Author: Game Infliction

Best Xbox Game Pass Deals and Bundles Right Now (November 2024)

Now that the price hike has kicked in for existing Game Pass users, there’s no better time to stock up on cheap codes to save some cash. If you’re wondering where to find deals like this, don’t worry, we’re here to help you track down the best offers available on Game Pass right now – offers like this deal on 3 months of Game Pass Ultimate at Woot that’s down to just $36.49. And with Black Friday coming up, there are sure to be even more Xbox deals to track down, but for now you can learn more about that deal and what’s coming soon to Game Pass below.

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Best Xbox Game Pass Deals

One of our favorite Xbox Game Pass Ultimate deals has returned at Woot, providing another opportunity for users to stack their membership at a discounted rate. You can get three months of the service for just $36.49.

Considering the new price of Game Pass Ultimate is $19.99/month, you’re saving $23.48 with this 3-month deal. This is the best way to avoid the Xbox Game Pass price hike. By stacking these codes you can set yourself up for success to play all of Xbox’s upcoming releases at a lower price.

What’s Coming Soon to Xbox Game Pass?

Game Pass has a nice rotation of new titles to play every month. If you’re curious about what’s in store for the start of November, we’ve got you covered. The Xbox Game Pass November Wave 1 lineup is:

Unfortunately, for those subscribing to the new Standard tier (available for $14.99/month), this does not give Game Pass users access to day one releases. This means big new releases on the platform like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will not be available on that tier.

What Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass?

Unfortunately with new games joining the catalog it means a few must take their leave. Below, we’ve listed the games that’ll be leaving Xbox Game Pass on November 15.

  • Dicey Dungeons (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Dungeons 4 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Goat Simulator (PC)
  • Like a Dragon: Ishin! (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Like a Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Persona 5 Tactica (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Somerville (Cloud, Console, and PC)

Biggest Games Releasing on Xbox Game Pass

Xbox’s Summer Showcase back in June was a massive success, showcasing an incredible amount of new titles coming to the platform. Alongside Black Ops 6, the showcase also included Doom: The Dark Ages, Perfect Dark, Fable, Gears of War: E-Day, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and so many more. But which of these titles will appear as day-one releases on Game Pass? Thankfully, quite a few! Including all of the previously mentioned titles.

While most of the games listed above have release dates in 2025, or no release dates at all at the moment, the one to keep an eye on for now following Black Ops 6 is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Gamescom’s Opening Night Live revealed that Indy’s latest adventure will be available to play on December 9 for Xbox users, so there’s truly no better time to hop on the Game Pass bandwagon.

If you’re looking for even more savings on all things Xbox, have a look at our roundup of the best Xbox deals. There, we’ve highlighted all of the latest and greatest discounts on the platform, from incredible game deals to fantastic offers on high-quality headphones. Or, if you’d rather see what’s going on with other platforms, check out our roundups of the best PlayStation deals, the best Nintendo Switch deals, and our overall roundup of the best video game deals.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign review: a military shooter that comes disguised as other, better games

As a yearly blockbuster, Call of Duty, through sheer expense and effort, would like you to think it is the Die Hard of video games. Or, depending on the setting, the Saving Private Ryan of video games. But it is barely Black Hawk Down. This latest campaign in Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 reminds me more of the forgettable Netflix shootfests that thumbnail their way across your TV screen as you try to find some gritty nothing to aid you in zoning out of life. Still, there is an anecdotal contingent of casual sofa sitters for whom Call Of Duty is the game. A balls-to-the-wall shooter to return to every winter and rinse through in a weekend. Ed has already gestured at its multiplayer, announcing: “yup, it’s COD”, like a deeply tired Captain Birdseye inspecting the day’s catch, wondering when his life will change. But never mind that. How does the single player story mode hold up? Some are calling it the best campaign in years. And I guess that’s true, in the sense that it is the least worst.

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Pokémon TCG Pocket Battles Are Already Dominated by Two Decks in Particular

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket battles are already being dominated by two decks in particular: the usual suspects of Charizard and Mewtwo.

The streamlined mobile version of the beloved TCG arrived in late October and its meta already appears formed, with most players bringing a Charizard ex or Mewtwo ex deck into the more competitive battle mode.

While the Pokémon TCG usually comes down to more than just raw power, both of these decks are admittedly about hitting hard. Charizard ex has a 200 damage attack, for example, which is enough to knock out any other Pokémon in the game, and Mewtwo has an also very strong 150 damage attack.

There is a downside to these, of course, as they each cost four energy and lose two energy per attack. This means, in theory, it takes two turns before the attack can be used again, but both of these decks also have reliable energy generation that allows players to speed that process up.

Charizard ex is a fire card, so this deck can also bring in Moltres ex. For just one energy, Moltres ex lets the player flip three coins and add a fire energy to a bench Pokémon for every heads, and its 140 hit points as a basic Pokémon allows it to stick around for a long time while charging up a Charmander, Charmeleon, and eventually Charizard on the bench.

