This year, generative AI seeped into mainstream gaming. Though it didn’t so much shimmer, as smear. It mispronounced lines in Arc Raiders, “drew” a smudgy loading screen in Anno 117, voiced a sweary Darth Vader in Fortnite – perhaps its least subtle appearance was in Where Winds Meet, the wuxia-themed open-world RPG that plugged some of its minor NPCs into AI chatbots. The results were predictably beige and sometimes absurd.
We reach the penultimate door, and good cripes has it been a long time coming. When was the last door? Like 2017? Ah well, surely everyone’s been completely normal about it.
It’s Hollow Knight: Silksong!
Get it downloaded.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds fans will have a very Merry Christmas this year, as Sega will be launching the free ‘NiGHTS DLC Pack’ this week on Christmas Eve – that’s 24th December 2025, just to make it crystal clear.
The pack will include NiGHTS as a playable character, the Dream Sleeper vehicle, and new emotes and sounds.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Vince Zampella, the co-creator of Call of Duty, founder of Respawn Entertainment, and head of EA’s Battlefield franchise died in a car crash on December 22nd. He was 55 years old.
“We’re heartbroken by the passing of our founder and dear friend Vince Zampella,” Respawn Entertainment said in a statement on Twitter. “Our hearts are with his family, friends, and all who love him.”
Cover up.
When the Switch generation was in full swing, there were stories about games being censored in some way or form, and even blocked from being published on the eShop.
With this in mind, it seems fans of the “superhero comedy” Dispatch have spotted a potential cover up on Nintendo’s digital storefront in the US. The banner for the “Dispatch Art and Comics Pack” DLC is showing much less skin compared to the listings in other locations (and even on other digital marketplaces such as the PlayStation Store).
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Fans of Eternal Darkness, Resident Evil and more will “feel at home”.
Bloober Team has recently been busy with the Switch 2 versions of Cronos: The New Dawn and Layers of Fear: The Final Masterpiece Edition, but did you know it’s got one other mysterious Nintendo release in the pipeline?
In case you missed it, in July last year, the Polish-based horror developer teased it was working on a new project specifically for Nintendo platforms known as ‘Project M‘. Now, in a new interview with Nintendo Insider, the studio’s CEO Piotr Babieno has revealed that the first details about this title could be shared “very soon”.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Wii like, wii like to party.
We’re nearly done with 2025, and in the final update for 2025, Nintendo Music has this week added the Wii Party soundtrack.
This party game originally debuted on the Wii in 2010 and the soundtrack comes loaded with 105 tracks and has a run time of 2 hours of 21 minutes. It’s got some smooth and funky tracks in it like “Menu Screen” or you could dance about to “Party Games: Results Time”.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Greetings traveller, and welcome to Burning Springs! You may know it as the latest location in the newly updated Fallout 76, but to me, a recently defrosted Ohioan historian from the ancient past of 2025, it’s home.
The tour will start shortly. I just need a moment to get my bearings. I swear Fort Steuben was 120 miles over that way…? It seems in the years between my big freeze and today, in 2105, the geography got moved around a little. Let’s return to that wrinkle later.
He was 55.
Infinity Ward co-founder and Respawn Entertainment head Vince Zampella has died in a fatal car crash, NBC4 Los Angeles reports. He was 55 years old.
The crash was reported to have happened yesterday, 21st December 2025, in along Southern California’s Angeles Crest Highway, at around 12:45pm local time.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Vince Zampella, best known as the co-creator of the Call of Duty franchise and co-founder of Infinity Ward who went on to co-found Titanfall, Apex Legends, and Star Wars Jedi developer Respawn Entertainment, died in a single-car accident in Los Angeles on Sunday, NBC Los Angeles reports.
According to the NBC report, “The single-car crash was reported at about 12:45 p.m. on the scenic road north of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Mountains. The southbound car veered off the road, hit a concrete barrier and a passenger was ejected, the California Highway Patrol said. The driver was trapped in the ensuing car fire, the CHP said. The driver died at the scene and the passenger died at a hospital, authorities told NBC4 Investigates.”
No further details about the accident or what might have caused it are available as of yet.
Zampella was an incredibly talented game developer who changed the industry with Call of Duty, a franchise he co-created with Jason West in 2003 at Infinity Ward, the studio he co-founded with West, after previously serving as the lead designer for EA’s Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Zampella was at the center of a high-profile lawsuit against Activision that alleged that the publisher owed Zampella and the Infinity Ward team millions of dollars in unpaid Call of Duty royalties. The bitter professional divorce led to Zampella and West taking a substantial number of the Infinity Ward team with them to EA, where they co-founded Respawn Entertainment, a studio that has produced nothing but critically acclaimed hits: Titanfall (IGN review), Titanfall 2 (IGN review), Apex Legends (IGN review), Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (IGN review), and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (IGN review).
Respawn’s success under Zampella led to him getting promoted twice, eventually overseeing the Battlefield franchise within his role as Group General Manager at EA.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
