One of the biggest surprises to come out of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was an entirely new area of the map. Not only can you can explore the skies above Hyrule, you can also dive down into The Depths below and traverse an equally enormous area.
Similar to the shrines located across Hyrule above, The Depths has a series of fast travel points you can activate throughout the darkness called Lightroots. Every Lightroot is directly below a shrine above, meaning you can find them based on the shrine locations or vice versa.
How Many Lightroots are There?
There are a total of 120 Lightroots located in The Depths, which directly correlates with all 120 shrines located on the surface of Hyrule. Not only are all of the Lightroots directly below the shrines, the names of each one are actually the same name of the shrine above, but backwards.
A cool secret about the Hyrule map: Every Shrine in Tears of the Kingdom has a corresponding Lightroot. ? pic.twitter.com/FzFwFFNV2Y
How to Find All Lightroot Locations in Tears of the Kingdom
Because the Lightroots are directly beneath the shrines across Hyrule, the easiest way to pinpoint their locations is to mark the shrine points on the map above and make your way toward them below. Alternatively, if there are any Lightroots you’ve found in The Depths that sit below an undiscovered shrine, you can do the same to find the shrine quest above. Take a look at our guide to all of the shrine locations in Tears of the Kingdom to find the ones you’ve missed.
Use Our Interactive Tears of the Kingdom Map
If you haven’t already found all of the shrines on the surface of Hyrule, you can also take advantage of our interactive Tears of the Kingdom map to guide you to every location. Whether you’re trying to figure out where to go in The Depths or are hoping to find all of the shrines on the surface and sky, our map has you covered — including all Lightroot locations.
Remedy Entertainment revealed that Alan Wake 2 will be a digital only release across all platforms.
In a frequently asked questions page on the Alan Wake website, Remedy explained, “There are many reasons for this. For one, a large number of have shifted to digital only. You can buy a Sony PlayStation 5 without a disc drive and Microsoft’s Xbox Series S is a digital only console. It is not uncommon to release modern games as digital-only.”
Remedy continued by saying that not releasing a disc helps keep the price of the game at $60 on console and $50 on PC. The studio didn’t want to want to ship a disc and have it require a download for the game either as it wouldn’t be a great experience. There are also currently no plans to produce a physical copy of Alan Wake.
Alan Wake 2 FAQ. The game is digital only due to a large number of people shifting to digital only and helps keep the price at $59.99/$49.99. They also do not want to ship a disc that requires a download https://t.co/bCWQToOlLTpic.twitter.com/RX54tqfoE3
Since the standard version of the game is kept at a lower price point, the digital Deluxe edition will cost $70. It includes the expansion pass containing the Night Springs Expansion and Lake House Expansion, a parliament shotgun skin and celebrity suit for Alan, as well as a nordic shotgun skin, crimson windbreaker, and lantern charm for Saga.
Those who preorder the game wll receive the ornate revolver skin for Alan and survival resources pack for Saga.
It’s interesting to see some publishers refuse to increase their prices on new releases, as others like Nintendo and Microsoft did with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Redfall, respectively. However, those two games also were available in physical discs.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 3 remake won’t just be for PlayStation 5. Following today’s PlayStation Showcase stream, Konami put out a press release that also confirmed that the new project — titled Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater — will also be coming to Xbox consoles and PC.
This is big news for Xbox and PC fans, not the least because Metal Gear Solid has historically had strong ties to Sony. Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater was initially confirmed for PlayStation 5 during today’s PlayStation Showcase, with confirmation that it would be coming to other platforms revealed later.
First revealed in a CG trailer during the PlayStation Showcase, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (pronounced “Metal Gear Solid Delta”) is the first proper Metal Gear Solid game since Hideo Kojima departed Konami following the release of Metal Gear Solid 5. Konami has since released a handful of in-game screenshots revealing the in-game graphics.
There is precedent for Metal Gear Solid being on Steam — Metal Gear Solid 5 released on the platform alongside console back in 2015. Fans used the opportunity to make numerous mods, such as replacing Snake with Keanu Reeves.
Whatever platform it’s experienced on, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater promises to be a faithful retelling of the original game, including implementing the original voice acting featuring David Hayter.
That’s a wrap! Today’s PlayStation Showcase delivered tantalizing first looks at all-new games in development and updates on upcoming titles by PlayStation Studios and our third party friends. With the show running over an hour and over thirty titles being revealed, there was a lot to absorb. If you want to relive the Showcase, you can rewatch it below.
