drop into, but you might be surprised at just how deep it gets.

Before I could get stuck into its enjoyable blaster-based battles, though, I had to first create my character. In Zero Company you play primarily as Hawks, a former captain of the Grand Army of the Republic who’s charged with leading a special forces group dubbed Zero Company and investigating a mysterious new paramilitary cult known as the Infinite Coil. You don’t get to choose Hawks’ backstory, but you do get to design their look by paging through a healthy variety of species, facial features, combat specialisations, and clothing options. I had no regrets about the bright purple Twi’lek I created to be my Hawks, but it was nice to know that even if I did grow tired of her floppy head-tails, I had the option to completely switch up her species and overall appearance in between missions by returning to the customisation station in her home base.

Company of Zeroes

To be clear, I’m coming to Zero Company as a lifelong Star Wars fan, not as someone with any real expertise with the turn-based tactics genre at large. However, I was pleased to find that Zero Company’s fighting is extremely simple to pick up thanks to an intuitive control setup and a gentle early tutorial phase, yet it gradually becomes flexible enough to allow for some really creative battle strategies. During the player’s turn, each character gets three action points that you can use to reposition them within a set radius, trigger an attack on an enemy, or manually set up an overwatch cone to automatically target foes that may be on the move once your turn has ended. Additionally, your squad also gets a shared pool of advantage points earned for each successful attack you land on the enemy, and they can be spent to unleash unique character abilities like firing a devastating rocket launcher round or a barrage of sweeping blaster shots to both damage and disorientate an opponent.

Zero Company’s scraps are more like star skirmishes than full-blown Star Wars, but that doesn’t mean things don’t still get pretty hairy at times. Along the way, your squad of soldiers grows to include everything from medics to marksmen to astromech droids, and getting the team make-up just right is critical in order to keep your success rate high, especially if you opt to play on one of the more challenging of Zero Company’s four difficulty settings. For the most part, I settled on making my Hawks an all-round gunslinger and brought along with me the burly Kabb Uppercut to deliver his namesake boxing blows in close quarters melee situations, former clone trooper Trick to provide cover at range, and a support droid to lob equippable utility items like impact bombs to shatter bands of B1 Battle Droids into sparking shards of scrap. However, during my hands-on time I also got to recruit everyone from jetpack-jumping Mandalorians to junior Jedi, and had a great time mixing and matching my squad members as my small army expanded.

Zero Company’s absorbing combat system benefits further from some handy extra features like the option to call for backup, which orders one of your squadmates to automatically follow up your attack with one of their own to really pile on the punishment. I soon settled into a good rhythm of thinning basic ground troops, but just as I was getting comfortable with my stress-tested strategies, Zero Company started introducing interesting new combatants to contend with that forced me to make adjustments to my approach. I quickly found that there’s no point targeting Droidekas with standard attacks, for example, since their blue shields deflect even your most well-aimed blaster bolts. Instead, I discovered the best way to topple them was to try and trap them within an array of strategically placed overwatch cones, so that I’d automatically catch them with their shields down while they were rolling to reposition themselves in between turns.

The highlight of my Zero Company hands-on, however, was a multi-part mission featuring a familiar sand-hating special guest operator. After a prisoner exchange goes wrong in the cloud city of Bespin, my Hawks found herself paired up with none other than Anakin Skywalker and an unknown stranger packing some serious sharpshooter skills. What ensued was a series of three different combat clashes, each with wildly contrasting objectives.

In the first I just needed to survive waves of incoming enemies smashing through the windows, in the second I was challenged with rescuing a half-dozen innocent civilians before they could get caught in the crossfire, while in the third I was tasked with defusing a series of explosives while dodging attacks from an enemy dropship that gives you one turn’s notice before it rains down hell and instantly injures any operators caught in its glowing red strike zones. This entire stretch made for the most intensely challenging and cinematic sequence in my whole hands-on, and the fact that its climax was set against the ticking clock of time bombs placed all the more pressure on my smart decision-making.

As you may expect, Anakin is an absolute beast on the battlefield, and I delighted in lining up groups of gun-toting goons and cutting them all down with one spinning hurl of his saber. As the battle transitioned onto an open-air rooftop area, I had a great time Force-pushing Infinite Coil commandos cowering behind cover right off the edge and watching them plummet down through the clouds to their doom. Of course, although he may be a marauding mass of Midichlorians, Anakin is still very much vulnerable to enemy attacks if you mismanage him. Indeed there were occasions where I got a bit too careless and left him in harm’s way at the end of a turn, exposing him to a one-shotting salvo from the gunship in the skies above. Zero Company may occasionally present you with some pretty powerful allies to play with, but that doesn’t mean its strict focus on the use of smart tactics ever wavers. Like a certain scruffy-looking smuggler once said, it’s probably best that you don’t get cocky.

Zero Chill

In between missions you make a hyperspeed jump back to your home base, a decommissioned cargo freighter known as the Den. Here you can shop for new weapon mods like stabilisers to improve your accuracy, recruit new operators for your squad, invest the credits you earn from battles into base upgrades like access to the black market or a droid repair station, or check-in with the other members of your team to share war stories or even just a tension-easing joke. Chatting to the various members of your gang isn’t just good for getting to know them; it can also present optional leads that can be pursued by accessing the Den’s holotable.

