After about 10 hours in Hytale, the new survival crafter from some former Minecraft modders, there really isn’t a better way I could describe it other than to say it’s basically Minecraft 2. From the block-by-block breaking and building, to the stylized environments and enemies, to the procedural world generation, this feels like the, “What would we change if we had the chance to start over again?” version of the now legendary 2009 classic. Many games have been influenced by Mojang’s trendsetter, but this is more of a cover song than a subgenre from what I’ve seen so far (though I’ve got plenty more to play before my final review). And while developer Hypixel Studios’ lawyers might not love hearing me say that, I honestly don’t think it’s a bad thing. Even in Early Access, it’s a good cover!

All of the gameplay will be pretty familiar if you’ve put any time at all into Minecraft, but with some streamlining here and there. You no longer have to begin your journey punching trees, for instance, since basic tools are made with sticks and rubble that can be collected easily with your bare hands. Also, breaking the trunk of a tree will cause everything above it to collapse and drop its resources, which was almost enough to win me over on its own. I still to this day hate having to chop upwards to hollow out a tree in Minecraft!

Movement is also a lot more modern and fluid. You can jump up to three blocks high and pull yourself up, which feels like such a huge quality-of-life improvement over the one-block jump limit in Minecraft. It’s even possible to take a running leap at a ledge, hit the side, and pull yourself up. We’ve got proper parkour now, and I don’t know that I would ever want to give it up.

It also just runs better than Minecraft on my Ryzen 7 3700X, 32GB RAM, and RTX 4070 Ti-powered system. Even with the draw distance cranked up, my framerates sit comfortably above 60. We’ll see how long that lasts when I start building elaborate megastructures, but for now it’s like butter.

Combat is fine. There are a handful of different weapon types, from swift-slashing double daggers to a classic sword and shield setup with more defensive options, and every one has its own unique charge attack and a special meter that can be filled up to release a devastating finisher. I’m impressed with the enemy variety so far, with everything from goblin bomb-throwers to really terrifying lava toads that can catch you with their tongues and pull you in for a very painful bite attack.

Building can be a little bit fiddly. We have more pieces to pick from, like proper roofs that make Minecraft’s classic stair tricks redundant. But sometimes I had to do silly stuff like building a dirt “mold” to make sure all the pieces were facing the right way. Still, once I got the hang of its quirks, I was able to start making some pretty neat-looking stuff.

There’s very little direction in this Early Access version of Hytale, currently. The main hub area, the Forgotten Temple, is a rotunda of literal Under Construction signs. I even stumbled into some dungeons out in the world where I’d be excited to throw the doors open only to find one of these disappointing barriers. It’s not clear what the larger, overarching goal is supposed to be, although I’m happy enough to build cool stuff and seek out new ores for higher-level tools at the moment. But I’m not sure if there will eventually be a story or bigger bosses to find or anything like that. I haven’t run into them yet if they exist already.

Overall, I’m quite enjoying my time with Hytale so far, though. Even if it is just Minecraft again, it’s an enjoyable rendition with some thoughtful tweaks and additions. It’s almost like someone’s wishlist of things Mojang will never do, or can’t do with its legacy tech. I plan to put in at least a few dozen more hours before I give it a final evaluation, but check back for more updates on my progress in the coming week.

Hellboy star Ron Perlman has expressed his bemusement at the Fallout franchise and his legendary status within it as narrator of all the video games, joking he was paid “$40 and a sandwich” to record his iconic “war never changes” line for Fallout 1.

Perlman first recorded the “war never changes” line as part of the intro for 1997’s Fallout video game. He’s played the narrator for pretty much every Fallout video game since, with the “war never changes” line becoming seared into the memories of a legion of fans. It’s a line that even made it into Amazon’s Fallout TV show, although Perlman didn’t say it himself.

Good morning, everyone! If you, like me, popped open Animal Crossing: New Horizons before work today for a stroll around your island, you were greeted with a pleasant surprise: the 3.0 update just dropped a day early, and the Hotel is officially open for business, along with a number of other new features.

The meat of Animal Crossing: New Horizon 3.0 is a hotel that will set up on your island at the end of your pier, wherever that’s located for you. Just download the update (make sure you actually download it – there was a system update this morning as well for me and I almost missed it!) and it should be there waiting for you if you’re a returning player who put some time into your island already. It seems likely there is at least one other requirement for the hotel to show up that prevents it from being there for new players, but we’re still working out just what that is.

The hotel works a lot like the Happy Home DLC: you’ll be asked to decorate different rooms in it based on themes you’re given from Leilani. However, unlike the DLC, the catalog is the limit on what all you can put in these rooms. Though you’re given a list of recommended items if you need help, apart from that, any item you’ve ever collected (via DIY, purchase, gift, or whatever) is available for use in the hotel, as many times as you want.

Whenever you finish a room, it will become available for guests to stay in. This is a great way to meet other villagers you don’t have living on your island at the moment, as they’ll come stay and share cute and unique dialogue. You’ll also be given Hotel Tickets, which you can spend at the souvenir shop for unique decor newly added to the game that you can use in your own house or elsewhere on the island.

Additionally, outside the hotel, Tom Nook will invite you to use a box outside the hotel where you’ll be asked to craft certain DIY items to help promote your island elsewhere. Completing these requests will get you more Hotel Tickets to spend on more items. And, by the way, DIY crafting is easier than ever now that bulk crafting and crafting using ingredients from storage has been enabled with the new update.

In addition to all this, there are several other new additions: There’s tons of new furniture available both via the Souvenir Shop and the Nook Shopping app, including a bunch of LEGO items and classic game systems that you can use to activate games using Nintendo Switch Online from within Animal Crossing. Dream Worlds are now active, and let you build and decorate up to three Dream Islands either alone or with friends. And the new Zelda and Splatoon-themed amiibo villagers and themed items are available if you scan their amiibo.

Now, as of 1/14/2026, there are still a few new features you’ll have to wait for. Because while the 3.0 content update is now live, the Nintendo Switch 2 paid update feature isn’t available until tomorrow. So everything that comes with that update: improved graphics, 12-person multiplayer, the Megaphone item, and so forth, that’s not in the game just yet. But it will be soon, just hang in there one more day!

We’ve got a comprehensive guide to the 3.0 update, including how to unlock everything and what’s included, as a part of our Animal Crossing: New Horizons Wiki guide. If you’re just getting back to New Horizons today after a long hiatus, we also have a number of tips for people getting back into the swing of things.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.