Nearly a decade on from Telltale Games' first announcement of a Wolf Among Us sequel, there's finally some good news. The rebooted version of Telltale has committed to a 2027 launch for Bigby Wolf's long-awaited next chapter, as well as a remastered version of his first adventure due out later this year.

But what has taken so long? Well, the project has survived the shuttering of Telltale in 2018 and the brand's subsequent revival, a subsequent reboot, numerous delays, layoffs, and the now-dissolved partnership with Dispatch maker AdHoc Studio — which worked on the game for several years. But, as Telltale Games CEO Jamie Ottilie discusses with IGN below, that's only part of the story.

Read on for detail on why Telltale restarted work on The Wolf Among Us 2 back in 2023, what became of the company's partnership with AdHoc, and how much of the Dispatch developer's work remains in the game — plus, Telltale's plans for the future, and whether we'll ever see a Wolf Among Us 3.

IGN: I'm looking forward to replaying The Wolf Among Us. Obviously there have been reports of a remaster, but it's definitely been long enough since the original.

Jamie Ottilie: That's good to hear. Some people are on the fence about remasters and why would you be? It's 13 years old and we want to preserve it and make sure it runs on modern consoles and that new people can experience it. Why wouldn't we do it?

And I guess you want the sequel to launch to as big an audience as possible and the first one coming back again helps grow that audience, 13 years on.

Ottilie: Yeah, I can't believe it's been so long. The anniversary is this October. The remaster should be coming contemporous with the anniversary. Should be.

Because it's been so long, fans have wondered if Wolf 2 will tell a completely different story to avoid alienating anyone — even if many hope at least some aspects continue from the first game to the second. What can you say there?

Ottilie: It's a new story but it's certainly a Bigby story. It's contemporous from a timeline standpoint with the first one. It's a true sequel. You don't need to play the first one to understand it, but it will help. It's the same universe, the same characters, fans should be very happy with what we're doing with the sequel.

The original ended on something of a cliffhanger, or the suggestion of a reveal. Can you say whether that will be addressed in the sequel?

Ottilie: I can't say that right now. The other folks on my comms team are on this call will get very upset with me if I answer that question, but some of that will get covered at Summer Games Fest. I can say we do think fans will be very happy with what we're doing with the story and how we're respectfully treating some of the content from the first one.

Out of all the original Telltale games, why is the new Telltale so committed to The Wolf Among Us like this?

Ottilie: Some of it's selfish [laughs]. I think it's important, it's one of my favorite games. One of the things that Mike and I bonded over is it's one of his favorite games. Quietly in conversations, you'll find that a lot of people will express that and put it in their top five or their top 10. It deserves a sequel. One of the reasons I chose to get involved with this iteration of Telltale was to see this sequel through. That level of desire is there and it isn't just me, it's everybody on my team. When I talked about putting Telltale back together with the folks who helped me do it, this was central to the conversation. So it's been there from the very beginning in terms of like, why are you doing this? What are you doing? Well, we're going to make this game, then we're going to figure the rest out.

It's been a longer journey than any of us had hoped. It's hard for me to believe it's been seven years. It's been hard to be quiet the last few years while we got our stuff together and got the game going, but we're here now, it feels pretty good.

The Telltale brand still holds a lot of love from fans and there's a lot of curiosity around where the company as a whole is at. Can you get into the team's current size, and how much you're handling development internally? Obviously you've worked with Deck Nine on The Expanse, and then I believe it's Trick Studios you're now working with on Wolf 2?

Ottilie: Yeah, Trick is our co-dev partner. We're working with Trick on a myriad of things and have been for a couple years now. One of the things that we decided to do as a company in terms of how we built this iteration of Telltale was to understand that development is cyclical. Your staffing meets are not consistent across a three-year period or a four-year period and rather than the boom bust cycle that we all went through in terms of hiring and laying off, that we would build intelligently around co-dev. So people that are internal to Telltale are really focused on leadership positions we know we're going to need for the long-term, structured around what the components of a Telltale game are and how we work effectively with co-dev partners to deliver that when you need to be at scale making content.

That's been part of our business plan really from the outset. We did The Expanse externally with Deck Nine because we acknowledged that trying to do two games at the same time with a company from scratch is really not a great business plan. There's always been the understanding that you have to focus on what you can do. It's taken us longer than we intended because we did a tech reset in 2022. We originally started off with the legacy Telltale tool [and] Unreal Engine 4, and on paper that looked like [it would provide] all sorts of good production gains and tools and scalability and iteration. And a couple years into that journey the reality that like, 'no, that's not going to be true' became obvious. And so we did a reset on pipeline and went back to square one in terms of how we were building the content, not what content we were building, but how we were structuring it, how we were building it.

There's a lot of cinematic minutes that go into a Telltale game and building those at quality [and] efficiently is kind of the central problem to how you run the company.

So, Telltale still has its own development staff?

Ottilie: [It's] 40% internal, 60% external from a rule of thumb standpoint. We work with Trick. We also have a couple subject matter experts for some things like character rigging — it's super important and super specialized, but you also only need it for a [specific] period. And when you're done with it, those are very expensive, very talented people that don't have a lot to do for the rest of the title. So stuff like that is outsourced in the traditional way [to] subject matter experts and then Trick and Telltale have structured an integrated team. We don't do traditional co-dev that's asset based or output based. We run one team, and where those people happen to collect their paychecks is irrelevant from a team structure standpoint. It all works under the same management system, the same standups, the same milestone basis, the same sprints. And so that's been a really effective way for us to work together. We've invested a couple years in our relationship with Trick, getting to the point where we can function this way.

How did the Wolf Among Us Remastered project get started?

Ottilie: Wolf 1 has been, because it's on the legacy engine and a bespoke code base, it is harder to work with than doing stuff from scratch, just because there's a great deal of institutional knowledge that's necessary to be able to wield those tools. We're about a year and a half into the journey on the remaster for Wolf 1. It really started out of 'we need to update this to keep it current on consoles and functioning and there are some bugs here that are pretty egregious that would be nice to get rid of as we're playing through this.' And then we did some experiments with, is it possible to make it look incrementally better and what would that look like? And so Wolf 1 just kind of grew organically out of that, wanting to continue to support it, wanting to see it stay in the market and be a really clean experience for new players that come in and want to play through it.

And then, you called it out earlier, we're doing the sequel. The best way to introduce people to the sequel is to let them play the first title. And so it made business sense, it made production sense. It made sense as fans of the content and materials to do it. So that's been effectively moving forward, a very slow burn with the right approach, training new folks to work with the tools and tech and standing that stuff back up and ensuring that we could do it effectively.

How was development impacted by the Ad Hoc leaving? Can you talk about why that partnership ended, and how far it got?

Ottilie: We were working with Ad Hoc in the same way we were working with Trick, as an integrated team. It was not like a Deck Nine situation where we had an [external] developer. When we started working with Ad Hoc, they were relatively new. They were effectively four people, three of which had worked on Wolf 1. So it was natural for us to work together. When we did the tech reset and we realized that we're not going to be producing content for at least a year in terms of how we're approaching this, it didn't make sense for us to keep them tied up and effectively sitting on the sidelines not doing a lot while we went through the pipeline and [worked out] how we were going to build the content. And so it sort of came to a natural break point based upon the reality of where we were from a pipeline standpoint and they obviously had desires to ship their own games and did not want to be idle either.

And I don't know if you know the core history of the team, but the core group's been together for 11 years across multiple companies on a journey to ship games and they deserved to be able to go out and do that and make that happen. So we just sort of got to a place where it didn't make sense for us to keep them tied up, as much as we wanted to collaborate on this title. And then by the time we were ready, they were off doing Dispatch as we all know now and it wasn't really effective to reintegrate them into the team. Unfortunately, timing works that way sometimes.

It sounds like from your side, the reset was just a technical thing you wanted to do.

Ottilie: It was the reality that we weren't going to ship on the path we were on, we were not going to ship a game worthy of the name [The Wolf Among Us] based upon how the content was coming together, what the pipeline looked like. It was a hard choice to do a reset. Nobody wants to do that. I'm not saying it was easy on anybody, I guess is what I'm trying to say. It's not the decision anybody wanted to make, but I think we all understood the nature of the decision of why it had to be made.

Can you shed any light on how much of AdHoc's work remains in the game?

Ottilie: Certainly there's some pieces of it that are there, but at the end of the day, when you do a complete reset, you have to reset with the creative leadership you have and how you're building the game. So it certainly isn't the same game as envisioned that was there. Some of the gains we were expecting on the tools and pipeline were about how much content we could create in a given period of time on a given budget number and that wasn't going to come to fruition either. So the number of minutes and the scoping had to be different than where we were in terms of how we approached the content. There are elements of it, but it's a different game is probably the best answer that I can give. There are people that have been working on the title from its inception consistently. So there is some continuity in the team, and it's very difficult to draw like a clean line, 'Oh, this is the Ad Hoc version. This is what was going on here.' It was always a collaborative approach to how the content was being built.

Is there anything more you want to say now, to reassure fans after this bumpy development process? Obviously Dispatch is now out, and has been this huge success which is great to see.