This galactic map can be used for two main purposes. For starters, it’s where you choose your next mission from, and beyond the somewhat linear path of the story’s opening hours you soon get your pick from a variety of mission types at any one time, whether you want to undertake a daring rescue mission or perhaps a safecracking heist instead. These incursions give you direct control of your troops on the ground in a number of different planetside locations from Lothal to Dantooine, and serve as the real meat of Zero Company’s campaign.

Additionally, the holotable is also where you decide which special operations you want to pursue. These are effectively hands-off tasks that often involve deciding on which combination of your operators you want to dispatch for a particular job, such as providing a security detail or boarding a derelict spaceship in order to search for salvage. Your team’s success in these jobs, and the rewards you earn in terms of credits and influence, often depends greatly on the individual bonds between each of the squad members you choose to delegate to. In fact, these bonds are constantly ebbing and flowing from one battle to the next, and as you strengthen them you can unlock a number of stat boosts for your teammates like health buffs and critical damage boosts, which prove to be crucial as later combat encounters gradually ramp up the challenge. Certainly Zero Company seems stuffed with careful choices to make, whether you’re on the battlefield or back at your base.

Zero Tolerance

Zero Company doesn’t just have plenty of depth, it also has plenty of death if you’re not careful. As in, permadeath. While each of your squadmates can be revived a couple of times during a battle – and you can bring them back to full fitness in between missions if you invest your credits in a medbay for the Den – should they fall for a third time within the same fight then they’re gone for good. And no, this isn’t some sort of temporary fake-out like Chewie seemingly exploding in an electrified transport ship before reappearing seconds later with a weary moan in Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. If you lose a pal in Zero Company you have zero chance of ever seeing them again, which means there’s a serious incentive to not only win each fight but to keep your whole squad standing at its end.

Having such high stakes for each and every one of my heroes in Zero Company made me feel far more invested in their fates, especially as many of these support characters seem genuinely likeable, largely thanks to the strong performances from the voice cast. I was fairly non-plussed when the somewhat witless Rodian in my party perished within the campaign’s first few missions, but when my blue-skinned bestie Kabb Uppercut came home in a body bag after an assault on a smuggler’s den that went pear-shaped, I must admit that I felt pretty heartbroken. Permadeath can be toggled off if you’d prefer, but personally I plan on leaving it on when I tackle the finished game because it’s a novelty to play through a Star Wars story packed with so much peril. It’s one that feels like it was scripted by George RR Martin as opposed to George Lucas.

That is, assuming that the team at developer Bit Reactor can sand off Zero Company’s noticeable rough edges with some last minute patching in the coming weeks ahead of launch. Some of these issues were pretty minor, like broken camera angles and a framerate that occasionally coughs and splutters harder than General Grievous in some of the more graphically dense levels. Others were more annoying, like the times I was unable to target the enemy standing right beside me in a firefight or move the aiming reticule to the upper levels of an arena. Even when I could target an enemy and had a high percentage chance of hitting them, it was quite shocking how often my character’s aim would be worse than Greedo’s that time he shot first. But the most egregious errors were the handful of occasions that one of my operators was shot right through solid cover. I’m fine to run the risk of my favourite characters potentially dying at any given moment, but I want them to perish as a result of my tactical deficiencies rather than Zero Company’s technical ones.

However, bugs aside, I've very much enjoyed my time with Zero Company so far, especially as someone who’s relatively new to the tactics genre. Its story missions steadily ramp up in scale and intensity and introduce interesting new objectives and enemy types, its ever-expanding cast of operators is charismatic enough to make you care, and there’s considerable depth to its character customisation, bonding, and skill trees, which I’m keen to tinker with further in order to find the most consistent balance for my fireteam. If Bit Reactor manages get this thing fully operational, then Star Wars Zero Company could well be a turn-based tactics game to die for when it launches on August 27 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN's Sydney office. He's been ordering Star Wars characters around a battlefield since they were Kenner action figures on his living room carpet. Follow him on Blue Sky at @tristanogilvie.bsky.social

This is an IGN opinion piece from Ryan McCaffrey, who worked at Official Xbox Magazine from 2002-2012 during the original Xbox and Xbox 360 era before joining IGN, where he remains “the Xbox guy.” In the run-up to Xbox’s 25th anniversary, he’ll be sharing his memories from the platform’s first quarter-century.

Back in its day, the original Xbox was known as the “shooter box” – a reputation that wasn’t unwarranted. But if you ask me, Microsoft also deserves a ton of credit for popularizing Western RPGs on consoles. The countless incredible Japanese role-playing games on Nintendo and PlayStation platforms dominated the genre back then, but when Xbox came around, that began to change. Bethesda’s Xbox port of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind was the first salvo in 2002, but it wasn’t until the following year when Xbox very loudly proclaimed to all RPG fans: “You need to buy an Xbox.” In July of 2003 – historically a barren desert for major game releases – Microsoft and BioWare launched Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It Force-pushed away any challengers, becoming not only my personal favorite RPG of all time, but one of the greatest games on the Xbox.

And, dare I say, it was better than any RPG on the rival PS2.

If you haven’t played KOTOR, I’m not going to spoil anything for you here. It’s a must-play that’s currently just $10 on the Xbox digital store (thanks to backwards-compatibility it’ll run on any modern Xbox) and I’d argue it’s well worth that even 20-plus years later. It’s still pretty playable despite its age, and available on a number of other non-Xbox devices, including phones and tablets. If you’re exceptionally patient, hopefully you’ll get a crack at a modern version if the remake announced back in 2021 ever ends up seeing the light of day, but that far-off possibility shouldn’t deter you from playing the original version.

