Overwatch 2 had an enormous launch last year, seeing 35 million players try the free-to-play game in its first month alone. Now, IGN can exclusively reveal four new Overwatch 2 toys from Funko, including three action figures and a new Funko Pop.
The three action figures are Tracer, Genji, and Reaper. The action figures stand at 3.75 inches tall, and will retail for $12.99. Each figure comes with alternate hand and weapons attachments, while Genji and Tracer also come with an alternate head attachment.
The newly-revealed Pop is of Echo in a Hot Rod skin. The Pop stands at 5.05 inches tall. You can take a look at all four newly-revealed products in the gallery below.
We awarded Overwatch 2 a great score in our review, saying, “Overwatch 2 breathes new life into what was once the sharpest multiplayer shooter around, before it had its edges severely dulled by Blizzard’s attention shifting away.” Now, fans are diving into the newly-released Season 3, which features the game’s first IP collaboration with Doomfist’s One-Punch Man skin.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
Urbo might be my Dorfromantik of 2023. It’s a chill, citybuilding puzzle game from the devs behind the altogether more violent Diplomacy Is Not An Option, and it’s all about building tiny little villages on top of rocky outcrops. Except when you stick three of the same building type together, they all zhuup together to create an even bigger one. And a bigger one, and a bigger one. It’s very satisfying. The smooshing lights up all the same parts of my brain that Threes did when I became obsessed with it about five years ago, while the tile planning hits scratches that big Dorfromantik itch, making for an excellent Steam Next Fest demo experience.
Apex Legends Season 16 Revelry is just around the corner launching February 14th and there are a lot of changes coming for Apex’s fourth anniversary. There’s a big rework coming to the Legends Class system and rebalancing along with a new weapon, new limited time modes and permanent playlist, and the farewell of Arenas. Here’s an in-depth look at everything changing in Apex Legends Revelry.
Reworked Class System
The Legend Classes were implemented before but didn’t really have much to offer the Legends in each category. So the rework focuses on 5 new classes – Assault, Skirmisher, Recon, Controller, Support. Each class has individual gameplay perk for strategic gameplay value not combat.
Assault
Focus: Assault Legends are the instigators. They focus on combat Initiation and utility, using their abilities to initiate plays or force enemies to play.
Can spot incoming care packages from a distance and see what’s inside and can see if it’s been taken or still there
Perk: When a Care Package drops, Skirmishers are able to see what weapon is inside the care package and ping the weapon on their map and track when it’s been picked up.
Recon
Focus: Focus Legends are the information trackers. They focus on enemy intel and tracking.
Recon Legends: Crypto, Seer, Vantage, Bloodhound
Perk: Recon Legends will no longer scan for the next Ring data but instead scan the reworked Survey Beacon that reveals enemy locations on their maps. (Scan acts like Crypto’s Map Room on King’s Canyon)
Controller
Focus: Controller Legends are the bunker and area denier players. They focus on setting up in their designated areas and control that location.
Perk: Controller Legends can scan a Ring Console that will reveal the next ring location so they can plan their next spot they want to bunker down and set up in.
Support
Focus: Support Legends provide back up for their teams. They focus on team survival and supply.
Support Legends: Newcastle, Lifeline, Loba, Gibby
Perk: All have access to hidden shelves in Blue support bins and will provide high value healing and survival items, they can craft fallen ally banners even after they’ve expired.
Major Legend Meta Changes
Scan Legends have been dominating the meta throughout the seasons now and they’re finally being addressed with Revelry.
Seer is getting nerfed with no longer being able to constantly use his passive scan, Heart Seeker. He will have a slight wind up time in being able to utilize Heart Seeker and enemies will now audibly hear when a Seer is nearby attempting to use his passive. Seer’s ultimate, Exhibit, has been given more of a cooldown time so he can’t throw it out in every fight he gets.
