Following a delay last September.
Last September, 2K Games and Gearbox Software announced Borderlands 4 had been delayed for Switch 2.
The plan was to spend a little extra time to deliver the “best possible experience” on Nintendo’s new system, but it appears the plan has changed. In Take-Two’s latest earnings results (the parent company of 2K Games), the Switch 2 version has been removed from the company’s release schedule.
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Within the first three missions of Menace, I am talking to my squads of snappy space marines as if they are action figures on my bedroom floor. “Fan out and move up. Good shooting! That was clean, girl.” My roommates are probably used to me talking to myself when I’m playing video games at this point, but it speaks to how engrossed I got in this turn-based interplanetary war that I was already developing that kind of relationship with it. There’s a lot still missing from the Early Access release. But the tactical, bug-blasting fun is already dialed in.
Probably the biggest way in which it’s obvious that this is an Early Access game is the overall lack of context. I know that I’m a Major on a military ship that suffered some kind of FTL drive accident that destroyed many systems and most of the crew, leaving me as the senior commanding officer. I know that we’ve wound up in an area of space called the Wayback that is home to a handful of interesting, competing human factions and also a species of giant alien bugs. It’s not all that difficult to get a grasp of the basics.
But I’m not actually sure why we’re here, what the original mission was, what kind of faction we’re representing, or what the Wayback even is. Why is it called that? How long have these other humans been here? There are references to some kind of in-game lore encyclopedia, but it doesn’t seem to have been implemented yet. At the end of the day, none of this really gets in the way of my ability to shoot at things. But it does make the early game feel a bit aimless, and I find the setting interesting enough that I’d like to know more.
It’s not like Menace completely doesn’t care about story, either. There is clearly something brewing here, as unfinished as it is, with tension between the Wayback factions and the marines playing out in voice-acted cutscenes every few operations. It’s just unclear where it’s going or what I’m ultimately building up to other than harder missions, better gear, and upgrading my ship. In about 35 hours, I didn’t run into anything that seemed especially like the main plot. There is a steady escalation of stakes and difficulty, though, which at least does a good job of helping me feel like I’m not just spinning my wheels.
As a squad-based tactics game, man, I really like Menace. The pacing and action economy are so cleverly crafted to encourage you to play in more active and interesting ways. You can’t just set everyone on ov erwatch and creep forward, for example, which is a rut I tend to fall into in similar games. There aren’t a lot of passive or reactive abilities, so victory comes from making proactive choices. Moving up the field requires thinking about who still has turns left to spend, and how you can make sure your advance elements have adequate support if they run into trouble.
Suppression is a huge deal, at least when fighting other humans, and this adds a feeling of authenticity to every firefight. In actual warfare, they say hundreds of rounds get fired for every one that hits a target, and that’s exactly how Menace works. It’s often far more important to keep every enemy in line-of-sight pinned down than it is to inflict casualti es. That gives your second wave safety and freedom of movement to either charge in or flank and win the fight, and this creates a constantly engaging tactical loop. Your own squads who get suppressed will have their action points and accuracy penalized, but will also hunker down or hit the deck intelligently depending on the amount of heat they’re under, further making them feel like real soldiers.
This blends nicely with the fact that every squad is led by a named character you can recruit, level up, and customize. They all have distinct personalities and backstories along with a unique ability that defines them. There’s sort of an over-the-top Jagged Alliance vibe, though a bit less goofy. Jacques, a private security contractor I hired from the Wayback, can regain action points when he’s under heavy fire, so he thrives at the tip of the spear. Marta begins every mission with a major debuff that turns into a strong buff the more turns that pass, making her a clutch asset for closing out a long mission.
And unlike in, say, XCOM, these flagship characters only die if their entire squad is wiped out and you can’t get anyone over to them to render medical aid, so it doesn’t feel like playing a little bit risky will rob you of your beloved blorbos. On the othe=r hand, accompanying each of them (excluding vehicle drivers, which are their own thing) are up to eight renameable squadmates with no dialogue or special abilities. And these guys are… kind of expendable.
