Author: Game Infliction

Just before the upcoming dungeon crawler Dark and Darker was slated to launch a playtest, its team was served a cease and desist letter and a DMCA takedown in March. Now, development team Ironmace is going ahead with another playtest as originally scheduled, albeit via an interesting method.

Today, Ironmace began encouraging people to participate in Dark and Darker’s playtest through torrents made available in a message in the game’s Discord server. The playtest will be available until April 19.

“Rest assured that we are working around the clock to safeguard the continuance of Dark and Darker,” the team’s Discord message, which was reposted on Reddit, reads. “Unfortunately, due to the complexities of our situation, especially across international lines, it is taking time to resolve the Steam situation. In order for us to keep our promise to our fans we’ve had to go old school this time.”

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 and Modern Warfare 2 Season 3 is now out, and it introduces quite a few cosmetics and a new battle pass. However, a few of the update’s paid cosmetics grant players advantages in Warzone’s DMZ mode, and some fans aren’t happy.

On April 12, Activision introduced a new cosmetic bundle to Warzone 2.0. In what Activision referred to as a “DMZ boost,” the game’s new $12 Bomb Squad bundle gives players a skin for Fender, a SAKIN MG38 LMG blueprint, an active duty slot, a sticker, and an emblem.

But, as PC Gamer pointed out, the boosts that this bundle provides in DMZ, the game’s extraction mode, are quite valuable. Players who equip Fender’s skin are given a medium backpack, and the LMG has a cooldown that’s much shorter in comparison to free guns.

Because of the advantage that this paid bundle provides, fans are taking to Twitter to express their disappointment with the game becoming “pay-to-win.”

They added a Pay To Win bundle to DMZ which gives you access to a 4th Operator slot, a PERMANENT Medium Bag when you use the Operator skin in the bundle and a blueprint that has a separate, shorter 15min cooldown.

This is wrong & completely tone deaf.pic.twitter.com/vCgO3aovh4

— Westie (@MrProWestie) April 12, 2023

There has been several bundles added with Season 03 that give players a benefit in DMZ, practically making DMZ a pay to win experience. Activision should absolutely reconsider and stop attempting to grab sales based on P2W mechanics. This is leaning very similar to locking… pic.twitter.com/FLhybnN9X7

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) April 13, 2023

DMZ, Warzone 2.0’s extraction mode, is still in beta, but it seems that Activision might stick with this model going forward — according to a datamine on Reddit, more bundles that provide DMZ advantages could be on their way.

We gave Warzone 2.0 an 8 in our review, calling it “a positive update to Call of Duty’s battle royale mode, even with few drawbacks of its own.” In January, Microsoft announced it was “confident” it could bring Call of Duty to the Nintendo Switch, though Sony has raised concerns about Xbox sabotaging the franchise’s performance on PlayStation.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

Spotify is shutting down Heardle, its musical version of Wordle less than a year after acquiring it.

The music streaming service bought Heardle for an undisclosed amount in July 2022 shortly after it was born out of the Wordle craze. Today, players were shocked to find the following announcement that popped up when logging into the game Friday morning: “Heardle is going away on May 5th.”

The rest of the announcement read, “Thanks for playing Heardle, but unfortunately we have to say goodbye. From May 5th, Heardle will no longer be available. If you have stats that you would like to save, make sure you go to your stats and take a screenshot by May 4th. It won’t be possible to access them after May 4th.”

A Spotify spokesperson confirmed the company is sunsetting the music guessing game in a statement: “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to say goodbye to Heardle as we focus our efforts on other features for music discovery.”

Some fans had some snarky responses to Heardle’s demise, with more than a few feeling that the service had gone downhill since being acquired by Spotify.

Did #Heardle run out of Imagine Dragons songs? pic.twitter.com/XrfXuWkAFA

— Emily (@BallroomPink) April 14, 2023

The end of Heardle

Spotify’s decision to sunset Heardle comes after the company made sweeping changes to the streaming platform in the past month, from TikTok-style discovery feeds for music and podcasts to the AI DJ, which figures out what kind of music subscribers like and plays it for them based on the algorithm. Heardle hasn’t received any updates, and its playerbase declined significantly.

Heardle launched in February 2022, putting a musical twist on the uber-popular Worldle by giving players six attempts to guess the name of the song and the artist that sang it. When Spotify bought the music game last summer, the company said Heardle is seen “as more than a trivia game: It’s also a tool for musical discovery.” In other words, whether players guess the song right or wrong, the answer will show up at the end of the game and allow them to play that song on Spotify and save it to their playlists.

“We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans,” Spotify’s global head of music Jeremy Erlich said at the time. “Heardle has proven to be a really fun way to connect millions of fans with songs they know and love and with new songs … and a way to compete with their friends as to who has the best musical knowledge. Since its debut, the game has quickly built a loyal following, and it aligns with our plans to deepen interactivity across the Spotify ecosystem.”

Spotify won’t lay off any employees as a result of Heardle’s closure.

Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. She has contributed her work to various publications, including Digital Trends, TheGamer, Twinfinite, Mega Visions, and The Escapist. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.

Editor’s Note: The war in Ukraine is an ongoing, painful and emotive topic. IGN urges community members to be respectful when engaging in conversation around this subject and does not endorse harassment of any kind.

With its operations in Russia wound down to the bare minimum, Nintendo still has some obligations to customers in the country who bought Nintendo products before the company left. But according to a recent official statement, Nintendo seems to be looking at a fairly controversial figure to form that partnership.

Questions about Nintendo’s Russian operations began thanks to a report by Russian outlet Kommersant (via Eurogamer), which pointed out the sale of Metroid Prime Remastered in Russia thanks to a company called Achivka. Its appearance on the market was surprising, given that Nintendo wound down operations in the country over a year ago following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including the shutdown of the Russian eshop.