Knights of the Old Republic did almost everything right. Chief among its triumphs was something we’d all loved in pen-and-paper roleplaying games but had rarely seen in a video game up to that point: it let you be angelically good or horrifyingly evil. Light and Dark Side meters in your character profile showed you which path of the Force you were walking, based on your actions and choices. This made the campaign both replayable and a box of endless possibilities for the curious player. I immediately took the plunge and embraced the Dark Side during my first playthrough, simply because I’d never played a game that had let me be this evil and actually have it matter before. Of course, this is an idea that the KOTOR team at BioWare would build upon for its next project, a little game you may have heard of called Mass Effect…

Ask anyone who played KOTOR at the time and they will almost certainly smile as memories come flooding back: there were the planets (like Kashyyyk and Tatooine), the characters (HK-47!), and one of the greatest plot twists gaming had ever seen. Those characteristics are all timeless, and ensure it remains a top-tier RPG, even if what was once a cutting-edge game, technologically speaking, now looks Roblox-like by today’s standards.

I reviewed it for Official Xbox Magazine and gave it a 9.4 out of 10, which was pretty rarified air at OXM back then; for context, Halo: Combat Evolved got a 9.6 out of 10. But what I remember most about playing it at the time is how it completely and convincingly pulled me into its story and world. I cared about my character, I cared about my party, I cared about the choices I made. Its story stuck with me for years after I finished it.

Knights of the Old Republic didn’t just blow away any other RPG on any other platform of its era, it legitimized the fledgling Xbox as a place where top-tier developers were going to make top-tier role-playing games. And to be honest? I wasn’t a huge RPG player before KOTOR. But after it, I became a far more serious fan of the genre – particularly of the Western variety. It’s not hyperbole to say that was entirely because of BioWare and what it achieved with what was, at the time, the best Star Wars video game ever made… and it wasn’t even close (cue the X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter fans coming after me in the comments).

In short, it’s hard to overstate how special KOTOR was. Because of that, I’m extremely skeptical that any remake – particularly after the development hell it’s already been through – can come anywhere close to doing BioWare’s masterpiece justice, but that’s a matter for another day. For now, though, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remains one of the very best reasons to have ever owned an Xbox, and it taught a generation of game publishers that if you trust your licensed intellectual property with the right developers, magic can happen.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, and a co-host of Next-Gen Console Watch. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games has announced layoffs impacting up to 75 staff — the studio's third round of job losses in three years.

This latest round of cuts was confirmed publicly today in a statement posted to social media by Supermassive, which described the "difficult decision to begin a redundancy consultation process" as a "necessary step to help ensure the sustainability of the company."

"We know this will be an incredibly difficult time for everyone, and our priority throughout the process will be to provide support to all those impacted," the studio continued.

Supermassive Games' latest launch was Directive 8020, another title in the studio's signature horror anthology series, The Dark Pictures. The game arrived in May to a positive write-up from IGN which praised its polished visuals and improved gameplay, though the game sits with a mixed user response on Steam, where just 1,400 people have left a review.

The company previously cut staff in February 2024, when around 90 staff were impacted, and again in July 2025 as it shed 35 more employees and delayed the long-in-development Directive 8020 even further. Prior to this, the company reported employing around 350 staff in 2023 — a total that now has been halved.

Based in Guildford, U.K., Supermassive Games was founded in 2008 and has established itself as one of the best-known horror game developers globally. The success of its 2015 classic Until Dawn inspired The Dark Pictures Anthology, a series of standalone narrative horror games where player choice allowed for a wild array of outcomes.

But the studio's recent work has received a lukewarm response, such as its 2025 sequel Little Nightmares 3 and 2024 Dead by Daylight spinoff The Casting of Frank Stone. The company currently does not have a new project announced publicly.

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

With Gears of War: E-Day in the middle of its open beta, players are getting stuck into its PvP, gnashing their way through hordes of enemies while darting about from cover to cover — just as they did in Gears of War back in the day.

And 20 year-old arguments first had on the Xbox 360 are flaring up again on the current generation of consoles, as some Gears fans bemoan sweaty movement all over again.

If you’ve ever played Gears PvP you’ve probably seen other players move in and out of cover incredibly quickly, making themselves hard to pin down and shoot, all while using the Gnasher to hit hard from close quarters. It’s called wall bouncing, and while E-Day doesn’t replicate it exactly as it works before, players are still able to move about very quickly.

"We have forms of wall canceling in there, but you won't be able to do [wall bouncing] the way you've done it in the past," The Coalition creative director Matt Searcy told IGN in June. "There are lots of other things you can do. There are [ways to] play with it, it's not entirely gone. We think we found a balance in terms of how that really feels. But back to my catchphrase, it is a new game. If you come back expecting it to play exactly like a previous Gears game, it won't be that way. [It] will probably be an adjustment, but it is also built around the same mechanics."

Fast forward to today, and in the wake of the E-Day open beta, players are getting to grips with how the new movement works, and showing off their movement skills. Professional Gears of War esports player Nate "Rocky" Arroyo tweeted a clip of his movement, below, and it’s extremely fast. Sure, this is gameplay from a pro Gears player — most players won’t be able to play like this. But still, the clip has sparked a vociferous debate about the supposed right and wrong ways to play Gears PvP, with some expressing their disbelief that people want to move like this at all.