Bloodhound’s ultimate, Beast of the Hunt, will still grant them speed and outlined vision when activated but will no longer grant them the decreased scan cooldown time. Instead, Bloodhound will have a new passive White Raven concept where White Ravens will be located near enemies locations and fly towards where they are when approached.
Wraith was our day one competitive Legend who has been long delayed in receiving a buff and now she’ll have a longer ultimate Dimensional Rift, where she can place portals further and when she’s ulting, Wraith will be able to instantly use her tactical Into the Void without any delays.
Pathfinderis getting a slight buff and he’ll be able to deploy his ultimate Ziplline Gun further than before and he will be able to zip faster on his own zipline allowing him to escape faster.
Horizon is finally getting her nerf that we saw accidentally implemented a few weeks ago. Horizon’s tactical ability Gravity Lift no longer allows her to stay accurate when firing down at enemies but her vertical rise speed in the lift has been increased.
Mirage is also getting some long-deserved love with a buff. After reviving his teammate, Mirage and the revived teammate will be invisible for 3 seconds as long as they do not swap to any weapons. When one of Mirage’s clones is shot, Mirage’s team will now be able to track that enemy for a short amount of time.
LIfeline is also being given a small buff that will help her survivability. Her slow penalty is gone when she taps to revive her teammates and her ultimate Care Package speed drop has been greatly increased, dropping almost instantly after being deployed.
New Weapon: Nemesis
There’s also a new weapon, Nemesis, coming which is a new addition to the energy class. It’s a burst assault rifle that fires four rounds per burst, with the ability to just hold down the trigger to continue firing, unlike the hemlock. The Nemesis speeds up the time it takes to fire the rounds of bursts the longer the trigger is held down and stays charged for a certain amount of time after.
The charge time doesn’t deplete that quickly so it’s a bit forgiving on how long you go without firing. So during an active fight your Nemesis should stay charged up and almost simulate a fully auto assault rifle. In essence, it’s like the devotion once it’s been fully ramped up without a turbocharger. The Nemesis will take Barrel Mods, Extended Mags, Stocks, and any AR sight attachments.
Weapon Changes
Every season we get weapon changes in and out the Crafter rotation and Care Package rotations. In Revelry, the Hemlock is now one of the Care Package world drop weapons with a huge buff to increase damage and headshot damage.
The Rampage is now on the floor loot pool along with the CAR and the Volt is now in the Crafter. Assault Rifles are all getting reworked to decrease their hipfire accuracy since they’re supposed to be best at midrange and give SMGs a chance to win in close range fights. The R301 in particular is getting another damage nerf lowered from 14 to 13.
There are now Gold Shotgun Bolts that grant the perk of reloading your shotguns whether they are in your hands or stowed every time you slide around. Every shotgun will now take stocks as well to balance them out.
Gamemode Updates
Arenas are unfortunately going away permanently in Revelry and instead a new permanent game mode Mixtape is being added. Mixtape is a playlist with a rotating roster of limited time game modes Control, Gun Run, and Team Deathmatch. Mixtape will drop March 7 after the launch of Season 16.
Speaking of Team Deathmatch, that is the new limited time mode dropping with Revelry and it’s a 6v6 fast respawn mode where the first team to win two rounds wins the game. The loadouts will work like Control where you can choose at the start of the match and switch off during respawns, and there will also be world Care Package drops during matches.
The maps in Team Deathmatch will be reusing Arenas maps like Habitat, Party Crasher, and Skulltown and this limited time mode will be in game for three weeks.
Quality of Life Changes
We can finally customize our firing ranges to fit the warm ups and weapon tests we need! There are settings in the Firing Range menu you can explore that allow you to customize what level armor dummies have, how they move or if they can move, to show you hit indicators and damage numbers, and even show you where you hit them to track your spray patterns.
For ranked in Revelry, there will no longer be map splits though there will still be the normal ranked split. Maps will rotate every 24 hours between Broken Moon, Stormpoint, and World’s Edge in the Ranked playlist instead of being stuck to one map for each half split.