Manpower is a limited resource you have to manage on the strategic level, so you can’t just go throwing background extras into the meat grinder all the time. But especially as you get more advanced medical facilities online that can rehabilitate casualties, the grunts kind of become a wager you can afford to risk by making aggressive plays. And this is such a clever way of getting me to command more actively and break out of my usual, turtle playstyle.
Encountering the alien bugs changes things up quite a bit. They’re much harder to suppress, though heavy losses can force them to flee. And especially later on, some of them are so heavily-armored that your standard assault rifles are all but useless. They don’t really take cover, and a lot of them only have melee attacks. But simply holding your ground and grinding them down at range isn’t always an option. Having to switch up my gear and my thinking depending on what I was fighting, in addition to the wide variety of mission types, made me come up with new tactics constantly.
Squad customization is also deep and satisfying. There is no standard currency in the Wayback, so all gear is either a mission reward or purchased using the barter system on the black market. But even once you do build up enough scrap bombs and alien guts to trade for the best stuff available, there’s a supply budget on each mission that takes into account every piece of equipment and keeps you from simply buying your way to victory. I think this could use some tuning, since it currently feels like the missions are getting harder a bit faster than my supply budget is increasing. It’s almost there. Maybe just a nudge is all it needs.
It seems like a lot of thought has gone into the various veterancy upgrades squads can earn from promotions, as well. They’re pretty well-balanced, feeling powerful enough to be meaningful but not so game-changing as to trivialize combat on their own, like increasing evasion based on how many tiles you moved. Each has a clear role in mind, and almost none feel like they wouldn’t be at least situationally useful. It’s an area of progression where I can really tell developer Overhype Studios has a strong footing in what works and what doesn’t about this genre.
The strategic layer is not quite as well-developed yet. There are a few different things you can buy with the components gained from completing each multi-mission operation. You have ship upgrades like the med bay and the recruiting office for managing manpower, along with armaments that can be deployed from orbit a limited number of times per mission. Then you have loyalty tracks with each of the three major Wayback factions that can unlock their unique buildings, which can do things like give you an extra chance at post-mission loot or allow you to call in supplies in the middle of a mission.
They can be neat, but still feel a bit limited in both scope and depth. It’s a good first iteration, but this is for sure somewhere I’d like to see more love given to over the course of Early Access. There are also only three planets so far, which can start to feel a little samey after a while. More are in the works. Technical bugs have been relatively sparse, though my main file is afflicted by a fairly annoying one right now where my manpower counter seems to be permanently broken.
Whether you’re playing on console, PC or handheld devices, Xbox Play Anywhere makes it easier than ever to take your games with you – and right now, it’s the perfect time to dive in.
Heading Out, Kamikaze Lassplanes, Once Upon a Jester, and The Gap each bring something wildly different to the table, from high-speed road trips to theatrical chaos and introspective storytelling. Best of all, they’re all going on sale, letting you experience these standout indie titles wherever you play, for less. Find them in the Indie Selects Anniversary Sale and Deals with Game Pass Ultimate, Premium and Essential through February 9.
Heading Out is a high-speed road trip with a twist – part racing game, part narrative adventure, and entirely about the journey. As you blast across striking comic book–style landscapes, you’ll make choices that shape your story, meet unforgettable characters, and confront the fears chasing you from the rear-view mirror.
Kamikaze Lassplanes blends a vibrant visual novel packed with humor, heart, and larger-than-life personalities with classic shoot ’em up action. Between missions, you’ll spend time with a colorful cast of characters, make story choices, and uncover their motivations through lively dialogue and expressive anime-style art. The result is a game that’s as much about getting to know your squad as it is about lighting up the skies.
Once Upon a Jester is a joyful, wholesome story about friendship, improv, and putting on the best show you possibly can. As two aspiring performers chase their theatrical dreams, you’ll explore whimsical lands, make delightfully awkward choices, and stumble through comedic situations shaped by your decisions.
