Catch a Tandemaus on Valentine’s Day.
Update : This event is now underway, here’s your reminder!
Original article : Last month, The Pokémon Company announced a handful of new Tera Raid Battle events coming to Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
In case you missed the news, IGN Fan Fest is back and bigger than ever for 2023! If you hadn’t heard of Fan Fest before, IGN Fan Fest is a two-day event, bringing fans exclusive interviews and sneak peeks from some of the biggest movies, shows and games you all love. (You can see everything announced at Fan Fest 2022 for reference).
What better way to celebrate fans than giving out special discounts this week on the coolest merch from your favorite franchises and beyond? Keep reading to see what deals are up for grabs this week only on our very own IGN Store.
*This week’s deals start February 13th at 12pm PT and end Monday, February 20th at 11:59pm.
For even more, check out all of the cool merch around IGN Fan Fest favorites available at the IGN Store:
IGN Store sells high-quality merch for everything you’re into. It’s a store built with fans in mind for all geek culture and fandom we love across comics and gaming. So, whether you’re into comics, movies, Anime, games, or just like to collect cute plushies, this store is for you.
The IGN Store carries collections and apparel from the big fandom franchises. Browse your favorites:
IGN Fan Fest 2023 Giveaway terms and Conditions here.
Just before my group of four young astronauts with major, personal conflicts of interest blast off to the red planet, I’m assured by our team leader that, while some corners had to be cut to get our ship spaceworthy, it should do its job just fine. And it does… kind of. Which is a great metaphor for Deliver Us Mars as a whole. This platforming, puzzle-solving, interplanetary adventure is trying to do too much with too little, and it ends up touching down just North of adequate.
The backstory for our plucky, rebellious, sometimes even endearing hero, Kathy, is that she was separated from her father Isaac just before he boarded a colonization mission bound for Mars. Years later, she’s been through astronaut school on a climate-ravaged Earth and a mysterious transmission from Isaac spurs her and her older sister, Claire, to seek seats on the mission to bring the colony ships back. Periodic flashbacks do a respectable job of filling in the complicated and painful story of their family along the way.
The launch sequence from Cape Canaveral is among the strongest. It has you perform various checks and landing procedures that feel authentic and tactile before watching through the front window as your ship, the Zephyr, leaves Earth’s atmosphere with no cuts or loading screens. You’re not briefed on any of these procedures ahead of time, which led to a lot of me swiveling my mouse pointer around frantically trying to find the highlighted switch for the internal power interval or whatever, but it was neat once I got the hang of it.
Outside these scripted sequences, Deliver Us Mars consists of first- and third-person explorations of an orbital facility and the surface of Mars itself, featuring some fairly simple puzzle-solving and occasional, frustrating platforming. There are several sections where you have to bounce wireless power beams around, matching the voltage on doors and terminals to get to the next area. They’re generally not too difficult, but I found some of the trickier ones satisfying to solve.
What wasn’t nearly as satisfying were these obnoxious climbing wall segments. You have to click the left and right mouse button at the same time to grab onto a wall to begin with, and you have to do so with enough room that you don’t slide off of the climbing surface. But this action is so unresponsive that whether you can get a purchase or not feels more random than anything, especially in some cases where you have to jump at an angle. Also, one of the moves you need to progress in some of the later segments is never explained at all, and I discovered it by accident when I was just trying out random buttons in frustration after I’d been stuck for several minutes. Pro tip: You can hold S and press spacebar to jump to a wall that’s behind you.
This lack of direction even extends to some segments of the main story where you have several different ways you can go, but aren’t told at all which is the right one and can end up wandering way off in the wrong direction. There is an option under Accessibility to always display quest markers, and while I don’t necessarily need a big star constantly guiding my every step, it could really use some sort of middle ground. If you tell me to go to Ark Vita without ever giving me a hint about where it is, that seems like you’re really leaving me to twist in the wind.