E-Day Movement is so peak 😮‍💨 #GearsEday pic.twitter.com/yr92B36Qoe

— nate (@_Rccky) August 8, 2026

“Motherf***ers like you are the reason PvP is dead in Gears,” one person declared in response. “I was looking at this s**t and started getting angry,” another added. “I’m playing the beta too, but oh my f***ing god, sweats ruin everything. At least most of the player base doesn’t move like this guy.” “That’s all Gears PVP is anymore shotguns and wall hugging,” another complained. “People like you are the reason Gears multiplayer lasts four days before people quit playing,” one person commented. “Thanks now the player base will drop 99% in a month,” another predicted. “Have fun wall-bouncing in empty servers.”

Another added: “I will never play Gears multiplayer again in my life man, I’m gonna just enjoy the single player, live in peace, and let whatever tf yall be doing in MP keep happening.”

The thing is, movement like this has been a thing in Gears pretty much since Gears of War 2 came out in 2008. It is not a new phenomena, and, clearly, despite The Coalition’s best efforts, it is present and correct in E-Day. Some fans have pointed this out, stressing that coping with fast movement is a long-running part of the Gears PvP experience, and being able to deal with it is part of the joy of mastering combat.

Indeed, what we're seeing here isn't technically wall bouncing, at least not how it worked in previous Gears games. The beta meta, as it were, involves gaining what feels like a sort of speed boost using the 'up A out of corners' technique. This, in combination with wall humping, has pretty much the same effect in that it makes you very hard to shoot, but actual wall bouncing is slower now.

Still, Rocky’s clip, which is well on its way to half a million views on X / Twitter alone, has set the tone of discussion in a negative way. The majority of responses I’ve seen are along the lines of those above — with some saying it’s put them off playing multiplayer at all. I’ve also seen some say they’re too old to cope with Gears movement like this, either doing it themselves or trying to shoot other players who are doing it. Anecdotally, there exists a sizable audience of Gears fans who are looking at getting the gang back together for E-Day having dropped off the franchise some time ago. If they’re of a certain generation, perhaps Rocky’s clip will give them a healthy dollop of anxiety about doing so.

Gears of War is Truly back. pic.twitter.com/yKX0gWEJZd

— Helios (@Hi_Helios) July 30, 2026

Some Xbox fans have said they're concerned that E-Day won't hold the attention of casual players "once more people figure out this is optimal gameplay." "I downloaded the beta, fired up the first game, got chopped for five minutes, left, had a sudden realisation that I’m too old for this bulls**t," one person said on the Xbox subreddit in response to Rocky's clip. "Roll on single player story mode."

"Casuals have never played Gears multiplayer they play campaign and horde," another countered. "The series will never grow as long as they keep the wall bouncing s**t in it. Gears players lose their s**t if you suggest getting rid of it though so they probably never will."

Gears of War: E-Day is out October 6 and confirmed to be a console exclusive on Xbox.

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.

Pokémon Go players are reportedly being banned for gaining rare creatures from questlines obtained "in an unauthorized manner", seemingly confirming past whispers of a black market that allows fans to fraudulently acquire species via shady means.

Last year, fans on top Pokémon Go reddit TheSilphRoad discussed growing evidence that a small circle of players were selling rare creatures that seemed impossible to legitimately own. These included multiple copies of one-off Pokémon, or species released years ago that were somehow housed in Pokéballs not available at the time, all available to purchase for hundreds of dollars.

Put aside the fact that selling creatures breaks Pokémon Go's terms of service, and a far more troubling issue emerges: that players have been obtaining rare creatures by being given the original questlines that bestowed them. This practice, known as "injecting", allows accounts to receive questlines they do not legitimately have access to. Most fans agree that it is only possible if players have found a way to hack the game's servers, or have been granted access by someone with actual developer access.

IGN has seen screenshots from Pokémon sellers that allege they are in contact with a member of Pokémon Go's development team, but these are unverifiable, and this claim could simply be a cover for their own hacking activity. Regardless, IGN contacted Pokémon Go developer Scopely Explore (then Niantic Games) for comment last year, but did not hear back. We've asked again for more detail today.

Now, the latest report of bans for obtaining in-game questlines "in an unauthorized manner" does indeed seem to confirm that injecting access to quests has indeed been happening. It's unclear why action is being taken now, or if the loophole that allowed this to happen has been closed.

For those who profited from this process, meanwhile, a ban notice suggests a fairly lenient punishment is now being given: a 30-day suspension for the game, and a warning that further infraction could result in "additional sanctions."

"Hello Trainer," a note sent to players reportedly reads. "We have confirmed that you have received Special Research in an unauthorized manner, violating Pokémon Go Terms of Service and Player Guidelines. We take fairness seriously at Scopely Explore, and hence, your account has been temporarily suspended for 30 days. Further violations may result in additional sanctions against your account, including a permanent termination."

We'll update if we hear more.

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

Beef between two high-profile video game industry CEOs has bubbled over into the public domain, via a trailer for new taxi simulation game Rideshare Stimulator.

Footage of the game includes several references to Borderlands boss Randy Pitchford, head of Gearbox Studios, and an embarrassing incident involving a USB stick that contained pornographic material.