The Gap is a narrative-driven adventure that invites you to explore memory, identity, and the spaces between moments that define us. As you move through fragmented recollections and solve environmental puzzles, the story unfolds in unexpected and often intimate ways. Thoughtful, atmospheric, and quietly powerful, it’s a game that lingers long after the screen fades to black.
If any of these titles catch your attention, grab them while they’re still on discount!
Heading Out (-33%)
Kamikaze Lassplanes (-30%)
Once Upon a Jester (-30%)
The Gap (-70%)
All of them have been upgraded with XPA compatibility, so you can enjoy these gems of indie gaming wherever you are!
Crunching Koalas
Joshua Hayes is a neuroscientist, whose family is affected by a rare neurological disorder that slowly eats away at one’s capability and mental well-being. The struggle and fight of the family is witnessed through the lens of his highest and lowest moments. While exploring the raw, minimalist spaces, he comes across items that act as gateways to his past.
Moreover, while taking part in an experimental neuroscientific program, led by a biotech giant – Neuraxis, Joshua unknowingly finds himself entangled in a corporate intrigue.
In hopes of unraveling the web of memories, he’ll need to face a distressing question – can he really trust himself?
The post Grab Four Crunching Koalas XPA Faves at a Discount appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Battlefield 6 players aren’t happy after EA and Battlefield Studios’ changes to two of its most controversial cosmetics failed to live up to expectations.
Following promises to address fan feedback last week, the Battlefield community was quick to see how update 1.1.3.6 adjusted the Objective Ace skin and Winter Warning sticker when the patch went live this morning. The problem is the changes are almost too small to notice.
The ‘Objective Ace’ Battlefield 6 Skin with the similar #CallofDuty Ghosts Logo has been UPDATED 👀
Before and After: pic.twitter.com/sFwugNbNoL
— DETONATED (@DETONATEDcom) February 3, 2026
Let’s first take a look at Objective Ace. The skin drew criticism through Season 1 when players noticed it bore a striking resemblance to the Call of Duty: Ghosts logo, with both sharing even a few finer details, such as cracks and paint streaks. The Assault skin also caught flak related to the large white armor piece located on its chest.
The updated version of the cosmetic received the more noticeable facelift of the two impacted, with its updated look now featuring new details and a slimmer design overall. Still, it’s not enough for the players who were expecting more significant changes.
“[I] think the damage has already been done,” one player commented.
“Why did they copy COD in the first place?” another added.
AI Sticker Before VS After Patch #Battlefield6 pic.twitter.com/Srfjhp7ZHj
— Battlefield Intel (@BattlefieldInte) February 3, 2026
The Winter Warning sticker, on the other hand, was the center of controversy when players noticed details that suggested it may have been created using generative AI. Battlefield 6 update 1.1.3.6 seems to have brought no change to its design, with its soldier finger placement and double-barreled M4A1 still plainly in view despite being two of the bigger talking points amongst fans.
It’s been cause for concern for those who feel EA and BF Studios may have misled fans. However, the developers have since stepped in to say the timing relayed in last week’s patch notes, which promised to adjust Winter Warning with the February 3 update, was “incorrect.”
“The latest update notes communicated that a change would be made for the Winter Warning Player Card Sticker to bring it more in line with Battlefield’s visual identity,” a message shared today says. “This timing was incorrect. Winter Warning will be updated when Season 2 launches on February 17th.”
It’s unclear what the new version of the sticker will look like when it launches with Season 2 in about two weeks. For now, players have taken to social media to call attention to both the delay and the relatively small changes to the cosmetics.
“Show what ur doing with it,” one fan suggested.
“Stop using AI generated Art and cosmetics and we will trust this statement and future ones,” another added.
Battlefield 6 saw a strong start when it released October 10, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S but has faced backlash in recent weeks as players hope for fundamental changes to how BF Studios is handling post-launch content. The fallout from a disappointing end to Season 1 reached a boiling point in early January, with the team eventually announcing that Season 2 had been delayed.
