Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is the full name of Ubisoft’s piratical remake that’s had more leaks than a sunken ship.
The game’s new title is now visible on the PEGI European ratings board website, which is about as official as it gets. (The game is rated 18 for violence and bad language.)
Additionally, there’s a mention here that Black Flag Resynced will include the ability to make in-game purchases. It’s still unknown how Resynced will plug into the franchise’s existing Animus Hub, which lets you buy optional cosmetic content. Alternatively, this could potentially signify the ability to buy DLC further down the line. Is the game’s memorable Freedom Cry add-on in line for a remake, too?
Today’s development comes just a couple of weeks after the game’s release date was reportedly spilled online. During Ubisoft’s latest financial results the French publisher laid out a slate of upcoming games set to arrive before the end of its current financial year, on March 31, 2026.
Despite years of internal leaks, fan speculation and even hints from the original game’s lead actor, Ubisoft still has yet to officially confirm its Black Flag remake exists. IGN has contacted the company again today, in case it has anything it wants to tease. Or, perhaps we’ll hear more at The Game Awards later this week?
Previous reports have suggested Black Flag Resynced will be a substantial remake of the series’ beloved piratical entry, with visual and gameplay upgrades that see the game closer in quality to this year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
New story content will reportedly be added to flesh out more of hero Edward Kenway’s life, though the game’s modern day gameplay sections have apparently been excised — something that many fans aren’t happy about. It will be interesting to see how Ubisoft handles the game’s new ending — which previously tied together story elements from its historical and modern day narratives — in light of that change.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Look lively, me hearties. There, cast your eyes starboard. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced PEGI rating ahoy. The fair winds have seemed to be blowing our sails towards Ubisoft’s long-rumoured remake or remaster of the fourth mainline Assassin’s Creed, the one that’s all piratey, for years at this point. At last, it seems, we may be on track to slide our hull into its port.
The brainchild of Mike Pondsmith back in 1988 as a TTRPG, Cyberpunk as a property has exploded in the past decade, thanks in no small part to CD Projekt Red and 2020’s release of their first-person RPG, Cyberpunk 2077. Now, five years and expansions, patches, and board games later, the world of Cyberpunk is trying its robotic hands in a brand new – and highly competitive – market with a fully fledged, and collectible, Cyberpunk: Trading Card Game.
IGN has had the opportunity to speak with the teams at WeirdCo and CD Projekt Red, who are working on the newly announced TCG, to get a better understanding of the designers at WeirdCo, how this partnership came to be, and even some goodies about the game itself. We’ve also got an exclusive first look at key card art from the Cyberpunk TCG (flip through the gallery below), featuring Cyberpunk 2077’s Saburo and Yorinobu Arasaka, and their handy bodyguard, Goro Takemura.
WeirdCo, a new face in the world of TCGs, has been working in close partnership with CDPR themselves to devise this new card game, aiming to capture the tone and aesthetic of 2077 and the Edgerunners’ Netflix anime, to deliver a game that doesn’t just feel like another TCG just with a coat of Cyberpunk yellow overtop. One way the team is doing this is by working with high-profile artists, both internal to CDPR and the wider community, to deliver gorgeous card art featuring faces that will be familiar to anyone worth their wait in Chrome.
Speaking with Elliot Cook (WeirdCo President) and Luohan Wei (WeirdCo CEO), both co-founders of the business, I wanted to know how this new studio came about.
Elliot began, “WeirdCo was formed when Luohan and I met each other through our mutual mentor, Bill Mooney: a true legend in the digital gaming space. We immediately hit it off over our passion for building games that truly connect with their communities. Later, we formed WeirdCo to create games together — ones that authentically bring together and inspire people.”
“Players can look forward to collecting an array of unique variants of characters including V, Johnny, Panam, Judy, Adam Smasher, and more.”
“CD Projekt Red has a similar goal, and when we saw this in each other we knew it would be a great partnership. What has been paramount, and the question we ask ourselves daily, is “how do we make a game that represents and celebrates every part of Cyberpunk — everywhere it has been and everywhere it is going?” That is the north star of our development.”
With Cyberpunk being one of the biggest media properties right now, I was curious how a brand new group could tackle such a monster IP, but despite it being a new team, the group working on the Cyberpunk TCG has worked on other large IP card games you probably have heard of. “We at WeirdCo have direct experience working on some great card games” Elliot explains.