If you want to know more about some of the games shown today, read on. Alongside recaps of individual reveals, there’s additional info plus exclusive screenshots from the creators behind the games in a selection of PlayStation Blog articles. All are linked below.
PlayStation Showcase: PlayStation Studios & third-party publisher announcements
Take a sneak peak at new accessories revealed at today’s Showcase — the Project Q device for playing games installed on your PS5 and streamed over WiFi, plus our first official wireless earbuds offering lossless audio on PS5 and PC. More details to come in the months ahead.
We also announced Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, which is coming to PS5. Check out the first trailer below:
Bungie officially announced its first completely new project in more than a decade: Marathon, a sci-fi PvP extraction shooter. The studio behind Halo and Destiny debuted the very first CGI teaser trailer for the game, featuring a look at the player characters – cybernetic mercenaries known as Runners. Take a look:
Staying with Bungie, the studio showed off the first glimpse of its next expansion, Destiny 2: The Final Shape, which will serve as the epic conclusion of the decade-long Light and Darkness Saga. A brief teaser trailer was shown, culminating in a surprise cameo from popular character Cayde-6, the Hunter Vanguard who met his match during the events of Destiny 2: Forsaken in 2018. Cayde will be played by actor Nathan Fillion, who Bungie announced is reprising the role. Destiny fans will have their next chance to learn more about The Final Shape expansion during the upcoming Destiny 2 Showcase, a livestreamed event which will be broadcast on August 22 on Bungie channels.
Street Fighter 6 is just over a week away. To celebrate, Capcom shared a new World Tour-focused trailer:
Alongside these new trailer debuts, we had big news from other developers:
Alan Wake 2 would arrive in October, said a voice actor earlier this week. They were not wrong. Developers Remedy confirmed the news via a lengthy new trailer shown during tonight’s PlayStation Showcase, and embedded below.
Even though the trailer for Konami’s remake of Metal Gear Solid 3 is just over two minutes long, it’s packed with easter eggs and nods to the original game if you look hard enough. Some of them may be blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments, but don’t worry! We’re here to help you spot them all. These are the 11 details you may have missed when watching the trailer.
Shagohod Incoming
One of the coolest details was just under a minute into the trailer, when the green parrot (more on that later) is swooping above the canopy of the forest, a dead frog in its claws. But it’s what’s in the distance that’s interesting, because when lightning lights up the sky it’s possible to make out the shape of the Shagohod being airlifted by several Mil Mi-24 Hind Helicopters. This is a direct reference to what happens in the game, as Volgin readies the Shagohod to take over the USSR. While it’s too far away to see it in detail in the trailer, we’ll definitely be getting much more up close and personal with it in the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake.
Friend of The End
The green parrot that has more air time in the trailer than Snake himself has to be the feathered-friend of ancient sniper The End. Anyone who played Snake Eater will remember how the parrot acted as The End’s spotter, waking him when Snake approaches.
Some days you just have to feed on a tree frog. The parrot appears to agree, clutching a tree frog which it carries through the dark sky before landing on a floating log in the middle of a lake. Moments later, a huge snake bursts from the water and snaps at the parrot, which narrowly escapes, minus a few feathers.
Crocodile Rock
Just as the snake pounces on the parrot, it is attacked by an Indian Gavial, which if you remember can be captured and eaten in Metal Gear Solid 3. It’s hard to make out in the trailer, but a screenshot released alongside the announcement gives us a better look at the croc and its pointy snout. It’s also the basis for one of the most amusing cosmetics in the game, the Crocodile Cap, which when worn in the water can trick enemies into thinking you’re a deadly animal, instead of just the world’s deadliest man.
Here Comes The Fear
Going back to the bosses of Metal Gear Solid 3, there’s a dead Poison Dart Frog early on in the trailer, which can be found in game and actually help you in a fight against The Fear — a member of the Boss’ Cobra Unit, who poisons Snake with a venom-coated crossbow bolt.
During the battle Snake is able to drop poisoned (or rotten) food like the Dart Frog, which The Fear will eat if he runs low on stamina. This in turn poisons him, which makes him vomit moments later, seriously depleting his stamina further still.
The Food Chain
The entire trailer is one extended sequence of the food cycle. Small ants eat into a frog, which then gets picked up by a bird, which then gets attacked by a large snake, which then gets into a fight with a big crocodile. All of it leads to a reveal of the pointy top of the food chain, Naked Snake.