This means that, by the time the opposing player forces Moltres ex out of the active Pokémon slot, there is often a Charizard ready to go with upwards of six energy attached, allowing it to essentially wipe out whatever is put across from it.

Mewtwo works in a similar way, though as a basic Pokémon itself, players will often put it directly into the active Pokémon slot. It also has a two energy, 50 damage attack and 150 hit points to keep it around and doing damage, meaning players have enough time to set up a Gardevoir on the bench.

This Stage 2 Pokémon takes some time to set up, with Ralts and Kirlia coming before it, but once it’s on the bench, players can use its Psy Shadow ability to add one energy to the active Pokémon. This again counters the discard two energy cost of Mewtwo’s 150 damage attack, as the standard energy joins the Gardevoir energy each turn to add two at a time.

It’s rare to see a deck that isn’t one of these two in the more competitive battle mode, though one led by Pikachu ex and another led by Starmie ex appear to be just a tier below these two. Both present quick ex Pokémon with high damage, low cost attacks, meaning if players can deploy them quick enough it’s hard for opponents to build a strong board.

Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived in October on iOS and Android as a digital version of the beloved trading card game. It lets players open packs, collect cards, build decks, and battle others, a simple formula that has already proved popular given it made $12 million in just four days.

It’s also hitting fast and hard with events, and players can perhaps test out these two heavy hitting decks in its latest. The Lapras ex Drop Event adds a new category in the Solo Battle menu that lets players take on four increasingly difficult Lapras decks with a chance of winning a special booster pack after each, which can include the brand new Lapras ex.

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

Bambas! is Untitled Shoes Game

The trailer for Bambas! starts off innocently enough. It’s an “innovative urban walking simulator” in which you play a disembodied pair of shoes, individually moved with a controller’s analog sticks and trigger buttons. The first half of the trailer is all whimsy and playground fun – kicking a football, standing on a climbing frame, riding a skateboard. But then a note of darkness creeps in, as the player begins to channel the sheer nihilistic inconsequentiality of a world in which shoes have no thinking human bodies to restrain them.

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Starship Troopers? Terminator? Warhammer 40,000? Helldivers 2 Creative Director Reveals His Dream Crossovers

Smash hit co-op shooter Helldivers 2 seems ripe for a crossover, but which franchises might it partner with? That’s a fun conversation players have been having ever since the game’s explosive launch earlier this year. Now, Helldivers 2’s creative director has had his say, revealing a number of intellectual properties he’d love to work with.

In a tweet, Arrowhead CCO and Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt cautioned against doing too many crossovers, saying “it would dilute the IP and make it a ‘not Helldivers’ experience.” However, he also published an extended list of IPs he “really would love to do a take on!”

  • Aliens
  • Starship Troopers
  • Terminator
  • Predator
  • Star Wars
  • Fifth Element
  • Blade Runner
  • Warhammer 40k
  • Trench Crusade
  • Mutant Chronicles
  • Dropzone Commander

It’s easy to see how many of these franchises would work within Helldivers 2. Starship Troopers is the obvious choice, given Helldivers 2 riffs so heavily on the cult classic sci-fi flick. Terminator, too, seems an easy fit, given the Automaton alien enemy are basically Terminators themselves. Aliens, Predator, and Star Wars are fun to think about, but my favorite is Warhammer 40,000.

It would be amazing to drop down into a planet overrun by Tyranids or Necrons as an Imperial Guard soldier, complete with lore-accurate weapons, vehicles, and, of course, dialogue. Yes, Warhammer 40,000 fans have the wonderful and hugely successful Space Marine 2 to play right now, but that’s a Space Marine game. Helldivers 2 is near enough an Imperial Guard game already. I’d drop a dollar or 10 on an Imperial Guard crossover in a heartbeat.

Which brings us on to the next question: how might Helldivers 2 do crossovers if it ever came to it? In a subsequent tweet, Pilestedt suggested it could come in the form of a Warbond (Helldivers 2’s take on a battle pass) or even individual super store items.

“Having a full Starship Troopers Warbond with mobile infantry armor, voices and weapons would also be cool!” Pilestedt said, before stressing: “Nothing decided yet. Just musings :)”

Can Arrowhead do a deal for a crossover? Helldivers 2 has certainly done well enough to draw out some big hitters. Let’s not forget that Helldivers 2 is the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game of all time, selling an incredible 12 million copies in just 12 weeks. And while player numbers on Steam aren’t what they once were, they’re still extremely healthy.

For now, though, crossover dreams remain just that. In the shorter term, Arrowhead continues to update Helldivers 2 with new Warbonds and patches, with the threat of a new alien faction looming over the galactic horizon.

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.

Mini Review: STALKER: Shadow Of Chornobyl (Switch) – Legendary Series Stalks Switch With A Solid Port

In the Zone.

