Author: Game Infliction

Poll: Which Character Would You Like To See Return Next In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe?

The roster expands.

The February Nintendo Direct Showcase gave us our first look at Wave 4 of the upcoming Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC, which will not only bring the all-new Yoshi’s Island course our way but will also add Birdo to the roster of playable characters.

This Wave will be the first of its kind to being a new character into the mix and we’d be lying if we said that we weren’t excited to see it. Yeah, drivers might not make all the difference to a race, but we do love trying out all those little guys nonetheless.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 11th)

Primed and ready.

Phew – this was a pretty busy week, huh?

To kick off the week, we took you through some of the highlights from Nintendo’s latest financial report for Q3 of fiscal year 2023. This included the rather stupendous new sales milestone for the Switch, with the console now exceeding Game Boy and PlayStation 4 total sales. We also learned that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet had reached twenty million in sales, Splatoon 3 ten million, and Bayonetta 3 one million.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Switch OLED Rumour Resurfaces Online

A common link.

Remember that rumoured Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED model that leaked at the end of last year? Well, there’s seemingly been a small but significant discovery.

Twitter account Nintendeal has noticed the symbols featured on the ‘leaked images’ of the rumoured Switch match up with the iconography featured on the Collector’s Edition of the game, which was announced earlier this week during a Nintendo Direct presentation.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Witcher 3 Next-Gen Accidentally Included Some NSFW Community Mods

Warning: This article contains some NSFW references.

CD Projekt Red has confirmed that certain NSFW community mods were accidentally added to The Witcher 3’s next-gen update and that it is working to remove them from the game.

As reported by Kotaku, Reddit users and other players began noticing that certain characters, including the “crones from Crookback Bog and the bruxas (the only women NPCs that regularly do full-frontal without any obscuring shots or panties) have landing strip-styled pubic hair and visible labia.”

Also noted by Kotaku, the original version of The Witcher 3 had the same nudity, but the women had “no visible genitals, just a sort of smoothed over, Barbie doll area.”

CD Projekt Red commented on the matter and stated this was a byproduct of bringing in a ton of community-sourced mods not created by the studio into The Witcher 3 and was “unintended.”

“The next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt features several community-sourced mods not created by CD PROJEKT RED, on top of numerous enhancements created and implemented by the studio internally,” CD Projekt Red said. “Merging everything together was a complex process and the textures in question are an unintended result present in the release version. This is something we are working to address.”

The team followed up and said the mods in question will be removed in the future as “these textures were not meant to be present in the release version of the game.”

For more on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s next-gen update, check out why we believe its changes signal good things for the series’ future, the biggest changes in the update, and our full PS5 vs Xbox Series X/S vs PS4 performance review.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

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

Gallery: Here’s Another Look At Pikmin 4, Out On Nintendo Switch This July

Garden life.

Nintendo kicked off its latest Direct broadcast this week with a brand new Pikmin 4 trailer, confirming the Switch title would be arriving on 21st July 2023.

This latest entry will feature a new dog companion named Oatchi (pronounced oat-chee), Ice Pikmin that can freeze enemies and the environment. We’ve now rounded up some additional screenshots. Enjoy!

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

EA Strikes Big Money Deal With English Premier League After Losing FIFA Name

EA Sports is reportedly on the verge of agreeing to a new six-year deal with the English Premier League worth some £488 million — a contract said to be worth more than double the value of the original deal.

Sky Sports reports that clubs were briefed on the deal on Friday, which is expected to bring in more than £80 million annually. In return, EA will retain the rights to some of the most popular teams in the world, including Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool.

The new deal reflects the strength of the EPL, which has grown into the most profitable league in the world thanks to its lucrative television deals. It has made the EPL an international powerhouse, allowing it to steal away major stars like Erling Haaland.

The EPL’s brand recognition makes it a major catch for EA, which recently lost the FIFA license after the group reportedly asked for some $1 billion. In addition to changing the name for the first time in nearly 30 years, EA Sports FC will lose access to the World Cup. However, EA has signed deals with hundreds of teams and athletes, as well as more than 30 leagues, allowing it to retain real-world names and venues.

This gives it a valuable edge over Konami’s eFootball series, which has signed valuable deals with clubs including Barcelona, Manchester United, and Inter Milan, but otherwise lags well behind EA’s soccer juggernaut in terms of licenses.

The FIFA series, now renamed EA Sports FC, has been a juggernaut for EA, raking in billions of dollars thanks to its heavily-monetized FIFA Ultimate Team mode. It has allowed EA to remain profitable even as its traditional releases have slowed.

Our review of FIFA 23 called it a “bombastic swan song for the series” but criticized its lack of attention to modes outside of FUT.

“EA’s Spartan approach to the modes that don’t make money ensures FIFA 23 is an all-too-familiar beast to previous years, and Ultimate Team’s offensive focus on microtransactions continues to take much of the fun out of it,” we wrote.

EA claims that the lack of licensing restrictions will offer the series more creative freedom. We’ll be able to see for ourselves when EA Sports FC launches later this year.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.