Author: Game Infliction

Star Wars Outlaws Season Pass Roadmap Revealed Along With Two Story Packs

Star Wars Outlaws is out later this month, and Ubisoft has revealed the road map for those who buy the season pass.

In a blog post, Ubisoft confirmed that the Star Wars Outlaws season pass will include content divided into three release windows. On launch day, season pass owners will gain access to a character pack and the previously confirmed Jabba’s Gambit exclusive mission. Star Wars Outlaws’ season pass previously received controversy earlier this year when Ubisoft revealed that it was locking the Jabba above’s Gambit mission behind the Season Pass. However, Ubisoft insisted that Jabba the Hutt will be available to all players, not just season pass holders.

More interestingly, Ubisoft confirmed that two DLC story expansions will be released in Fall 2024 and Spring 2025, respectively. The first story pack subtitled Wild Card, will see Outlaw’s protagonist Kay “hired to infiltrate a high-stakes Sabacc tournament.” This story DLC pack will also see Kay cross paths with Star Wars character Lando Calrissian.

The second story, DLC, subtitled A Pirate’s Fortune, will have Kay running into an experienced pirate named Hondo Ohnaka, who Ubisoft described as someone “looking to settle old scores with a ruthless gang of pirates.”

In our final hands-on preview with Star Wars Outlaws, my colleague Ryan McCaffrey wrote: “Open-world games tend to be jacks-of-all-trades, masters-of-none, and while I’m not sure Outlaws will master any of its gameplay components, it nonetheless not only does them all very well, but it does so with a convincing Star Wars sheen.”

Star Wars Outlaws is out on August 27 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. For more, check out our IGN First coverage from last June, which includes 10 minutes of exclusive gameplay and our piece on how Ubisoft created a brand new canon world for Star Wars: Outlaws.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Feature: The Next Splatfest May Decide Splatoon 4’s Future, So We Make A Case For Every Team

Are you a Deep Cut, Off The Hook, or Squid Sisters fan?

Debates over the best Splatoon idol group are dime-a-dozen but never have the stakes been higher than in Splatoon 3‘s upcoming second anniversary celebration: Grand Festival.

Starting on September 13th and ending on 16th of the same month (or 12th to 15th, depending on your region), this three-day event is not only a Splatfest that pits each group’s fans against one another but it’s also a music festival where the pop stars don fresh ‘fits to perform on stages both big and small.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Players’ Choice: Vote for July 2024’s best new game

July saw the return of an iconic sports franchise along with the debut of exciting new IPs. What did you enjoy most about last month’s title lineup? 

How does it work? At the end of every month, PlayStation Blog will open a poll where you can vote for the best new game released that month. After the polls close we will tally your votes, and announce the winner on our social channels and PlayStation.Blog. 

What is the voting criteria? That’s up to you! If you were only able to recommend one new release to a friend that month, which would it be? Note: re-released games don’t qualify, but remakes do. We define remakes as ambitious, larger-scale rebuilds such as Resident Evil 4 (2023) and Final Fantasy VII Remake.

How are nominees decided? The PlayStation Blog editorial team will gather a list of that month’s most noteworthy releases and use it to seed the poll.

In cute throwback RPG Super Dungeon Muncher the dungeon is being eaten by a monster

What is it with monstrous eating mechanics in games of late? Last week it was carnivorous post-Soviet elevators, now it’s retro fantasy RPGs that devour themselves. In Super Dungeon Muncher, you are a teeny-tiny hero navigating a corridor-shaped map full of fireball traps and crumbling platforms, spinning coins and patrolling critters. That’s the “Super Dungeon” part. The “Muncher” part refers to the corpulent red monster guzzling the whole level in your wake.

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The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Gets Deep Dive in Traversing Hyrule Trailer

Nintendo has revealed a five minute deep dive into The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom in the Traversing Hyrule trailer.

Available below, the trailer highlights key locations of the Zelda-led game such as Hyrule Castle and the surrounding Castle Town, and even reveals the different regions of the world: Gerudo Desert, Jabul Waters, Eldin Volcano, and Faron Wetlands.

Players can travel around the world quickly using fast travel points called Waypoints, though as standard these are only available once the player reaches each location naturally. Horses are also available to ride around Hyrule and can be called upon at any time once the player unlocks the carrot echo (meaning the ability to summon a carrot; what a game).

Mechanics from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and sequel Tears of the Kingdom have made the jump to Echoes of Wisdom too. Players can mix and match ingredients, for example, but instead of doing this through cooking they create smoothies which can have different effects. Dressing up Zelda in different items of clothing also comes with unique benefits.

