Author: Game Infliction

People are modding Armored Cores into Elden Ring, and now I want a Souls game where you play a giant

Among the feats a new player of FromSoftware’s Souls or Souls-adjacent fantasy games must perform is conquering your fear of giants. From the Stray Demons of Dark Souls through Bloodborne’s Cleric Beast to the dragons of Elden Ring, you must learn not to be awed by creatures who look they could kill you with a sneeze. You must learn to run towards that titanic knight with the enormous shield, rolling between its colossal ankles, using its stature against it. You must learn to see past the visual overkill of a swing that would surely fell a skyscraper, registering only the effects on your poise and health bar. It’s a learning curve, for sure, and that makes the modding of mechs from Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon into Elden Ring a little more than the usual act of mischievous fanservice.

Read more

Missed A Tricolor Turf War Stage In Splatoon 3? They’re All Returning For The Next Splatfest

Marking one year of Splatoon 3.

Somehow, it has been almost a whole year since Splatoon 3 was released and Nintendo is gearing up to mark the occasion in the most appropriate fashion — with a Splatfest, of course. To make the upcoming event that bit more special, the weekend’s splatting will not take place in a unique location as usual, but will instead see all eight Tricolor stages from previous Splatfests make a return.

The news was shared in a post on the Nintendo Japan website, before being shared to the website formally known as Twitter in a translated form by @OatmealDome. The full lineup of eight different stages even includes the special Scorch Gorge variant used for the earlier Zelda Splatfest, so this will be the perfect time to see the sights if you missed out on getting to visit the locations previously.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

The Starfield no-planets run: space pirate Mary Read is born

You may have seen that Alice Bee has started a “land on every planet” run of Bethesda’s Starfield. By total coincidence – I promise you it’s accidental, I was so pleased – I’ve been working on a “land on no planets” run of Starfield. The reasoning for this is as follows: people say that outer space is the worst part of the game, because it’s just an irritating interval between the maps where the majority of quests, loot, intrigues, etc are found. It’s a fast travel loading screen you can fly about in. But what if you double-down on the space stuff?

What if you never descend from orbit, not even to repair, modify or upgrade your ship and offload inventory? What if, rather than buying new ships or building them, you progress exclusively by boarding other captains and making off with ship and cargo? How well does Starfield scrub up as a thoroughbred space sim that leans towards bloodthirsty piracy? Here to answer these questions is Mary Read, my custom character and budding astral freebooter. She’s named for her distant ancestor, the legendary 18th century English buccaneer Mary Read. She’s had a crack at life on shore, setting foot most recently on Earth’s Moon, but from this point on, her fate and fortune lies amid the stars. Arrr!

Read more

Sega & Atlus Airing Special Broadcast At The Tokyo Game Show This Month

Update: Here’s the games lineup for TGS 2023.

Update :

Sega and Atlus have now shared a lineup of the games they’ll be showing at TGS 2023. Here’s the full rundown (via Gematsu) which will feature playable demos, trailers, live stream spotlights and more. As a reminder, the special broadcast stream will take place later this month on 21st September.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Nintendo Doesn’t Plan To Announce Mario’s New Voice Actor Ahead Of Wonder’s Release

Doug Bowser reconfirms the reveal will “be within the credits”.

Nintendo has reconfirmed Mario’s new voice actor will be revealed in the credits of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and there won’t be any special announcements happening ahead of this release.

Speaking to IGN at Nintendo Live 2023, Nintendo of America’s president Doug Bowser reiterated how there wouldn’t be any name reveal until the game launched and also mentioned how there would be no formal announcement prior to this. Here’s exactly what he had to say:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Fear Fest 2023’s Black Summer and Horror Game Awards: How to Watch and What to Expect

IGN is proud to partner with Feardemic for Fear Fest 2023, a two-day celebration of horror games that will not only showcase some of the biggest games in the scariest genre that are headed our way this year and next, but will also present the first-ever Horror Game Awards.

All things Fear Fest 2023 will be streamed exclusively on IGN’s YouTube, Twitch, and homepage, and this guide will provide you with everything you need to watch the events, including when they start and what you can expect from the frightful festivities.

Fear Fest 2023 Schedule

Fear Fest 2023 will kick off its two-day event with Black Summer, a showcase hosted by Feardemic and some of the most prolific horror content creators that will give fans a preview of the biggest spooky games headed their way in 2023 and 2024.

Fear Fest’s Black Summer 2023 will take place on Wednesday, September 6, at 11am PT/2pm ET/7pm BST. That translates to Thursday, September 7, at 4am AEST. The show is expected to last roughly five hours and feature approximately fifty games.

Day 2 will bring with it the first-ever Horror Game Awards. The event will celebrate the best games from July 2022 to July 2023 and the incredible developers who brought them to life. The show will be hosted by some of the most famous names in horror.

Fear Fest’s Horror Game Awards will take place on Thursday, September 7, at 11am PT/2pm ET/7pm BST. That translates to Friday, September 8, at 4am AEST. The show is expected to last around 1.5 hours.

Where to Watch Fear Fest 2023

If you’re interested in watching Fear Fest 2023’s Black Summer event and the Horror Game Awards, we’ll be hosting the stream here and on our YouTube and Twitch channels. Here’s the full list of places you can watch all the shows with us:

What to Expect at Fan Fest 2023

As we previously mentioned, Fear Fest 2023 will be headlined by its Black Summer event and the first-ever Horror Game Awards.

Fear Fest’s Black Summer will be a show filled with horror games that will be released in 2023 and 2024, and fans can expect to see about 50 exciting titles throughout the event. In addition to these world premiere trailers, the show will also feature interviews, special industry guests, and some of the most beloved horror content creators from all over the world.