At least the characters are endearing. What few of them there are, anyway. Neil Newborn (whom you may remember as Resident Evil: Village’s maniacal Heisenberg) gives a great performance as Isaac, a complex character with conflicted motivations. Kathy herself is brought to life by Ellise Chappell, who gives a convincing performance with a wide emotional range. And the story is respectable, with the mystery of what happened to the Martian colonists pulling me forward at each turn.
The character models can’t really keep up with it, though. They have a very doll-like, uncanny valley look to them – when we get to see their faces at all. A lot of backstory is delivered through these pre-recorded holograms where hairless, faceless crash test dummies pose in place while dialogue plays. It really looks like placeholder art you’d see in an unfinished game, and the developers just never had the time or resources to replace it. There is also a whole chapter toward the end that jumps from one scene to something completely unrelated, giving me the sense that they cut a significant amount of plot without doing a very good job of stitching it back together.
Performance, especially during cutscenes, is also a major issue. My RTX 3080-powered system exceeds the recommended specs, but in many cinematics I would see my framerate drop below 10 fps, even with DLSS on. I had to turn off the per-strand hair rendering altogether because it kept glitching out. In regular gameplay, it’s usually fine. But this is clearly not a very well-optimized project.
The mighty Kemono – the creatures inhabiting Wild Hearts, the new monster hunting game by Koei Tecmo and EA – aren’t easy. In fact, they’re hard enough that even one of the game’s directors has trouble defeating his own creations.
“I have quite a lot of difficulties,” Wild Hearts co-director Takuto Edagawa says with a laugh. “When we look at [the toughest Kemono in the game], those ones I die [against]. If I’m not properly prepared, I’ll go in and I’ll be killed.”
But luckily for Edagawa, a helping hand is always close by — literally. His development partner, co-director Kotaro Hirata, smiles and says, “I’m totally awesome at [Wild Hearts], actually.”
The Omega Force division of Koei Tecmo is primarily known for Dynasty Warriors, the wild power fantasy series that sees players effortlessly taking out hundreds of foes at a time. With Wild Hearts, which will seek to capture the appeal of Capcom’s popular Monster Hunter series, Koei Tecmo is well aware it is developing a very difficult game. Edagawa and Hirata want you to fear the Kemono, the nature-infused beasts that inhabit Wild Hearts’ world.
But the development has also been careful to introduce several mechanics to encourage players new to the monster hunting genre to give Wild Hearts a try.
What does set Wild Hearts apart is, in fact, crafting. Players will be able to take advantage of the new Karakuri crafting system, which gives players the power to instantly construct objects during the heat of battle. Whether it’s a box to climb on to launch yourself closer to the massive Kemono, or a spring that helps you quickly evade devastating incoming attacks, the Karakuri are designed to give players the edge.
The Karakuri crafting system came about when Edagawa and Hirata realized the beasts were too difficult for players to defeat. Rather than nerfing the Kemono’s abilities, the two decided to give the player the power of the Karakuri to even the score.
“Before [the Karakuri system] came along, the Kemono were way too strong for the players,” Hirata said. “They were just massive creatures with too much power. But then the Karakuri idea came in, and then we realized, ‘the Karakuri system might be too strong now!’… We wanted to make sure the Kemono were really strong and really difficult to beat, because we wanted the players to feel the sense that it was a challenging endeavor. But trying to find that right balance between the actual strength of the Kemono versus the strength of the players was the hardest balance to figure out.”
The directors say the difference between great Wild Hearts players and those who are still figuring it out will be the mastery of the Karakuri system. For players struggling against the nature-infused Kemono, Wild Hearts’ flexible multiplayer support will make calling in help a breeze. Wild Hearts supports online multiplayer for up to three people, and Hirata said watching how more experienced players use the Karakuri can teach rookies very useful strategies.
Unlike Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise, Wild Hearts also supports crossplay, allowing players on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC to tackle the game together.