Ottilie: It's a great game. I would say internally we're thrilled that Ad Hoc got to go away and make Dispatch. The weird thing about narrative [games] is that none of us really think of each other as competitors. We're in such a niche piece of content that there's definitely a sprite of core in terms of people who make this kind of content. We're all rooting for each other. In terms of reassuring the fans, let's show you what we have at Summer Games Fest. We're pretty confident what we have will make Wolf two fans happy. We've shown it to enough people to know that we're on the right path here. We get a very positive response from when we take people into what we're doing right now.

We are trying to be good stewards of the IP and the universe and everything that's there. While from the outside it seems like we've been quiet and people have had their doubts about it, for the last seven years there isn't a person on my team that hasn't made this the priority professionally in their lives to get this game done. The amount of sacrifice and creativity that has been necessary to get us this far is incredible in terms of the team that's there. There's a great deal of passion, care, and love for this franchise in this team that is still there building it.

If everything goes well, what is your ambition for Telltale next? Is it more remasters, more sequels? Is there a particular focus? Is it Wolf 3? Is it bringing back another popular franchise from Telltale's past? Where would you love to go?

Ottilie: We are actively looking at what we'll do next. We're working on what we're calling a sequential slate, right? Instead of going wide, we're doing things in parallel, one thing in a time. We'll choose what we're doing next this year and have it in concept development while we're finishing up Wolf 2 so we know where we're moving to when we're done. There are quite a few games in contention for what that might be. It won't be Wolf 3 out of the gate. I mean, there needs to be some breathing room between sequels. Certainly we'd love to do Wolf 3, but I think that's a 'ship this one, probably ship something else in between, come back to Wolf', that kind of cadence. In a perfect world, we'd ship a new game every two years or so, taking about three years to make it, starting about a year prior so that there's a little bit of overlap with concept teams.

We do a lot of writing and experimenting on paper. Before we move something into production, we throw away a lot of pages. Sometimes we write for an IP that we haven't even talked to the licensor about just to see if it's worth talking to the licensor about it. So we certainly have some ideas. There are three or four frontrunners in terms of what we'd like to do and there's a blend in there. There's some original IP in there. There's some legacy Telltale stuff in there. There's some new universes in there and I don't think we're ready to make that kind of commitment yet in terms of what's next, but it's top of mind for sure.

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

Telltale Games will finally launch The Wolf Among Us 2 in 2027, after a remaster of the beloved original game arrives later this year.

As confirmed tonight during the Summer Game Fest 2026 showcase, The Wolf Among Us 2 is now on track for launch at some point in 2027 for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

It's been almost a decade since the original incarnation of Telltale Games confirmed plans to develop more The Wolf Among Us, an adaptation of the noir fantasy series based on dark fairytale comic book Fables. The project has since survived the shuttering of Telltale, the brand's revival, a complete reboot, various delays, subsequent layoffs, and a now-dissolved partnership with Dispatch maker AdHoc Studio — which worked on the game for several years.

"Set after the events of the original game, The Wolf Among Us 2 returns players to the shadowy streets of Fabletown, where fairytale characters live hidden among humans in modern-day New York," reads an official blurb. "As tensions rise and long-simmering power struggles threaten to erupt, Snow White struggles to maintain order while new forces move to reshape the city’s underworld.

"When a brutal series of crimes threatens to fracture the fragile balance holding Fabletown together, Bigby Wolf, sheriff of Fabletown, finds himself drawn into a dangerous conspiracy that reaches deep into the city’s criminal underworld. As suspicion spreads across the city and powerful forces work against him, Bigby must uncover the truth and decide what kind of sheriff - and what kind of wolf - he is willing to become."

The Wolf Among Us 2 will arrive following a fresh version of the series' original game, which will return as The Wolf Among Us Remastered, due sometime this holiday for PC via Steam and Epic Game Store, PS5, Switch, Switch 2 and Xbox.

For this remaster, Telltale Games promises improved visuals, UI and accessibility features, and an hour of bonus content exploring deleted scenes, plus interviews with the game's cast.

IGN recently sat down with Jamie Ottilie, CEO of Telltale, to find out why it's been such a long road to launch for The Wolf Among Us 2, what happened with the split from Dispatch maker Ad Hoc, and discover more about Telltale's plans for the future.

To catch up on all the announcements from tonight, be sure to check out IGN's roundup of everything announced during Summer Game Fest 2026.

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

Images allegedly showing leaked Persona 6 characters and logos have been scrubbed from the internet via copyright claim, with Sega believed to be behind the takedowns.

The copyright enforcement comes ahead of this weekend's Summer Game Fest livestream and Xbox Games Showcase, with fans now expecting the game to get a formal announcement in a matter of days.

Grainy images of a blond-haired boy in school uniform and a girl with black and red hair initially surfaced via social media last week. At the time, top Persona fansite Persona Central suggested the images originated from an outsourced animation team, and that the artwork had subsequently been verified as legitimate by several noted Persona leakers.

This week, further leaks showed a better look at the game's logo — a green "P6" in a circle. Now, various instances of the concept art and logo have been scrubbed from social media, and replaced by a copyright takedown notice. That said, numerous more examples remain.

"Got a DMCA takedown request by Sega," wrote X/Twitter user Dkmariolink, one of those hit by copyright removals. "Not posting it again, but if you know, you know." IGN has asked Sega for comment.

It's been a decade since the launch of 2016's Persona 5, though the hugely popular role-playing series has offered numerous spinoffs and re-releases in the years since, with the franchise receiving a notable push on Xbox since 2022, including a day one launch via Game Pass for P4R: Persona 4 Revival last year.

Just yesterday, Xbox announced that Persona 5: Royal would land on Xbox Game Pass next week, on June 9. I wonder if we might hear more at Xbox's big show? Tune in this Sunday, June 7, at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK via IGN to watch along with us for all the big reveals.

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

God of War’s Norse-set masterpieces has cemented it as one of PlayStation’s most iconic franchises. Born during the PS2 era, the God of War franchise made a name for itself with excellent action gameplay, an intriguing tale of divine revenge, and a memorable lead in the Spartan demigod Kratos. 20 years later, God of War has grown into gaming’s seminal action-adventure series, blending that increasingly fine-tuned action with deeper lore and a stronger narrative hook, anchored by an older, more empathic Kratos.

Now that we know the next God of War game will follow Faye in some overlapping timelines, we’ve created this chronology of the series for those interested in playing (or replaying) it from the start.

Jump to:

• How to play chronologically
• How to play by release date

How Many God of War Games Are There?

Sony has released 11 God of War games in the series — seven on home consoles, two on portable consoles, one on mobile, and one text-adventure on Facebook Messenger. A twelfth game, God of War Laufey, was recently announced during a State of Play but does not yet have a release date.

We’re excluding its second mobile release, God of War: Mimir’s Vision, as this AR game doesn’t add to the ongoing narrative but instead provides players with background lore from the world of God of War. We’re also excluding PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale in this chronology, despite its comical inclusion in the God of War canon.

There are several God of War stories told through novels and comics as well, though this list only includes games.

Which God of War Game Should You Play First?

Although technically the first game in the series chronologically was God of War: Ascension, realistically you'll probably want to start with God of War (2018). Not only is it available on both PS4 and PS5, you can also play it on PC. It's a great starting point for anyone just getting into the series.

God of War Games in Chronological Order

These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.

1. God of War Sons of Sparta (2026)

God of War Sons of Sparta is the latest game in the series, but chronologically it takes place before any of the others. Sons of Sparta acts as a prequel, following the story of Kratos and his brother Deimos as they undertake their brutal training as Spartans. The gameplay breaks fro mthe usual God of War formula in favor of a retro-inspired Metroidvania style.

2. God of War: Ascension (2013)

Ascension, the seventh God of War game by release date but the first chronologically, is a revenge tale that explores the early days of Kratos’s transformation from a Spartan demigod into the God of War.

Ascension takes place months after Kratos was manipulated into killing his wife and daughter by the Greek God of War Ares (more on this under the original God of War section below). Kratos, traumatized by the killings, refuses to honor the oath he swore to Ares, setting into motion the story of Ascension. Ares seeks revenge through the game’s antagonistic Furies, three beings tasked with punishing betrayal, whom Kratos must kill in order to free himself from his oath. The story ends with Kratos leaving his Spartan home behind, still tormented by his grief.

3. God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008)

Kratos’s next adventure is told in the PSP game aptly named God of War: Chains of Olympus. Olympus takes place halfway through Kratos’s ten-year servitude to the gods (five years before God of War) — a servitude that, once completed, will free him from the torturous visions of his past.

The main plot tasks Kratos with rescuing Helios, the Titan God of the Sun, from the underworld at the behest of Athena. There, he encounters the game’s primary antagonist Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Persephone presents Kratos with an opportunity to reunite with his daughter, and Kratos wrestles with the apocalyptic repercussions of that reunion and his promise to return Helios to the gods.

4. God of War (2005)

Set roughly 10 years after Ascension, the first God of War game begins with Kratos succumbing to his grief and jumping off a cliff into the Aegean Sea. Before he hits the water, we flash back three weeks to discover what led the Spartan off the brink.