We’ll have a video update for you up soon detailing each of these new changes in visual form! What are you most excited for with Season 16? Let us know! Be sure to check back here in two days to get the video update of Apex Legends Season 16 Revelry’s full breakdown.
Stella is a Video Producer, Host, and Editor at IGN. Her gameplay focus is on competitive FPS games and she’s previously reviewed Apex Legends, Hyper Scape, Halo Infinite Multiplayer, and Battlefield 2042. She regularly hosts and shoutcasts competitive Apex Legends and Halo Infinite tournaments when she isn’t streaming on her Twitch channel after work outs. You can follow her on Twitter @ParallaxStella.
The Knight Witch, which takes the thrill of the bullet hell shooter and wraps it up in a lovely Metroid-like-shaped package my brain can actually understand. It’s a fantastic little game, and I’m only sorry we didn’t cover it in more detail when it came out at the end of November last year.
The elusive shiny version of Heart Trim Furfrou, a Valentine’s Day exclusive in Pokémon GO, is now able to be transferred from the mobile game into Pokémon HOME!
The Valentine’s Day event started earlier today, and Serebii shared the news that — for the first time — the shiny variant of this exclusive form can, at last, be stored in HOME. Shiny Furfrou was only added to the game last September as part of the Fashion Week event, so while all other shiny variants could be transferred to HOME, players would need to wait until the next Valentine’s Day event to get their hands on this unique look.
The Callisto Protocol was already an unforgiving experience, tasking you with escaping Black Iron Prison amid an outbreak that turns its denizens into horrific biophages – but now it’s offering its sternest challenge yet. As part of a free update, Striking Distance Studios has introduced Hardcore Mode – and I caught up with Creative Director Ben Walker to dive into the new horrors it brings.
“It’s right there in the name – Hardcore Mode is just plain hardcore,” Walker begins. “We designed The Callisto Protocol to be tough, and with this new mode, we’re giving fans of really brutal gameplay a whole new level of challenge to master.
“We’re dramatically lowering the number of enemy drops, giving enemies more attacking power, shortening the time it takes for creatures to mutate, and giving items less resale value at the Reforge to make resources even tighter. We’re also reducing the damage doled out by the Stun Baton while making GRP charges more expensive.
“We’re also adding three new achievements for players who have what it takes to survive Hardcore Mode. But don’t say we didn’t warn you.”
Hardcore modes are a big part of the survival horror scene – in a genre all about getting through the experience against all odds, it’s perhaps no surprise that the most committed players want those odds made even harder. But even Striking Distance was surprised by how proficient those players could be:
“Hardcore Mode has been on the roadmap for a while,” Walker says, “but after launch, we were blown away by the number of people that were actually beating the game on the Maximum Security mode [previously the toughest difficulty level] – it validated the concept, and we’re thrilled to give it to players. We didn’t pull any punches here, so we think it’ll offer our hardcore players a hardcore challenge.”
But that’s not say this was simply a case of making the game a one-death game over experience. Striking Distance concentrated on how to make this notably different to Maximum Security mode, without simply adding a more artificial barrier. That means fewer ammo and health drops, reduced contraband value, and enemies even more keen to take you down:
“A lot of other hardcore modes are focused on permadeath,” Walker explains. “We wanted to lean more into the turning and creating scarcity for items. This mode is all about pushing players’ skills to the limits […] It’s hard as hell, but it’s fair, and it’s a pretty awesome accomplishment for those that can get through it.”
That begs the question: how many people at the studio have actually managed to beat their own Hardcore Mode?
“We’ve spent hundreds of hours playtesting the game, so lots of people around the studio have beaten the game on Hardcore Mode,” says Walker, “but I’ve still found myself sweating during some of the encounters. Especially with Two Head. I haven’t thrown my controller yet, but I’ve come close once in a while. Beating it always feels like an accomplishment.”
But one key question remains: will you be able to beat it? Find out today.