The visualization of the food chain in the wilds of nature is a recurring motif in the Metal Gear series, something we saw in Metal Gear Solid 4 as a snake is seen eating a guinea pig in the opening of Act 2. Metal Gear Solid 3 also made this metaphor a gameplay feature as Snake is forced to hunt and cook his own food while in the wilds of Tselinoyarsk.
Attack of the Giant Ants
Digging a little deeper into the different animals on the screen, however, you’ll find that each creature is a nod to something from the original Metal Gear Solid 3. For example, the first animal is a line of ants marching toward their food.
If you listened to every codec conversation in the original Metal Gear 3, you might remember hearing movie-buff Para-Medic talk about the movie “Them”, which features ants “so big they filled up the entire screen. The whole movie theater was screaming.”
Death From Above
As the camera zooms through mangroves and pans in on Snake, the light shines through the trees in a way that is reminiscent of Ponizovje South, one of the coolest areas in Metal Gear Solid 3. Set along a winding river, Snake must ford a river while avoiding GRU soldiers buzzing through the skies on flying platforms. He can do this by ducking under the water’s surface or eventually finding rocks and boats to hide behind. Wading through the river and its trees was a highlight of Metal Gear Solid 3’s level design and represented creator Hideo Kojima’s vision of wanting the player to feel like they were traversing a real forest.
Fenced In
The river and the trees from Ponizovje South is just one of the familiar locations in the trailer. Earlier, the Green Parrot flies through an electrified fence, similar to the ones that guard Bolshaya Past South area. While the teaser is purely cinematic, it’s a good indication of what real areas in the game could look like in this remake.
The four screenshots that accompanied the trailer give us a better look at the areas of the game, including one where a backpack is hanging from a tree – which most will remember from the beginning of the original game, when Snake has to retrieve his belongings after halo jumping behind enemy lines.
Tiger Stripes
Even though it’s dark and Snake is caked in mud, you can just about make out the uniform he’s wearing, which is the tiger stripe camo you begin the game with. Of course, one of Metal Gear Solid 3’s most interesting features was the ability to unlock and switch camos to suit your environment, or wear totally inappropriate attire like the tuxedo, and we hope everything makes it into the remake.
Delta Force
The title for the remake won’t be Metal Gear Solid 3, however. Konami is calling it Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.
It’s unclear exactly why Konami chose to subtitle the remake with Delta. It’s the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, which doesn’t make much sense as it’s a remake of the third game in the Metal Gear Solid line, and the fifth game overall in the Metal Gear franchise.
The title could be a reference to the United States Delta Force, a counter-terrorism unit famous for its covert enemy operations, which lines up nicely with the plot of the game, but also applies to all of the games in the series. Finally, Metal Gear character Roy Campbell famously is a former Delta Force member but he does not appear in MGS 3.
Hopefully, Konami explains the reasoning behind the new subtitle, but even if it’s just there to sound cool, that’s part of the Metal Gear ethos too, so it works.
Oh, and one other cool detail about the delta logo – when it disperses the leaves turn white and then red, which is a nod to the final battle in the game.
Snake Eater
The teaser ends with a brief snippet of Metal Gear Solid 3’s famous theme ‘Snake Eater,’ originally performed by Cynthia Harrell. We’ll have to hear the full thing to make a judgment call, but the theme does sound remastered. It’s potentially a new version of the song recorded for the remake. This was something that was teased earlier this year when Donna Burke posted a photo of herself holding a folder titled ‘Snake Eater.’ Burke, it should be said, is a singer who has done numerous songs for the Metal Gear series, including ‘Heavens Divide’ from Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker ‘Sins of the Father’ from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Did you spot any other references in the trailer? Let us know in the comments below.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Ghostrunner 2 is on the way, and its protagonist now has his very own ninja motorcycle.
The sequel to One More Level’s action-platformer was shown for the first time during today’s PlayStation Showcase, with vehicular combat prominently featured. The official release claims that it will “up the ante from the original in every conceivable way” as Jack explores the wasteland beyond the Dharma Tower.
In addition to the gameplay reveal, 505 Games also released numerous screenshots, which you can see below.
Originally released in late 2020, the first Ghostrunner turned heads with its neon-drenched visuals and fast-paced action. Our review called it a short-lived but memorable action game that was a “speedrunner’s dream.”
Ghostrunner 2 will attempt to expand on that formula with its new vehicular combat and other features. It will be available later in 2023.
Ghostrunner’s mix of wall-running and ninja-slashing made enough of a splash to warrant a sequel. Ghostrunner 2 was first teased two years ago, but tonight’s PlayStation Showcase gave us our first proper look at the follow-up. It has all the slicing, dodging, and parkour that you would expect from a sequel about a cyberpunk ninja, but this time some speedy vehicles join the party too.