And now, those references have been confirmed as a deliberate "dig" at Pitchford by Matt Karch, the boss of Rideshare Stimulator publisher Saber Interactive, as payback for "shots" fired at Embracer in Borderlands 4. (Embracer was previously the parent company of both Gearbox and Saber, and where Karch served on the board of directors.)

"The dig is because Randy took shots at Embracer in Borderlands 4," Karch told Game File. "Without Embracer, Randy is performing magic tricks at birthday parties for a living."

Those "shots" at Embaracer that Karch is referencing likely involve an in-game location within Borderlands 4 that is rather obviously named "Embracer's Bluff." A Kotaku report previously flagged the likely joke at Embracer's expense, and noted that the area featured a large trash pile, an AI-powered talking toilet, and a king mayor who can be found relaxing in a bath tub.

Karch's new trailer for Rideshare Stimulator, meanwhile, includes references to Randy Pitchford's name, Gearbox and that infamous USB drive.

"When I think I've met the randiest of passengers, someone even stranger gets in," a voiceover in the trailer states. Next, a car is seen with the Texas license plate "USB DRV" featuring a familiar-looking gear icon. "USB DRV" is an obvious reference to a USB drive, while Gearbox is of course based in Texas.

"Take a ride in my chariot, and I will take you to my castle," another voiceover then states. Pitchford famously bought the historic Magic Castle in Hollywood back in 2022, and still owns the magicians' club today.

Pitchford previously admitted that he'd left a USB stick containing confidential company information and a pornographic video in a Medieval Times restaurant. The USB drive was later handed back to Gearbox and its contents then became more widely known. Via an episode of the Piff Pod podcast, Pitchford said the video featured a "barely legal" model performing a sex act that he likened to a "f***ing magician." It was because of this, he said, that he'd downloaded the video to further examine the performer's technique.

In the years since, Gearbox was acquired by GTA and BioShock owner Take-Two, while Karch now runs Saber Interactive as a separate company. Despite the failure of Embracer's studio acquisition spree, Karch has previously defended the company's motives as having been well-intentioned.

"It’s amazing to me how fast people forget those who went above and beyond for them," Karch concluded. Clearly, several years later, some things haven't been forgotten, however.

In August last year, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick admitted Pitchford could be a controversial figure, and even suggested some of his antics were deliberate, but ultimately he was a big fan. “I love Randy, first of all. Let me just say that on the record,” Zelnick told IGN. “And I love his big personality. I love his passion and he is one of the all time great game makers. He also can be controversial at times — sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. I still love him to death.”

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

Forza Horizon 6 developer Playground Games has confirmed the new content coming to the game over the next four weeks in the Series 4 Horizon Playlist ‘Horizon Mascot Party.’ The content includes new cars, as typical, but also a new, temporary time attack circuit situated within the stadium.

Series 4 will run from August 13 to September 10, and Playground has revealed the 10 cars that will be available to collect over the next four weeks. Some of them are new to the Horizon series, and some are returning prizes from Forza Horizon 6’s Series 1 playlist. This will mean that you may well have already picked some of these up if you’ve been playing FH6 regularly since launch. However, if you’ve only been playing as of more recently, having these hard-to-find cars returning so quickly as prizes is better than potentially waiting years to see them up for grabs again.

The cars are listed below:

• 2018 Exomotive Exocet Sport V8 XP-5 (earn 20 points during the Summer Season)
• 1969 Datsun 2000 Roadster (earn 40 points during the Summer Season)
• 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 (earn 20 points during the Autumn Season)
• 2016 Abarth 695 Biposto (earn 40 points during the Autumn Season)
• 1974 Toyota Celica GT (earn 20 points during the Winter Season)
• 1989 Toyota MR2 SC (earn 40 points during the Winter Season)
• 1988 Mitsubishi Starion ESI-R (earn 20 points during the Spring Season)
• 1968 Dodge Dart HEMI Super Stock (earn 40 points during the Spring Season)
• 1970 Honda N600 (earn 80 points over the course of the whole ‘Horizon Mascot Party’ series)
• 1967 Renault 8 Gordini (earn 160 points over the course of the whole ‘Horizon Mascot Party’ series)

Alongside the new cars, a new, temporary time attack track has been installed within the stadium for this series only. The mascot-themed Edamame Time Attack Circuit will have all the same in-world leaderboard functionality as FH6’s permanent time attack circuits. A variety of new props have also been added for use in Event Lab, as well as garage and estate customisation.

Playground notes that the next series to follow will be called ‘British Automotive’, and will celebrate “iconic British cars from the classics through present day.”

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

Alan Wake and Control developer Remedy is betting big on Control Resonant, as Alan Wake 2 finally passes 3 million copies sold.

Remedy's latest financial results show decreases in profit, revenue and cash flow — but this isn't a huge surprise. The company is busy putting the finishing touches to its impressive-looking Control sequel, while sales of its back catalog have been steady.

Originally launched in October 2023, Alan Wake 2 took some time to turn a profit. Meanwhile, as previously announced, Remedy's multiplayer experiment FBC: Firebreak received its final update back in March, following low sales.

Jean-Charles Gaudechon, installed as CEO of Remedy in March, commented on the company's latest results by pointing out that the company had now begun spending on Control Resonant marketing, including its reveal trailer shown during Sony's June State of Play presentation, and second trailer which aired during Summer Game Fest.