“Marvel Snap, Duel Masters, and Universus, to name a few. At our core we are disruptors, just like CD Projekt Red, and we both strive to inspire our players. We saw this in each other from the beginning, and I think CD Projekt Red saw our love for the Cyberpunk 2077 universe too. This is an IP that deserves to be explored in different and exciting ways, and we’re committed to doing this authentically with Cyberpunk TCG, side by side with the community.”
On the topic of CD Projekt Red, they have been a constant ally during the game’s design and development. Elliot provides further details, “We have worked with CD Projekt Red very closely since the beginning of development. They have been the ideal partner; you may even see the same amazing artists who worked on Cyberpunk 2077, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and more as featured artists in Cyberpunk TCG! Every part of the TCG has the impeccable RED touch, ensuring this is a completely authentic Cyberpunk experience.”
The Cyberpunk TCG won’t be CDPR’s first collaboration in the tabletop space, with other titles like Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City and Cyberpunk Edgerunners: Combat Zone Board Game, but I was curious what unique joys or challenges came from working on a TCG, so I asked Patrick Mills, CDPR’s Franchise Content Strategy Lead.
“Every collaboration is unique, and we’re lucky to work with many partners who are passionate and extremely dedicated to their crafts. While making a physical TCG is something completely new for us, we see the genuine excitement, enthusiasm, and talent in WeirdCo that act as the foundation of any successful collaboration.”
“Their passion for the franchise has been evident at every stage, and they’re doing an incredible job developing an engaging TCG that ensures an authentic Cyberpunk experience. On the flip side, many of us at CD Projekt Red are huge TCG enthusiasts too — so we’re thrilled to be entering this space with WeirdCo”
One thing that is clear is that both teams at WeirdCo and CDPR are taking care to ensure that this is faithful to the Cyberpunk property that its creator, Mike Pondsmith, imagined back in 1988.
“For the initial release, our primary goal is to represent the core identity of Cyberpunk 2077”
“We want Cyberpunk TCG to be authentic to the spirit and dynamic nature of the Cyberpunk 2077 universe, and wanted to create a TCG that is accessible to Cyberpunk fans who have never touched a card game.” Luohan says, “At the same time, as TCG players ourselves, we wanted our game to have the depth necessary to entertain for a long, long time. And I think we have struck that balance well.”
Elliot continues, “The best part of this job is spending hundreds of hours with the Cyberpunk universe — whether that’s replaying Cyberpunk 2077, watching Edgerunners for the fifth time, or reading all the Dark Horse comics. Every one of us at WeirdCo loves the Cyberpunk universe, and we built the TCG bit by bit on this foundation. At each step we analyzed every little detail, constantly asking ourselves: “How do we make this more authentic to Cyberpunk?”
Many fan favorite characters will be making an appearance as well in this TCG and picking who would be included in this first set was a big decision. “For the initial release, our primary goal is to represent the core identity of Cyberpunk 2077 by featuring many of its most iconic and beloved characters,” explains Patrick. “We’ve collaborated closely with WeirdCo to ensure that the artwork and flavor of every card faithfully captures the essence of who they represent, providing a snapshot of their personalities and what they stand for, as well as including memorable moments players will instantly recognize. Given the complexity of our characters, we wanted to capture their many facets across multiple cards. So, players can look forward to collecting an array of unique variants of characters including V, Johnny, Panam, Judy, Adam Smasher, and more.”
On the WeirdCo side, Elliot shares, “We worked very hard to figure out which Legends make the most sense for players, and which ones make the most sense for the overall theme of Set 1. While some of them, like V and Johnny, are obvious hits, we have a few surprises up our sleeves too.”
Being a game composed of a ton of cards, artwork is pretty important in a TCG and WeirdCo is special care to make sure that what players can expect is nothing short of beautiful.
“We’ve been working for a long time with a team of over 20 talented artists for Set 1, and are excited to explore new ways of bringing the world of Cyberpunk to life through our card art. Working with artists like Ito, Vincenzo Riccardi, and Joshua Raphael, who each bring their own unique flair to the project, makes each card more exciting than the last,” Elliot continues, “We’re not sharing gameplay details yet, so there’s not too much I can say. But Cyberpunk is known for its beautiful yet tragic atmosphere — this is a major focus of ours when it comes to the card art.”
Details on how Cyberpunk TCG will work remain shrouded behind CDPR’s and WeirdCo’s firewalls, so we have a bit yet before we have an in-depth picture of how it plays. Cyberpunk’s TCG will be launching its crowdfunding campaign in 2026, which is right around the corner. WeirdCo and CDPR will be revealing more of the game soon, along with a deep dive into how the game plays, more artwork, and card reveals, with some more special reveals found only here on IGN.