Kratos, nearing the end of his servitude to the gods, is given one final task by Athena: defeat Ares and save the city of Athens from his siege. With the promise of forgiveness for his past atrocites as his reward, Kratos sets out to obtain Pandora’s Box and kill Ares. The task takes him to hell and back, with Kratos ultimately facing off against the God of War. Victorious yet no less troubled by his past, Kratos jump off the bluff as we saw in the game’s opening. Athena pulls him from the water and offers him a throne on Olympus, completing his 10-year ascension to becoming the God of War.

Throughout the game, a narrator provides crucial backstory about Kratos’s life through cut scenes. Kratos once served as a revered captain in the Spartan army. On the verge of death and defeat against a massive force of barbarians, he offered himself to Ares in exchange for victory. Ares answered the call, defeated the barbarians, and claimed Kratos as his servant, fusing his arms with the Blades of Chaos.

5. God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010)

Ghost of Sparta, the series’ second PSP game, takes place between God of War and God of War 2. The subtitle references the nickname given to Kratos due to his pale-white appearance, the result of an oracle’s curse that fastened the ashes of his wife and child to his skin.

Ghost of Sparta provides closure to two familial narrative threads: Kratos travels to Atlantis where he encounters both his mortal mother and his long-lost brother Deimos, who was kidnapped by the gods during childhood to prevent the fulfillment of Olympus’s prophesized demise.

The climax sees Kratos and his brother reunited, doing battle with the Greek God of Death, Thanatos. Despite victory, it’s another unhappy ending for Kratos. By the time the credits roll, Kratos has grown even wearier and more furious with the other Olympians.

6. God of War: Betrayal (2007)

This mobile 2D sidescroller is officially part of the God of War canon, according to Sony Santa Monica animation director Bruno Velazquez. The gods, displeased with Kratos’s bloodlust, attempt to stop his latest conquest with Argos, a many-eyed giant that serves Hera, Queen of the Gods. Kratos is framed for the killing of Argos by an unidentified assassin in an attempt to further fracture his relationship with Olympus. Later, Zeus sends a messenger to put an end to Kratos’s continued destruction. Kratos responds with violence, once again defying the other gods. Betrayal leaves players with this message, setting up the events to come in God of War 2: “Soon, the fury of Zeus would rain down upon [Kratos].”

God of War: Betrayal was released in 2007, before the rise of smartphones, and isn’t available on modern mobile storefronts. It can be skipped without consequence, but those who want to play it will have to access it via a Java emulator.

7. God of War 2 (2007)

God of War 2 pits Kratos against Zeus, the King of Olympus. Kratos, already ostracized due to his yearslong rampage, rejects Athena’s plea for peace and continues wreaking havoc throughout Greece. It’s the final straw for Olympus; Zeus descends to the battlefield and kills Kratos.

Kratos finds a new ally in Gaia, the mother of Titans and Earth. She provides Kratos with a way to rewrite the past and save his own life. After a trip to the Underworld, Kratos follows Gaia’s instructions, leading him to the Sisters of Fate. After more bloodshed, Kratos takes control of the Loom of Fate and returns to the scene of his death. Kratos’s plan to kill Zeus is thwarted when another Olympian steps in front of his blade. It’s here that we (and Kratos) learn about his true parentage. Kratos uses the power of the Loom to recruit the Titans of the past to his future war. Back in the present, Kratos leads the Titans in an assault on Mount Olympus, setting up God of War 3.

8. God of War 3 (2010)

Taking place directly after the previous game, God of War 3 concludes Kratos’ Greecian saga and resolves his war with Zeus and the Olympians.

Kratos and the Titans battle with the Olympians to catastrophic effect. Kratos (once again) has his trust betrayed and (once again) descends into the Underworld. There, Kratos teams up with an old ally to take down Zeus once and for all. Back on Earth, Kratos faces the wrath of Titans and Gods alike, leading him on an epic killing spree toward a final showdown with Zeus.

Kratos declares an end to his vengeance, and with the world in ruin, makes a sacrifice to release hope to mankind.

9. God of War: A Call from the Wilds (2018)

God of War: A Call from the Wids is a Facebook Messenger text-adventure released ahead of 2018’s God of War. The ~30-minute story introduces Kratos's son Atreus and provides background on the character's extrasensory abilities, while adding a bit of flavor to his relationships with Kratos and his mother, Faye. The story is set sometime before God of War 2018 when Faye is still alive.

A Call from the Wilds seems to no longer be playable, though like God of War: Betrayal, this is a story that can ultimately be skipped. Those who want to experience it can find complete playthroughs on YouTube.

10. God of War (2018)

Set many years after God of War 3, 2018’s God of War transports Kratos from Greece to the Norse realm of Midgard, where Kratos now resides with his son, Atreus. Kratos and Atreus plan to fulfill Faye’s dying wish: to have her ashes spread from the top of the highest peak in the Nine Realms.

Their journey is no straightforward hike; the duo travel through multiple realms, encountering friends and foes from Norse mythology, including Baldur, Freya, Thor’s sons Magni and Modi, the last living giant Jörmungandr, and Mimir. Along the way, Kratos struggles with fatherhood and the truths he keeps hidden from Atreus — about his past and Atreus’s identity.

Following their adventure, the Nine Realms enter Fimbulwinter, a three-year-long precursor to Ragnarök, the end of the world.

11. God of War Ragnarok (2022)

God of War: Ragnarok, the most recent 3D God of War game, is set three years after 2018’s God of War, as the Nine Realms near the end of Fimbulwinter and the beginning of Ragnarök.

Many characters return from 2018, alongside newcomers such as the All-Father Odin and his son Thor, but it remains focused on the adventures of Kratos and Atreus with a greater emphasis on the latter, who explores his newly discovered identities and powers. As Kratos and Atreus, you’ll traverse all nine realms and the Realm Between Realms on personal quests of identity and a greater quest to defeat the Asgards and survive Ragnarok.

We won’t spoil the journey, but Ragnarok leaves the door open for future God of War stories to be told. Though you can play the God of War Ragnorok New Game Plus mode if you've already finished the game.

What’s Next for God of War?

Sony officially announced the next God of War game at the most recent State of Play. God of War Laufey will star none other than Faye, Kratos' wife and Atreus' mother, who awakes after her death to discover she is in a form of afterlife called the Everywhen. There, she encounters gods and legends from across mythologies vying for power.

The reveal trailer already clarified that this game will take place over the course of God of War (2018) and Ragnarok, potentially hinting at moments where Faye supports her family on the journey she lined up for them. Unfortunately there's no sense of a release date quite yet, but you can check out our full interview with the game's creators for a deeper dive.

Aside from what's new, Sony has also announced a remake of the original God of War trilogy. There isn't yet a released date for that remake, but fans are already speculating whether or not the studio will bring back the iconic sex minigames featured within.

That's not all. A God of War TV series is also in the works, joining a host of upcoming video game adaptations. The live-action show, in development for Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service, will adapt the story of 2018’s God of War. Production hit a snag in 2024 following the departure of showrunner Rafe Judkins and executive producers Hawk Ostby and Mark Fergus. The series is now being led by Ronald D. Moore, whose credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, For All Mankind, and Battlestar Galactica's 2000s reboot. Casting for the new TV show is still rolling out, with decisions for Kratos, Thor, and many more already announced.

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

Grand Theft Auto 5 actor Ned Luke has celebrated the sentencing of an online swatter who will now serve four years in jail.

Luke, who played Michael De Santa in Rockstar's blockbuster, regularly streams himself playing GTA Online — and has fallen victim to swatting attempts numerous times.

The practice of hoax calling the police to turn up at a streamer's address while they're on camera — usually with a claim of violence to provoke an armed response — has sadly become prevelant, and evidence exists of Luke being swatted on at least four occaisons following a leak of his personal address.

Now, however, progress has clearly been made in catching those responsible. In a post on X/Twitter, Luke shared a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice confirming that at least one perpetrator had now been sentenced — to "incarceration of four years followed by supervised release of three years," plus a $200 fine.

"Don't drop the soap in the shower douchebag," Luke commented. "Won't be swatting anyone anytime soon... and they're coming for the ones he ratted out as well." He signed off his post with five star emoji, a nod to GTA's highest wanted level.

Luke has now been swatted so often that a recent visit by the police in December 2025 saw two officers turning up knowing full well they were likely attending a hoax call. Footage of the incident shows them and Luke wishing each other a merry Christmas, before Luke returns to playing GTA 5.

By sharing news of the swatter's sentencing, Luke likely hopes to deter others from doing similar. Here's hoping he has a quieter time streaming GTA 6, which is due on November 19.

Photo by Erika Goldring/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

Thinking back to the original release of Rayman Legends back in 2013, there isn’t much I would change about it. Slick 2D action platforming with a good mix of heady puzzles and shmup sequences – when executed well, those kinds of things can hold up over time. And Ubisoft would agree, because after getting my hands on the upcoming remake in Rayman Legends Retold, I know first-hand that it plays exactly as you’d expect since the core gameplay hasn't really been touched (although there is a lot of new content). But as much as I believe the painterly pre-rendered art style of the original didn't necessarily need a makeover, Ubisoft seemed to put in painstaking effort in recreating Rayman Legends with a modern visual overhaul, bringing the same 2D action into a new 3D world.