“[Crossplay] was actually quite a significant decision for us, and it was one of the toughest things we actually had to work with in development,” Edagawa said. “EA actually said that cross platform play is definitely a plus, and so we thought, ‘Then okay, we’ll do it.’ And ultimately we’re very happy that we decided that… When we think of the fact that we want more people to play, and people from more diverse environments to play, it was definitely worth the additional effort that was required to be able to do this.”
While Hirata and Edagawa shied away from drawing comparisons to Capcom’s hunting juggernaut (the two didn’t use the word “Monster” during the entirety of the interview, referring to the beasts in Wild Hearts as “Kemono”, “creatures”, and “prey”, exclusively), it’s impossible to not look at Wild Hearts and see the similarities to Monster Hunter. The two titles are cut from the same cloth, both focusing on the central gameplay loop of hunting creatures to improve your gear, and using that better gear to take down even more powerful foes.
Given Monster Hunter World’s sales success, it’s easy to understand why the Dynasty Warriors studio wanted to take another stab at a hunting action game.
Omega Force previously developed the Toukiden series, which saw three games released between 2013 and 2016. The franchise never caught on in the West, causing a long hiatus for hunting action games from the studio.
Wild Hearts is a fresh start in the genre for Omega Force, and the directors have high hopes for the game beyond this week’s launch. The studio will continue to support the game with free, post-launch updates that will add new Kemono for players to face off against.
There are currently no plans for microtransactions, with Edagawa saying, “when it comes to gameplay and content, players will not be charged anything for any of the actual gameplay.”
If the developers do implement microtransactions down the line, it will strictly apply to cosmetics. Beyond that, Hirata said Koei Tecmo wants Wild Hearts to be a new core franchise for the studio.
“We wanted to build a new pillar for Omega Force. I think in the past we had experiences with the Warriors series and also Toukiden as well, but… When we talk about the reach to a global audience, those titles were not quite there yet in appealing to a wider audience. So one of the things we really wanted to work on and one of the things that started off this project was for Omega Force to have a game that had a global appeal, that was accepted more by a much wider audience.”
Wild Hearts is out this February 17 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer at IGN
Coming soon to a cinema near you.
Nintendo and Illumination certainly aren’t holding back on the marketing for the Super Mario Bros. Movie. Just a day after they released a throwback video to the Super Mario Bros. Super Show! they’ve now released some more posters.
This time around we’ve got the king of the jungle Donkey Kong and another fold out of the mighty Bowser. Squint hard enough at the DK poster and you should be able to see some Mario Kart action in the bottom left. As for the Bowser poster, you can see the penguin army isn’t a fan of him.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is hitting Season 2 February 15th and we see the return of Resurgence Mode with a new Warzone Map, New DMZ map and wipe, new ranked mode in multiplayer, the launch of Gun Game, and more. There’s a new Operator Ronin dropping into the battlefield and a full new battlepass with new rewards to collect. Here’s everything coming to Modern Warfare 2 Season 2 for Warzone and Multiplayer.
Ashika Island is a smaller, Japanese-themed map that is located in the Asia Pacific region. Research showed that Ashika was being used as a hideout for the Ultranationalist Konni Group which focused on transporting chemical and biological weapons. Even though this is a smaller map, Ashika has waterways for traversal and mountains/high points to leap off of and redeploy.
Ashika Island is also the new map for Resurgence, a game mode coming back from the original Warzone. This will feature solos, duos, trios, and quads, with its own playlist update throughout Season 2. As a reminder, Resurgence allows for multiple respawns as long as one of your teammates is still alive.
The respawns happen after a certain amount of time has passed, which you can shorten by doing specific challenges like killing enemies. As the circle closes, the countdown for respawns gets longer and longer, and you still have access to buy stations if you get too impatient.
In this mode, there’s a new feature called Restore Honor where each player will drop a dog tag when eliminated which can be picked up by their teammate or enemy that will give a small cash reward and a single UAV ping that marks enemies and supply boxes.
