Nintendo Direct February 2023: How to Watch and What to Expect

Nintendo fans, rejoice! A brand-new Nintendo Direct is on its way and it will be here tomorrow, February 8, with roughly 40 minutes of updates focused mostly on Switch games planned for release in the first half of 2023.

IGN is carrying the stream and, as usual, this watch guide will provide you with everything you need to know to watch the show, including when it starts, a list of places you can watch it with us, and what you can expect to see from the Nintendo Direct.

Nintendo Direct February 2023 Start Time

February 2023’s Nintendo Direct will take place on Wednesday, February 8, and will start at 2pm PT/5pm ET/10pm GMT. If you live in Australia, that translates to 9am AEDT on Thursday, February 9.

Where to Watch the Nintendo Direct February 2023

If you’re interested in watching the latest Nintendo Direct, we’ll be hosting the stream here and across our many channels on platforms like YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and more. Here’s the full list of places you can watch the show with us:

What to Expect at the Nintendo Direct February 2023

As with most of its full Nintendo Directs, Nintendo has not revealed which games we can expect to be featured in the show besides saying the Direct is “mostly focused on #NintendoSwitch games launching in the first half of 2023.”

What it did reveal, however, is that the Nintendo Direct will last roughly 40 minutes. So, what can we expect in those 40 minutes? Well, a good bet would be The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. This incredibly anticipated sequel to 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is set to be released on May 12, 2023, and we still don’t know all that much about it.

This would be the perfect time to show us more gameplay, reveal a bit more about the story, or even share with the world any special collector’s editions or themed Switch consoles that may be planned for this momentous launch.

We also know that Pikmin 4 is scheduled for 2023, so we may get an update on this new entry in the franchise that first began on GameCube in 2001. Another big question mark is Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp, which was originally supposed to be released on April 8, 2022.

There’s also the Metroid-shaped elephant in the room we have to discuss, as Metroid Prime 4 is still somewhere out on the horizon and the biggest news we’ve heard in some time is that its development was restarted back in 2019. Furthermore, there have been rumors that a Metroid Prime Trilogy for Switch has been in the works, but that also has yet to show its face.

It may be time to learn more about Nintendo Switch Online, as well, as a report back in 2021 said Game Boy and Game Boy Color games were on their way to the service.

Another good bet may be DLC for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, which was just confirmed to have sold more than 18 million units, and an appearance of some sort from The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Speaking of Mario, it’s been quite some time since we’ve been treated to a brand-new, mainline Mario adventure, and this could be the best time to tease our favorite plumber’s next adventure. Could it be Super Mario Odyssey 2 with a The Super Mario Bros. Movie Kingdom? Maybe a new 2D adventure we’ll be playing this holiday? The options are limitless.

We’re also still very much waiting for these supposed ports of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, but it may not be the right time with Tears of the Kingdom right around the corner. One can hope though!

Oh! We have to mention Hollow Knight: Silksong and Mother 3, because those two titles are always some of the most requested to show up in Nintendo Directs!

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.

Transport Tycoon fan remake OpenTTD gets largest update in years

OpenTTD 13.0 been released, which is “one of the largest releases we’ve done in several years” according to the developers. If you don’t know OpenTTD, it’s an open source and free fan remake of Transport Tycoon which greatly expands, polishes and modernises the beloved business sim. This latest update improves the interface further, tweaks the world generation, and more.

Read more

Azul Board Game Review

Azul is named after azuleijos, the brightly coloured geometric tiles sported by beautiful buildings across North Africa and Portugal; the Portuguese learned to make them from the Moors. The board game has become a celebrated design in its own right, popular enough to launch several sequels which use the same core mechanics and the same beautiful printed plastic tiles. We’re revisiting the original to try and find out what makes this game about decorating palace walls quite so compelling.

What’s in the Box

Like many other abstracts, Azul is a little short on the components front, but what it lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality. Underneath the rules sheet, you’ll find four colorful, clear, sturdy playboards, one for each player. There are also a number of cardboard discs and some classic wooden cubes.

