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Summer Game Fest kicks off on June 9, and host Geoff Keighley has unveiled the full list of game publishers and studios participating in the event.  This year's #SummerGameFest will feature events, activities and updates for fans from more than 30 partners, with more to be announced. It's going to be a great month for video game fans. Get ready! pic.twitter.com/vLaRGnbtBK — Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) May 31, 2022 In the tweet posted above, Keighley states that SGF will feature events and updates from over 30 partners, with more to be announced. For now, the line-up includes:  2K Activision Atlus Bandai Namco Bloober Team Capcom Coffee Stain Deep Silver Devolver Digital Digital Extremes Dotemu EA Epic Games Focus Entertainment Frost Giant Studios Humble Games Level Infinite Mediatonic miHoYo Netflix PlayStation Raw Fury Samsung Gaming Hub Sega Square Enix Skybound Games Steam Studio MDHR Tribeca Festival War...

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the long-known-about sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, has finally been announced. We discuss what we want to see out of Respawn's upcoming next-gen sequel. Plus: lamenting the very serious reason for the latest Xbox exclusive to get delayed, I gush over Ninja Gaiden as the entire series hits Xbox Game Pass, and more! Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel , or grab an MP3 download of this week's episode . In honor of my 10th anniversary at IGN, check out one of my favorite pieces in my decade here: Podcast Unlocked 201, featuring original Xbox creator Seamus Blackley, Xbox 360-era boss Peter Moore, and current Head of Xbox Phil Spencer: For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review , our Xbox Series S review , and our PS5 review . Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked , as well as our monthly(-is...

FromSoftware nerfed some of Elden Ring's trickiest boss fights without telling anyone. Several twin bosses, like the twin Crystalians or Mad Pumpkin Heads, have had their aggression dialed back to make those fights much easier to manage as a solo player. The change was made in patch 1.04 but wasn't clear in the patch notes. Dataminer king bore found the changes in April and Illusory Wall demonstrated it in their latest video. Before the changes, fighting two bosses at the same time required you to dance between their overlapping attacks. Now, boss AI is less aggressive when they're not the one of the twins actively attacking you, and the game now generally de-emphasizes bosses attacking at the same time. Fights that were once chaotic as two enemies tried to pummel you are now a lot easier to get a grip on. Elden Ring gitguders might say this makes the game more casual or whatever, but the changes to boss AI help prepare you for the fights that weren't changed li...

The Pokémon Company announced today that it will be debuting new footage of two of this holiday's most anticipated releases, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. We first saw the duo of Switch games when they were revealed in a Pokémon Day presentation, which brought along an initial look at the unnamed region seemingly based on Spain and Portugal and the introduction of the three beloved starter monsters, Quaxly, Sprigatito, and Fuecoco. 🚨 New #ScarletViolet trailer drops tomorrow! 🚨 You read that right, Trainers. Tune in to our YouTube channel at 6:00 a.m. PDT on 6/1 for the latest on Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet! Make sure you’re subscribed and have notifications turned on: https://t.co/8Hw4hsHzDJ pic.twitter.com/CHyBhxY1JT — Pokémon (@Pokemon) May 31, 2022 The second look at Scarlet and Violet will hit the Pokémon YouTube channel tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Pacific, but until then, we can't help but wonder what will be shown in the new trailer. This new foot...

Game producer Shinji Hashimoto announced today that he has retired from Square Enix after almost 30 years with the company. Hashimoto started at Square Soft in 1995 and was the brand manager for both Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts franchises. "Thank you, everyone. I will retire on May 31st (Tuesday) today. During my tenure, I am very grateful to all of you in various fields," Hashimoto announced on Twitter. "From now on, I would like to support you as a Square Enix fan. I'm really thankful to you." 皆様、お疲れ様です。本日5月31日（火）をもちまして定年退職することになりました。在職中は多方面の皆々様方々には大変お世話になりました。これからは、一スクエニファンとして応援させて頂きたいと思います。本当にありがとうございました。 pic.twitter.com/yIj89uvh8x — shinji hashimoto (@shinjihashimot3) May 31, 2022 He also posted a video message on Twitter, saying that he enjoyed his time traveling across the world and attending different kinds of events. In recent years, however, he stopped going to them due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While he would have liked to visit everyon...