The Gulag is returning to its 1v1 standoff with Season 2 and will no longer feature the Jailer as the tiebreaker but bring back its Domination flag capture. The Gulag map will still be the Season 1 map but slightly altered to support 1v1 and we’re finally getting new weapon pools instead of just constantly getting a tiny pistol each time.
The weapon pool includes Assault Rifles, Submachine Guns, and Light Machine Guns. Shotguns have been completely removed from the Gulag and you’ll only have the pistol as your secondary weapon. The Gulag map also has cash lying around so you can run around and grab some before fighting, and if you win your match, the cash payout will be much larger so you can redeploy with a better chance of survival.
In Season 2 players will no longer have to go into menus to pick up objects and loot will now drop all out of containers like how things spray out from Supply Boxes. The backpack system will also be altered so you no longer need Medium or Large backpacks and each player will have the same backpack throughout the match that has reduced penalties for stacking healing items, equipment, and killstreaks. Player loot, when eliminated, will now spill out instead of being confined to a dropped backpack.
In order to reward players with easier access to Loadouts, the price of Primary Weapons you can purchase in Buy Stations have been reduced and Loadout Drop Markers costs have also been reduced so Squads can get their full Loadouts faster. An additional second Loadout Drop Public Event has been added so drops will now occur on the first and fifth Circle each match.
Everyone will spawn in with 3-Plate Vests instead of having to loot different tier vests each match.
With all new missions coming with Season 2, DMZ players will get a complete refresh of their missions which includes a clean wipe. This wipe includes a Contraband and Keys reset but keeps your Insured Weapon Slots and any other permanent content earned in Season 1 intact. DMZ will feature both Al Mazrah and Ashika Island as their maps to get your missions completed on but Al Mazrah will have a few Points of Interests (POIs) changed for fresh exploration. You can choose whatever map you want, including Building 21, at any time when starting up DMZ.
Ranked Play is the hottest game mode in Season 2 where you can finally put your skills to the test. Treyarch and the Call of Duty League build this mode together that uses CDL approved rules, restrictions, maps and modes with exclusive ranked based rewards that let you show off your skills. This is an intimate 4v4 multiplayer mode and you have to be at least evel 16 to access Ranked.
The modes in the Ranked playlist include Hardpoint, Search & Destroy, and Control. The ranks start at Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Crimson, Iridescent, Top 250 (where your name will be displayed on a special leaderboard). If you finish a season in the Gold rank or above, you’ll get a special set of rewards. The ranks will not reset each season and everyone will start in Bronze without any placement matches so players can just immediately start working on grinding their Skill Ratings (SR) up.
And don’t worry, if a player disconnects or quits during a match, all team members outside of that player’s party won’t lose any SR. But you can still earn SR if you win that match while shorthanded. But if you lose that match, you won’t lose any SR. Also, if you do end up losing SR, you can’t derank immediately and will have demotion protection for the first three games in the new rank division.
Let’s take a look at the other game modes coming back this Season that aren’t in Ranked Play. Grid from Modern Warfare 3 is back as a modified Kill Confirmed where you have to stack enemy dog tags and bank them at one of two locations in the map.
Gun Game and Hardcore are also back as classic favorites. Another game mode from Modern Warfare 3 Infected is back where one player is randomly selected as the “infected” who must spread that tag to others. Every survivor eliminated will join the Infected team until no one else is left or until the five-minute timer expires.
The new maps from Al Mazrah include Dome and Valderas Museum for Core game modes, Zaya Observatory and Al Malik International for Battle game modes.
Later in Season 2’s launch will feature another Raid following the story after Price, Farah, and Gaz fought through Atomgrad. This will pick up where Atomgrad left off and further the story for Modern Warfare 2.
Modern Warfare 2 has a lot of content with the drop of Season 2 and it’s February 15th so don’t forget to update your game if you want to play now. There will be regular midseason updates so we’ll be sure to alert you once any of those changes go through, right here at IGN.