Gaudechon continued by noting that Remedy's annual numbers were down year-on-year, meanwhile, versus 2025's revenues from FBC: Firebreak, including money earned from subscription service agreements (the game launched in both Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus).

As for the upcoming Control Resonant, Gaudechon struck a hopeful tone. The game now has 1.5 million wishlists across PC and consoles, and is among the top three pre-ordered PlayStation games in the U.S., Germany and Brazil.

"We position Control Resonant as a must-have day-one purchase while also building Control into a lasting franchise," Gaudechon said. "In a competitive autumn window, we believe the distinctiveness and quality of the game will make it stand out. Control Resonant will be available across all major platforms from day one and is priced attractively for an AAA title. Combined with the release window becoming slightly less crowded since our original reveal, we remain confident in our positioning."

Other than Control Resonant, Remedy continues its lengthy development work on the Max Payne 1 & 2 remakes, which are still listed as in production. The company also has an unannounced "new project" which it says has now reached "production readiness," without providing further detail. Is this early work on an Alan Wake 3, or another Control game? We'll have to wait and see, though Remedy certainly doesn't sound like it's giving up on Alan just yet.

"We have two established own franchises, Control and Alan Wake, which are linked through the Remedy Connected Universe," Gaudechon concluded, looking to the future. "Remedy will self-publish upcoming games, in which Remedy owns the IP. Growing and expanding the two franchises will be a key part of our future. In addition, we work with a partner franchise Max Payne, originally created by Remedy."

Control Resonant launches on September 24 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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

Independent developer Illfonic, best known for its asymmetric multiplayer games based on iconic horror franchises, has revealed its upcoming Halloween: The Game has been refused classification in Australia. As a result, Halloween: The Game won’t be able to be sold via Australian storefronts. However, Illfonic also announced that the Australian rating means it won’t be selling the game in New Zealand either, despite the fact that New Zealand is objectively not a part of Australia and is, in fact, a separate sovereign country with its own government, currency, anthem, sports teams, and – yes – classification system.

While no classification decision has actually been published by the Australian Classification Board at this stage, IGN understands the determination involves incentivised illicit drug use, which is an idiosyncratic caveat that has caused hurdles for several games in Australia over the last few decades.

“Despite every effort on our part, the Australian Classifications [sic] Board has denied ‘Halloween: The Game’ a rating,” Illfonic has explained via social media. “The denial was not based on the presence of the iconic slasher, Michael Myers, or the outstanding kills that can be performed in the game, but rather the presence of a controlled substance. Unfortunately, to our disappointment (and certainly yours) this means that we cannot sell the physical or digital product in both Australia and New Zealand.”

Contrary to Illfonic’s statement, however, “the presence of a controlled substance” is not against Australia’s classification guidelines, so attributing Halloween: The Game’s effective “ban” in Australia to the mere presence of drugs in the game is either a misunderstanding of the situation, or an oversimplification. For instance, strong impact drug use is permitted in Australia’s MA15+ classification, and high impact drug use is permitted under the R18+ classification. However, what the guidelines do specifically prohibit is tying the use of illicit drugs in relation to incentives or rewards. It’s reported that Halloween: The Game includes the ability for players to smoke marijuana in-game as a mechanic that will reward them with pings showing villain Michael Myers’ location on the map. For context, the marijuana use featured in games like Grand Theft Auto V and Far Cry 3 is not associated with incentives, and both those games were rated in Australia without issue.

IGN sought clarification from the Australian Classification Board on a variety of questions about Halloween: The Game and Illfonic’s process for securing a rating for it.

“The Classification Board has not yet published a decision in relation to Halloween: The Game,” stated a Classification Board spokesperson.

“Games containing illicit drug use related to incentives or rewards cannot be accommodated within the R18+ classification category and must be Refused Classification under the Guidelines.”

Back in July, Illfonic successfully secured an R18+ rating in Australia for Halloween: The Game’s pre-order content, which was applied using the automated, free-to-use online rating tool maintained by the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC). In Australia’s case, the IARC tool sends its decision to be published automatically on Australia’s National Classification Database. However, in Australia, the IARC tool can only be used to classify games that are exclusively digitally distributed. If Halloween: The Game was going to be released on physical formats in Australia, it would have needed to have been submitted to the Classification Board for human rating, and not achieved via the IARC tool. The Australian Classification Board did not respond to IGN’s question whether Illfonic (or a local distributor acting on its behalf) did this.

Refused classification decisions from the Australian Classification Board can also be appealed to the Classification Review Board, which is a separate panel. IGN sought clarification whether Illfonic had pursued this but received no response.

As for “every effort” on Illfonic’s part, that’s a claim that may not quite pass the sniff test considering how successfully other developers and publishers have skirted Australia's guidelines with small, semantic tweaks. For instance, 2013’s State of Decay was initially refused classification in Australia for tying real-world proscribed substances to health boosts and other buffs, but a revised version that called the drugs ‘vitamins’ instead was rated without further issue. In 2008, Bethesda opted to give its morphine a brand name (‘Med-X’) to dodge the rule for Fallout 3. So, principles aside, it’s not entirely clear why Illfonic couldn’t just call it a regular cigarette in Australia and sidestep the whole debacle.

For what it’s worth, Halloween: The Game’s refused classification determination is unlikely to have much meaningful impact on the ability for gamers in Australia and NZ to get the game, considering how straightforward it is to purchase games from international storefronts in 2026.