Blizzard has just made a major change to how World of Warcraft Classic: Wrath of the Lich King’s economy works, and the community is completely furious. Yesterday, it introduced WoW Tokens into Wrath Classic.
On its face, the announcement looks relatively innocuous:
“The WoW Token is now available in Wrath of the Lich King Classic,” it reads. “This in-game item is a great way to exchange gold for game time in a convenient and secure way.”
Blizzard first introduced the WoW Token to World of Warcraft retail back in 2015, during the Warlords of Draenor expansion. Here’s how it works: players can buy a WoW Token with real money, and then sell the WoW Token in World of Warcraft to other players for in-game gold, effectively allowing them to “buy gold” in a legitimate and authorized way. Players who purchase WoW Tokens with their in-game gold can then exchange a token for a month of game time, effectively letting them spend in-game gold to avoid paying a regular subscription fee with real money.
The idea at the time was to curb illegal gold farming operations by offering a legitimate way for players to sell in-game gold, while also letting those who had time to play but were low on real-world funds continue spending time in WoW. While the move was somewhat controversial within the community at the time, and it was never fully able to stop the illegal gold selling economy. Plus, there was a significant upheaval of the system again in 2017 when Blizzard started letting players exchange WoW Tokens for Battle.net balance, temporarily throwing the in-game economy into chaos.
Not So Classic After All
WoW Tokens did eventually become a normal and accepted part of World of Warcraft’s economy and community, and the economy stabilized around them. But now, with their introduction into World of Warcraft Classic: Wrath of the Lich King, the community seems even more torn over the issue than when the token was first introduced.
While WoW Tokens in Wrath of the Lich King Classic work exactly the same as they do in the retail version, there are a few key differences that have the Classic community in turmoil.
For one, Blizzard neither hinted nor otherwise communicated that this change was coming — many players have expressed feeling blindsided by the news and are angry that the in-game economy is going through such a significant upheaval without warning.
But the bigger issue is that many players feel the “integrity” of World of Warcraft Classic is being thrown aside for a quick cash-grab on Blizzard’s part. Blizzard gets a cut of every WoW Token purchase, so adding the tokens to Wrath Classic is a pretty obvious additional revenue source for the developer. But the original Wrath of the Lich King expansion, released in 2008, didn’t have WoW Tokens. And while Blizzard has made some changes to how the expansion works for its Classic release, up until now its most significant shifts were largely quality of life adjustments that the playerbase (largely) was fine with. But it doesn’t seem like many people asked for WoW Tokens.
Wow – in response to the token added to Wrath Classic, the mods of /r/classicwow are now condoning the promotion & use of unofficial private servers: pic.twitter.com/mYvLJCAsLi
The frustration is so palpable that yesterday, the official World of Warcraft Classic subreddit “officially suspended” its rule prohibiting discussion of private servers and cheats for older versions of the game, resulting in a wave of advertisements for alternative playing methods. It’s a bit ironic, given that World of Warcraft Classic originally started as Blizzard’s answer to players creating private servers because the original version of WoW was unavailable in an official capacity.
All that said, not everyone is angry about the tokens. Some people within the community are pointing out that World of Warcraft Classic has had a severe botting problem for some time now, and given that bots tend to be associated with gold farming, this is a logical way to reduce that issue. They also point out that if gold farms were so successful as to need curbing, people who play the game were clearly buying enough gold to warrant them in the first place. Those who are angry, however, have countered that Blizzard didn’t appear to be doing enough to address the major botting problems prior to this, and feel frustrated that seemingly the developer’s first resort was to introduce monetization, rather than using other methods.
While previous upheavals around WoW Tokens have eventually settled, the issues with this specific rendition of it seem poised to change the Classic community for the long haul, though it remains to be seen exactly how. We’ve reached out to Blizzard for comment on the issue and will update if we get a response.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
Tonight is Sony’s PlayStation Showcase stream, an event that promises to have plenty of cool news and announcements as only a big, early NotE3 presentation can. While I’m sure the majority of tonight’s announcements won’t have an immediate and direct impact on us over in PC town, it’s well known that Sony have been stepping up their PC game recently, and so a lot of what you see here will probably make the jump eventually, even if it’s several years down the line. So come and join us for an early glimpse of PC’s possible future. I’ll be liveblogging tonight’s proceedings, which kick off at 9pm BST / 1pm PDT. See you there!