The most impressive eye candy is the piles of plastic tiles and the big cloth drawstring bag you keep them in. They’re an absolute delight: smooth and chunky, bright and colorful and some are embossed with intricate geometric designs. The game has them on display for full effect and they’re really satisfying to handle and rummage around in when you pull them from the bag.

Rules and how it Plays

Again, like many other abstracts Azul is a fairly simple game to get to grips with, although its slight oddity may prove a bit of a stumbling block. Each player gets a play board and a number of card circles, called factories, each of which starts with four tiles drawn at random from the bag. On your turn, you choose one of the factories, take all tiles of one matching color from it, and then place the rest in the centre of the table. After the first turn, this central offering is treated like another factory from which players can select tiles.

The tiles you’ve chosen go in one of the five rows of your playboard. You can put them in any row, which holds from one to five tiles, so long as a row doesn’t hold more than one color at once. If you do end up with tiles you can’t find on your play board then they “fall” to the bottom and smash, costing you penalty points.

This continues until all the tiles have been taken. Then from any rows that are full, you’re allowed to take a tile and transfer it to the same row on your wall, a grid of color-coded squares, on the matching colored space. That row can no longer hold tiles of that color. You’ll then score points depending on how many tiles are adjacent to the one that you’ve placed. After one player has completed a whole row of tiles, it’s time for final scoring where you get fat bonuses for having completed rows, columns or diagonals of the same color.

From this description, you might imagine Azul to be a somewhat humdrum affair, the kind of mediocre abstract that amuses for a few sessions before being forgotten. But it has a great deal more to it than the pretty face of its toothsome tiles. At first, it’s tempting to look at Azul purely from the perspective of filing lines efficiently: if there’s a trio of tiles, it makes sense to fit them into your three-long space. But because scoring each placement is based on adjacency, that’s a quick way to lose.

Instead, you’ll start to try and pick colours that fill rows and columns. And then you’re in the teeth of a dilemma because, of course, the need to fill lines efficiently is still a thing. If you don’t take that trio of tiles, then someone else might. So you begin to glance around at the boards of other players, frantically trying to second guess who’s going to pip you to the post on a pick you want, and how much following players might benefit if you leave particularly sweet groups for them and when you reach this point the game becomes really interesting.

Consider: unless you’re picking from the center, every pick you make radically changes the tiles on offer to other players because your discards end up in the middle. That might accidentally create a very valuable group for someone else. It might also spoil another player’s choices because they wanted a specific amount to fit onto their board and now there are too many, so if they take it they’ll smash the excess and take penalty points. Best of all, you might actually be laying a trap for following players because the restrictions caused by what they’ve already placed could force them into take a whole pile of tiles they can’t fit, merely to merrily smash on their floor alongside the tinkling amusement of their opponents.

All this to think about on every turn and we haven’t even reached trying to complete rows, columns and colors for bonus points. There really is a whole lot to Azul and what’s particularly joyous about it is how your choices impact those of your fellow players, often very strongly, without a whiff of zero-sum interaction where what makes one player stronger makes another weaker. The game is well-balanced, deep and, unless you can calculate all the probabilities a dozen moves ahead, often quite exciting as you wait to see what the other players leave you.

The game is well-balanced and deep.

Against this, there is a certain degree of repetition to consider. From a thematic standpoint, this is essentially a game about tiling walls, hardly the most thrilling and dramatic subject matter for a clash of minds. There aren’t a lot of moving parts to Azul which, even though it makes the relative depth of strategy all the more impressive, doesn’t give you the variety many players want to sustain interest over a prolonged period of plays. Those who can maintain focus on a single game, however, will find a lot to reward them.

Where to Buy

Azul has earned a spot on our list of the best family board games. For more roundups, check out the best roll and write games, and the best deck-building games.

Atari Is Releasing a $1,000 Boxset for Its 50th Anniversary and It’s Only Making 100 of Them

Atari is celebrating its 50th anniversary in style with a $999.99 collectible boxset that features 10 Atari 2600 cartridges with reimagined artwork, acrylic toppers that light up when inserted into the console, and more. Oh, and there will only be 100 of them available worldwide.