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.
GBA gems we’d dig on Switch.
Finally, after over a year of rumours and leaks, Game Boy Advance games are now available to play on the Nintendo Switch Online service — if you’re on the Expansion Pack tier, that is.
We originally published this list back in April 2022, and back then, this was just a leaked emulator that surfaced online. And a lot of our early dreams and predictions came true. The Minish Cap, Super Mario Advance 4, and WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! all made the cut, while Golden Sun, Metroid Fusion, and Fire Emblem are all coming to the service in the future.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
2023 might finally be the year where 2TB PS5 SSDs might actually be worth the upgrade. Last year, prices for 1TB PS5 SSDs averaged around $150, whereas 2TB SSDs hovered closer to $300. This year, we’re seeing 1TB SSDs trickle below the $100 price point and 2TB SSDs are under $200. The reason PS5 SSD upgrades are pricey is that you can’t use any old SSD and expect it to perform well on the PS5 console. You’ll want to pick up an PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive with a rated 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive. That means, for better or for worse, picking a top-shelf SSD.
Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD. Not all SSDs listed here have pre-installed heatsinks. For the ones that do, we’ll be sure to mention it. For the ones that don’t, all you have to do is purchase your own heatsink (we recommend this one for $10) and install it yourself. It’s very easy.
Amazon has the newest WD Black Series SN850X M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD for the best price we’ve seen. In fact, this is lower than the price we saw on Black Friday. The SN850X is the successor to the SN850 SSD. It has newer flash chips (BiCS5 vs BiCS4) and an updated firmware, which combined offer improved sequential and random read/write speeds. For PC gamers, there’s also an updated Game Mode 2.0 utility that’s designed to tune the SSD for better performance during gaming sessions.
If you want the absolute best deal for a 2TB SSD, then this is the deal you’re looking for. The XPG Gammix S70 Blade is on par performance-wise with the SN850, however this stick includes a heatsink for $159.99. The S70 Blade boasts transfer rates up to 7,400 MB/s and a PCIe Gen4 interface.The low-profile aluminum heatsink is really thin and by no means as robust as the one you’ll find on the WD SN850 SSD, but it does it’s job and fits easily.
Samsung SSDs need no introduction. They’ve made some of the most popular and reliable PS5 SSDs on the market. The 980 Pro has been out for a while now, and it’s still Samsung’s fastest M.2 PCIe SSD. It is fully PS5 compatible in terms of form factor and performance, with blistering speeds of up to 7,100MB/s. It goes toe to toe with other well-known options like the WD Black SN850 and the Seagate Firecuda 530.
Corsair is a very well known brand for DIY PC builders. Corsair makes some of the best gaming products on the market, and that includes solid-state memory like RAM and SSDs. The MP600 Pro is the same super-fast M.2 NVMe PCIe x4 Gen4 SSD that’s marketed for enthusiast gaming PC builds. This one is “optimized for PS5” because it includes a rugged preinstalled heatsink that is slim enough to fit in the PS5 bay without any issues. Performance wise, the MP600 Pro matches the best SSDs out there with its 7,100MB/sec sequential read and 6,800MB/sec sequential write speeds.
There may be other SSD deals out there, but these are the PS5 SSDs we’ve tried ourselves and highly recommend. They also double up as outstanding boot drives for your gaming PC, in case you don’t need additional storage for your PS5 console.
It’s extremely easy! Removing the case cover is completely toolless. In fact, the only screw you have to remove is the one that keeps the cover for the SSD bay in place. You don’t even put it back when you’re done. Sony has a quick and easy YouTube video guide.
Sony recommends you install an SSD that has an attached heatsink. If the SSD you purchase doesn’t include one, it’s simple enough to buy one for about $10 on Amazon and add it yourself. Most of these heatsinks are just attached using an adhesive like thermal tape.
For more deals, take a look at our daily deals for today.
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