To be abundantly clear, Rayman Legends Retold is not a 3D platformer – it is still the 2D action you may have played, or at least seen. This time around, its worlds, backgrounds, and foregrounds have changed significantly, with modern graphical sensibilities that I would almost describe as playing through a Dreamworks animated film. I say that because of the style and tone of Rayman's cartoonish low-brow goofiness that works well enough for what the series is, and that comes through clearly with the new cutscenes and fully voiced dialogue. Rayman doesn't need to be much more than a lighthearted romp with fart jokes, silly pop culture references, and some nebulous evil entity terrorizing frogs. Listen, I don't mind someone just jingling keys in front of me, I'm not above that!

Now if you haven't played Rayman Legends, it's a solid 2D action platformer starring Ubisoft's long-time limbless protagonist that came with a good variety of hearty challenges that helped it stand out within a crowded genre. I got to play about two hours of this remake when I visited the studio at Ubisoft Montpellier, and I was happy to see that it's held up quite well all these years later. Running, wall-jumping, swinging on vines, and avoiding deadly hazards are of course the traditions of the genre, but it's the pace at which it throws these things at you, with the same tight controls, that builds a good sense of momentum.

The best example of this is in the "Invaded" versions of normal levels, which turns things into a time-attack run where completing it under a certain time means you save more Teensies, which are these blue little freakos who inhabit the world. Retry after retry, I was able to get the fastest time necessary in all the available levels by understanding how Rayman's momentum carries when speedrunning, the timing of each jump to keep pace, and the way attacks carry you past obstacles. It can be frustrating, but it's the kind that makes you want to complete it because you're either so close or you see exactly what you did wrong.

This was most true in the Enchanted Forest level where a ghost of Rayman shadows your every movement, forcing you to avoid him lest you die. But there's specific jump timing, hostile frogs parachuting in you need to bounce off of, and spiky platforms paired with an updraft that'll send you into the spikes if you're not careful. You have to string all of this in one run, but piecing it all together with each retry was as much about being smart as it was about pure execution.

Variety Is the Spice

The main levels aren't quite as treacherous as this, but later on in the Stinkbog, the second zone with a batch of swamp-themed levels, the updraft mechanic adds variety to the normal 2D platforming, asking you to avoid thorny vines as you control Rayman's helicopter hair while dodging enemies and saving Teensies along the way. There are also these wild dragon-riding levels that turn Rayman Legends into a Star Fox-style rail shooter – these are simple at first, just having you dodge incoming obstacles and blast fireballs at everything in front of you. But it's when things turn into a 2D shmup I really enjoyed; it's not exactly difficult, but it's a super fun and seamless way to keep the twists coming, preventing the experience from getting repetitive or predictable.

I also quite enjoyed the short challenge rooms tucked within levels where you're tasked with manipulating the environment in a clever way to save extra Teensies at the end of the room. One such example had Rayman hanging on to hooks inside of a massive wheel with spikes inside its maze-like innards. In order to progress through the room, you have to rotate the wheel using the companion character Murphy, then line up your drops and jumps all while within an inch of danger. These kinds of tasks break up the pace nicely, and made me seek them out carefully since they're easy to miss within the normal levels.

In just two hours with Rayman Legends Retold, I saw so much variation that may seem subtle until you look back on all the different things it's doing. And all these ideas flow into each other smoothly at a brisk pace. It's not a complex game that's going to work your brain intensely or have nail-biting difficulty, it's pleasant and silly fun that's tuned just right to keep itself engaging throughout. I'm not sure I vibe with its characters like the Bubble Dreamer, who's kind of a cheesy hippy stereotype, or the peanut-brained Globox, but like, whatever man! It's goofy fun even if I think a lot of it is pretty corny.

OK, But What’s New?

I'd be remiss not to mention more of the new content that bolsters Rayman Legends Retold as more than just a one-to-one remake. Musical levels are back with four new ones to boot; these are a bit gimmicky, but neat little diversions – timed platforming runs to the tune of covers of licensed songs with obstacles timed to the beat. Kung Foot is back as well, but now has numerous options to make this 2v2 combat soccer minigame more interesting. You can adjust the platform layouts and control what kind of powerups drop – like zero gravity, goal shields, goal switching, etc. I played a handful of matches during my studio visit, and to think Rayman has a solid little multiplayer mode alongside everything else further speaks to the wacky yet fun ideas Rayman Legends Retold packs into a single game.

Thinking about the visual overhaul broadly, it felt like one of those cases where "this is how I remembered it looking back in the day," and when you look at the original, it's definitely not the case. Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan used the original levels and visuals as a reference to then expand on it, adding details that give extra depth to its 2D gameplay. So, when it comes to the remade levels, everything is in place as it was in the original – the developers even showed us a side-by-side comparison of both versions being controlled with one controller, and it all played out the same. Bringing the old levels into the Snowdrop engine (the same one used in all other modern Ubisoft games) allows for that higher fidelity, and I hope the rest of Retold makes good use of it – we'll see in that brand-new sixth realm with extra levels toward the ending, which Ubisoft has confirmed. I mean, the new dragon-riding levels feel almost like a theme park ride within a 2D platformer, and it's a microcosm of the kind of spectacle this new art style can bring. And it holds up quite well on Nintendo Switch 2, keeping a solid 60 fps, which Ubisoft credits to the work it did and lessons learned with the Star Wars Outlaws port.

Keeping it Modern

I'm not always fond of the constant remaking of games that don't necessarily need a remake, especially if it's not going to be a fundamental rethinking of the source material. And taking a distinct, somewhat whimsical 2D art style and making it denser in 3D doesn't automatically make it look "better" per se. But I think Rayman Legends Retold is just imaginative enough to separate itself from the original. And in a way, it's a modern throwback once again, just like it was in 2013. With the new content on top of it and the quality-of-life tweaks like a more navigable overworld to make it a smoother experience, I can see how it distinguishes itself to warrant a remake. And with four-player co-op returning, it's not something you see very often.

I do hope this is more of a stepping stone for a wholly new Rayman or something similar in this vein. After all, Ubisoft Montpellier was the team behind the outstanding Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown from 2024, which I still think is a very high bar for modern 2D action. So, a remake of a game that wasn't in dire need of one can't be all they have cooking up, right? And perhaps this work using the Snowdrop engine paves the way for something bigger.

For now, though, you can expect Rayman Legends Retold to launch on October 1 this year for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Michael Higham is an editor at IGN who regularly contributes with reviews, previews, features, and news in written and video form. He's usually entrusted with covering long RPGs and tech products, but he's got range when it comes to games. You'll also catch him at events and hosting video content, including IGN's weekly podcast Unlocked.

Rayman Legends Retold has now been officially announced by Ubisoft following earlier leaks.

The souped-up platforming remake has been completely remade with 3D visuals for its original sidescrolling sections, plus all-new 3D gameplay segments, as glimpsed in a reveal trailer shown during today's big PlayStation State of Play broadcast.

Rayman Legends Retold will launch on October 1 for PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S, and is priced at $39.99.

Today's trailer also offered a glimpse at the game's reimagined story, which also features voiced cutscenes. Musical levels will also return, though the four new ones mentioned by Ubisoft in a press release sound like they'll be different from the original (Black Betty level RIP). On the upside, the game's compulsive Kung Foot soccer minigame is also back with new power-ups.

"Rayman Legends Retold is our way of revisiting what makes Rayman so special, and re‑telling that experience for a new generation of players," said Ubisoft brand producer Loïc Gounon. "We wanted to preserve everything fans love, and Legends gave us the perfect foundation to expand Rayman's lore, its world logic, and how everything connects together."

Rayman Legends is one of the best sidescrolling platformers to not feature Mario, and it's clear Ubisoft is keen to give it a new lease of life. Previous leaks revealed planned crossovers with characters from Astro Bot and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Contrary to previous rumors, however, multiplayer will remain local-only, rather than online.

The project has once again been worked on by Ubisoft Montpellier, the location previously headed up by Rayman creator Michel Ancel, before he quit the company to go work in a wildlife park.

Ubisoft is seemingly keen to revive the fortunes of its platforming mascot after years in the wilderness. Earlier this year saw the launch of Rayman: 30th Anniversary Edition, and there's talk of an all-new Rayman project in the works for the future (which Ancel himself has consulted on). Exactly when that will materialize is unknown, but another chance to play Legends and all of its new content will certainly keep us busy.

For more from tonight's show, here's everything announced at State of Play June 2026 if you need a catch up on what PlayStation has in store.

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

Tomb Raider has a chartered history, with Lara Croft delving into ruins and tombs all over the world. Overcoming any and all obstacles set in her path, Lara has elevated herself into an exclusive and lauded pantheon of iconic video game protagonists.

Now that we know that not one but two Tomb Raider games are on the way, we’ve created a chronological list of every game released so far. There's never a bad time to start (or restart) your spelunking adventures from the very beginning.