As detailed by Atari, these cartridges — which hold Adventure, Missile Command, Warlords, Super Breakout, Crystal Castles, Haunted House, Yars’ Revenge, Centipede, Asteroids, and Gravitar — also feature a remastered version of their original key art.

Also included are cardstock posters, instructional manuals with bonus material, hard enamel pins, patches, certificates of authenticity, and a digital copy of each game that can be played on the Atari VCS. If that wasn’t enough, when you put all 10 cartridges together, they display the Atari 50th Anniversary logo, making it a perfect item for any collector’s shelf.

The collection is currently in pre-production and Atari notes that any artwork is subject to change. Pre-orders are now open, and those who wish to secure one will have to wait three to four months to get their product. It’s also important to note that once the pre-order window closes, all orders will be considered final and will not be able to be canceled.

This is only one way Atari is celebrating this big milestone, as it previously released Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, and we fell in love with it.

In our Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration review, we said that it “offers a completely new, very fun way to explore several decades of Atari arcade machines, consoles, handhelds, and PCs.”

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.

5 Ways Minecraft Legends Twists PvP into a Brand New Action-Strategy Experience

Minecraft Legends, the upcoming game from Mojang Studios and Blackbird Interactive is “not your normal strategy game,” according to Principal Design Director, Craig Leigh. Appearing on the Xbox Podcast last week, Leigh dove into multiple ways the new title (coming on April 18 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC (Steam & Windows), Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4|5) offers a very new twist on the genre. “We get that all time,” he explained, “People are like, ‘This is not the game I thought it was, this is an action game!’, and that’s what I love about it.” 

When you’re blending genres, you need to come up with fresh ideas for how it will work, not least in Minecraft Legends’ 4v4 PvP mode, which was introduced during the Developer_Direct last month. The developers have come up with multiple ways to do that, and Leigh explained several of the ways PvP has been innovated on in this new twist on the formula

Fast Travel 

Minecraft Legends screenshot

Not something you’d necessarily associate with strategy games, Minecraft Legends introduces a fast travel system to help players balance the various activities they’ll need to do to conquer their enemies. While base building is a key part of the picture, players will also need to venture out, explore, gather resources, and attack enemies to win a round – and that means offering them an easy way home to keep their base safe. 

“So if you’re out in the world and you’re far away from your base and you hear that you’re under attack, you can fast travel,” Leigh explained. “So you can open the map, click on your base and go ‘whoosh’, be back home really quickly, because we didn’t want players running, panicked, ‘oh I can’t get back home in time’.” 

Fast travel doesn’t just apply to player-characters, either. “If you’re at home as well, and you get attacked, you can go to a spawn and recall units, units that are out in thew world that maybe aren’t doing anything, you can call them back quickly to your base,” Leigh added. “You’re not running around looking for them, ‘Where are those Cobblestone Golems?’, you can just pull them back to help you with defence.” 

PvPvE 

Minecraft Legends screenshot

It’s clear that Minecraft Legends will have players doing a lot during rounds, but its NPCs are pretty busy too – and may even offer players new ways to take down their opponents’ base: 

“The thing I think people will be most surprised about is the game’s PvP, but there’s a little PvE in there as well,” Leigh revealed. “The Piglins [the enemies in the game’s story-led campaign] are also in PvP, and the Piglins do whatever the Piglins want. So the Piglins are attacking both teams, and there’s a day-night cycle going on during the battles, but the Piglins attack more ferociously at night – so do you time your strategy when the Piglins attack at night and wait for them to break the walls down and sneak in? So you’re not only dealing with the other team, you’re dealing with the Piglins are well.” 