Achivka is owned by Yasha Haddazhi, who also happens to be the head of Nintendo Russia, and a fairly controversial figure even without the side import business. Back in 2018, fans called for Haddazhi’s removal as Nintendo Russia head after footage circulated of him verbally abusing hosts of a Russian Mario Kart stream. Additional Russian language reports suggested further abusive behavior toward employees, especially inappropriate remarks made to women who worked with him, and at the time Nintendo confirmed it was investigating his conduct. While the results of the investigation were never published, Haddazhi clearly remained in his role at least until the shuttering of Nintendo Russia last year.

Nevertheless, Nintendo now appears to be considering an ongoing relationship with him. In a statement to Eurogamer, Nintendo reaffirmed its cessation of Russian operations except for “legal, contractual, and administrative requirements.” Its Russian employees contracts have ended, but Nintendo did not say one way or another whether or not Haddazhi was still in his role.

Blizzard is making a ton of changes to Diablo 4 based on feedback provided by players who participated in its two betas.

Combining this feedback with actual gameplay data allowed Blizzard to review and make changes to Diablo 4 in time for its official launch on June 6.

Minimizing backtracking

The first thing changing is dungeon layouts, with Blizzard saying one of the most common pieces of feedback it received was around backtracking within certain dungeons. Multiple dungeons have since been optimized to reduce this, including Caldera Gate, Defilied Catacombs, Derelict Lodge, Forbidden City, Hoarfrost Demise, Immortal Emanation, Kor Dragan Battacks, Maulwood, and Rimescar Caverns.

“Our primary goal with the layout changes was to reduce certain kinds of backtracking which detract from a player’s experience,” Blizzard said. Structure objectives that previously existed down side paths have now been repositioned to the main area, for example.

Dungeon events will also occur much more frequently in the final version, as Blizzard has increased the chance for an event to spawn in dungeons from 10% to 60%. Quality of life improvements were made too, such as removing the wait time when depositing an Animus, increasing movement speed when carrying Ancient Statues and equivalent items, and adding a mini-map ping to newly open doors.

“While our dungeons offer a variety of objectives to complete, player feedback stated that the action of completing each objective felt tedious,” Blizzard said. “We hope that providing bonuses, such as the increase to mobility while carrying certain objective items, will streamline and vary the experience of completing objectives. This adjustment is merely a starting point, and we intend to extend this philosophy to keys in a future update.”

Cellars have seen similar changes, as Blizzard has increase the chance for a dungeon event to occur in Cellars. They also now consistently reward players with a chest upon completion. Issues have also been fixed where Cellars would prematurely be marked as completed and the guaranteed elite monster would be absent from the Cellar.

Classes are also changing

Changes have been made to classes too. The Barbarian has received a passive 10% damage reduction, its Whirlwind skill now deals more damage and costs more Fury, and the Double Swing enhancement refunds its full Firy cost when used on Stunned or Knocked Down enemies.

The Druid’s Companion skills will now deal heavily increased damage, all Ultimate skills have had their cooldowns reduced, the usability of Maul and Pulverize has been improved, and using a non-Shapeshifting skill will now transform a Druid back to their human form.

The Necromancer’s summoned minions will die more often, meaning players will need to utilize corpses more often. Meanwhile, many Book of the Dead stat bonuses have been increased, the Corpse Explosion skill has had its damage reduced, and the brightness of Skeletal Warriors and Mages has been lowered.

The Rogue’s Subterfuge skill have had their bonuses increased alongside multiple passive skills, while all Imbuement skills have had their cooldowns increased.

Finally, the Sorcerer’s Charged Bolt’s damage has been increased and the mana cost reduced, Chain Lightning’s damage has been reduced, and the cooldown of the Incinerate skill’s enchantment bonus has been reduced. Firewalls will also now spawn underneath enemies more frequently when using its enchantment bonus and the Lucky Hit chance has been increased for the Meteor skill’s enchantment bonus.

“Whenever we introduce changes to our Classes, it is with the goal of making both them and their Skills feel impactful and powerful,” Blizzard said. “Your feedback has helped us uphold this ideal.

“Some players have adeptly noticed that certain Skills were too powerful. One of our goals for Skills is to have them be interesting to wield and interactive in terms of itemization and combat feel. We’ve made some changes to help in this regard, with one example being the Necromancer’s Minions. We’ve made a change that makes them more vulnerable in combat, which will make raising the dead a more active component of the Necromancer’s gameplay. Launch is just the first step of our class balance journey, and you can expect further updates that iterate on this pillar of Diablo 4.”

A better quality of life.

Blizzard is making further quality of life changes alongside fixing a ton of known issues in Diablo 4 like the Butcher boss becoming unresponsive. A lot of these changes are coming to the game’s user interface, as Blizzard is shifting things around to allow for a better experience.

This starts with the Chat box now being displayed on the left side of the screen when using the centred action bar configuration. A character’s stats will also now be displayed by default when players click the Materials and Stats button within their inventory, while the Move and Interact inputs can now be mapped to one button while the Primary Attack input is mapped to a secondary button. Finally, the text is being changed to a new serif font.

Blizzard will discuss these changes and more in a developer update livestream taking place on April 20 at 11am Pacific / 2pm Eastern / 7pm UK. Game director Joe Shely, associate game director Joseph Piepiora, and associate director of community Adam Fletcher will also share details about the endgame.

The betas, that were a struggle to even join for some people for both KFC and queue time related issues, saw the Sorcerer and Necromancer classes played most, though a total of 46,924,644 deaths were recorded in total in more than 60 million hours played.

Despite all the talk of launch, Blizzard also shared recently that Diablo 4’s Battle Pass will take around 80 hours to complete.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.