Hardcore Mode is a free update, available today, for The Callisto Protocol on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. Also out today is the Outer Way Skin Collection, the first of four DLC drops, available as part of the game’s Season Pass and sold separately. The Callisto Protocol Season Pass is on sale, with 20% off, until February 13.
The Callisto Protocol™ for Xbox Series X|S – Digital Deluxe Edition
In this narrative-driven, third-person survival horror game set 300 years in the future, the player will take on the role of Jacob Lee – a victim of fate thrown into Black Iron Prison, a maximum-security penitentiary located on Jupiter’s moon, Callisto. When inmates begin to transform into monstrous creatures, the prison is thrown into chaos. To survive, Jacob must battle his way to safety to escape Black Iron Prison, while uncovering the dark and disturbing secrets buried beneath the surface of Callisto. Using a unique blend of shooting and close-quarters combat, Jacob will need to adapt his tactics to combat the rapidly evolving creatures while scavenging to unlock new weapons, gear, and abilities to outrun the growing threat and escape the horrors of Jupiter’s Dead Moon.
HORROR ENGINEERING
The Callisto Protocol is a next-generation take on survival horror from the mind of Glen Schofield. Blending atmosphere, tension, and brutality with terrifying moments of helplessness and humanity, The Callisto Protocol immerses players in a pulse-pounding story where unspeakable horrors lurk around every corner.
UNCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNITED JUPITER COMPANY
Set on Jupiter’s dead moon Callisto in the year 2320, The Callisto Protocol casts players as Jacob Lee, an inmate in Black Iron Prison. When a mysterious outbreak throws the moon into chaos, Jacob must face his darkest fears to defeat the bloodthirsty creatures that stalk him as he unravels the dark mysteries at the heart of the powerful United Jupiter Company.
MASTER BRUTAL, STRATEGIC COMBAT
The Callisto Protocol challenges players to master a thrilling blend of hand-to-hand and ranged combat, including a unique gravity weapon once used by Black Iron guards to control the prison population. Players will be forced to get up close and personal with their grotesque opponents, hacking off limbs, blasting off legs, and getting creative with whatever is at their disposal to survive each life-or-death encounter.
EXPERIENCE THE ISOLATION OF JUPITER’S DEAD MOON
One of the most hostile, isolated environments in the universe, Callisto looms large over Jacob’s desperate struggle to survive. Players must not only contend with the horrors of Black Iron Prison, but also the centuries-old secrets that plague Jupiter’s long-dead moon, both above and below the surface.
Pre-order now to get the following digital content:
– Retro Prisoner Character & Weapons Skin
– Season Pass
The Season Pass includes:
Outer Way Skin Collection: Bear the armor of the Outer Way, an underground insurgency pitted against the UJC, as you fight to survive the horrors of Callisto.
Contagion Bundle: Discover the ultimate survival horror experience with a new mode, Contagion. With reduced ammo and health drops, a customized difficulty and permadeath – there are no second chances to escape Black Iron Prison or the horrors lurking beneath the surface of Callisto. The Contagion Bundle also includes thirteen new Jacob death animations and the Watchtower Skin Collection.
Riot Bundle: Venture into a previously undiscovered area of Black Iron Prison and battle through waves of brutal enemies. Gather credits to upgrade your weapons, or forge new ones, and survive the onslaught as long as you can in Riot, an all-new mode. The Riot Bundle also includes twelve new enemy death animations and the Engineer Skin Collection.
Story DLC: Dig deeper into the horrifying secrets of The Callisto Protocol.
In this narrative-driven, third-person survival horror game set 300 years in the future, the player will take on the role of Jacob Lee – a victim of fate thrown into Black Iron Prison, a maximum-security penitentiary located on Jupiter’s moon, Callisto. When inmates begin to transform into monstrous creatures, the prison is thrown into chaos. To survive, Jacob must battle his way to safety to escape Black Iron Prison, while uncovering the dark and disturbing secrets buried beneath the surface of Callisto. Using a unique blend of shooting and close-quarters combat, Jacob will need to adapt his tactics to combat the rapidly evolving creatures while scavenging to unlock new weapons, gear, and abilities to outrun the growing threat and escape the horrors of Jupiter’s Dead Moon.