The TCG space is pretty crowded with new contenders entering the ring, it seems like every quarter or so, but few have the name recognition behind them like WeirdCo has with Cyberpunk. The fact that this project has so much support from CD Projekt Red behind it puts it in a different league from others, even before it’s out.
The excitement from the designers is electric, with Luohan leaving players with this, “I can’t wait for players to see how we’ve adapted the themes of Cyberpunk, like taking on gigs or building a crew, to a trading card game format. I think it is both true to Cyberpunk itself while being innovative to the TCG market as a whole; it’s a perfect combination in this way.” As far as I know, no other TCG lets you play with Keanu Reeves, so that is already a big plus in its favor. Wake up, Samurai, there’s a whole new way to burn the city coming.
If this sounds up your alley, follow the game and get yourself a special and exclusive Lucy “Nova Rare” card free by signing up over on the game’s Launch Oracle page.
Scott White is a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and guide coverage. Follow him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.
This article features contributions from Robert Anderson, Senior Commerce Editor for IGN.
Yes, the rumours are true, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition is back (again), as a free Switch 2 upgrade. Making the most of the hardware’s updated specs, the new release bundles in a whole host of fancy features, like enhanced performance and resolution, better load times, and Mouse Mode, and it gives us yet another chance to replay the iconic 2011 RPG in all of its fus ro dah-ing glory.
Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ Is Coming to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator
Summary
Think you have what it takes to help the residents of Hawkins in their last strange adventures against the Upside Down?
Make sure your simulator is updated to the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, visit the in-sim Marketplace, select the Stranger Things Expansion and get to work!
Experience Hawkins in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 today and watch “Stranger Things” Season 5 only on Netflix!
New Hawkins Helicopter Tour Company Takes Off… Huey in the Hands of a Local
September 9, 1987 – Hawkins might still be recovering after last year’s quake disaster, but one local entrepreneur tells The Hawkins Post that it’s the perfect moment to launch something “fun, cultural, and absolutely not suspicious!”
Enter Hawkins Heli-Tours, the brand-new chopper service, offering visitors a bird’s eye view of our town’s most iconic landmarks. An oddly timed endeavor for a city in lockdown that’s not permitting any tourists.
The company boasts you can “take to the skies for one hell of a ride” over our slice of small-town Americana, with sights like Palace Arcade and Family Video, our cozy patchwork of residential streets, or the always-photogenic Lovers Lake.
Behind the project is Murray Bauman, a familiar face to locals, self-proclaimed culture lover, and man of, depending on who you ask, either great vision or very strange timing…
“I figured, why not?” Bauman told our reporter, adjusting his aviators. “Our skies are already crawling with more patrols than a bad action movie. Might as well make one of them useful. Plus, I like helicopters. They’re…liberating.”
Still, a few eyebrows have been raised…
Hawkins Heli-Tours operates a sleek Bell UH-1H “Huey”, a model not exactly common in civilian tourism.
Residents have whispered about late-night flights, odd cargo loads, and even rumors of… well, “unusual exchanges” out by the old forest road or around the radio station. Bauman innocently waves off these claims: “Contraband? Please. This isn’t Miami Vice!”
Yet the question lingers. With ongoing curfews, increased patrols, and the town still in quarantine after last year’s incident, some wonder whether the company is really a scenic joyride, or the cover for something stranger happening over Hawkins.
As our local SQWK DJ is known to say: “Today’s weather, 70 degrees, sunny, and with a high chance of helicopters overhead” so as always in our town: keep your eyes on the sky…
Experience Hawkins today in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, PlayStation 5, Steam, and Cloud. Make sure your simulator is updated to the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, visit the in-sim Marketplace, select the Stranger Things Expansion and get to work!
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – Standard Edition
Standard Edition
Explore the world with our largest fleet of aircraft and take simulation to new heights while pursuing your aviation career within Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. The Standard Edition includes over 65 aircraft and 150 handcrafted airports.
Fly with Purpose
· Launch your aviation Career wherever you choose in the world. Gain experience, build your reputation, and complete certifications to gain access to authentic aviation activities ranging from Medevac, Remote Cargo Ops, Aerial Firefighting, Search & Rescue and more, all the way to becoming an Airline Passenger Transport Pilot. Set out on a truly global aviation adventure with virtually unlimited missions across the planet.
· Compete against other pilots in the all-new Challenge League mode or hone your skills in dozens of Activities ranging from exciting Rally Races and Precision Landings to Low-Altitude challenges and more. Fly head-to-head in the iconic Red Bull Air Races and the legendary Reno Air Races, including the new Roswell courses.