Following an extended Season 1, Season 2 will launch February 17. Players got a first look at its new map, Contaminated, a few weeks ago, and more content (including the return of a Battlefield 4 map) is in the works for the future.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
I have a strange affinity for brutalism. It sucks you in, engulfs you in its stature, kills your spirit in such blunt, obvious ways, that I can’t help but be wowed by in all its oppressiveness. As an architectural styling, it is also supremely opportune for sick parkour tricks, something Léonard Lemaitre (Babbdi, Straftat), Nathan Grange and Niels Tiercelin all deeply understand with the volumetric VHOLUME, a “first-person parkour adventure set in a dystopian brutalist city where bureaucracy turns a simple task into an odyssey,” which now has a demo.
The CEO of Take-Two Interactive has denied ongoing rumors that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be a digital-only release upon its initial launch.
This comes from Variety, which spoke to CEO Strauss Zelnick today ahead of the company’s Q3 2026 earnings release. When asked if subsidiary Rockstar would delay the release of physical copies of GTA 6 until 2027 to avoid leaks, he replied, “That’s not the plan.”
Rumors of such a physical delay emerged late last month, when an alleged insider industry source shared that Take-Two had no plans for a physical edition of the game at release due to concerns about physical copies falling into hands early and leaking online.
Notably, the report suggests that physical copies could be delayed into 2027, or delayed just a few weeks, which would make Zelnick’s answer somewhat unclear. IGN reached out to Take-Two to get more clarity on what his statement meant, and was informed that Zelnick’s statement was denying any delay plan at all, not just a move to 2027 specifically.
GTA 6 is still set for release on November 18, 2026, a date that Zelnick reaffirmed confidently to us today, alongside plans for Rockstar to spin up its marketing machine this summer. The game has already suffered from multiple leaks, both of development footage and of its first trailer, alongside a number of AI-generated fake leaks. We also spoke to Zelnick today about Google Genie ahead of the company’s Q3 earnings report, in which Take-Two announced it had brought in net bookings of $1.76 billion for the quarter, and that it’s raising its expectations for the year to have net bookings between $6.65 billion to $6.7 billion.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
It’s undeniable that for throwback 3D retro aesthetics, the original PlayStation and Nintendo 64 are the consoles that most people try to emulate. So I’m always quite chuffed to see a game that takes its visual cues from more recent consoles, like, say, Bel’s Fanfare, a very 3DS-era looking Zelda-esque game where you play as a little demon girl who works as a cleaner on a strange, massive ship.
Last week, Google announced Project Genie, an AI-powered virtual world creator still in its infancy that seemed to spook a number of video game investors. Following the announcement, stock prices of companies such as Take-Two, Roblox, and Unity took a noticeable dip, seemingly due to a belief that Genie was going to mostly or fully replace user-generated content down the line. But at least one of those companies’ CEOs isn’t ruffled by the price drop: Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick.
Speaking to IGN today ahead of the company’s Q3 earnings call, Zelnick responded to my question about whether or not he saw Genie as a threat to Take-Two’s business. He doesn’t. Quite the contrary, he sound pretty positive. Here’s his response in full:
“This company and its products were built upon machine learning and artificial intelligence more than 25 years ago. That’s the story of this business; we use computers to create what we do. So we’re energized and excited by these new tools and the prospects that they bring. We have actively embraced new AI, I said so when we spoke about it in the last couple calls. [Author’s note: I ask Zelnick something about AI most quarters as news-relevant, here’s a summary from 2023 of what has been his consistent stance.] In fact, we have hundreds of pilots and implementations [of AI] across our company including with our studios. I think tools are what drive additional innovation in what we do, drive efficiency, and drive creativity, and that’s our three-part strategy.
“I think the confusion in the marketplace is somehow that tools equals properties…and tools and properties are very different things. Creators use tools to make amazing entertainment, and of course that will never change, and once you make amazing entertainment you have to market it worldwide, and the people who are best at marketing entertainment worldwide are big, significant entertainment enterprises with the balance sheet to actually support those launches, companies like us. So I feel more optimistic than ever that new technology is going to allow us to supercharge our business.”
