Author: Game Infliction

Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios has confirmed what graphical enhancements the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game has received in time for the launch of the PlayStation 5 Pro.

Larian said it’s tweaked the game’s Quality and Performance modes “to achieve crisp console visuals without sacrificing smooth performance.”

“Tinker away in the settings to find the perfect array of pixels for you!” the studio added.

On PS5 Pro, Quality mode runs at a native 4K resolution and 30 frames per second, whereas Performance mode upscales from 1440p to 2160p 60fps. Meanwhile, split-screen on the PS5 Pro will now offer either 30fps or 60fps depending on whether you’re using Quality or Performance mode.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is of particular interest when it comes to PS5 Pro given the game’s early performance troubles on the base PS5. Act 3 in particular, with its dense city area filled with NPCs, caused the game’s framerate to struggle. Performance has improved with various updates, but clearly the PS5 Pro will be the platform of choice when it comes to console.

Alongside Baldur’s Gate 3’s PS5 Pro update is a “quick” multiplayer fix, detailed in the patch notes below:

Baldur’s Gate 3 PS5 Pro patch and multiplayer fix:

IMPROVEMENTS

• On PS5 Pro, Quality mode now runs at native 4K (2160p) 30fps.
• On PS5 Pro, Performance mode will upscale from 1440p to 2160p 60fps.
• Split screen on the PS5 Pro will now offer either 30fps or 60fps depending on whether you’re using Quality or Performance mode.

CRASHES AND BLOCKERS

• Fixed an issue on PS5 preventing you from downloading or subscribing to mods when loading into another player’s multiplayer game with mods enabled.

Larian has of course said it’s moving on from Baldur’s Gate and the world of Dungeons & Dragons to develop something entirely new. However, it continues to update Baldur’s Gate 3, and has teased more patches to come.

The $700 PS5 Pro launches today, November 7, and there is a long list of games with enhancements for the mid-gen upgrade. Check out IGN’s PS5 Pro review for more.

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.

It’s a big day for No Man’s Sky thanks to the launch of cross-save support, the release of PS5 Pro footage, and the return of the Normandy from Mass Effect.

Following hot on the heels of the Halloween-themed The Cursed update, Hello Games’ long-running space sim finally has cross-save support on all platforms, a feature the developer said had been years in the making. “This has been a huge undertaking, and is one of most requested features,” Hello Games said.

“Being able to jump seamlessly between platforms is really transformative. Players can play from the comfort of their sofa on console, continue an Expedition on the move with Switch or Steam Deck, build an incredible base on their beefy PC rig, and view it in incredibly immersive Virtual Reality.”

No Man’s Sky now supports cross-play and cross-save between a huge number of platforms including PC, PS4, Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S, Game Pass, GOG, Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, PlayStation VR 1 and 2, and PCVR.

“Adding the ability to transfer saves between platforms via a server is especially difficult for No Man’s Sky, as the work involved increases with each platform supported and how long folks have already been playing for,” Hello Games continued. “Both those numbers are large for our tiny team.

“It’s very common for players to rack up thousands of hours of saves exploring across space, building elaborate bases and cataloging their discoveries, with incredibly detailed saves. Adding cross-save for us is a little bit like moving house, the longer people have lived there the more complicated it is to move them! We also have players who played once at launch, eight years ago, suddenly loading up that save on a platform that didn’t even exist back then!

“For these reasons we have secretly been introducing the technology for this update for over six months. We are now ready to start rolling cross-save out to a small number of players.”

From today, No Man’s Sky all players can link their different accounts together at https://cloud.nomanssky.com/cross-save. A subset of players will be enabled to then select their saves from multiple devices on the in-game save screen. In the coming weeks all players will be invited to do so, Hello Games added.

Moving on to today’s launch of PS5 Pro and No Man’s Sky’s support for the $700 mid-gen upgrade, Hello Games said users can expect PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) to provide 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. No Man’s Sky is also an early supporter of 8K resolution, running at 30 frames per second.