The list of content creators include Sneevil, Walkrman, ItsPeepoHere, LuigiKid, Batkitto, John Wolfe, Otter Lady, 8BitRyan, JazzyGuns, Z0mbyte, Vallarys, MopGarden, and more.

While we don’t know all the games that will appear at Black Summer, Feardemic did tease that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Alan Wake 2, Alone in the Dark, and Slave Zero X will all be part of the show in some capacity.

Fear Fest’s Horror Game Awards will take place the next day and will honor the best games in the horror genre that were released between July 2022 and July 2023. There will be 14 categories that were previously voted on by fans, including Horror Game of the Year, Best Art Direction, Best Peformance, Lifetime Achievement Award, and more. Oh, and the winners will be presented with the prestigious golden bat trophy, and who wouldn’t want that?

As for which games will be competing for the ultimate prize at the Horror Game Awards, they include Amnesia: The Bunker, Bramble, Dead Space Remake, Dredge, Immortality, Faith: The Unholy Trinity, Resident Evil 4, Signalis, System Shock Remake, and The Callisto Protocol.

For more from the world of spooks and scares, check out our list of the 12 best horror games on PC and the winners of our best horror video game face-off.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Space Week Face-Off: Which Game Set in the Stars Above Is the Best?

It may be hard to believe, but Starfield has finally arrived (in early access!). While we are just as excited as you to fly off into the great beyond and make a name for ourselves among the stars, we also think it’s the perfect time to look back at the history of games set in space to decide which game is the best. However, we can’t do this alone and we’re going to need your help.

Do you think Mass Effect 2 deserves the top spot? Or does Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or EVE Online take number one? We’ve selected 93 of the best games where space is integral to the game to “Face-Off” against each other two at a time. The choice is yours…

Oh, and we’ve decided to include Starfield in this Face-Off as we know many of you have already started playing this space epic. If you have yet to start your journey in Bethesda’s latest RPG, feel free to hit “skip” at the bottom of the page! You can also do that for any game you aren’t familiar with!

Click here to start voting in the best space game Face-Off!

What Is a Face-Off?

Like the name suggests, a Face-Off pits two things against one another and you decide which one is the superior of the two. In this case, you are voting to determine what the best game set in space is. It’s possible to see certain games multiple times, so you can keep voting for your favorites to ensure they get ranked higher than the rest. IGN’s resident team of space experts pre-selected 93 games for you to choose from. These get randomly paired up and each time you pick a winner, it’s tracked.

How Is the Winner Determined?

When voting ends on September 8 at 5 pm P.T. where we’ll tally up the total number of “wins” and “losses” each space video game has and create a ranked list based on your choices that will go live on September 9. The game that won the most matchups will be crowned the “winner,” and in the event of a tied number of “wins,” the game with the least “losses” will take the top spot. If you continue to keep voting for your favorite game, they’ll have a better chance of ranking high on the list. You can vote as many times as you want until the Face-Off closes.

How Do I Know When I’ve Clicked Through Everything?

It’s difficult to know when you’ve seen every space video game included because they are matched randomly, and there are many possible match-ups. Playing until you vote for all your favorites or ensuring that certain games don’t get in the winner’s circle are different options you can take with a Face-Off. By deciding the winner throughout all these match-ups, you’re ensuring that your picks for the best space video game will have a fighting chance to reach the top of the list.

Which Space Video Games Have You Included?

The list of space video games has been decided by IGN staff, and we’ve tried to include only those games where space is integral to the game and not just a backdrop. So this means games that we love like Super Metroid or Dead Space don’t quite make the list as they aren’t as much about traveling between planets and experiencing the great beyond. After much discussion, we settled on 93 games, but we’d love to hear if we missed one of your favorites! Let us know in the comments below!

Click here to start voting in the best space game Face-Off!

For more, check out all the details on Space Week @ IGN and our look at why there aren’t more space RPGs like Starfield.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Some of Starfield’s planets are meant to be empty by design – but that’s not boring, Bethesda insists

Bethesda has rallied behind their decision to deliberately include vast planets full of nothing in Starfield, insisting that it’s all by design. The effect is to make the player appreciate the vastness of the galaxy they’re in and experience the loneliness of space, apparently – and it’s not boring, honest.

Read more

Baldur’s Gate 3 Dev Says Aggressively Horny Companions Were a Bug

If you are wondering why Baldur’s Gate 3’s companions were extremely… forward, it turns out it was the result of a bug.

Developer Larian told TheGamer Baldur’s Gate 3 came out with a bug that meant the companions were too horny too soon into the player’s relationship with them.

Explosive wizard Gale is perhaps the most aggressively horny of Baldur’s Gate 3’s companions. He’s very much up for a fun night at camp pretty much as soon as you pull him out of his magic hole. But red hot Tiefling Barbarian Karlach isn’t far behind. She had a burning desire for my half-elf before we’d even exchanged numbers.

Larian boss Swen Vincke told TheGamer the companions’ “approval thresholds” were set too low, which brought forward their interest in sex. “That’s why they were so horny in the beginning,” explained Vincke.

Apparently Larian has fixed this bug for some, but not all the game’s companions, which shows Larian’s intention when it comes to the relationships in the game. Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t supposed to be this horny, basically. It wouldn’t be right in real life, Vincke said. “There were a lot of people that enjoyed it. But it was too fast,” Vincke said. “It was supposed to simulate how real relationships are.” Acting this way in real life would be “problematic”, Vincke added.

In the meantime, if everything’s moving too fast for you, you can always select the dialogue that tells your determined companions to calm down.

If you’re in two minds, IGN has a comprehensive guide to all Baldur’s Gate 3’s sex and romance options. It’ll help you play the field while you play the game, so to speak.

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.