HORROR ENGINEERING
The Callisto Protocol is a next-generation take on survival horror from the mind of Glen Schofield. Blending atmosphere, tension, and brutality with terrifying moments of helplessness and humanity, The Callisto Protocol immerses players in a pulse-pounding story where unspeakable horrors lurk around every corner.
UNCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNITED JUPITER COMPANY
Set on Jupiter’s dead moon Callisto in the year 2320, The Callisto Protocol casts players as Jacob Lee, an inmate in Black Iron Prison. When a mysterious outbreak throws the moon into chaos, Jacob must face his darkest fears to defeat the bloodthirsty creatures that stalk him as he unravels the dark mysteries at the heart of the powerful United Jupiter Company.
MASTER BRUTAL, STRATEGIC COMBAT
The Callisto Protocol challenges players to master a thrilling blend of hand-to-hand and ranged combat, including a unique gravity weapon once used by Black Iron guards to control the prison population. Players will be forced to get up close and personal with their grotesque opponents, hacking off limbs, blasting off legs, and getting creative with whatever is at their disposal to survive each life-or-death encounter.
EXPERIENCE THE ISOLATION OF JUPITER’S DEAD MOON
One of the most hostile, isolated environments in the universe, Callisto looms large over Jacob’s desperate struggle to survive. Players must not only contend with the horrors of Black Iron Prison, but also the centuries-old secrets that plague Jupiter’s long-dead moon, both above and below the surface.
UPDATE: Preorders for Tears of the Kingdom have been made unavailable at retailers with the exception of GameStop.
On Tuesday, February 7, Tears of the Kingdom appeared on the Nintendo eShop site with a $69.99 price tag. The price was soon removed, but it got people talking a whole lot about the cost of games. Fortunately, this potential price increase hasn’t trickled down to any of the major retailers, so if it is going to have a $70 MSRP, you can lock in the $59.99 price now.
The sequel to Breath of the Wild is called The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It’s set to release exclusively for Nintendo Switch on May 12, 2023. Based on the glimpses we’ve seen, the game looks similar to its predecessor, but with a number of exciting new ideas thrown in the mix, including sky-high verticality in the open world. Hopefully we’ll get a much better look during today’s Nintendo Direct.
You don’t have to wait to lock down a copy of the game for yourself. Listings for Tears of the Kingdom are already live at various retailers right now (see it at Amazon, or GAME in the UK).
Preorder The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
So far, the standard edition is all we’re seeing available, and it retails for $59.99. It’s worth noting that Breath of the Wild got a Master Edition that featured a bunch of cool extras. Nothing like that has been announced for Tears of the Kingdom, but if any new editions pop up anywhere, we’ll put them here.
What Is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?
A new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom debuted during the Nintendo Direct on September 13, 2022. You can watch that one below.
First announced with a teaser trailer at E3 2019, Tears of the Kingdom (formerly known as Breath of the Wild 2) is a sequel to what many fans agree is one of the best games ever made. Nintendo has has taken its time and shown relatively little of the game ever since.
The E3 2021 trailer (see above) shows Link skydiving and then paragliding from high in the air above Hyrule. You can clearly see floating landmasses in the sky as well. And after it shows Link use his ability to freeze items and send them hurtling through the air, it also shows him using a flame thrower and teleporting vertically through the stone of one of the floating isles. Hmm.
There’s still plenty we don’t know about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but with the spring 2023 release date announced, we know it won’t be too terribly long before we’ll get to play it for ourselves.
podcast Indiescovery already? How time flies! In this episode, the Indiescovery squad reccomend a handful of awesome demos from this spring’s Steam Next Fest for our lovely listeners to check out – six demos to be exact! We recorded this episode on a Friday instead of our usual Wednesdays so, yeah, major end-of-week vibes in this one. Have a listen below!