Check out No Man’s Sky running on PS5 Pro in the video below:

“As well as a much sharper resolution at higher framerates, the increased power of the PS5 Pro has enabled us to ramp up the graphical quality across the board,” Hello Games explained.

“Players on PS5 Pro will see improved lighting, with ultra quality reflections and higher quality ambient occlusion in all modes. Explore the most beautiful and detailed alien worlds No Man’s Sky has to offer, for the first time on console.” All these improvements are also coming to PSVR2, Hello Games added.

And finally, the Normandy from Mass Effect returns to No Man’s Sky as part of BioWare’s N7 Day celebrations.

“It was back in 2021 that the Normandy made its first appearance in one of the first expeditions we ever ran,” Hello Games said. “The limited-time expedition starts today, runs for two weeks and culminates in players being able to claim the Normandy for their fleet.

“In the intervening years since that event, we have welcomed a huge number of Travellers, not least a whole new cohort of Switch players and an increasingly large number of Chinese fans. Many of these new players have envied those who proudly displayed their Normandy in their frigate collection.

“Mass Effect fans know that this legendary freighter only appears when it is most needed! Today, and for the next two weeks, as a love-letter from one science fiction game to another, we are giving everyone another chance to encounter the Normandy in an overhauled version of the original mission and add it to their collection.

“Huge thanks to our friends at EA and Bioware for helping make this happen.”

No Man’s Sky launched in 2016 initially for PC and PS4 before coming out on Xbox One in 2018, and PS5 and Xbox Series X and S in 2020. A Nintendo Switch version followed in 2022. Over the years, Hello Games has issued a long list of major updates that have continued to boost player numbers.

Indeed, it’s a busy time for Hello Games, which alongside updates for No Man’s Sky is working on its next game, Light No Fire. It’s about adventure, building, survival and exploration together, set on a fantasy planet the size of Earth.

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.

It’s November 7, which means it’s once again Mass Effect Day for all who celebrate. That also means Dark Horse is back with another jaw-droppingly cool collectible, this time spotlighting the main hero of the original Mass Effect trilogy.

IGN can exclusively reveal a first look at the Mass Effect: Commander John Shepard 1:6 Scale Statue. Get a closer look at this piece in the slideshow gallery below:

This Commander John Shepard statue is a follow-up to last year’s Commander Jane Shepard statue, obviously spotlighting the character in his male incarnation this time. The statue depicts Shepard ready to leap into action while holding an M-8 Avenger assault rifle and Omni-Blade. It also includes interchangeable helmeted and unhelmeted heads.

The Mass Effect: Commander John Shepard 1:6 Scale Statue measures 14.5 inches tall and is made of polystone. The piece was sculpted by Substance Model Works, with prototyping and paint by Substance Model Works and J.W. Productions.

This statue will be sold exclusively through the Dark Horse Direct website. It’s priced at $199.99 and is limited to 1000 units worldwide. Orders placed between now and November 13 will receive a $20 discount.

You can also check out the Mass Effect collectibles available on the IGN Store. That includes past Dark Horse releases like the Tali’Zorah figure and the Liara figure.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket players are swooning over opening what’s been dubbed a god pack, which includes super rare alternate art cards in all five slots.

Card collectors have taken to social media to post their god pack pulls, with some unable to believe their luck and thinking a bug is at play. Blankb01 on Reddit, for example, pulled alternate art versions of Moltres ex, Rapidash, Pinsir, Erika, and Charmander in a single pack.

Actual-Impact8802 pulled two alternate art Nidoqueens, a Nidoking, Gyarados, and Snorlax in theirs. Another user, bodeler, pulled a Moltres ex, Rapidash, Charizard ex, Moltres ex, and Alakazam, again all in the incredibly rare alternate art forms. “I pooped,” they said.

