Author: Game Infliction

Cities: Skylines 2’s huge maps blew me away with their sheer size and scale

Confession time: if you’ve been keeping up to date with Colossal Order’s feature highlight video series for Cities: Skylines 2 over the last couple of months, you’re probably not going to learn a huge amount from my experience of playing it at Gamescom a couple of weeks ago. I spent most of my hour-long demo session steadily working my way through its extensive tutorial, as I have not, in fact, played Cities: Skylines before now – although I can at least confirm that its tutorial is very newbie-friendly, and that I now feel more prepared to give it a go properly when it comes out in full on October 24th.

But the thing that really impressed me was just the sheer scope of its playable spaces. We’ve known since the end of July that its maps are roughly 5x bigger than those in the first game, and when I saw Colossal Order’s Maps & Themes video, I thought, ‘Yes, those sure look enormous!’ But actually seeing them in person really put things into perspective for me, especially when I tried zooming the camera out and it just kept going and going and going and…

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Paradox’s grand strategy Star Trek game releases this October

Paradox have announced that Star Trek: Infinite is coming out on October 12th. Infinite’s previous trailers already made it look like a “Stellaris in a different version of space” affair – which is by no means an unfavourable comparison – and the latest footage shows off more grand strategy shenanigans. Planet management. Lotsa menus. Expanding factions, sometimes peacefully if you prefer a clear conscience.

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Viral Hit Only Up! Pulled From Steam by Creator Due to ‘Stress’

The creator of viral Steam hit Only Up! has pulled the game from the storefront, citing “stress”.

Only Up! is a rock-hard physics-based platformer that went viral in May after high-profile streamers and YouTubers showcased their often futile attempts to make it to the top.

In an update on Steam spotted by PCGamesN, Only Up!’s creator described themselves as a solo developer, and said the unexpected hit was their first experience of video game development.

Only Up! is “a game I did for creativity, to test myself, and where I made a lot of mistakes” they admitted. “The game has kept me under a lot of stress all these months. Now I want to put the game behind me.”

The developer, who published Only Up! on Steam under the name SCKR Games, said they were moving on to their next game, codenamed Kilth.

“What I need now is peace of mind and healing,” they continued. “I plan to take a pause, and continue my education in game design and further with new experience and knowledge to direct my energies to my next game with the working title ‘Kith’ — it will be a new experience and a new concept with realism, a completely different genre and setting, and the emphasis is on cinematography.

“This time I hope the project will be created by a small team. This is a challenging project on which I want to significantly improve my skills in game design.”

This isn’t the first time Only Up! has been pulled from Steam. At the end of June the game was removed from Valve’s platform due to the use of copyrighted assets, but returned a day later with the infringing assets removed.

This appears to have been a recurring problem. In an update dated July 5, the developer said an “anime girl” asset “got into the game by mistake”, but had resolved the issue with the asset’s creator “on friendly terms”.

“Thanks to those who noticed the flaws in the game,” the developer said at the time. “Sometimes novice developers find themselves in such situations, and even official marketplaces for developers can sell kits containing other people’s assets.

“It’s tricky to follow and humble young developers are not safe. But thanks to those authors who are sympathetic and friendly to colleagues.”

Only Up! was also found to have quietly promoted NFTs.

The comments from the creator of Only Up! echo those of Dong Nguyen, creator of 2014 mobile phenomenon Flappy Bird, who pulled the game from the App Store and Google Play. At the time, Nguyen said he felt guilty that Flappy Bird had become “an addictive product”, and that his life had become uncomfortable. “I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a mistake. I have thought it through.”

At the time of publication, Only Up! is unavailable to buy from Steam, although its Steam page remains online. The game’s title was changed to “not available”, and its developer renamed to “
Indiesolodev”. Only Up!’s mostly positive user review rating and near 13,000 user reviews remain online.

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.

Starfield Player Builds Ship Enemies Can’t Hit Because It’s a Giant L

Starfield players have already built ships based on famous craft from across science fiction, but this player did something else entirely — and may have created the most overpowered ship possible.