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

Grand Theft Auto 6 fans are pre-ordering the $100 Ultimate Edition more than the standard edition of the game.

In an interview with CNBC, Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive, revealed that people are buying the Ultimate Edition of GTA 6 more than the cheaper standard edition. However, he noted that it may be partially a result of die-hard fans pre-ordering the game right now.

"Actually, it is skewing more to the premium edition," said Zelnick when the interviewer suggested that pre-order numbers may be equal across both editions. "That might be a reflection of the fact that the most avid consumers are the ones who are pre-ordering now."

Zelnick was also asked about holiday discounts, since GTA 6 will release just before Black Friday and Christmas. While he couldn't make any guarantees, as retailers can make their own choices about holiday sales, he noted that GTA 5's pricing stood strong for years. As a result, fans probably shouldn't expect any deep discounts on the game in the foreseeable future.

"We obviously establish our pricing, and storefronts can do what they wish," he said. "We don't have any capability to control that. So if they reduce their price, they reduce their margin on the sale. There are situations where certain retailers will price down to drive demand for other things they will sell. I can't tell you what will happen. I will tell you we preserved our pricing on Grand Theft Auto 5 for a very long time, much longer than a standard release of an entertainment property."

GTA 6's pricing has been a hot-button issue since pre-orders opened in June. The standard edition of the game is $80, $10 more than what other games tend to charge. For those who want everything the game has to offer, they can pay a premium of $100 for the Ultimate Edition, which features exclusive digital content. Zelnick noted to IGN last week that he believes that the pricing of the game reflects its value and went as far as saying that the price is a "bargain," as Rockstar Games is known for overdelivering.

Zelnick also addressed the controversy surrounding the game's lack of an actual disc, noting that a true physical release after launch isn't totally off the table. However, he doesn't see the lack of a disc as something that could damage the game's sales.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will get its first "extended look" later this month on Netflix, followed by a staggered release on YouTube and social media platforms. Zelnick himself has hyped up the release as something fans will want to tune into, but has refused to give even a crumb of details on what it may entail. Some fans are frustrated that the deep dive is being paywalled initially, but as noted, it will be available for everyone on YouTube six hours later on August 27th.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

Kazuhisa Wada, producer for Atlus' P-Studio, says he "can't say for sure" if Persona 1 and 2 remakes are coming, but said they are still games he thinks "we have to do."

Wada opened up about the Persona studio's development pipeline during an interview with GamerBraves. More than two years removed from the launch of Persona 3 Reload and on the cusp of the release of Persona 4 Revival, fans naturally have one question on their minds: Where are the Persona 1 and 2 remakes?

Both games – which actually released in the '90s as Revelations: Persona and Persona 2: Innocent Sin/Eternal Punishment – have, so far, been left out of Atlus' trend of remakes. There's been no word on whether modern-day reimaginings for the two JRPGs will be in the works. While Wada could neither confirm nor deny any if additional remakes are in the pipeline, it's not exactly something he'd hate to see happen either.

"At this point, I can’t say for sure," he said, "but personally, I think it’s something we should definitely do. I think we have to do it."

It's a short, simple explanation that also happens to be the most promising update that fans hoping for Persona 1 and 2 remakes have maybe ever received. Still, even if they do come to fruition, it's probably best not to expect them for at least a few years.

Persona fans have good reason to want to see more from Atlus. Its Persona 3 remake launched to positive reviews from fans and critics alike. IGN gave it a 9/10 review, calling it "a timeless story of tragedy and hope with sharp emotional sincerity" with "countless small but impactful changes."

Persona 4 Revival will offer a remake of the fourth mainline game when it launches for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S February 18, 2027. Wada said last year he's "confident" it will "be a fresh and surprising product for both newcomers and long-time fans."

We want to reiterate that Wada's words are not confirmation that Atlus will release Persona 1 and 2 remakes or that it is even working on them. However, if Kazuhisa is pushing for them to happen, it doesn't sound like they're out of the question.

As Atlus wraps up its work on Persona 4 Revival, it's also looking to the future with Persona 6. Our first look at this green-themed installment arrived in June, but you can see everything we know about it here. A live-action series adaptation of the franchise is also reportedly in the works.

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).

I’m at the point in Fields of Mistria where I’ve started talking to my dragon statue, Caldarus, and telling my pink dog to do chores. If that interests you, even without context, then you probably have a lot to look forward to. Fields of Mistria is the type of farming sim I wish I had in my youth – it resembles early 2000s cozy classics from Harvest Moon to Animal Crossing, all mixed together into an anime-coded concoction. The world of Mistria is brimming with lore and its villagers have distinct personalities that shine through in their dialogue. I can tell I still have a while before I’ve seen everything its newly released 1.0 update has to offer, but I already can’t wait to learn more about my new home and neighbors.

This fantasy farming sim takes place in a pastel pixel art world where mythical creatures and magic exist, but not in a way that dominates the otherwise down to earth tasks that are asked of you. I sometimes forget I’m in a magical world when I’m just farming and talking to villagers, and those humble tasks are plenty amusing as is. However, when I walk into the bathhouse and see a giant witch’s cauldron bubbling in the open, it sets me straight. It feels like a farming sim with a fantasy RPG skin over it – similar to Rune Factory, but less overt – so most of my attention goes to the actual farming loop.