Jump to:

• How to play in chronological order
• How to play in release order

How Many Tomb Raider Games Are There?

A total of 20 Tomb Raider games have been released. These games are split over three different timelines, each distinct from one another, offering different plotlines and a slightly different spin on Lara and her supporting cast.

14 of these games have been released for home consoles, 6 also supported handheld portable consoles, and 6 were supported on mobile devices. Tomb Raider: The Prophecy, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, Lara Croft Go, Lara Croft: Relic Run, and Tomb Raider Reloaded are all stand-alone titles, and therefore will not be included on these lists.

Which Tomb Raider Should You Play First?

If you're coming to the franchise for the first time in 2025, we recommend starting with the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. The first entry in the "Survivor" trilogy sets the stage for Lara Croft's most recent series of expeditions that runs through the latest mainline game, 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Tomb Raider Games in Chronological Order

If you're hoping to take a chronological journey through all of the Tomb Raider games, it's important to note that there are actually 3 different timelines you can play through.

• Original Saga Timeline
• Legend of Tomb Raider Timeline
• Survivor Trilogy Timeline

First Timeline - Original Saga

1. Tomb Raider (1996)

The first ever Tomb Raider title centred around Lara being hired by businesswoman Jacquelin Natla to find a mysterious artefact called the Scion of Atlantis. After finding all three fragments of the Scion scattered around the globe, Lara is betrayed by Natla and must face off against her on a volcanic island filled with monsters.

2. Tomb Raider: The Curse of the Sword (2001)

A Game Boy Color exclusive sequel to the Game Boy Color version of the original Tomb Raider, this adventure sees Lara tracking down a mystical sword and attempting to destroy it before the long-dead Madame Paveau can resurrect from the underworld and use her dark magic to subjugate the world.

3. Tomb Raider II (1997)

This time Lara is on the hunt for the Dagger of Xian, a magical weapon once used by the Emperors of China. A cult leader by the name of Marco Bartoli who is also seeking the dagger for it’s magical ability to turn the owner into a dragon.

4. Tomb Raider III (1998)

In the third mainline installment of the original saga, Lara sets out to find the Infada Stone, one of four crystalline artefacts crafted thousands of years ago from the remnants of a meteorite. Realising the nefarious Dr. Willard is aiming to use the statues to speed up the evolutionary process; she sets out to find the remaining three artefacts before the entire planet is mutated.

5. Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999)

In The Last Revelation, the Egyptian god of chaos Set is unknowingly released by Lara as she explores a tomb in Egypt. With Set and his forces wreaking havoc on Cairo, Lara is assisted by Semerkhet and strives to summon the god Horus who is the last hope of quelling this world-ending threat.

6. Tomb Raider: Chronicles (2000)

After the ambiguous ending of The Last Revelation, Winston the butler and other friends of Lara recount tales of her historic adventures to commemorate her. Delving through the catacombs of Rome, fighting through a Russian naval submarine, and exploring an island haunted by demonic forces, the titular Chronicles set in stone how well travelled and skilled Lara is, but is she really gone?

7. Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003)

Framed for the murder of her former mentor, Werner Von Croy, Lara explores Paris and Prague in an attempt to clear her name and solve the murder. The last survivor of the Lux Veritatis Society, Kurtis Trent, is stalking Lara and is hiding a deep dark secret about his true nature.

Second Timeline - Legend of Tomb Raider

1. Tomb Raider Anniversary (2007)

A remake of the original Tomb Raider title from 1996, this game again sees Lara questing to find the Scion of Atlantis. With redesigned puzzles and physics, there was a shift from item collection and pulling switches (both prevalent in the original title), to physics-based puzzles and environmental set pieces.

2. Tomb Raider: Legend (2006)

This title acts as a reboot and reimagining of the origins of Lara, as she races across the world in search of the mythical sword Excalibur, desperate to find it before her former friend Amanda Evert can beat her to the punch.

3. Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008)

The third installment in the Legend trilogy, Underworld sees Lara searching for Mjolnir, which acts as an ancient key to Helheim, the realm of the dead. Exploring the ruins of various cultures and mythological underworlds, Lara once again confronts the villainous Natla who is searching for Mjolnir herself.

Third Timeline - Survivor Trilogy

1. Tomb Raider (2013)

In a new, grittier take on Lara Croft, her first expedition to find the lost kingdom of Yamatai goes awry and she becomes stranded on an isolated and hostile island. Facing off against the Solarii Brotherhood cult, Lara must stop the Ascension ritual from proceeding and also prevent a successor from being chosen for the bloodthirsty Sun Queen of legend.

2. Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015)

Rise of the Tomb Raider has Lara exploring Siberia for the legendary city of Kitezh whilst battling Trinity, the paramilitary organization that continually crosses paths and butts heads with Lara. As they both sprint to rediscover Kitezh, will the legendary immortal guardians of the kingdom, the Deathless Ones, reveal themselves to be much more than just a myth?

3. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)

The third and final installment in the Survivor Trilogy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider has Lara trekking through the Americas to find the city of Paititi before a Mayan apocalypse consumes the entire planet. With the monstrous Yaaxii and the ever present Trinity on her back, will she succeed before it’s too late?

How to Play ALL the Tomb Raider Games By Release Date

• Tomb Raider (1996)
• Tomb Raider II (1997)
• Tomb Raider III (1998)
• Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999)
• Tomb Raider (Game Boy Color, 2000)
• Tomb Raider Chronicles (2000)
• Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword (Game Boy Color, 2001)
• Tomb Raider: The Prophecy (GBA, 2002)
• Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003)
• Tomb Raider: Legend (2006)
• Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007)
• Tomb Raider: Underworld (2008)
• Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (2010)
• Tomb Raider (2013)
• Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (2014)
• Lara Croft: Relic Run (2015)
• Lara Croft Go (2015)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)
• Tomb Raider Reloaded (2023)

What’s Next for Tomb Raider?

Crystal Dynamics confirmed a brand new Tomb Raider game was in development way back in 2022. We now know this game is Tomb Raider: Catalyst, a new journey built in Unreal Engine 5 and set to be published by Amazon Games in 2027.

That's not all, though. The Game Awards also included the announcement of Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantic, a 'reimagining' of the original Tomb Raider game set to be released on February 10, 2027. Yes, the acrobatics are back.

You won't have to wait long to see more Lara on your TV screen, either - Amazon's live action Tomb Raider series has entered production. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is on board as writer and executive producter, while Game of Thrones alum Sophie Turner is slated for the titular role. I think it's safe to say it's the season of Tomb Raider.

Samuel (Sam) Heaney is a freelance guides writer at IGN and Minecraft expert. He's a typical Brit who loves cups of tea and gin and tonics. Oh, and he's also a huge Marvel nerd. You can find him on Twitter @SamHeaney.

A remaster of the Toy Story 3 video game is coming very soon, and it'll be released alongside a collection of the first two games. On October 15th, Digital Eclipse will release Toy Story: Retro Roundup and Toy Story 3: Complete Edition for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Both games will be available in one physical package for $39.99 or for $24.99 each. Toy Story: Retro Roundup will include the original Toy Story video game, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue, Toy Story Racer, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. As a bonus, Digital Eclipse is also throwing in the video game for A Bugs Life.

This collection will add new gameplay features, such as the ability to save whenever you want, rewind the game to retry difficult areas without restarting an entire section, cheats, and of course, enhanced visuals. The collection also includes new behind-the-scenes featurettes and interviews with the people who made these games a reality.

Toy Story 3 is probably the most exciting one for younger fans, as it is regarded as one of the better licensed games to release during the Xbox 360/PS3 era. Not only can you relive moments from the tear-jerking Pixar film in local co-op, but Toy Story 3 also features a really cool open-world sandbox mode known as Toy Box Mode. The mode allows you to partake in non-linear missions, play as different characters, and customize a western town. All of that is being brought to modern consoles and PC with 4K, 60fps, and any content that was previously platform-exclusive.

“We’re excited for players to jump back into Toy Story 3 and experience the creativity, humor and heart that makes Toy Story such a landmark franchise,” said Mike Mika at Digital Eclipse. “Toy Story 3 is celebrated as one of the great movie-to-game adaptations ever made, and it has been an absolute pleasure to rediscover.”

We gave the Toy Story 3 game a 7.5/10 in its review back in 2010, noting that it a prime example of how to do a license game.

"Toy Story 3 is an example of when a license game is done mostly right. The cooperative story mode is a nice touch, and the Toy Box mode is still fun despite it's rather limited customization options, I just wish it'd have had a cooperative options like the other console versions do, as it's less family or party friendly. Older players might be occasionally bored by how simple the game's quests can be, but in general TS3 manages to be most everything your kids (or your own inner kid) wanted out of a Toy Story game."

All in all, this is a surprising but perfectly timed treat. The announcement comes just weeks ahead of Toy Story 5's theatrical release. Taylor Swift is confirmed to be doing a song for the highly-anticipated film as well, showing Disney is sparing no expense to help promote the new film.

Both Toy Story: Retro Roundup and Toy Story 3: Complete Edition will release on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 15th. Toy Story 5 will hit theaters on June 19th.