In the past, including in the aforementioned 2023 conversation with Zelnick, I’ve asked him if he thinks generative AI will ever be able to create a GTA-like game wholesale, and his response has always been that it won’t. But I asked him today if the appearance of Genie had changed anything for him; it hasn’t.
“I don’t think theres any tool by itself that you can press a button and make a competitive property,” Zelnick said. “Some romance novelists for example are using AI tools to write certain parts of their book, but they still have to come up with the concept, the characters, and the structure. I don’t think you’re going to find hit movies, hit novels, hit songs, being entirely created with technology with no creator interaction, it’s just not the history of creativity. So I think perhaps people are confusing tools and technology with hits, and they’re really different things, and I would never want to underestimate the importance of human genius, even with fantastic tools. I think fantastic tools unlock human genius to do great things.”
Okay, but what if those fantastic tools, available now to anyone, are used to make a clone of a GTA game? Does Zelnick have any intellectual property concerns? Sort of, sure, but he’s seemingly of the mind that it’s better to work with the community than against them.
“We protect our intellectual property and we are respectful of toher people’s intellectual property,” he said. “At the same time we’ve allowed a lot of users to engage with a lot of our games and of course the FiveM business is an example of that. User-generated content can be and already is a big part of what we do around here. I also feel that user-generated content sort of stands side-by-side with professionally-generated entertainment. For example, YouTube is a huge business, but it represents about 12.5% of overall linear entertainment consumption. 87.5% is still old-fashioned, professional content made by human beings.” [Take-Two cited Activate Consulting as the source of this stat following the call.]
We also spoke to Zelnick about his confidence in GTA 6’s release date, and Rockstar spinning up marketing for the game this summer. In today’s earnings report, Take-Two announced it had brought in net bookings of $1.76 billion for the quarter, and that it’s raising its expectations for the year to have net bookings between $6.65 billion to $6.7 billion.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
“I’ll reveal who it is on the anniversary day”.
Stardew Valley celebrates its 10th anniversary later this month. Yes, really. On 26th February 2026, ConcernedApe’s monumental farming sim will turn a decade old. It came to Switch in 2017 and, in the time since it’s release, has sold millions of copies and has consistently received a number of big free updates, with the next one — update 1.7 — on the horizons.
And, speaking to IGN ahead of the game’s big birthday, Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone gave us a little tease of what to expect from the upcoming update, and they’re related to children and marriage.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
It never ceases to amaze me all the different types of games that designers can create from the same source material. One property that exemplifies that in recent years is The Lord of the Rings. Last year, we took a look at The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, and now the adventure continues with the next entry, The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game, designed by Bryan Bornmueller and published by Asmodee. Whether you played the previous game or not, it’s time to don your leather armor, because The Two Towers is well worth picking up.
As the name implies, The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game plays like your typical trick-taking game, with players competing to win hands of cards – referred to as tricks – by playing and following a special suit that is led at the start of each round. What makes The Two Towers (and its predecessor) unique is that it’s a purely cooperative game.
While I knew this going in, having not played The Fellowship of the Ring, I wasn’t entirely sure how this was going to work – but in a few moments, it quickly became clear, and I found it rather clever. In order to progress, each character has to succeed in their respective goals, such as the Gimli player being required to win six mountain-suited cards or Boromir winning two tricks before the Black Tower card is played, and no more afterwards. What makes The Two Towers (and the previous game) a cooperative experience is that, while you are still competing against other players to take the tricks, the team is working to complete every one of the active characters’ goals.
Included in the small box are 19 chapters to play through, though “scenarios” would be a more apt term to describe them. Each of the chapters gives you a number of options. You have different playable characters to choose from. You can play either a short or long version of the chapter. You can even add in new characters or objectives. With short missions, you only need to complete a single game with all players successfully completing their goals. Long missions require you and your friends to play through multiple games back-to-back in order to complete all the possible characters’ objectives, with losing scrapping any progress you’d made so far (though you can just opt to replay those characters too).