The Ping System 

Minecraft Legends screenshot

With a shared pool of resources, multiple activities to do, and attacks on multiple fronts, communication is key in Minecraft Legends’ PvP. Thankfully, the team has a neat solution for that, beyond the expected: 

“We also have ping system,” Leigh said. “It’s really important to work together, because you’re sharing resources and so with the ping system you can say, ‘I want to build a Redstone Launcher’, and the team go, ‘OK, let’s save up our Redstone. Or you could be like, ‘I want coal!’, and so people go ‘OK let’s save up our coal’. You can use voice chat, and it’s great, but also we wanted to make sure there was a system that people could give out the basic commands because you are sharing resources.” 

Game Time 

Minecraft Legends screenshot

Seasoned strategy players will be used to multiplayer matches that can take a very long time to finish, battling through stalemates to earn a hard-earned victory. Minecraft Legends wants to offer that same experience, but in a more manageable time frame, letting players constantly start new games, with procedurally generated maps offering fresh experiences every time they play. 

“We’ve worked really hard, so games last between 20 and 30 minutes,” Leigh explained. “It does depend on the strategy; if teams have a crazy strategy they might win earlier if they take the team by surprise, or if both teams decide, ‘We’re going to build bastions with stone walls and massive towers,’ then the games might go on a little bit longer.  

“But we’ve been working really hard to balance the games this way, because we don’t want it to be a 14-day siege of the Blue Team, and so our longer games have lasted around 30 minutes. It’s an old-fashioned thing to think about, but we wanted players to get two games in in a lunchtime, be able to play a couple of games in they were playing in their lunch. “ 

Cross-Platform Ease 

Minecraft Legends screenshot

Strategy games are traditionally the dominion of PC, but Minecraft Legends is coming out on every major gaming platform, simultaneously. In doing that, the team’s worked to make sure that not only can you play with anyone, on any platform, but that no one will be disadvantaged by playing on a specific machine. 

“We thought it was really important, regardless of what platform you’re on that you could play together, we want as many players as possible playing together,” Leigh made clear. 

“It doesn’t matter where you play, on launch day you’ll be able to play on any of those platforms in PvP and it plays perfectly on any platform. The way we’ve designed it there’s no advantage to be on a keyboard and mouse versus a controller, it’s not a first-person shooter or anything, so it’s been designed that way, so it’s perfect for cross-platform play. We thought that was really important, so we’ve designed it that way.” 

And with a huge pool of players across platforms and continents playing together, that just means there will be more twists to PvP that even the developers can’t see coming. 

“I’m particularly excited to see the crazy strategies that people come up with in PvP,” finished Leigh. “Because we think we’ve done everything and then someone will come in and just do something crazy that we haven’t thought of. We all joke on the team that we’re going to be good at the PvP for about and hour and then all the community will just crush us because they’ll come up with new strategies.” 

Minecraft Legends launches April 18 on Windows PC (day one with PC Game Pass), Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One (day one with Xbox Game Pass), Xbox Cloud Gaming, PlayStation, Steam, and Nintendo Switch. 

Xbox Live

Minecraft Legends – Windows

Xbox Game Studios

The piglins’ Nether corruption is spreading across the Overworld, scorching everything it touches. Are you the hero who will protect this gentle land? Plan your strategy and face the piglins in epic battles – but be warned: they always fight back. Take on piglin bases by day and defend your allies after dusk. Explore lush biomes filled with treasures and perils, meet new friends, and reunite with familiar mobs. With the allays by your side, all that’s left to do is save the world.

Experience an epic legend from the Minecraft universe and the Overworld as you’ve never seen it before

Form alliances with new friends and familiar mobs, then lead the charge in epic battles against the fierce piglins to defend the Overworld

Traverse a lush, dynamic world that’s rich in resources and different in each playthrough

Challenge your friends or team up in intense battles as you defend your village while leading your units to destroy your opponents’ settlements

Related:
Journey to Deep Space with the Stellar Shift Special Edition Wireless Controller
Xbox Celebrates Safer Internet Day with Minecraft’s New Privacy-Themed Learning World and Safety Tips for Parents
Take The Journey Of A Lifetime In Deliver Us Mars, Out Today On Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One

Daily Deals: 50% Off Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, Up to 15% Off Hogwarts Legacy, $50 Off Apple AirPods Pro, and More

Today’s daily deals include several Apple devices, including the newest Apple AirPods Pro, and several of the newest Apple iPads. You can also save on the Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope game for the Nintendo Switch, the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy game for all platforms, a fantastic ASUS ROG Scar Strix RTX 3080 gaming laptop, and more.

