Author: Game Infliction

Reality Bytes: The Star Wars VRoliday Special

Of the various corporatised fictional universes out there, Star Wars is the one I’m most emotionally invested in. But my affection for George Lucas’ brain-baby is less about the stories and characters, and more about the general vibe of the galaxy itself. I love its retro-futurist junkpunk style, the rusty spaceships, dusty planets, and fusty aliens. That’s why I’ve more fondness for games like Dark Forces and KotOR than any of the films or TV shows, as they let me poke around locations like Tatooine and Ord Mantell at my own pace.

Hence, the idea of being properly, immerse in Star Wars, to be physically surrounded by it and able to touch it, is probably my ultimate VR fantasy. Sod the imaginatively inert virtual spaces of Horizon Worlds, if Mark Zuckerberg really wanted to sell the Metaverse to me, he’d build the whole thing out in Mos Eisely chic, and let me run my own virtual cantina selling NFT space-drinks to legless bounty hunters and idiot Web3 prospectors.

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Platinum Games have added a free side-scrolling mode to The Wonderful 101

Ten years after its initial release – and about three years after it came to PC – former Wii U exclusive The Wonderful 101: Remastered is getting some much deserved love. Platinum Games bought their mini superhero game to PC through crowdfunding, where backers blew past several stretch goals including one that promised a future DLC drop. Today, the game received its first bit of free new content in the form of a side-scrolling shoot ‘em up called The Wonderful One: After School Hero.

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Super Mario Game Boy Advance Games Are Coming to Nintendo Switch Online

Nintendo has announced that the first three Super Mario Advance games will be added to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack catalogue later this month.

Super Mario Advance, Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, and Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 will all be available to download from May 26 at no extra cost for players subscribed to the $49.99/year Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, which provides access to games from Nintendo’s retro eras.

Super Mario Advance is an upgraded version of the 1988 NES platformer Super Mario Bros. 2, in which you control of Mario, Luigi Peach and Toad and master their disticnt abilities. The game is bundled with an enhanced version of the classic Mario Bros. game, which saw the iconic plumber’s first arcade appearance with Luigi.

Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 meanwhile is a Game Boy Advance revamp of a SNES classic, Super Mario World, and sees Mario fight against Bowser to free dinosaur island with the aid of Yoshi. Players also have the option of playing the entire adventure as Luigi, who weilds abilities taken from the first Super Mario Advance title.

Finally Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 asks players to take control of Yoshi as he journeys through colorful worlds in an attempt to save Baby Mario from the clutches of the evil Magikoopa Kamek.

The trio will join the growing collection of plumber-centric platformers and adventure games such as Super Mario 64, Paper Mario, and Dr. Mario that are already part of Nintendo’s deluxe catalogue subscription offering.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

HROT review: serviceable Soviet shooter saved by scintillating level design

“Does that pommel horse have a grenade launcher?” is one of many bizarre questions I found myself asking while playing HROT. This Slavic shooter revels in the strange, straddling the line between hyper-bleak Soviet satire and goofy memetic joke factory. This isn’t the best thing about HROT, we’ll get to that in a couple of paragraphs. But the balancing of these two personality strands is what defines HROT’s quality. At the outset, they exist in perfect symbiosis, but the relationship becomes less stable as the game goes on.

The year is 1986, and something is seriously wrong in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. What that might be isn’t explicitly stated, but given the year, the ambient chatter of Geiger counters, and the soldiers vomiting through their gasmasks as they prowl the abandoned streets, a nuclear disaster at an infamous Ukrainian power plant isn’t a vast stretch of the imagination. In any case, anyone who wasn’t killed by the fallout is now being hunted by an army of (presumably Russian, but again, it isn’t explicated) soldiers. Emerging from a bomb shelter beneath Prague’s Kosmonautů Metro Station (now named Háje), you take it upon yourself to defend your glorious homeland from these invaders.

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Hypnospace Outlaw’s throwback shooter spin-off comes out next month on Game Pass

Take a deep breath! Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance Of The Slayer is releasing on June 1st with a simultaneous Game Pass drop. It’s an old-school shooter set in the same retro-futuristic universe as Hypnospace Outlaw, but this time the focus is on fan-favourite character Zane Lofton, who actually “made” Slayers X in the fiction of the game.

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The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom owes more to Garry’s Mod than you might expect

I’ve been playing a lot of The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom this week. It’s good. Really good. I know you’ve all been waiting for your favourite PC gaming-focused website to offer their take on it so there you go. It’s properly, properly good. The best open-world adventure since Elden Ring, except arguably better because it doesn’t pull your trousers down and point out the colour of your underwear every time you dare to explore a forest or watch a sunset.

As you’ve probably seen, the game’s biggest new draw is “Ultrahand”, which allows Link to pick up loose objects and glue them together. Three logs make a raft. A plank and four wheels make a car. Two stones and a log make a… Ahem. You get the idea. In addition to this are “Zonai Devices”, components that give life and movement to your doohickeys. A fan pushes your raft across the lake. A steering stick lets you manoeuvre your little car. It’s a marvellous construction system that leverages the pre-existing physics engine seen in the game’s predecessor, Breath Of The Wild, to startling results. Does this all sound familiar?