Redditor Solace_of_the_Thorns worked out enemy ships target your ship’s midpoint, which is calculated by taking the distance the farthest two point on the X, Y, and Z axis intersect. Solace_of_the_Thorns wondered, what would happen if the AI shot at a ship without a midpoint? The answer is the “Fat L”, or the “L-Wing”.

The L-Wing is “effectively immune” to frontal damage, Solace_of_the_Thorns said, because the ship’s midpoint is above and to the left of the ship. That is to say, the L-Wing has an offset midpoint not within the ship, but in… SPACE.

Now, it is possible for the AI to hit the L-Wing if they miss, which is an odd thing to say. Stray shots can hit you, but any on-target shot will miss. “This means that as you get closer to the enemy, they actually miss you more, which makes you monstrously good in a dogfight,” Solace_of_the_Thorns explained.

The main part of the ship is piled high with HABS, Starfield’s habitat modules, and on the side is a long, thin arm that makes it look like an L. It will not win any spaceship beauty contests anytime soon, but if I want to emerge unscathed from a dogfight with high-level enemy pirates, this is one L that’s really a W.

If you’re looking to make your own ship, check out IGN’s Starfield ship guide for some useful tips.

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.

For the love of all things good, do not install Starfield on a hard drive

On today’s installment of Bad Calls I Have Made, I will cop to never really buying the idea of Starfield needing an SSD. Even among its astronomical system requirements, an inflexible demand for solid state storage seemed like a stretch; after all, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart runs mostly fine on a hard drive, and in a previous life that game was employed as a cheerleader for the PS5’s SSD. Starfield would probably just have rubbish load times or texture pop-in or something, and all would be revealed once I could try it on mechanical storage. Which I now have.

So, can you play Starfield on an HDD? No. It’s bloody awful.

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Tech Experts Say Baldur’s Gate 3 on PS5 Is the PC Version at Ultra Settings

Baldur’s Gate 3 launched on PlayStation 5 this week following its PC release in August, and the tech experts at Digital Foundry have delivered their verdict.

According to Digital Foundry, Larian’s sprawling Dungeons & Dragons-themed role-playing game is an impressive port on PS5, and runs at a level equivalent to the PC version on ultra settings, the highest set of options available. As Digital Foundry pointed out, this isn’t typical of most console games.

The PS5 version lets you turn performance mode on or off. Both result in a 1440p resolution. Performance mode targets 60 frames per second and, according to Digital Foundry, for the most part the game hits that.

As is the case with the PC version, in the PS5 version the city of Baldur’s Gate itself causes some issues. Digital Foundry reported a frame-rate in the low 20s at worst here. Larian has said it’s working on performance improvements across the game, as well as specifically for its third act.

Baldur’s Gate 3’s quality mode targets 30fps and, Digital Foundry said, hits that target without any issues except in Act 3, where the frame-rate drops to mid-to-low 20s.

Digital Foundry also took a look at Baldur’s Gate 3 PS5 running in split-screen (split-screen multiplayer in particular has been challenging for Larian, with the studio ultimately having to drop support for the mode on Xbox Series S in order to launch the game on Xbox in 2023). There are understandable cut-backs here, but a relatively stable 30fps except, once again, in Act 3, where the frame-rate drops to the low 20s.

Baldur’s Gate 3 does not currently support crossplay, but in a recent interview Larian confirmed it’s “on the roadmap”. Larian has been working diligently to fix various bugs and performance problems since its release last month, which has kept the studio busy. When crossplay arrives, Baldur’s Gate 3 fans can play co-op across PC and PS5.

We praised Baldur’s Gate 3 in our review, calling it a “landmark moment in the genre.”

“I waited 14 years for the stars to align again so that we could get the ideal mix of crunchy, tactical, old-school RPG combat, an epic and well-written story with complex characters and lots of meaningful choices, and a level of polish and cinematic presentation that let me see the sweat and the sorrow on characters’ faces in their darkest hours,” we wrote.

PlayStation 5 owners just now getting into Larian’s RPG can check out our full Baldur’s Gate 3 walkthrough among other resources.

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.

Microsoft Announces Xbox Digital Broadcast for Tokyo Game Show

Microsoft has announced an Xbox Digital Broadcast for Tokyo Game Show.