PlayStation 5 Finally In Stock on Amazon

Amazon is finally letting you buy a PS5 console without an invite. The PS5 God of War Bundle (Disc Edition) is currently the only model available without requiring an invitation. That means Amazon now joins the ranks of Walmart, Best Buy, and Target who have already had PS5 consoles in stock. For Amazon Prime cardholders, that’s great news because now you can get 5% Amazon cashback on this deal. If you’re an Amazon Prime member and you don’t have the Prime card, you’re missing out. The Price card has no annual fee and gives you 5% cashback on all Amazon purchases.

Out February 10: Preorder Hogwarts Legacy, Get a $10 Best Buy Gift Card

The highly anticipated Hogwarts Legacy game, an open world adventure that takes place in the Wizarding World in the late 1800s, has an imminent release date of February 10. Right now the only way to get a discount on the console version is at Best Buy. If you preorder the standard edition on either Xbox or PlayStation, you get a bonus $10 Best Buy digital gift card. Check out our review for our impression of the game.

Hogwarts Legacy for PC for $50.59

Green Man Gaming has the best deal on the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy game for PC. Pick up the Standard Edition for only $50.99 or the Deluxe Edition for only $59.49. That’s a 15% discount on one of the most anticipated games of 2023. It’s out this coming Friday but anyone who gets the Deluxe edition can start playing now!

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope for Switch for $29.99

This is the first time we’ve ever seen the price drop this low. Amazon has the Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope game for the Nintendo Switch for only $29.99, a massive 50% price drop. If you liked the first Mario + Rabbods game, I think you will love Sparks of Hope. I personally played and enjoyed Kingdom Battle, but Sparks of Hope is, in my opinion, a much more polished game. Mario + Rabbids is an XCOM-like turn based tactical strategy game that’s different from your standard Mario fare. It’s also a lot more challenging than the cute creature outfits might suggest.

2nd Gen Apple AirPods Pro for $199

The 2nd gen Apple AirPods Pro truly wireless noise cancelling earbuds is back down to Black Friday pricing. Amazon currently has it for $199, a price drop of $50. The Apple AirPods Pro is one of the best sounding “truly wireless” earbuds you’ll find, especially at this price point. “Truly wireless” earbuds have no wires whatsoever, even to each other. In addition to the excellent sound quality, the AirPods Pro is the only AirPods earbuds with active noise cancelling technology.

New 2022 Apple iPad (10.9″, WiFi, 64GB) for $399

This is the first time we’ve seen a discount on the 2022 Apple iPad, which was released at the end of October 2022. It’s normally $449 but Amazon has the Pink color only for $399, undoubtedly a Valentine’s Day focused price drop. The new iPad has a host of upgrades from previous models, including a newer A14 Bionic chip, larger 10.9″ screen size, and the universal USB Type-C port now replacing the proprietary Lightning port.

2022 Apple iPad Air (10.9″, Wi-Fi, 64GB) for $499.99

Back down to the best price we saw during Black Friday. The 2022 Apple iPad Air was released in March of 2022 with a $599 MSRP. It represents a healthy upgrade to the 10.2-inch iPad in nearly all aspects. It boasts a larger screen size (10.9″ vs 10.2″) with both True Tone and P3 wide color. It has the same powerful Apple M1 chip found in the 2021 iPad Pro. Despite the more powerful hardware, the iPad Air is roughly the same size as the 10.2-inch iPad (thanks to the slimmer bezel) and weighs a bit less as well. Charging is done through the universal USB Type-C connector.