· Be a World Photographer and travel across our beautiful planet to capture awe-inspiring natural vistas, visit famous landmarks, and record these adventures with pictures in your travel book. Unique photo challenges test your creative eye along with your piloting skills while you strive to capture the perfect moment.
Advanced Simulation
· Enhanced physics system allows 10,000+ rigid-body surfaces that enable the simulation of any shape of aircraft. Soft body physics supports cloth, ropes, balloons, and more. Improved ground and water handling further enhance realism.
· New, highly accurate aircraft systems including electrical, pneumatic, fuel and hydraulic systems, payload and passenger systems, and avionics like the Universal UNS-1 FMS and Honeywell Primus Epic 2. Preflight inspections and walkaround checks add to immersion.
· Plan your flights with a groundbreaking flight planner which supports both IFR and VFR map layers, IFR charts, route planning, fuel and payload planning, vertical profile planning, and ETOPS planning. It also provides airport information including weather and NOTAMS and is available native in the sim, on mobile devices or web browsers for flight planning outside the simulator.
Explore Our Visually Stunning Digital Twin
· Explore our most detailed re-creation of planet Earth to date. Enhanced digital elevation maps, over 500 TIN (triangular irregular network) cities and more than 100,000 square kilometers of countryside photogrammetry allow for visually stunning digital twin experiences. More than 150 airports, 2,000 glider airports, 10,000 heliports, 2,000 points of interest, and 900 oil rigs have been carefully hand-crafted while a procedural system generates all 40,000 airports, 80,000 helipads, 1.5 billion buildings, and nearly 3 trillion trees our planet.
· Land anywhere and, for the first time in Microsoft Flight Simulator, exit your aircraft to explore 27 highly detailed biomes with hundreds of species of vegetation, dynamically created details including grass, rocks, and flowers – all influenced by seasonal changes. The all-new photometric lighting system renders the world more accurately than ever before, and enhanced weather features such as new cloud types, auroras, and other weather phenomena produce fresh and compelling atmospheric experiences.
· The world comes alive with a vast array of land-based wildlife in their natural habitats and free-ranging livestock across the entire globe. The oceans and waterways are teeming with live, worldwide maritime traffic ranging from large tankers and cargo ships to trawlers, tugs, and more. A richly diverse, regionally accurate representation of humanity brings life to the airports, aircraft, and passenger cabins of the world. Enhanced real-world air traffic populates the skies and airport tarmacs with hundreds of accurately depicted aircraft models and dozens of officially licensed liveries.
Two iconic franchises have come together to combine the authenticity and realism of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 with the exciting, mysterious world of Stranger Things.
An adrenaline-packed journey into the universe of the cult series awaits fans and simmers alike, led by Murray Bauman, from the original cast, and his team! Enter the world of Netflix’s Stranger Things to help Hawkins, a town under lockdown, heavy patrols, and supernatural threats.
Think you have what it takes to fly a Bell UH-1H Huey and help the residents of Hawkins in their latest encounters with the dangers that destroyed their hometown? Try your hand at five exhilarating missions, shady supply ops, close-call chases, and high-stakes rescues… all of it pulling you deeper into the city’s worst fears. No spoilers, but “Yeah, it gets intense!” as Murray would say.
And, if you’re ready to visit Hawkins, Indiana, even after the credits roll on the crew’s last strange adventure, you will be able to explore a highly detailed map and re-creation of the town with more than 40 iconic locations made famous by the show.
Starcourt Mall
Hawkins Middle School
Hawkins National Laboratory
Hawkins Junkyard
The legacy of Hawkins will live on, long past the airing of the final episode. Come see for yourself in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024: Stranger Things expansion available December 9 and watch Stranger Things Season 5 only on Netflix.
It’s kind of insane that I never realized how perfectly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would work as a VR game. VR action games famously feature loads of jumping and climbing, which our turt bros do a whole bunch of on Manhattan rooftops. Sneaking around to do melee combat, and having to learn how to parry and dodge incoming attacks is also something the reptilian heroes are known for that has been done well in many VR games. And because these heroes in a half-shell appear most commonly as cartoons, you don’t have to worry about shooting for photorealistic graphics and the technical VR bottlenecks that sometimes come with it. In other words, why in the heck did it take us so long to get this pizza-powered quartet into a VR game? No matter the reason, I’m glad it’s finally happening with TMNT: Empire City, and the 15-minute demo I played was enough to sell me on this tubular action-adventure.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Empire City is exactly the kind of action game you’d expect from the titular masked heroes. I spent my time fighting members of the Foot Clan as each member of the TMNT crew (including their iconic weapons of choice, like Leonardo’s katanas and Donatello’s bo staff), running and jumping across city skylines in pursuit of justice, and hanging out back in my sewer base and eating pizza. Doing all of that in VR is exactly as fun as it sounds (meaning, it’s super fun!), and it’s especially amusing to look down at your turtle body and remember, “Oh, yeah. I’m an anthropomorphic mutated reptile.”