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.

Ubisoft seems to have another leak problem, as what appears to be a remastered version of Rayman Origins has appeared on the Xbox Store – and it's only $2,000.

Nintendo Everything caught and shared a Microsoft listing for an unannounced game called Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition before it was pulled offline yesterday. Along with a few screenshots, the page revealed the promise of 4K resolution, 60fps, and modern enhancements.

Although there may be some fans willing to pay the $1,999 for Ubisoft's classic platformer, the price tag is almost certainly an error or placeholder number. Considering the page has been taken down, we'll probably see a corrected price when an official announcement eventually arrives.

Rayman Origins brought the floating mascot back to the world 2D gameplay when it launched in 2011 for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Although PC, PlayStation Vita, and Nintendo 3DS versions rolled out in the years that followed, the title has remained a bit stuck when it comes to its presence on consoles.

Elsewhere in the leaked description for Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition is the mention of "60 hidden Relics," which were previously only available on the Vita version of the game. Potential platforms remain a mystery, but should Ubisoft announce Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition, there's a good chance players with modern hardware will get to relive the classic 15 years after its original release.

The Rayman Origins leak follows another slip-up for the character from that saw first details about the unannounced Rayman Legends Retold tumble onto the internet earlier this week. This title is said to be a remake of Ubisoft's 2013 video game and is expected to launch this October.

For now, we do not know how the publisher plans to address Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition or when it may release. With events like Summer Game Fest just around the corner and more leaks popping up every day, we can only hope to hear an update soon. In the meantime, you can read IGN's original 9.5/10 Rayman Origins review. You can also read about the Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition that may have leaked in January.

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).

Mojang Studios showed up for its Minecraft Live May 2026 presentation with reveals for A Minecraft Movie 2, Minecraft Dungeons 2, and more, and we were there to gather all of the highlights.

Despite the game developer originally selling today’s showcase as a “bonus” event following its March showcase, today’s TwitchCon came with more than a few surprises for attendees and those at home. While sneak peeks for upcoming base game drops and a new look at Minecraft Dungeons 2 were expected, the biggest reveal arrived in the form of a behind-the-scenes look at A Minecraft Movie 2, which is now officially called A Minecraft Movie Squared.

There was more to go over for Mojang than it originally teased. If you missed it, you can check out everything announced at the Minecraft Live May 2026 show below.

Chaos Cubed is Coming June 16

Mojang kicked off its Minecraft Live May 2026 show to talk about its next base game drop, Chaos Cubed, which now has a June 16 release date. This is the update that focuses on Sulfur and all that it changes for players who love to craft, fight off mobs, and everything in between. Today, we got a sneak peek at how physics will change forever when Chaos Cubed launches for Minecraft in a few weeks.

Speedrun Worlds Launch for Minecraft Bedrock Edition

Tubbo and MCSR Ranked have brought speedrunning to the world of Minecraft Bedrock Edition with the launch of two new worlds. The free Speedrun Practice World offers tutorials, time trials, and medals for players looking to flesh out their parkour skills. Those who have already sharpened their skills are encouraged to check out the standard Speedrun World. Both worlds can be accessed via the Minecraft Marketplace.

Mojang Reveals First Look at New Minecraft Dungeons 2 Mob

Mojang isn’t ready to reveal too much about Minecraft Dungeons 2, yet, with today’s show mostly serving to give players just a glimpse at its new story with concept art. With this new tale comes the Twisted Warden, a new mob for the Minecraft world that looks to present a scarier threat for fans of the dungeon crawler.

Lego Continues Its Minecraft Partnership

Lego and Minecraft have been working together for some time now, but it sounds like the two creativity-based entities still have more plans up their sleeves. A new add-on, called Lego Minecraft Chicken Mounts, turns chickens into ridable mounts that can be customized with special abilities and looks.

First Look at A Minecraft Movie 2 With Official Title Reveal

Minecraft Live 2026 took a trip over to the set of A Minecraft Movie 2 to talk to the cast - and reveal its official title. Mojang’s sequel will officially be called A Minecraft Movie Squared.

Returning actors Jack Black (Steve), Jason Momoa (Garrett), and Danielle Brooks (Dawn), as well as new star Kirsten Dunst (Alex), all showed up to reveal the title of the new movie. Matt Berry was also confirmed to return, though his part in the video suggested he may play a new role. Although shots of the set offered little for fans to pick apart, the title confirmation should help with the wait for its July 23, 2027, release date.

More Minecraft Drops in 2026

With Chaos Cubed now set with its June release date, Mojang is ready to tease what’s next. Today’s Minecraft Live showcase came with a tease for the next drop set to launch in fall 2026. Players were told to expect an update that focuses on exploration, adventure, and social interactions with friends, with the developers teasing the new rust-toned dappled forest biome, too.

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

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.

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

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, has ordered the GTA 5 modding platform Rage: MP to cease operations.

The developers of the platform relayed the news via a forum post on Monday evening, noting that Take-Two had formally requested they shut down. The reason is because Take-Two and Rockstar Games have their own modding platform, FiveM, and it's the only authorized platform for modding GTA, especially with regards to the online portion of the game.

"We must share an important update about the future of RAGE: MP. Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive have made it clear that FiveM is the only authorized platform for GTAV multiplayer modding, as defined in their Platform License Agreement (PLA)," said the developers. "In accordance with that policy, and at Take-Two's request, RAGE: MP will begin a structured shutdown process. We are asking all server owners to wind down their operations and migrate to FiveM."

Server owners have until August 31, 2026 to migrate to FiveM, as operations for Rage: MP will officially cease.

Take-Two and Rockstar's relationship with the GTA modding community is long-running. In May 2015, the companies sparked a backlash when it was suggested they were looking at banning mods from GTA5, including in single-player. It was later clarified that modding was allowed and even encouraged, but that Rockstar was always monitoring for things that could threaten the health of GTA Online. The incident created some tension between fans, as many felt that the freedom to mod the game could be taken away at any minute. That fear was validated as later that same year, Rockstar tried to shut down FiveM for hosting "an unauthorized alternate multiplayer service that contains code designed to facilitate piracy."

However, it worked out in the end as all parties formed a strong relationship with Rockstar acquiring Cfx.re, the team behind FiveM. The acquisition happened back in August 2023 after an upsurge in the GTA RP community, a community that was only possible as a result of modding. This led some to believe that Rockstar acquired the team so that it could properly integrate modding and community servers into GTA 6.

Bethesda helped popularize modding on consoles when it began allowing community creations in Skyrim and Fallout 4, so there's hope among fans that GTA 6 will have modding tools for consoles as well. Nothing has been confirmed yet, and it may be a while before we hear anything, but it's clear that Rockstar and Take-Two are taking things more seriously in the lead-up to launch by taking action against Rage: MP.

Meanwhile, GTA 6 was supposed to release this week, but was delayed to November 19. Take-Two seems pretty confident that it will hit that date and has actively teased its extensive marketing plans for the game, which are slated to begin this summer. While you wait to find out, we’ve got plenty more on GTA 6 for you to read, including Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick’s comments on whether GTA 6 even needs a Trailer 3, his thoughts on the current console install base (GTA 6 isn’t coming out on PC at launch), and how GTA 6 is actually delayed around 18 months, not a year.

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.

The remaster of Metal Gear Solid 4 is finally coming to current gen consoles this August as part of Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2. A recent reveal of gameplay not only showed off the enhanced graphics, but also suggests that many in-jokes and brand tie-ins from the 2008 original will still be found in MGS4’s wartorn future.

Over the weekend, Japanese freelance writer Mafia Kajita and voice actor Yuichi Nakamura played through Act 1 of the upcoming Master Collection Vol. 2 version of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots on their popular YouTube channel (Fun fact: Nakamura played Kevin in the Japanese version of Metal Gear Rising: Revengence).

Right at the start, there is an infamous tongue-in-cheek joke in the cutscene where the Geckos hunt for Snake. Fans will be pleased to know that the meme-able scene still has the “No place for Hideo” quip on the watermelon-filled cardboard box, which gets stomped on by the Geckos. However, the url for Kojima’s blog, which was also hidden on the box in the original MGS4, has been removed from the Master Collection version (likely because the page no longer exists).

Among the items that Snake could stuff in his pack in the original MGS4 was an original iPod- allowing you to listen to a bunch of tunes and even podcasts that you could find scattered throughout the game. From the demo playthrough, it seems that Apple have okayed the iPod being in the Master Collection, though it's not clear at the time of writing whether all of the same tracks will be available to hunt down in the game.

Other items that show up in the MGS4 livestream playthrough include a Playboy magazine (for distracting enemy soldiers) and bottles of Regain 24, a Japanese brand of energy drink that MGS4 had a promotional tie-in with back in the day. The joke fake brand, Hide-chan Ramen, also seems like it will still be in the game. However, it is worth noting that Kajita and Nakamura played through a demo version, with the usual disclaimer that the content is subject to change.