The broadcast is set for 2am PT / 5am ET / 10am UK / 6pm JST, and will share progress on games from Xbox and Bethesda, showcase games from creators mainly from Japan and Asia, and make announcements of new games coming to Game Pass.

“Players can expect to hear progress updates from Xbox and Bethesda Softworks and see a creatively diverse collection of games from creators predominantly located in Japan and across Asia,” Xbox chief marketing officer Jerret West said in a post on Xbox Wire.

“We’ll also share exciting new games coming to Xbox Game Pass, which continues to grow with great content from teams all around Asia.”

At Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest 2023, game director Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida welcomed Xbox boss Phil Spencer onto the stage alongside Square Enix boss Takashi Kiryu to celebrate the announcement that Final Fantasy 14 is finally on its way to Xbox consoles after years of PlayStation console exclusivity. And it sounded like Microsoft had ensured even more Square Enix games will end up on Xbox in the coming years. In a subsequent interview with IGN, Spencer suggested more deals are currently being worked on, although he stopped short of announcing Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 16 for Xbox.
Bethesda this week released high-profile space role-playing game Starfield, and overnight announced it has more than six million players. This makes Bethesda’s biggest game launch of all time, beating out the likes of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls.

Announced upcoming Xbox Game Studios games include Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight, The Initiative’s Perfect Dark, inXile’s Clockwork Revolution, Ninja Theory’s Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, Obsidian’s Avowed, Playground’s Fable, Rare’s Everwild, Turn 10’s Forza, and Undead Labs’ State of Decay. Microsoft-owned Mojang runs Minecraft, and Rare operates Sea of Thieves.

On the Bethesda side of things, MachineGames is working on an as-ey untitled Indiana Jones game, which Bethesda boss Todd Howard recently hinted is set for a reveal in 2024. Bethesda also owns Japanese developer behind The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Hi-Fi Rush.

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.

Starfield: Best Traits For Free Stuff and Buffs

Starfield offers you the option to choose three traits to build your character’s identity beyond their background skills. Your playstyle preferences will define what you’ll ultimately want to pick for a background (you can pick up any of the skills that come with the backgrounds later, though some characters will rarely refer to your background in conversations), but since traits can’t be added after you’ve begun your game you’ll want to choose those wisely. Here are our team’s favorites:

  • Kid Stuff – Get free stuff from your parents! Well, you’re technically paying them every week, but there’s no way the amount you give them would add up to the cost of what they give you. The weapons and other items they offer early on are helpful and you can’t get them unless you have this trait. Be sure to visit your parents when they leave a note for you at The Lodge. You’ll only have to pay 500 credits every in-game week to them too, regardless of how rich you get.
  • Dream Home – There are ways to buy apartments in Starfield, but there’s nothing quite like the Dream Home. You won’t be able to get it without this trait. You can learn more about the Dream Home and how to get to it here.

  • Extrovert or Introvert – This is an easy choice for a nice buff if you plan on traveling with a companion or without. Given that you’ll likely need someone with you to serve as a second gun (or let’s be honest, an extra backpack), the Extrovert trait is the better of the two.
  • Freestar Collective Settler Trait, Neon Street Rat Trait, or United Colonies Native Trait – Choosing one of these will give you bonus dialogue options regarding the respective locations and bonuses for the respective faction missions too. It’s also a nice touch for more immersive roleplay.
  • Raised Enlightened, Raised Universal, or Serpent’s Embrace – Like the location affiliations above, the religious affiliations will instead allow you to have different conversation options and rewards for belonging to a group. Enlightened and Universal are the more popular religions in the Settled Systems, but we’ve found Serpent’s Embrace mild O2 and Health buff plus some rather unique and funny conversation options make it the most interesting. Even though Serpent’s Embrace doesn’t offer a chest of free items to start, you will get some items eventually if you play your cards right.

You can read more about our recommendations in our Best Traits and Backgrounds guide. If you decide you don’t like a particular trait, you can find out how to remove the trait during your playthrough here.

Miranda Sanchez is the executive editor of guides at IGN and a member of Podcast Unlocked. She’s a big fan of stationery and fountain pens. You can sometimes find her on Twitter.