After Microsoft’s shopping spree of studio acquisitions over the last few years, there’s a long list of video game licenses that are now technically first-party Xbox properties – but possibly the weirdest is that PlayStation’s biggest competitor is now the home of its original mascot, Crash Bandicoot.
If you grew up in the ’90s, Crash and PlayStation were almost synonymous. Not only were the first few crash games amazing tech demos of what Sony’s first console could do, Crash himself was an extremely vocal hype-man; the mascot platformer became a literal mascot for the PS1 and millions of people likely heard about Sony’s new console from a guy in a fur suit yelling through a megaphone about it in TV commercials.
The first three Crash games were published by Sony but the rights to the bandicoot himself belonged to Universal Studios’ video game publishing wing, Universal Interactive, which also happened to hold the leash of Sony’s second-most popular platformer, Spryo the Dragon. In 2001, Sony acquired Naughty Dog – the studio that created Crash – and Universal Interactive merged with another company to become Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing.
After another merger in 2008 Vivendi became part of Activision Blizzard, but after a bunch of mediocre games and the decline in popularity of 3D platformers, the custody rights for Crash weren’t at the forefront of most peoples’ minds.
Sony’s earliest, most recognizable characters have officially packed their bags and moved in with their ex’s worst enemy.”
Then, at the 2015 Playstation Experience, head honcho Sean Layden appeared on stage in a Crash t-shirt, and a generation of PlayStation fans went N-SANE. Was the prodigal bandicoot returning home? 2016 turned out to be the year of the bandicoot and Crash’s 20th anniversary victory lap saw him popping up all over. He appeared in a Naughty Dog game for the first time this century, (okay it was an Uncharted game, but still…) then he was the guest of honor in Skylanders: Imaginators. Y’know, the Spyro spinoff that spun out of control.
Then finally, Activision Blizzard opened the nostalgia floodgates: full modern remakes of the original trilogy and Crash Team Racing paved the way for the long-overdue sequel It’s About Time. It seemed like Crash Bandicoot and PlayStation had rekindled that special connection they had in the ’90s… I mean, it was an open relationship so Crash could be on other platforms but still, the spark was back.
At least that’s how it felt until Microsoft ran off with Activision Blizzard, bandicoots and dragons and all. Sony might own Naughty Dog and Insomniac, the studios that created some of PlayStation’s earliest and most recognizable characters, but those characters themselves have officially packed their bags and moved in with their ex’s worst enemy.
Who knows? Maybe the next time we see Crash he’ll be in the parking lot of PlayStation headquarters, yelling through a megaphone about the wonders of Xbox Game Pass in front of a pickup truck full of series Xs. After all, stranger things have happened. There was a time when the idea of playing a Sega game on a Nintendo consoles was practically blasphemous and now that’s not only commonplace, we’ve got six whole games about Mario and Sonic at the Olympics.
Wood & Weather, an upcoming sandbox god game about manipulating weather as you oversee a small wooden toy town occupied by Notplaymobil figures. Someone wants coffee? Fetch them a coffee. Oh it’s too hot for coffee? Turn on the rain. Oh, and after all you do, they throw the empty cup on the floor? Great, thanks, lovely, pick it up and bin it for them. Check out the cute trailer below!
Urbo might be my 
The Knight Witch, which takes the thrill of the bullet hell shooter and wraps it up in a lovely Metroid-like-shaped package my brain can actually understand. It’s a fantastic little game, and I’m only sorry we didn’t cover it in more detail when it came out at the end of November last year.
podcast Indiescovery already? How time flies! In this episode, the 
Wood & Weather, an upcoming sandbox god game about manipulating weather as you oversee a small wooden toy town occupied by Notplaymobil figures. Someone wants coffee? Fetch them a coffee. Oh it’s too hot for coffee? Turn on the rain. Oh, and after all you do, they throw the empty cup on the floor? Great, thanks, lovely, pick it up and bin it for them. Check out the cute trailer below!