The graphics for this enhanced MGS4 re-release are much sharper than the PS3 original, making it much easier to make out minute details in the surroundings and on character models. Especially noticeable is that small logos and writing, such as “Snake Eye” on Old Snake’s bionic eyepatch, are consistently readable, instead of the slightly blurry textures of the original. The original game also had a stylized, gritty yellow tint that got nicknamed ‘the piss filter’- this has been replaced in favor of a more natural, realistic look.

Upon its release, Master Collection vol. 1 caused some disappointment among fans for missing content from the original games. For example, the Master Collection of MGS3 failed to include the Subsistence Secret Theater and the Ape Escape tie-in minigame, Snake vs. Monkey (although with the MGS3 remake, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, these extras got added back in). It remains to be seen whether this current gen remaster of MGS4 contains all the secrets of the original PS3 release, and whether Master Collection Vol 2 manages to have a smooth, performance issue-free release across all platforms. Konami previously said it is being more careful with Vol. 2 to avoid the rough launch that Vol. 1 had.

Image credit: YouTube / Washagana TV.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

The collaborative relationship between LEGO and Nintendo, two world leaders in family-friendly entertainment that operate in the adjacent realms of toys and games, began with the 1999 release of LEGO Racers on N64. At least one LEGO game has been released on a Nintendo platform nearly every year since, and multiple Nintendo-themed LEGO sets have been released each year since they debuted in 2020.

The LEGO-Nintendo synergy has persisted through the Switch era, and with the Switch 2 now out in the wild, we’re looking back on the legacy of LEGO on the Switch.

How Many LEGO Games Are Playable on Nintendo Switch 2?

As of 2026, 19 LEGO games have been released on Switch consoles, from LEGO Undercover City in 2017 to the most recent game, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, in 2026. Of the 20 games, nine are LEGO originals and 11 are licensed collaborations with other intellectual properties.

Every LEGO Game on Switch and Switch 2 (Ordered by Release Date)

LEGO City Undercover (2017)

In April 2017, one month after the console’s launch, the series’ first game to hit the Switch was LEGO City Undercover, which is an original LEGO game originally released for Wii U in 2013. It’s based on the LEGO City series of themed building sets and tells the tale of an undercover police officer tracking an escaped prisoner.

LEGO Worlds (2017)

LEGO Worlds is another original game released on the Switch in 2017. Worlds is the most authentically LEGO game available on Switch; it steps out of the series’ usual action-adventure genre into the world of sandbox games (think Minecraft), allowing you to build structures and environments brick by brick.

The LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game (2017)

The LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game is, as its name makes clear, an adaptation of The LEGO Ninjago Movie. The game and movie, both based on LEGO’s own Ninjago line, were released in the U.S. on September 22, 2017. The action-adventure game features eight locations and several playable characters from the movie.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 (2017)

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes draws characters and locations from Marvel movies and comics alike, with a massive roster of characters that (probably) includes every Marvel hero and villain you can think of. It’s a direct sequel to LEGO Marvel Super Heroes that ultimately pits you against the time-travelling villain Kang the Conqueror.

The first game is also available on the Switch, though you’ll find it further down this list – it wasn’t ported until 2021.

LEGO The Incredibles (2018)

Another LEGO-Disney collaboration, LEGO The Incredibles combines story beats from both movies, the 2004 original and 2018 sequel. The game was released alongside The Incredibles 2 in June 2018. It features over 100 playable characters, including all five members of the Parr family. This game is one of many Disney games currently available on the Switch in 2025.

LEGO DC Super-Villains (2018)

LEGO DC Super-Villains is a LEGO Batman spinoff focused on a collection of villains from the deep history of DC Comics, including The Joker and Lex Luthor. The villains must navigate the internal threat of personality conflict while pursuing the mysterious Justice Syndicate. It’s notably the first LEGO game to center its story around a player-created character.

LEGO Harry Potter Collection (2018)

The LEGO Harry Potter Collection is a compilation of two games: LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 and LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7. The collection includes the complete LEGO Harry Potter experience, pulling characters, stories, and activities from all seven books and eight movies. This collaboration goes hand-in-hand with the many LEGO Harry Potter sets that have released over the last few years.

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame (2019)

The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame is a movie tie-in that was largely knocked for its lack of originality and innovation. The game blends elements of traditional action-adventure LEGO games with the building elements introduced in LEGO Worlds.

LEGO Jurassic World (2019)

Originally released alongside the movie in 2015, LEGO Jurassic World came to Switch four years later in 2019. It features a 20-level campaign with five levels from each movie that had been released up until that point in time (Jurassic Park 1-3 and Jurassic World). In addition to characters from the Jurassic World movies, you can unlock playable versions of the franchise’s primary directors, Steven Spielberg and Colin Trevorrow.

LEGO Builder’s Journey (2021)

LEGO Builder’s Journey came to Switch in 2021 after debuting on Apple Arcade in 2019. While most LEGO games incorporate puzzle-solving, Builder’s Journey is all puzzles, all the time. It’s a beautifully designed game that tells its father-son story one geometric puzzle at a time.

LEGO Marvel Superheroes (2021)

First released in 2013, LEGO Marvel Superheroes didn’t come to Switch until 2021. It tells an original story with several of Marvel’s most recognizable heroes – Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine, Captain America, and others – teaming up to foil the apocalyptic plans of Doctor Doom and Loki.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (2022)

The definitive LEGO Star Wars experience, The Skywalker Saga features reimagined scenes from all nine Skywalker movies: the original trilogy, prequel trilogy, and sequel trilogy. Within this sprawling collection are over 300 playable characters, 23 planets, and 100 vehicles. Compared to past LEGO games, The Skywalker Saga moves you closer to the action by shifting the camera from a zoomed-out third-person perspective to a tighter over-the-shoulder view. Considering the sheer amount of Star Wars LEGO sets out there, it's no surprise this made for one of the best Star Wars games of all time.

LEGO Brawls (2022)

LEGO Brawls is the worst-reviewed game on this list, based on Metascore (46). It’s an accessible, Smash Bros.-inspired fighting game originally released for Apple Arcade in 2019. Brawls features well over 100 minifigures/fighters from over 10 LEGO sets, including Ninjago and Jurassic World.

LEGO Bricktales (2022)

LEGO Bricktales is an original, puzzle-based adventure similar to LEGO Builder’s Journey, though on a larger scale. The game takes you to dioramas set in jungles, deserts, cities, medieval castles, and tropical islands. Bricktales was made by ClockStone Studio, the developer best known for its Bridge Constructor series.

LEGO 2K Drive (2023)

LEGO 2K Drive, from prolific sports game developer Visual Concepts, is a racing game set in the open world of Bricklandia. 2K Drive is a robust racing game that features street, off-road, and water races; story, single race, tournament, minigame, and free-roam modes; and a custom car-builder that our review called “excellent.”

LEGO Fortnite (2023)

LEGO Fortnite is a collection of LEGO-themed games housed within Fortnite. Epic Games and the LEGO Group have created several LEGO Fornite experiences since the collaboration was launched in late 2023. Among the current ways to play are a survival-crafting game called Odyssey, an online social RPG called Brick Life, and a level designer called LEGO Islands.

LEGO Horizon Adventures (2024)

The franchise’s latest game is LEGO Horizon Adventures, a collaboration between PlayStation’s Guerrilla Games and English support studio Studio Gobo. It’s a retelling of Horizon Zero Dawn, simplified and sanitized for a wider audience, that leans into the combat and platforming mechanics of LEGO action games before it.

LEGO Voyagers (2025)

The latest LEGO game is a two-player co-op adventure that is short and sweet. In our 8 out of 10 review, IGN praised its meorable puzzle games and fantasticly presented world. It doesn't have the same level of depth as co-op games like Split Fiction, or It Takes Two, but it's a fun game you can play together with someone.

LEGO Party (2025)

The second LEGO game we got in 2025, LEGO Party is, as you might guess, a party game along the lines of Mario Party. IGN's 8/10 review describes it as "Creative, colourful, and a consistent crack up... purpose-built to turn any boring old night into a block party filled with belly laughs." It feaures 60 minigames across LEGO sets from the Ninjago, Pirates, and Space themes. You can also customize your own minifigure and tackle Challenge Zones with up to three friends.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (2026)

We have officially entered the Switch 2 era, and this most recent release happens to only be playable on the newer Nintendo console (as well as PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5). If you've seen any gameplay, you'll quickly understand why.

In the words of our reviewer, Simon Cardy, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is a "lovingly made, often hilarious take on both Batman’s movie and video game history alike," with a particularly impressive take on an open-world Gotham. Unsurprisingly, the game was accompanied by a new spread of LEGO Batman sets.

Upcoming LEGO Games on Switch 2

We don't know too much more about upcoming LEGO games, but on the physical brick-building side of things, LEGO recently announced a new Smart Brick. A series of live-action LEGO movies are theoretically in development, while most existing LEGO movies are available to stream online.

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

Sony's first-party studio, Media Molecule, is reportedly working on a brand-new game with open-world elements.

As reported by MP1st, information about the LittleBigPlanet and Dreams studio's next project comes from the resume of a current Media Molecule employee. The resume notes that the studio is working on an unannounced project, which will feature "open-world content."