The Two Towers is billed as a standalone expansion, but a standalone “continuation” may be more appropriate, which would make sense considering the source material. If you played The Fellowship, The Two Towers will feel incredibly similar. There are a couple of new types of cards, including the Orcs, which can only be played when you can’t follow, can never win a trick; worst of all, if you are forced to lead with an Orc, you all lose the chapter.
The White and Black Tower cards are also new, with each one always winning the trick they are played during but canceling each other out if played during the same one. The White Tower also fills in for the One Ring from the previous game, with whoever is dealt the card assuming the role of Aragorn and the first hand’s leader.
Individual games are pretty quick, with a typical short mission only taking up maybe 10–15 minutes. The length of longer missions, since they are composed of multiple full games to complete, fluctuate depending on how many games you end up needing to play. The short turnaround makes this a great option to bust out whether you only have time for a quick-playing game, or you want to do a marathon and get through a bunch of chapters in a single go over the course of an afternoon.
I appreciate when games offer that sort of flexibility. These short game times are helped along with the overall small footprint the game takes up, both in terms of its box and tablespace. As someone who loves to frequent my local tavern much like a hobbit, the fact that the box can easily fit into a backpack or purse is a nice touch.
My experience with the trick-taking genre has been mostly with straightforward, competitive games like Euchre, where I’ve only had to deal with navigating around a trump suit. I’ve found myself enamored with The Two Towers and its cooperative approach. Celebrating a shared victory with the entire table thanks to a clutch trump on the last hand to secure the win has a vastly different feeling than pulling a surprise trick in Euchre that wins a game for just your team. There is also no feeling quite like being forced to play an Orc card and losing it all in Euchre, either.
From a visual standpoint, I adore the stained glass aesthetic of all of the cards and artwork, and busting this game out at my local brewery, its visuals have caused more than a couple of fellow tavern visitors to stop and ask, “What’s that?!”. The cards themselves almost garnered more glances than our random outbursts cursing orcs (but only just).
There is a solo and a two-player mode, and while I only dabbled in the solo mode, my wife and I enjoyed the two-player variation. This variant features a third game-controlled player whose hand of cards is placed in a reveal pyramid, with only cards that aren’t covered up able to be played. It reminded me a lot of 7 Wonders Duel, but I enjoyed it more than managing multiple hands in solo mode. To be fair, though, I’m not much of a solo board game player in the first place.
As much as I have enjoyed actually playing The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game, my favorite part of the game has surprisingly been the moment each new chapter scenario is revealed. As someone who loves fantasy books, and especially The Lord of the Rings, I always get a kick out of seeing how the next moments of the book will be represented, what new character cards are pulled, and what we have to do next. Much like Fellowship, once all of the chapters are complete, a repeatable mode rule is there to let you and your group play afterwards, coming up with challenging character combinations and goals as you want. And for those who own Fellowship, there are rules to mix the two games’ characters together, though both games’ cards have unique backs so you will always be able to separate them back out again.
My main critique, and a minor one at that, is that I would have appreciated heavier strategic elements. Even with the various goals of the characters and twists of the chapters to keep things interesting, I would have loved some aspect that lends itself more to strategy than the more luck-based nature these sorts of games lean toward. But even this complaint is more a “wouldn’t it be neat if…” sort of wish.
After playing The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game, I was instantly searching online to get myself the Fellowship version, as I just wanted more. The cooperative take on the trick-taking genre, mixed with beloved characters and the stories of J.R.R. Tolkien, meshes wonderfully into a solid and replayable package. That it is a cooperative game makes this a solid choice to introduce the genre to folks who haven’t tried it out, but if you aren’t a fan of trick-takers at a mechanical level, I’m not sure this will win you over. Still, thanks to its small footprint and easy setup, The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game is an easy recommendation, and a must-get if you loved the Fellowship version.
The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game
The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game