Popular Thai YouTuber Bankii loves Star Citizen, and apparently had an ungodly amount of money sitting around. The result: He built a $30,000 game room based on his favorite ship in Star Citizen, the Crusader Hercules .  Towards the five-minute mark in the video above you see the construction process for this elaborate room, and Bankii goes over the numerous revisions it took to achieve the space shuttle vibe. The process involved placing wood panels on a steel welded frame. It was first assembled at the architect's workshop before it was moved to Bankii's studio.  The spaceship room was built as an extension of Bankii's studio and is accessed with automatic sliding doors—like in Star Trek, or the grocery store. It really does look like you're boarding a spaceship from his office. All that's missing is the hiss and steam of decompression as you enter.   The 'cockpit' features three 65-inch TVs, as well as a curved display that acts as a dashboard for...

Iron Harvest is essentially a World War 1 RTS, except that instead of developing primitive, unreliable tanks, the powers involved developed clunky, steam-powered battlemechs. It's a great concept and, happily, the execution lives up to it: We called it "a spectacular and rock-solid RTS" in our 82% review , and a "worthy spiritual successor" to Relic's great Company of Heroes.  Developer King Art has expanded the game since then with new modes of play, a re-imagining of the Russian Revolution, and—appropriately late—the addition of American forces. Today the studio announced that another major update is on the way that will add a new "World Map Campaign mode" for singleplayer combat against the AI. It's not campaign in the story-driven sense, but more like a game of Risk or Axis and Allies: Beginning from a particular starting point, players will square off against AI enemies in a straight-ahead war for world domination. Along with the prem...

SCS Software announced the Heart of Russia DLC for Euro Truck Simulator 2 in March 2021, promising to open up the nation—with some limitations, allowing for the sheer size of the place—to more in-depth exploration. But today the studio announced that, in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it has decided not to release the expansion. "On the 24th of February 2022, our Heart of Russia team was some 6-8 weeks away from completing work on the highly anticipated new DLC," SCS wrote in a blog post . "We all felt really good about the result; a lot of effort had been invested in making this new region look truly fantastic in the game. We were absolutely sure that our community, especially those in Russia, would really appreciate that." February 24 was the day that Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a move that left the studio "in shock." The studio quickly took steps to raise funds for humanitarian aid in the nation, primarily throug...

Taking a step away from the usual spatial, programming, and logic challenges that most commonly appear in adventure puzzle games, Sonority is a clever new indie that focuses instead on the basics of music. The building blocks of puzzles are instead music notes ranging, quite literally, across the scale. As you play the notes are combined into melodies and ranges that create magical effects. Image 1 of 4 (Image credit: Hanging Gardens Interactive) Image 2 of 4 (Image credit: Hanging Gardens Interactive) Image 3 of 4 (Image credit: Hanging Gardens Interactive) Image 4 of 4 (Image credit: Hanging Gardens Interactive) Using those magical melodies, and with the help of a talking raccoon, you use various instruments to get all manner of different results. Here's a simple example: Certain notes in one order might raise a platform, while those notes in reverse would lower it. There are also puzzles that have you listen to a sequence, then re...

Thrilled that their game has reached over one million copies sold, the developers of V Rising have posted a blog outlining their next steps towards a future release for the indie survival-RPG-but-you're-vampires game. "The Stunlock team could not have possibly imagined how many of you were out there, ready to awaken from your crypts and step into this little world we’d created," they said. In short, Stunlock intends to add a lot more to V Rising before it's done, but they're cautioning that it's a lot of work and will take time. Especially since they, like last year's survival darling Valheim , have clearly succeeded far beyond their wildest dreams. They can now open up the scope and consider both their own plans and what the community dreams up. "Opening into Early Access is the first step we’re taking on the misty road to the game’s full release," Stunlock said. "Many journeys have a set path, a road with a clear destination. While we...

If it seems like you're not seeing map repeats as much as you used to in Valorant these days, you can take comfort in the knowledge that it's not your imagination. In a new deep dive on the challenges of " map diversity ," developer Riot Games explains how it's gone about improving Valorant's map randomization, which was a bigger challenge than you might think. "A common sentiment that we’ve seen in the past is frustration when you encounter the same map multiple games in a row," Riot's Brian Chang explained. "In a recent survey, over a third of Valorant players responded that it is 'Extremely Frustrating' to encounter the same map multiple times in a row. "This isn’t too surprising. Playing the same map gets stale quickly, and limits the type of challenges that you face in the game. As a result, we wanted to make sure that we could improve the diversity of maps played without compromising the health of matchmaking (by influ...