Fans have longed for a return to LittleBigPlanet, but it doesn't seem like this new project will be another Sackboy adventure. The resume specifically notes that this is a new IP, meaning fans may not want to expect a direct follow-up to the studio's previous work. That doesn't mean something like LittleBigPlanet will never return, but if the information presented in this resume is accurate, a new entry seems unlikely to arrive soon.

There isn't too much else to latch on to in this resume, but it does indicate Media Molecule is going for a larger sense of scale. The studio is best known for LittleBigPlanet and Dreams, two games that empower the player to create their own experiences with in-game tools.

Dreams, a game IGN gave a 9/10, especially leaned on allowing players to create full-blown games with unique mechanics, art styles, and more. It was like a true game engine, and those who embraced Dreams made some extremely cool stuff with it, but Media Molecule ultimately ended support for the game three years after its release.

Sumo Digital developed LittleBigPlanet 3 and Sackboy: A Big Adventure, so it's possible that the team could produce another entry in the series in the future. However, Sackboy was removed from PlayStation Productions branding, leading some to fear he won't be coming back anytime soon.

Whatever this new game is, past statements from the company suggest it may have been in the works as early as 2023. Media Molecule noted in October of that year that it had spent that year transitioning to a new project. Outside of the highly ambitious Dreams, Media Molecule isn't known for making the kind of AAA game that takes an absurd amount of money and half a decade to produce. Depending on the scope of the game, maybe we will hear about it at the upcoming State of Play in June.

We'll have to wait and see what happens, but it sounds like whatever this next game is, it will be different from the studio's past games. Meanwhile, Sony is still working on the PlayStation 6. The company said earlier this month that it is still trying to work out when the device will launch.

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.

Ubisoft has confirmed Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced will still let Edward Kenway get drunk and stumble around the Animus load screen, despite concerns to the contrary.

The publisher behind the stealth action franchise sent fans for a loop yesterday with a post showing gameplay of what it called a "AC Black Flag Resynced drunk loading screen." It's a bit strange, as the footage showed the remake's pirate protagonist walking through a digital world with a steady stride while the screen wobbled back and forth around him.

Fans familiar with the original Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag will remember the 2013 title allowed Edward to put back a few bottles of rum and drunkenly trip through the Animus load screen during one portion of its story. Ubisoft's post had some concerned that, in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, this would be replaced by whatever the new gameplay showed.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced pic.twitter.com/xaR2v4ihmy

— Zephryss⛩️ (@TheRealZephryss) May 22, 2026

"I'm sorry man but this is genuinely embarrassing why would you post this," one X/Twitter user said.

"But he's not acting or moving like he's drunk at all..." another pointed out.

It's unclear if Ubisoft meant for the above post to be a joke, but it was more than enough to leave a sea of eager Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced fans looking for answers. Don't worry, though, as it only took about a day for the publisher to swoop back in to clarify that a new version of the moment that lives in players' memories will be back for the remake, after all. You can see gameplay for what the new version of a drunk Edward Kenway looks like below.

No worries, there will be rum https://t.co/355phmRTGq pic.twitter.com/ExeAkzttcO

— Assassin's Creed UK (@Assassins_UK) May 23, 2026

"Keep Rum and Carry On," lead producer Justin Ng said in a follow-up message.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has a release date of July 9, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S. Like the drunken loading screen, the remake is confirmed to have a no-HUD option, as well as blood during combat for those who feared it had been left behind.

We spoke to the developers at Ubisoft Singapore to learn more about what it took to reimagine the story of Edward Kenway during a recent preview event. For our early impressions, you can click here.

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).

From Feudal Japan to Ancient Greece to the Italian Renaissance, the Assassin's Creed series has explored many eras over its nearly 20-year run. However, the golden age of piracy from 2013's Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag remains an enduring favorite of the series, making it a compelling pick for an overhauled remake that aims to deliver notable upgrades that heighten the pirate adventure.

For Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, the developers at Ubisoft Singapore were given the freedom to modernize one of the games from the series' "classic" pre-RPG era with upgrades and flourishes, creating a more seamless open world to explore.

"I think there's still great value with the classic AC experience, personally, for me, I'm both a fan of the RPG side, but also the action-adventure side of the series," Paul Fu, Black Flag Resynched's creative director, told IGN at a recent preview event. "There are merits to both, but with Black Flag, there's such a strong focus on story and character that's more about the defined narrative. For us, we just wanted to make sure that we keep the spirit of the original game with this remake."

Aside from its alluring setting, which married the swashbuckling fantasy of being a pirate with the mystery of the Assassin's Creed series, one of the main appeals of Black Flag was that it was not just a fresh start for the series following the Desmond Miles saga, but also the series' first attempt to tackle a more expansive open world. It really tapped into the experience of players exploring the raging waters aboard their naval ship to embrace the life of an assassin and pirate. That in itself was a big draw for the remake's developers, many of whom wanted to take a stab at revisiting one of the series' most popular entries.

The upgrades Ubisoft have implimented in Black Flag Resynced intend removing many of the original's rough edges, which the developers explain was due to limitations as a cross-gen release, back when the PS4 and Xbox One were just arriving in stores. The improvements are especially evident in the world design, which aims for a more seamless experience with no loading screens or interruptions (an issue suffered by the "old" generation version of Black Flag in particular), and for drastically expanded underwater gameplay to offer more opportunities for exploration.

Resynced takes the "Black Flag was good, but it can be better" approach. In addition to improved visuals and weather systems for the game, it introduces a revamped combat system that emphasizes a faster flow and parrying. Furthermore, it improves stealth by introducing crouching, removing instant mission fails, and upgrading the parkour with better physics and new traversal options.

But at the center of Black Flag is Edward Kenway, a roguish pirate who eventually slips into a greater calling as an assassin. For lead actor Matt Ryan, this was his first video game role, and it remains one of his favorite acting jobs. For Resynced, he not only got to see his old world revamped with better visuals, but also returned to his role in new side-quests and narrative events alongside new crew members.

"What I love about [Edward Kenway] is that he starts off as a selfish rogue looking for gold, glory and fame, but there's something in there that he wants to do it for, for Caroline, for his family, to prove his worth," said Ryan. "There is a good intention under there with him, but he's ruthless enough to do anything it takes to get it. That's what I really loved about the original game, it took a long time for him to find his moral compass. As the player – and for me too since I'm the actor, which was amazing [laughs]-- you kind of get to live out that part of your fantasy of being a pirate. That's what I love about the game, it's all about that character's journey."

Even for during a time when open world games were expanding significantly, the original Black Flag was a massive game. It marked the next serious evolution of the series' core recipe, which had steadily been iterated on since Assassin's Creed 2. In many ways, Black Flag marked the early start of the series' RPG era, with its focus on a fully explorable open world filled with side events and opportunities for player growth. But, arriving at a time before different color weapon rarities, the open world was designed as a space for players to really build up Edward Kenway's status as a legendary pirate of the Caribbean.

Resynced revisits Kenway's character arc, but Kenways alone. The project remakes just the core game and none of the DLC, including Freedom Cry, which focuses on Adéwalé's story following the events of the main story. This decision was made for technical reasons, as the creative director put it, due to the challenge of remaking Black Flag.

"We definitely considered adding Black Flag's DLC content like Freedom Cry, but right from the beginning, we understood that Black Flag would be one of the hardest games to remake in the AC franchise," said Fu. "There are many reasons behind it – First of all, the world is huge, and it's a specialized, enabled map that requires a lot of tech that doesn't really exist anymore. We couldn't reuse any of the old tech."

"The surface and underwater gameplay had to be seamless, and we had to expand the underwater more, and we also needed new scripting tools to be created for ground, naval, and underwater altogether," he continued. "We needed to be able to script a more reactive shark, for example, which didn't really exist in the Anvil engine at the time. So we knew there was a lot crammed into this 20- to 40-hour game. So we were very careful in managing the scope, which is why we elected to focus on Edward Kenway's main story."

After a trilogy of increasingly dark Ezio games and the long-running, apocalypse-averting Desmond Miles saga, the original Black Flag was a fun and clever turn for the series, one that was a little more light-hearted and full of adventurous spirit. In many ways, Resynced is in a similar position, with many fans looking for an opportunity to revisit Assassin's Creed's classic action-adventure style after years of RPGs. With the upgrades really leaning into the pirate fantasy and making the world more seamless, Resynced becomes a compelling and strong option for seeing one of the series' strongest classics in a new light.

For lead actor Matt Ryan, revisiting Black Flag and reflecting on his time as Edward Kenway was particularly fond. With the Resynced remake giving him another opportunity to revisit Kenway, it's also giving fans of the original some new experiences with the pirate anti-hero once again.

"It's mad, isn't it? Coming back to it after all these years, it's been a good experience," said the lead actor. "I watched many of those cutscenes again, and I got kind of nostalgic, man. Like all these emotions popping back to where I was as a person at that time, you know, interacting with all the other fellow actors in Montreal in 2012, when we filmed it and did our performance, and it's just such a joy to come back to something like this after all this time."

Alessandro Fillari is a longtime games media professional. Talk video games with him on BlueSky at @afillari.bsky.social.