God Packs definitely exist in Pokemon TCG Pocket! Check mine out! pic.twitter.com/JH4l3OM9pa

— Sauce McGavin (@SauceMcGavin) October 30, 2024

These 60 alternate cards are the rarest pieces available in Pokémon TCG Pocket and add well over a year to the completion time of the first set, Genetic Apex. Pulling five in one go will certainly speed this process along, however.

This has led many to desperately attempt to figure out if there’s a hidden mechanic that can trigger god packs, though beyond the almost definitely not legitimate conspiracy theory about crinkled corners, it comes down to pure luck.

Developer Creatures Inc. has shared the actual odds behind these packs, however, which are officially just called Rare Packs. Players have a 0.05% of opening one, Pokémon TCG Pocket tells players, meaning a one in 2,000 chance.

Some friendly fellow players and some who are, dare we say, jealous, are urging those who shared their god pack pulls to also share their friend codes. Pokémon TCG Pocket features something called Wonder Pick, which lets players dip into others’ packs and pull one of those cards, and the list of available packs can be pulled from the friend list.

This means that, if someone is friends with a player who opens a god pack, that secondary player may also get a taste. While Wonder Picks are often reserved to middling packs, leaving plenty of common cards on the table for the random one in five chance, god packs obviously guarantee an incredibly rare card even at their weakest.

Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived in October as a streamlined, digital version of the beloved trading card game. It has players opening packs, collecting cards, building decks, and battling others; a simple formula that’s already proved popular given it made $12 million in four days.

Creatures Inc. is busy adding all sorts of events to the game, including a player versus player battle event released today, November 7. This isn’t quite a full competitive mode for Pokémon TCG Pocket but is certainly a step in that direction, and will certainly be the first proper competitive test of which decks are best, with both Mewtwo ex and Charizard ex having dominated so far.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

For much of 2024, a strange trend has dominated Amazon’s listings: Nintendo first-party games have been conspicuously absent from the retailer, both physically and digitally, for preorders and after release. Rather than being sold and shipped by Amazon, major Switch titles have been limited to third-party sellers only. This extended absence has also included Nintendo’s digital offerings — no Nintendo Switch Online memberships, gift cards, or digital game codes have appeared on Amazon’s storefront since early this year.

But, that seemingly ends with The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. This latest Zelda title has become the first Nintendo first-party game of 2024 to be sold and shipped directly by Amazon, marking a significant change in Amazon’s recent Nintendo offerings. Although it comes over a month after The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’s release, the listing signals positive signs after months of silence from both Amazon and Nintendo regarding these absences.

As reported by GameRant, and discussed on the Nintendo Switch subreddit, some Nintendo preorders like Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door earlier in the year were also inexplicably canceled, leaving fans wondering about the retailer’s allegedly strained relationship with Nintendo.

This freeze has been specific to Amazon, as Nintendo games like Mario & Luigi: Brothership and digital items remain available at other major retailers such as Best Buy, GameStop, and Target. Up until now, Amazon has been a veritable ghost town for Nintendo products, lacking even the digital storefront presence that many gamers expect.

There’s also still no indication from either Nintendo or Amazon as to why this freeze-out occurred, and at the time of this article’s publication it hadn’t been fully reversed. Currently, only Echoes of Wisdom is available directly from Amazon, with no sign of digital items like Switch Online or gift cards returning for now.

For Switch fans eager to buy Nintendo titles from Amazon’s official stock, the reappearance of first-party games hints at a potential shift just as the holiday shopping season ramps up — especially with a Nintendo Switch successor announcement on the horizon.

With Black Friday around the corner, there’s also hope that this change could signal a return to Amazon deals on popular Switch games by month’s end. By no means, however, is Amazon currently the cheapest place to pick up Echoes of Wisdom right now going into the sale season. Woot, an Amazon-owned retailer (but treated as a separate business unit), has had the game consistently on sale for over a month. It’s currently listed for just $49.99 ($10 off the MSRP).