Hot off an exciting weekend of tons of news from Star Wars Celebration 2022, including the reveal of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and details about The Mandalorian and Ahsoka , a new trailer for Season 2 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch has arrived.  In it, we get new looks at the Bad Batch, of course, as well as Darth Sidious aka The Emperor and Wookiee Jedi youngling Gungi. With a look at Gungi, we now know that he survived Order 66, which sought to kill and end the entirety of the Jedi. The trailer also reveals that we can expect Season 2 of The Bad Batch to drop onto Disney+ this fall.  As you can see in the trailer above, the titular Bad Batch of heroes are still doing their thing, searching for what they want to do now that they’re free. Of course, meanwhile, Sheev Palpatine’s empire is on the rise and the crew will need to deal with that while extending their helping hands to others. It looks like they’re after new allies, too, which hopefully includes Gungi.  For mor...

The summer sales season has officially begun with Memorial Day now upon us. While most people tend to associate the best Memorial Day sales with household items and clothing, you can find some really great gaming and tech deals if you're savvy enough. We've been doing our best to round up those deals for you here, and there are bargains to be had on everything from headsets to TVs to console accessories. Let's check out our favorite Memorial Day gaming deal right now , including The Last of Us Part 2, which has now dropped to just $10 at Best Buy . Pick Up The Last of Us Part 2 for Just $10 If you still haven't got round to playing the second instalment of the groundbreaking The Last of Us games, then now is your chance to grab it at a discount price. Head over to the Best Buy website and pay just $10 to jump back into the action with Joel and Ellie . You definitely don't want to miss this Memorial Day Deal. There's still plenty of rumours about a Last o...

Nintendo is shutting down the Pokémon Sound Library later this week, just three months after the service was launched. As reported by Eurogamer , the Pokémon DP Sound Library - which lets content creators download and legally use sound effects and music from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl - will cease to exist as of May 31. The move is quite unexpected as Nintendo heavily promoted the Sound Library when it launched in February , even collaborating with Japanese performer and DJ Alan Shirahama to have a single released that solely used Pokémon music. Though not confirmed to be related, the service was also launched shortly after Nintendo removed several videos from video game music YouTube channel GilvaSunner , prompting its owner to delete the channel completely. The Pokémon Sound Library was therefore seen as a viable, safe, and completely legal way for Nintendo fans to enjoy otherwise hard-to-find music. No reason for the shutdown was given, with the Sound Library now simply disp...

Everyone has that Elden Ring boss they really enjoyed facing off against, even if they kicked your butt over and over again, including the game’s director and From Software CEO Hidetaka Miyazaki.  His favorite boss is Starscourge Radahn, according to a new Xbox Wire Japan blog post , as translated by IGN . As for why, the famed director cites Radahn’s alluring design as a character in The Lands Between as well as the festival surrounding him.  “It’s tough to decide, but I’d have to say Radahn,” Miyazaki said. “As an individual character, he’s really alluring, and I really like the Radahn Festival situation. There’s a literal sense of festivity and exuberance, but also a unique tinge of sadness and loneliness.”  He said when he first brought up the idea of Radahn and his festival, “no one on the team took it seriously,” which is extra funny considering this boss is Miyazaki’s favorite. He added that his next favorite bosses after Radahn are Godrick, the Grafted and Ry...

Memorial Day has landed and with it is your chance to snap up some great bargains. While Memorial Day sales tend to focus on household appliances and clothing, there are some great gaming and tech deals out there if you know where to look. Be sure to check out our roundup of all the best Memorial Day offers this year. One of the best deals we've managed to pick out so far is this wonderful offer from Amazon on the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller which has dropped to just $54.99 (see price in cart). Memorial Day Savings on Nintendo Switch Pro Controller You can grab yourself a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller for just $54.99 over on Amazon. That's a 21% discount this Memorial Day, and it's pretty rare to see the controller see such a significant discount, so this could be a great opportunity to pick one up. Just make sure you add it to your basket to see the correct price at Amazon. These controllers are such a handy piece of kit that allows you to take your handheld g...

A $100,000 tournament hosted by Dr Disrespect had Twitch streamers following some absurd rules to not mention him as he was previously banned from the platform. Full Squad Gaming's Jake Lucky shared a recap of these Twitch community guidelines that were posted in-house by the organizer of the event, BoomTV. "It is prohibited to use your channel to knowingly feature or advertise a suspended user," the message reads. "We understand that there may be instances where suspended users may appear on your stream due to circumstances beyond your control, such as through third-party gaming tournaments, but we expect that you make a good faith effort to remove them from your broadcast, mute them, or otherwise limit their interactions with your stream." The message then shared a "few helpful tips to navigate this tournament if you are a Twitch streamer:" Use "Hot Shot Duo Drop featuring Fortnite" to refer to the event. User other Names for DrDi...

