Cardy and Matt are putting on a two-man show this week as they discuss the pure joy of Astro Bot, the bloody delight of Space Marine 2, and PlayStation’s Concord disaster. There’s also a time for a quick chat about two of the best films of the year: coming-of-age comedy Didi, and beautiful toilet-cleaning drama Perfect Days.
Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you’re enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
In Astro Bot, our little robot friend bumps into many familiar faces of his fantastic planet-hopping adventure. Tasked with reuniting the crew of his PS5 mothership, he’ll have to rescue over 300 bots on his journey, of which 173 are cameos from other PlayStation games. Needless to say, that’s a lot of references and easters eggs to pack into one game.
Well, we’ve found them all, which you can check out in either the video above or slideshow below. With a vast range of characters from the expected such as Kratos and Nathan Drake to the more obscure end of the scale like Mister Mosquito and Boku no Natsuyasumi, it really is a treasure trove of PlayStation history, with some not being obvious at first exactly who they are. So, we’re here to help you out. Here’s every single PlayStation character who pops up in Astro Bot and where they’re from.
Alas, that’s exactly what happened. Reggie has remained fairly active on social media since his departure from Nintendo in 2019 (!!), and attracts quite a bit of attention whenever he posts something Nintendo-related. At the end of August, he posted an image of a box containing a selection of N64 cartridges with the caption “Found part of my Nintendo 64 collection! Reorganizing it all! wonder what hidden gems I have here!” This was swiftly followed by an amusing offer from user ‘Omni’ @InfernoOmni, who said “I’ll buy the whole tub for $7”.
Not too long ago, Arrowhead dropped a vague list of improvements coming to Helldivers 2, as they admitted “inconsistencies” in their “approach to game balance and direction”. They’ve now published another blog post that torches the vagueness of the previous post with the righteously democratic flames of specificity. Overhauls to enemies are on the way, less-loved guns will be more effective, reworks to armor penetration and health values are on the boil, and they’re taking inspiration from “player fantasies” for certain weapons and stratagems. All of these tweaks are set to go live on the 17th September, so not long to wait.
Concord is set to shut down today, September 6, and what players the game has remaining are waving goodbye to a shooter they were only able to play for two weeks.
“While many qualities of the experience resonated with players, we also recognize that other aspects of the game and our initial launch didn’t land the way we’d intended,” Ryan Ellis, game director at Sony-owned developer Firewalk Studios, said at the time. “Therefore, at this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024, and explore options, including those that will better reach our players.”
Some Concord players have suggested the game may return in free-to-play form, but Sony has made no such guarantee. And so today’s shutdown may end up being the last we see of Concord — ever.
Now, Concord’s community is sending its regards. “Been gaming for 35 years and have never experienced anything like the whiplash of Concord,” redditor Two_Bear_Arms said. “TBH it was pretty fun to be part of. Jumping in and enjoying the game, seeing all the drama online and now watching the dramatic death of Concord – just nuts!! I appreciate getting the refund and hope that Concord does make a return (in a significantly more appetizing form).”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
About 12 years ago, we drew our breath in pain to report that Lone Survivor developer Jasper Byrne’s new “Zelda x Demon’s Souls” action-RPG was no more. “It was too big for a single person to make,” Byrne wrote at the time. “This is the root of the problem. It wasn’t that I fell out of love with the idea, just that I can’t physically do it.” That was then and this, thankfully, is now. Byrne has tentatively returned to the project and begun sharing screens on social media.
Microsoft has announced a return to the Tokyo Game Show later this month with a special Xbox broadcast event.
The Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2024 Broadcast is set for Thursday, September 26 at 7pm JST / 3am Pacific / 6am Eastern / 11am UK.
In a post on Xbox Wire, Larissa Hazel, Director, Gaming Integrated Marketing, Asia, said Microsoft will share content from Xbox Game Studios, Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, and Bethesda, as well as an “exciting lineup of games from third-party partners primarily based in Japan and across Asia, including games coming to Xbox Game Pass.”
So, what can fans expect from the show? Microsoft has a long list of first-party studios currently working on various games due out across the next few years, but the mention of Activision, Blizzard, and Bethesda perhaps narrows down the list. Activision is set to release Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in October, so perhaps the shooter will make an appearance. Blizzard, fresh from releasing World of Warcraft expansion The War Within, has Diablo 4 expansion Vessel of Hatred out in October, as well as ongoing updates for mobile game Diablo Immortal. Bethesda operates MMOs Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls Online, has Starfield expansion Shattered Space waiting in the wings, and is set to release MachineGames’ Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in December, and Id Software’s Doom: The Dark Ages in 2025. Obsidian’s Avowed, recently delayed to February next year, may also turn up.