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Co-op horror The Outlast Trials is out now in early access

Co-op horror prequel The Outlast Trials is out now in early access. Playing under-the-bed peekaboo with brainwashed killers can be an overwhelming ordeal, so now you can drag along a friend and spread out the trauma. This time, those snotty shakycam Blair Witch-type chases are set in a Cold War-era facility where you’ll be put through some gruelling experiments. The early access launch trailer below lays out some of the titular trials you can expect.

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The Wonderful 101: Remastered’s Free Stretch-Goal DLC Is Available Now

Download Part One now.

PlatinumGames has today announced that some brand new DLC for 2020’s The Wonderful 101: Remastered is finally available to download. What’s more, this new content — originally promised as a stretch goal via the game’s Kickstarter campaign — is completely free.

Part One of the DLC is available to download today and the story will continue next week as the second part releases on 26th May.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

UK Daily Deal: Here’s How to Get Tears of the Kingdom for Just £45

We’re back with another amazing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom deal for Nintendo Switch. This time the deal comes at Currys, where you can get the game for £44.99 when using code SAVE5 at checkout. This is a great deal, and overall saving you £15 compared to the original list price on the game. If you’re not interested in Currys, you can also pick up the game for £44.99 when buying from Argos and using this £5 off promo for signing up for their marketing emails. If you’re looking to get the game a little faster, we’ve also left links below to buy the game from Amazon for £49.99.

TL;DR – Best UK Deals Right Now

Click here to skip past all Tears of the Kingdom deals and preorders.

Other deals today include a huge discount on PlayStation Top-Card cards, £30 off Apple AirPods Pro, the best Ninja Air Fryer with a £50 discount, alongside the new Tears of the Kingdom Collector’s Edition guide, with preorders now available for £29.99 as well (or there’s the paperback edition for £19.99), the release date is June 16. Otherwise, check out all the discounts below with our handy links, and follow @IGNUKDeals on Twitter for more updates.

UK Deals – The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

Best Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Deals in the UK

If you didn’t secure a preorder and were waiting for reviews (we gave it a 10/10 Masterpiece in our review), then look no further as we’ve already found you an awesome deal to check out (with a fast delivery or pickup time as well). It’s just £44.99 at Currys with code SAVE5, and you also get up to 3 months of Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+ and Apple Fitness+ for free!

Preorder Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Guide Collector’s Edition

While I’m here, quick shout out to IGN’s Tears of the Kingdom Wiki guide, it is legit incredible and the team has knocked it out of the park with this one. If you’re looking for a physical guide, which will likely end up being more of a collectable by the time it releases on June 16, you’ve got a couple of options right now. The Collector’s Edition is beautiful and can be preordered at £29.99 from Amazon, while the standard paperback edition is £19.99. Both are out on June 16, and can be preordered using the links just below.

Rare Zelda Amiibo Back in Stock at My Nintendo Store

Not only are there a bunch of Zelda amiibo back available in the UK and Ireland, but there are a ton of incredibly rare figures now back down to just £12.99. This includes some fan favourites from Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Majora’s Mask and more. As some of these have been out of print for years, they were typically going for £20-£50 or more on re-sell sites like eBay.

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IGN’s Top Rated PS5 SSD Is Now Just £75

When new games like Star Wars Jedi Survivor are starting to take up around 150GB of your SSD, it might be wise to consider an expansion. If you haven’t gotten around to expanding your PS5 storage just yet, then you’re in luck, as this is an excellent price on the highly recommended Corsair MP600 PRO LPX. Down to just £74.99, this is IGN’s top rated PS5 SSD, and you’re getting it at an absolutely exceptional price!

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Latest UK Random Deals: My Top Picks Right Now

It’s a roll of the dice. These are my absolute favourite deals that are available right now, but don’t necessarily fit anywhere else, making them a little bit more random compared to everything else in Daily Deals.

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Save Big on PS5 Digital Purchases with These Discounted Gift Cards

UK online retailer ShopTo has currently got a brilliant selection of PlayStation Gift Cards at discounted prices; for example a £45 for £36.85, or the £84 card for £69.85. In fact, both of these cards have some of the highest saving percentages vs their list price. You’re getting an 18.11% saving on the £45 card, and a 16.85% saving on the £84 card.

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Preorder Mortal Kombat 1 for £49.85 at Hit

Mortal Kombat 1 is the new MK game, and is set to release on September 19, 2023. Hit has its preorders live already, and you can preorder the new game for just £49.85, £10 off the RRP list price. Hit also doesn’t charge until release, so you can preorder now and pay nothing until September.

Free Stuff This Week in the UK: Metro Last Light and Death Stranding

The latest freebie we’re looking to highlight is Metro Last Light – Complete Edition on PC. You’ll be able to claim a free copy of the game from May 18-25 on Steam. This is a fantastic offer (on a fantastic game), and well worth picking up, especially as it won’t cost you a penny. Death Stranding is also free on Epic at the moment, and you’ve got until May 25 as well to claim it.

More Free Stuff

This Keeper Password Manager Deal is Essential in 2023 (AD)

With Keeper, you can store all of your passwords, credit card info, and other sensitive data in one secure, encrypted digital vault. Plus, they use top-notch encryption technology to keep your stuff safe and have added bonus features like password generation, password sharing, and two-factor authentication.

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Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.