Author: Game Infliction

One Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket player has definitively answered the question of how long it takes to get every card and thus complete Genetic Apex after spending $1,500 on the otherwise free to play game.

Reddit user Weens4Life has provided valuable insight into just how difficult it is to complete the first of many sets coming to Pokémon TCG Pocket, revealing they opened a whopping 1,741 booster packs on their way to pulling every card in Genetic Apex.

Previous estimates that it would take close to two years to complete the set appear accurate, though this does count the 60 incredibly rare alternate art cards and not just the base 226 cards in Genetic Apex. Weens4Life collected this smaller number after spending about $200, they said, but spent between $500 and $700 collecting just the final three cards from the alternate art pool.

Those going the full free to play route will be waiting a while, however. Pokémon TCG Pocket, with its traditional mobile game model, floods players with packs in the opening days but dries up soon after, granting access to just two packs a day during event lulls.

Genetic Apex will not remain the only set for long either, as developer Creatures Inc. has already confirmed an additional, smaller card drop is coming in December and a datamine has suggested the next full set, presumably with another 200 plus cards of its own, will arrive in January.

Weens4Life used the Wonder Pick feature to gain additional cards towards their collection but, as this only presents a 20% chance of pulling the intended one, it’s not particularly reliable. They finished the collection of 286 total cards after amassing 8,582 in total, a pile which included 129 Slowpoke and nine of the super special rare immersive Mewtwo. Not a single god pack was pulled.

This gargantuan effort didn’t cause any regret for Weens4Life, who said spending this amount was worth it. They made clear they wouldn’t be doing so again in the future, however, and will only focus on the base set of cards without alternates.

Efforts such as these make it unsurprising that Pokémon TCG Pocket is estimated to have made $120 million in just three weeks. A total of 30 million players had downloaded the game after just nine days too.

Creatures Inc. has looked to keep interest high by releasing myriad events catered to different playstyles, though only one focused on player versus player battles is ongoing currently. In this realm, the two usual suspects of Charizard ex and Mewtwo ex are currently dominating the meta, though Pikachu ex isn’t far behind.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has enjoyed a big launch on Steam, becoming one of the most-played games on Valve’s platform on release day.

Ukrainian developer GSC Game World’s post-apocalyptic horror shooter saw a peak concurrent player count of 113,587 on Steam, a number that was enough to place S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in the platform’s top 10 most-played games list. That dwarfs the Steam peak concurrent player count of all the other S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, including 2007’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 also launched on Xbox Series X and S and straight into Game Pass, so its combined peak concurrent player count will be much larger than what we’ve seen on Steam (Microsoft does not make its player numbers public). The expectation is that its player count will continue to grow as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 heads into its first weekend on sale.

It also has a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam, despite suffering from various bugs detailed in IGN’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Review in Progress.

GSC Game World has told fans it plans to address these bugs with a series of patches. “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a massive game,” the developer said. “We understand that in such a game, there may still be rough edges: we literally haven’t released anything of this scale before. We’re absolutely committed to being here, monitoring your feedback, and quickly fixing any issues that need our attention.

“In the first days after release, we’ll be working with hotfixes, rolling them out as precisely as possible, but as frequently as we can. Then, we’ll switch to larger updates that include constant improvements.”

Free in-game content is also coming to the game. Expect more on that when GSC Game World shares its roadmap later in December. “We have big plans for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe,” the developer added. “In a way, today is both a return and the beginning of a grand new journey.”

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has suffered a number of understandable delays, most recently in July when the game was due out in September. GSC Game World said at the time that the extra two months would give the developers the chance to fix “unexpected anomalies,” aka bugs.

GSC Game World has also been vocal about the challenges the studio faced getting S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 up to scratch after a mixed reaction to its debut public showing last year. At gamescom 2023, GSC Game World addressed what some had called a “downgrade” sparked by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s then latest gameplay trailer. At the time, GSC Game World told IGN it was still targeting a visual quality and level of polish suggested by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s eye-catching 2021 trailer despite the horrendous conditions suffered by the staff amid the war with Russia.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Elden Ring, often considered one of the greatest games of all time, is now available for just $19.99 on PS5, PS4, and Xbox as part of the Black Friday sales (or $49.99 for the Shadow of the Erdtree Edition). This offer delivers a massive $40 discount from its original $59.99 price tag, making it one of the standout gaming deals of the season. With this bargain live ahead of Black Friday proper on November 29, it’s an excellent chance to grab the game at a fraction of its launch price.