Fields of Mistria is about the farming first and foremost, asking you to care for crops, till soil, chop wood, and so on. It’s neat that you can also catch fish and insects and donate them to a local museum like in Animal Crossing, as well play with enticing cooking and crafting systems that I have yet to dig into. While a lot of this might sound fairly standard, you can also improve your capabilities by giving spiritual currency to Caldarus for power-ups, like the ability to sometimes get seeds back when you harvest plants or replenish energy when watering.

I saw these activities as a way to speed toward my goals: to revitalize Mistria and grow my farm. However, I couldn’t rush toward that target immediately, and I’m glad that's the case. I had the urge to start grinding for gold right away, but I was too broke to buy seeds and didn’t have the equipment to clear sticks and rocks from my farm. Instead of having access to all tools and skills from the beginning, I unlocked them one by one, and I appreciated how that forced me to slow down and really take notice of the town and its inhabitants.

A day in Mistria can last as little as 12 minutes and 30 seconds in real-world time. My average day took at least 20 minutes, though, because I talked to every single person I passed and often paused to flip through menus (inventory, relationship journal, etc). I spent my first few days completing requests for villagers and ended up getting to know many of them, even ones I wasn’t particularly interested in. These requests, which seemed like simple fetch quests at first, impressed me with the little stories that sometimes came with them. Need some lilacs? Well, you may have just signed up to be a lab experiment.

Some farming sims make me feel like I’m watching a performance, where the characters only exist in my personal bubble and don’t do anything outside of that. Fields of Mistria does the opposite. Seeing characters interact based on a shared history with each other made me feel like an actual newcomer who had a lot to learn about the relationships and unique quirks that this town had to offer. I especially appreciated Friday nights at the Sleeping Dragon Inn, which gather every villager into one spot for what feels like the whole day. It’s those moments that convinced me these people actually do talk to each other and have lives when I’m not actively witnessing them.

Their personalities stand out the most. Even for characters who are based on anime stereotypes (like March, who is unapologetically a tsundere), developer NPC Studio finds a way to enhance them through effective dialogue. Even when I’m mad at March because he insinuated that I’m a leech for accepting a free pickaxe from his brother, I can show up to the bar on Friday and he’s suddenly buddy-buddy with me after a few drinks. Meanwhile, the little girl at the inn told me that she would put the local Blackfire lookalike in jail for making stinky potions. Sometimes, their words just make me laugh, and it’s worth mentioning when a game like this actually makes me want to read all the dialogue and not just skip it.

Another interesting quirk: the villagers actually react to you. For example, someone may go out of their way to tell you where to find a particular item for your fetch quest, or mention something that happened in the past. I haven’t seen anything mindboggling yet, but it’s still a nice touch to add immersiveness to the world.

I do have a few gripes with Fields of Mistria so far, but they are mostly tied to my current progress in the storyline. It can sometimes feel like a chore to run back and forth between my farm, especially when I haven’t upgraded my inventory yet and my tools take up half the space. Also, for some reason, my character will occasionally swap to an awkwardly slow pace while moving. As far as I know, that’s a bug that pops up under uncertain circumstances, and I haven’t found the right sweet spot for my setup yet.

I’ve played a lot of farming sims, even bad ones, for many hours. At this point, I have faith that I’m still climbing towards the peak of what Fields of Mistria has to offer, especially since the completion of the Town Repair Storyline and marriage were just added with the 1.0 update. It’s so early that I have yet to fill up a heart for any character, let alone a love interest. And yet, I’ve had more than enough time to know I really like what I’ve seen so far, and I’m eager to keep going until I'm ready for my final review.

A Battlefield 6 player with hundreds of hours of playtime has scored a full refund of the game after Battlefield Studios removed key modes from its quick-play matchmaking.

Over on Reddit, the player revealed that Steam granted them a full $110 refund of the game's Phantom Edition, saying they got upset after developers continued to pull modes from the game's quick play matchmaking. They noted that it began with Squad Deathmatch and King of the Hill, but once Rush (a Battlefield staple) was pulled, they requested a refund.

Steam famously refuses to grant most refunds unless the game was purchased in the last two weeks and you've barely played it. However, the player wrote a note to a support agent explaining their feelings and why they wanted a refund. Valve seemingly thought it was a valid enough reason and granted the refund outside of the usual terms. Whether or not this will spark more refunds remains to be seen, but it does show that some fans are fed up with games radically changing throughout their life cycle.

The fan noted in their Reddit post that the developers "don't get to remove the game modes I play and still keep my money." The aforementioned modes are still available in the game, but they're only available through Portal/the server browser. When I went to find Rush matches in the server browser, all of the lobbies were completely empty. That may be an error, but even still, it makes it difficult to find a lobby with the mode you want to play. Quick play solves that by putting you into a game with enough players in a relatively close region to manage ping.

Battlefield 6 was the biggest game of 2025, but lost a lot of players in the weeks and months following its launch. Some were frustrated with the amount of content that was being released, others demanded quality-of-life changes, and some just moved on to other games. Battlefield 6 has managed to win some players back since the launch of Season 4, which added naval combat and massive new maps, but it remains to be seen if it can sustain or grow those player counts from here.

According to Steam Charts, Battlefield 6's player count rose nearly 20% on the platform alone with the launch of the latest season. However, the removal of modes like Rush aren't moves that will keep players, as evident with this story.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.