Weeks before Star Wars Celebration 2022, word broke of a new animated anthology series called Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi . That series shares its name with one of the earliest and most influential comics in the Star Wars Expanded Universe. But now that the series has been officially unveiled, we know the new Tales of the Jedi is a very different project, one that focuses on multiple Jedi Knights during the Prequel era . Tales of the Jedi is a name with deep significance to the Star Wars mythos. The original Dark Horse Comics series was among the first Star Wars stories to flesh out the ancient history of the Jedi Order and their war with the Sith. It doesn't appear that the new animated series shares much more in common than the title, but there's always a chance the connection runs deeper. With that in mind, let's take a closer look at the original Tales of the Jedi comics and why they're so different from the newest Star Wars cartoon. These are the topics we cov...

EA has finally unveiled the rumored sequel to 2019's Jedi: Fallen Order, the more punchily-named Jedi Survivor , coming sometime in 2023. Developed by the same team at Respawn as Fallen Order, Jedi Survivor begins five years after the events of the first game, which ended with Cal fleeing from Darth Vader after sabotaging an Imperial plot. This timeskip will see a gruffer, more lantern-jawed Cal Jedi-ing it up at the height of the Empire's power. Jedi Survivor's pre-rendered trailer shows Cal pondering someone floating in a bacta tank, interspersed with shots of lightsaber combat and a view of his ship, the Mantis, crashed on a desert world. A Pau'an narrator muses on the hopelessness of Cal's situation while wondering just what his next move will be. In PC Gamer's review of Fallen Order, Tom Senior enjoyed the game's swashbuckling Star Wars vibe and Soulslike combat, but was less impressed with its technical foibles on PC. Hopefully Respawn can ...

Team Fortress 2 remains an extremely popular game with a large active player base, but the last couple of years has seen it overrun by aimbots. A passionate group of fans has long pleaded with developer Valve to address the issue, and the company has finally responded.  Yesterday, the official Team Fortress 2 Twitter account posted a message in response to #SaveTF2, a peaceful campaign of fans working to raise awareness about the game’s rampant bot problem. Basically, bot programs have made the game nearly unplayable for some since they’ll instantly kill players upon loading up into match-ups, giving the bots users an unfair advantage. TF2 players have become increasingly vocal about the problem, but Valve has remained largely silent on the issue (even going quiet on the game’s forums) until posting the following message:  TF2 community, we hear you! We love this game and know you do, too. We see how large this issue has become and are working to improve things. — Te...

The first trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor premiered as part of Star Wars Celebration. The sequel to Respawn’s critically-acclaimed Star Wars game is set to be released in 2023. In a brief, cinematic trailer we see Cal Kestis after the events of Jedi: Fallen Order. Where he is still on the run from the Empire. While the trailer is short on plot, it’s got plenty of Star Wars with new inquisitors and new mysteries. Curiously, Cal who spent the previous game gaining a family of allies is all alone. And his lightsaber which he spent so much time rebuilding appears to fall into the hands of the Empire. Essentially, Cal is in a bad place at the start of Jedi: Survivor. Respawn’s next Star Wars action RPG will be released on next-gen platforms PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. EA doesn’t make mention of past-gen consoles, but with developers moving towards new-gen systems there’s a good chance Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is too. The trailer premiered during Star Wars Celebrati...

Of the many secret shames that I work so hard to keep hidden from the prying eyes of polite society is that I have never seen Top Gun. It's a bit strange, really, because I dig cool fighter jets and Kenny Loggins, yet somehow that's never jelled into time spent enjoying the sweaty antics of Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and other brooding icons of faux-military machismo. Anyway, to the point: The long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick is now in US theaters, and to celebrate the return of Cruise as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell—who by now must be the oldest jet jockey in the Navy, if not the entire US military—Bandai Namco is bringing classic American jets and more to Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown . The Top Gun: Maverick DLC package features new playable aircraft including the Northrop Grumman F-14A Tomcat and Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet, each in standard and multi-skin Maverick editions. There's also the Dark Star prototype from the film and an unnamed fifth-generation fi...

It’s the official halfway point in the year and thus far, Netflix ’s continued steadily adding to the anime library. But, the streamer’s shift in priorities can definitely be felt. There’s been a mass cancellation of most of its western animation projects and a steep drop off in licensing of classic series and creation of its own original series as well. Hopefully the powers that be will realize shortchanging its anime audience doesn’t make good sense (or dollars). For the present, subscribers who live in the anime library will have to be satisfied with a slow drip of new titles, like five episode series Vampire in the Garden , and circling back to the goodness to be found among the classic anime series. Note: As this is a list of anime series to watch, no anime movies were considered for this feature. This list applies to U.S. Netflix subscribers. Some titles may not currently be available on international platforms (yet). This list will also be periodically amended to remove seri...