Unfortunately, the section I played was limited entirely to the tutorial, so I was mostly just learning the ropes, like how to hack into electronic devices as Donatello (since he does machines) or how to perform parries on those pesky Shredder-following Foot Clan. The fundamentals were definitely strong, as I was grinning ear-to-ear pretty much the whole time, but I’ll be curious to see if Empire City can build on that to keep it interesting across an entire campaign. For example, I only got to fight one boss at the very end of this introductory mission, and it lasted all of – I kid you not – five seconds as I dodged her opening attack and then whaled on her until she tapped out. Obviously this fight was also a part of the tutorial, so it’s hard to tell if things will get more challenging, but here’s hoping.
Building a Better Turtle
Something that would seem to indicate a deeper level of challenge is the fact that back at the base there’s a whole menu of upgrades to deal with. None of these were unlockable in the build I played from what I could tell, but it reminded me a bit of the upgrade system in Half-Life: Alyx, where you’re collecting parts throughout levels, then funnel it all into a machine to craft certain upgrades for your character. It’s also just great to see them using Donatello’s propensity for crafting gadgets brought to life via all the junk he stuffs in his pocket along the way, which his brothers made fun of him for doing, of course.
I never forgot which of the brothers I was because Empire City did such a good job or reminding me with its banter that was completely on point with the surprisingly good writing for which the series is known.
Which leads me to one of my favorite parts of the demo: how perfectly Ninja Turtles it was! The banter between the brothers and their recognizable idiosyncrasies left me smiling, whether it was Leonardo’s tendency to be way too serious all the time, Michelangelo’s wise cracks, or Raphael’s intensity and impatience. The unique weapon aside, I never forgot which of the brothers I was because Empire City did such a good job or reminding me with its banter that was completely on point with the surprisingly good writing for which the series is known. I could easily imagine a world where this thing felt like a reskinned ninja game that felt completely generic, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Huge relief.
They also do a really good job capturing the comic book/Saturday morning cartoon art style, with environments that look cel-shaded and goofy voice performances that are over-the-top and amusing. Sure, lots of the textures are fairly undetailed, but that works pretty perfectly with the straight-from-a-comicbook vibe that this game is clearly shooting for. I could easily see myself spending a lot of time just hanging out in this world, exploring and fighting alongside friends. Which reminds me: will there be skateboarding in this? Why haven’t they let me skateboard yet?!
(Multi-)Turtle Power?
One pretty huge thing I didn’t get to see in action is how this will all work in four-player co-op. I can only imagine how much of a blast it’s going to be to roll through with the full shell squad smacking enemies around, but the section of the demo I played felt pretty designed for a single player and it’s a bit difficult to imagine how this kind of gameplay might scale up for four-player bouts. Presumably there’d need to be many more enemies and fewer linear paths than the ones I crept through to make it work. Also, I can only imagine how silly it’ll look to have teammates running around as big ol’ green cartoon characters while swinging around nunchucks.
I’ll still need to see a fair bit more of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Empire City before I can speak definitively on it, but so far I’m pretty stoked by the potential here and am absolutely flabbergasted that it took us this long to get a first-person TMNT game.
Break out your finest middle-parted hairdo, as Leon Kennedy’s in Resident Evil Requiem. The Resi 2 and Resi 4 protagonist’s presence has been leaked by the evil resident that is cover art being pushed out too early on the PlayStation Store, which is like Steam, but a bit more blue.
This month’s Civ 7 update, 1.3.1, will rock up today, December 9th. Following on from the beefy 1.3.0 update, which added in a bunch of new navally-themed bits and revamped battling at sea, this update’s comparatively compact, but still packs a new map type and some civ balancing tweaks which are well worth being aware of if you’re gonna be Civving over the holidays.
It’s only been three years since we got Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered on Switch consoles, itself a remaster of 1991’s seminal SNES adventure, Romancing SaGa (or Romancing Salsa as this writer always calls it because of the font they used for the artwork).
Now, Red Art Games has announced that a further enhancement of the game, Romancing SaGa -Minstrel Song- Remastered International (looking forward to the International Universal edition in 2028, then) is now available on Switch consoles in both digital and physical form.