2021 Apple iPad Mini (8.3″, Wi-Fi, 64GB) for $399.99

This is easily the best price for the still current 2021 Apple iPad Mini. Don’t be fooled by it’s smaller footprint; it boasts superior hardware to the standard sized Apple iPad. The iPad Mini features an 8.3″ Liquid Retina display with True Tone and Wide Color, the capable A15 Bionic processor, USB Type-C port for fast charging, and Apple Pencil 2 compatiblity. If you’re looking for a powerful iPad that’s easiest to carry around, the iPad Mini is your pick.

GeForce RTX 4090 Starting at $1649.99

Here are two RTX 4090s at or close to MSRP! The stock RTX 4090 normally sells for $1599.99. However, both the MSI Gaming X Trio and the PNY XLR8 come overclocked right out of the box, which accounts for the small surcharge. Everybody knows by now that the RTX 4090 is the undisputed king of the hill. It’s significantly more powerful than any other NVIDIA card out there. It’s laughably more powerful than any AMD card, thanks to its support for DLSS 3.0 and it’s marvelous domination of ray tracing tech.

ASUS ROG Scar Strix 15″ AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX RTX 3080 Gaming Laptop for $1669.99

Amazon is offering a fantastic deal on this ASUS ROG Scar Strix gaming laptop. It features an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, RTX 3080 GPU 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The GeForce RTX 3080 provides plenty of muscle on the GPU front. It’s the most powerful mobile GPU available. Compared to desktop variants, it’s roughly comparable to the RTX 3060.

55″ TCL 4-Series 4K Roku TV for $268

Here’s a 55″ TCL 4K TV with the excellent Roku smart TV interface at an excellent price. The TCL 4-series is a no frills TV with a limited set of features but, more importantly, still offers good 4K image quality. It also fares well in gaming at 4K thanks to its low input lag. The Roku smart interface is intuitive to use and every bit as good as a Google TV or Fire TV.

BOGO 50% Off at Target Includes New Releases Like Dead Space, The Callisto Protocol, and Forspoken

Target’s Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off deal on select video games is back, and there are some great choices up for grabs. This time around, the offer includes a trio of very recent games: the Dead Space remake, Square Enix’s Forspoken, and The Callisto Protocol. If you want to grab two of these three recent releases, you can do so through this deal to save a good chunk of change. Plus, other 2022 games like Sonic Frontiers, Elden Ring, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, and more are also included.

The Best Deals of the Week

These deals are definitely worth your attention.

Anker MagGo 621 5,000mAh Magnetic Battery for iPhone for $34.99

Expired

If you don’t want to plunk down $100 for an official Apple MagSafe battery, then Anker has the next best thing. The Anker MagGo 621 boasts a 5,000mAh battery capacity and is MagSafe compatible. The magnets are strong enough to stick directly to your iPhone or a MagSafe case. The iPhone 14 has an internal 3300mAh battery and the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a 4300mAh battery, so the Anker MagGo should easily give either phone at least an extra full charge worth of battery life.

New 2022 Apple MacBook Pro with M2 Chip for $1396

Expired

A 2022 Apple MacBook Pro laptop featuring the brand new Apple M2 chip in on sale today. Amazon has a 13″ model for $1396, a substantial 18% price drop from its $1699 MSRP. The new M2 chip is about 20% more powerful than the previous generation M1 chip, which was already faster than any other CPU found on previous Apple MacBook laptops. The M2 chip is also extremely power efficient, with this laptop boasting up to 20 hours of battery life on a single charge. In addition to the new M2 CPU, this laptop features a gorgeous 13″ Retina display with P3 wide color, 10-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

Toss A V-Buck To Your Witcher, Geralt Of Rivia Slashes Onto Fortnite Today

New quests and items available.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that at some point in each of our lives we will become a playable character in Fortnite. The crossovers have covered everything from Black Adam to John Cena and now it is the turn of Geralt of Rivia to take up the sword as The Witcher crossover leaps from the Battle Bus today.

There are a selection of quests that you Battle Pass owners will have to complete in order to unlock the Geralt outfit, all of which are available in the game right now. From defeating bosses and completing bounties to doing emotes in specific locations, details of the quests were shared in the latest Fortnite blog post, but you can also check out each of the tasks below:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com