As for the games from third-party partners based in Japan and across Asia, perhaps Square Enix will finally announce Final Fantasy 16 for Xbox, and maybe even the Final Fantasy 7 remakes for Microsoft’s consoles. Microsoft recently announced that MiHoYo’s megahit Genshin Impact is finally coming to Xbox, so maybe that game will make a big splash, too.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Let’s start with a confession about one of my greatest weaknesses. I absolutely adore the HD-2D visual aesthetic from the Octopath Traveler series, and I’ll play anything that employs it. Is your game unpolished with a bug that may or may not ruin save files? I’ll take my chances with it in HD-2D. Am I also looking at a 30-hour plot that reads like your intern randomly threw up gobstoppers labelled with names, places, and plot twists? How concerning—now gimme my HD-2D.
Obviously, if you choose to wrap this modern-meets-ancient art-style around one of the most celebrated RPGs of the golden age of gaming, well, winged serpents could not drag me away from your HD-2D quest.
I’ll clear my calendar for such a rejig, even if I didn’t grow up with the NES original because it didn’t launch in my country. For a few Aussies, like me, our introduction to DQ3 was a Game Boy port of the SNES refresh, which sold a million cartridges on launch day in ’96. Apparently, it also caused 300 Japanese fans to be arrested for truancy—a bit of gaming trivia I love almost as much as HD-2D.
Speaking of delaying education, I’m going to tell you what to expect with Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake in two shakes of a Jackanape’s tail. For now, though, let’s service the needs of the “mind’s already made up” types, because I know you exist. If that’s not you, by all means skip the window shop by clicking here to continue.
The standard edition comes with the game, along with the preorder bonus (detailed below), which includes a handful of in-game upgrades for your team of heroes. Don’t worry if you don’t see your store of choice in the list above. We’ll add new retailers as the listings become available.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Preorder Bonus
Preorder the game from any retailer, and you’ll receive the following in-game items:
Elevating Shoes x1
Seed of Agility x3
Seed of Magic x3
Seed of Defense x3
Seed of Strength x3
Seed of Life x3
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake Impressions
Here’s the basic overview: Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is a brand-new version of a classic RPG that first blew minds on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988. It’s a faithful remake that, despite the significant graphical revamp and refined narrative elements, doesn’t stray too far from the source material.
If you’re already an uber fan, you’d know that the first three Dragon Quest games represent the Erdrick Trilogy, and (kinda sorta spoilers) this third installment was actually a prequel that outlines the first steps of the adventure. Semi-confusing, no?
Anyway, you must fill the 16-bit boots of a 16-year-old child of a hero named Ortega, who was sent to defeat the villainous Baramos. Your old man cocked it up, so the king sends you and a group of companions to rectify his mistakes.
By the by, it should also be mentioned that you’re not going to hit end credits and be left in a narrative lurch for long—Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D upgrades are in the pipeline for 2025. It’s very much worth getting in on the ground floor now if you’ve been wondering what all the fuss is with this (soon to be) 12-games-thick franchise.
While I only had roughly an hour’s worth of hands on with DQ3, I found it to be surprisingly delightful and engaging, despite the somewhat creaky bones source material. I’m told that there will be new story elements and never before seen vocations for its heroes. Sounds like cutting room floor stuff that the diehard faithful will drool over.
Getting into the technicals, I noted Performance and Graphics modes on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, and more. The former translates to 60 frames per second, and the latter is a 4K resolution. Not sure why we can’t have both there, to be honest. This being a turn-based combat affair with the only major motion being your top-down traipsings across the overworld…I just went 4K and was perfectly happy.
I also noted that the devs are offering a choice between two protagonist appearances and three difficulty settings. If you do take the plunge there, you can always fall back on some quality of life features, including autosaves (with manual saves still available). Given that the combat here is light on the animations to preserve the OG feel, I was glad for the ability to speed the fisticuffs up with my shoulder buttons. Just give me my XP and a host of victory affirming, 16-bit-esque sound effects, please and thank you.
Other welcome additions included two camera modes, and a mini map which could be toggled on. I also love this feature and wish it was in more RPGs that I have to finish in dribs and drabs—an NPC conversation log that saves the last 30 interactions.
Looking back through my notes, it seems I also appreciated the now vestigial visual aesthetic where towns in the overworld appear like miniatures when compared to your super-deformed party. It’s also cool that the level designers add in rolling topography to what were once pancake grid overworlds, not to mention some gorgeous dappled light caused by foreground trees and moving clouds up beyond your vision. It’s modern things such as this—like the day/night cycle shoehorned in—that really make one appreciate the extra effort gone into enhancing this in sensible, non-destructive ways.
Unless my eyeballs and instincts are deceiving me, this package already has the feeling of being built by a team who worship the original article. Playing a remake like that is always an infectious experience, and I can’t wait to fill the gaps in my understanding of the “in the beginning” of a series I came to love later in the piece. November 15th can’t arrive soon enough.
Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.
Alongside the Splatoon 3 Grand Festival announcement, Nintendo revealed two new amiibo sets would be launching in September.
Here’s your reminder that they’re now available! The two sets up for grabs include the ‘Side Order Set’ (Pearl & Marina) and the Alterna Set (Callie & Marie). Each figure also allows you to unlock special in-game gear when used in Splatoon 3.