The abilities of Zelda’s companion Tri were also shown off, namely Bind and Reverse Bind. The former lets Zelda force objects to follow her movements, and was used in the trailer to move a large boulder from her path, while the latter does the opposite! Players can force Zelda to mimic the movement of an object, for example to fly using a bird’s path.

Echoes of Wisdom was revealed on June 18, 2024 with a release date just a few months later: September 26. It features brand new gameplay styles using Zelda’s skillset and promises huge levels of variance between playthroughs.

Fans quickly began working out when and where in the Zelda timeline it takes place, but fan theories reached new heights when Echoes of Wisdom’s ESRB rating revealed Link as a playable character after all.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

New Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Trailer Highlights Smoothie Making, Horse Riding, And Waypoints

Zelda also gets a new ability.

Nintendo has dropped a brand new The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom trailer on this fine Monday morning, showcasing the delights Hyrule.

If you’re a long-time Zelda fan, then seeing Hyrule again probably isn’t anything new, but this is the first time we’ve got a good look at the map and the world in the upcoming Zelda game.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Elden Ring Players Find Wild Exploit to Kill Rellana, The Twin Moon Knight From Outside Her Arena

Elden Ring players have discovered a risk free way of instantly defeating one of Shadow of the Erdtree’s main bosses, Rellana, the Twin Moon Knight.

The exploit works without ever setting foot in her arena, by travelling to the Scadu Altus area before visiting the legacy dungeon Castle Ensis. Spotted by X/Twitter user Ziostorm, players can defeat Rellana by simply casting long range spells while standing in contact with the boss chamber’s rear fog gate.

“Turns out, you can cheese Rellana by going to the rear fog wall by Highroad Cross and using Flame of the Fell God,” they wrote, referring to an Incantation which shoots a ball of fire. “It will travel into her arena and explode.”

Though perhaps not the way FromSoftware intended Shadow of the Erdtree to be played, players can access Scadu Atlus and thus the exploit by making use of spirit springs, explained in a video from YouTuber LaserBolt.

Using a spell over and over will eventually see Rellana’s health bar hit zero, upon which the fog gates will fade to nothing. Players will earn 240,000 runes, a Remembrance to trade with Finger Reader Enia at the Roundtable Hold, and perhaps a slight feeling of guilt.

Those looking to take on Rellana face to face can read IGN’s Elden Ring guide, which features extensive boss fight walkthroughs, build guides, interactive maps, and more.

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

Please incorporate this absurd game-shuffling Sonic mod into every other video game

Every so often, the fine folk of Resetera take a break from their usual schedule of complaining that video games journalists get all their news from Resetera, and post a Thing Of Beauty. For example: it’s thanks to Resetera member AstralSphere that I know about Alistair Aitcheson’s Magic Box and BizHawk retro emulation tools, which – amongst other things – allow you to play old Sonic the Hedgehog games in giddy parallel, shuffling between them whenever you collect a ring.

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Like a Dragon Fans Buzz as Sega Trademarks Yakuza Wars

Like a Dragon fans have grown excited after series publisher Sega filed a trademark for something called Yakuza Wars.

The trademark was filed in Japan on July 26, 2024 but only made public today, August 5, as spotted by X/Twitter user Wario64. Like a Dragon developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is revealing its next game sometime between September 26 and September 29 at Tokyo Game Show, with many fans now believing Yakuza Wars to be it.

The trademark reveals nothing beyond the name though, not even if Yakuza Wars is a video game property.

Fans have still run away with the prospect, of course, with Bestgamer on Reddit even discussing its potential as a collaboration between the Like a Dragon series and another Sega franchise Sakura Wars.

“If it is, that would be totally mind blowing,” they said. Sakura Wars combines role-playing and dating simulator gameplay in a steam punk version of early 20th century Japan where demons are invading, obviously.

Others theorised Yakuza Wars sounds like a mobile or real time strategy game title, the latter of which RGG Studio has explored before through the Majima Construction minigame in Yakuza Kiwami 2.

The next Like a Dragon game really could be anything though. RGG Studio has already said fans will be “surprised” by the reveal, and confirmed it won’t be Yakuza Kiwami 3, a remake of the third game following on from Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2.

Like a Dragon has many other offshoots too, so a reveal of the ninth (technically 10th thanks to prequel Yakuza 0) mainline game isn’t the only option.

RGG Studio has previously referred to spin-off Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name as the “first” Gaiden game, for example, and it could even remake PlayStation Portable and Japanese-only games Kurohyō: Ryū ga Gotoku Shinshō for modern platforms like it did with Like a Dragon: Ishin in 2023.

Full spin-off Judgement is waiting in the wings too, as this still action heavy but more murder mystery, detective focused series hasn’t seen a new entry since Lost Judgement in 2021.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.