Lauded on its original 2007 release, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow Of Chornobyl dropped players into a stark world, filled with effective horror and precision combat. It spawned two sequels, both of which refined and improved on the model of their predecessor. Ukraine-based GSC Game World’s Legends Of The Zone bundle squeezes all three expansive adventures onto Switch with modern optimisations and stable visual performance, although each title is also available as a standalone purchase. It’s worth noting that this is the series’ first time on consoles (with the PlayStation versions released back in March), which makes the competency of these ports all the more impressive.

Taking inspiration from the 1971 Russian novel Roadside Picnic, Shadows Of Chornobyl is set in the irradiated wilderness of the Zone. Decades after repopulation efforts, a second Chornobyl disaster occurs, turning residents into mutated creatures and littering the countryside with deadly elemental anomalies. The haunting and oppressive atmosphere of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film adaptation Stalker, is prevalent throughout. The Zone always feels like an alien landscape, or a bad dream.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Star Wars Outlaws’ New Creative Director Promises Big Changes After Disappointing Sales

Ubisoft has released its first developer update for Star Wars Outlaws, with new creative director Drew Rechner promising big changes after the open world adventure debuted to disappointing sales.

Rechner said in the update that Ubisoft had been “gathering and actioning players’ feedback” since launch and has identified key areas where it can “elevate the game experience to better meet” player expectations.

Sentiments such as these are often seen in the wake of disastrous game launches but Star Wars Outlaws debuted to positive reviews. Poor sales shook a struggling Ubisoft, however, and it is now working to improve the game ahead of what it hopes will be a sales bump alongside its Steam launch and the holiday period.

This will result in Star Wars Outlaws getting revamped combat, stealth, and controls. “The first key area of improvement to the game is combat where we see a real opportunity to add more depth and excitement to the experience, further rewarding your tactics and precision,” Rechner said.

“Our second key area is stealth, which is not only about improving the readability and consistency of enemy detection, but also providing choice in how you want to approach each encounter.

“Finally, our third key area of focus is centered around the character controls, which means improving the reliability of cover, increasing the responsiveness of climbing and crouching, and generally improving the consistency of the controls overall.”

These changes will be made when Update 1.4 arrives on November 21, the same day Star Wars Outlaws launches on Steam. Players can expect more information on the changes in the coming weeks.

Update 1.3 arrived in October and brought a handful of big changes of its own, including improvements to stealth. Players were given “more flexibility in how they approach situations” alongside upgraded enemy activity to make gameplay feel more realistic.

Rechner moves into the Star Wars Outlaws creative director role as previous creative director, Julian Gerighty, turns his attention to The Division 3 at Massive Entertainment.

Ubisoft as a whole continues to be embattled by rumors of a takeover and other issues. The French publisher delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows into 2025, and has ditched Epic Games Store exclusivity for its PC games.

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

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Continues to Sell Millions, So Will Nintendo Release Mario Kart 9 for Switch 2?

Nintendo Switch exclusive Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to sell millions of copies even now, with the game seven-and-a-half years old.

In its latest financial report, Nintendo said Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold another 2.31 million units from April to September, which means Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is now up to an incredible 64.27 million sold. In fact, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold almost as many copies as the brand new The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom so far this financial year, and more than either Pario Mario: The Thousand-Year Door or Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is comfortably the best-selling Nintendo Switch game, ahead of Animal Crossing: New Horizons (46.45 million) in second place. And its enduring popularity is easy to understand; not only is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe superb in its own right, but it’s an almost essential buy for any new Switch owner looking for a fun game to play with family and friends pretty much out of the box. Speaking of which, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe looks set to continue to sell well with Nintendo pushing the Switch ahead of the crucial holiday sales period.

The question now is, will Nintendo release a sequel, presumably Mario Kart 9, for the upcoming Switch 2, or continue Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s dominance via backwards compatibility and a beefy next-gen update?

Nintendo has so far kept its cards close to its chest when it comes to Switch 2 information. All it’s said on the record is that an announcement will be made at some point during this financial year, which ends March 2025. Analysts are now saying it’s unlikely Nintendo will announce Switch 2 this year. A release for the console itself looks set for the next financial year, meaning April 2025 at the earliest.

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.

Pokémon TCG Pocket Releases Lapras ex Through Limited Time Battle Event

The second timed event in Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket has now begun and gives players a chance to win a Lapras ex.

The Lapras ex Drop Event adds a new category in the Solo Battle menu that lets players take on four increasingly difficult Lapras decks with a chance of winning a special booster pack after each, the Promo Pack A Series Vol. 1.

This booster pack, available in the Gifts menu once obtained, contains one of five cards, including the Lapras ex and a brand new Mankey. The three remaining cards include alternative art versions of Pikachu, Butterfree, and Clefairy, and all five cards come stamped.

Players must persevere through some random chance encounters before they can pick up all five cards. The Lapras event introduces Chance Rewards, essentially giving players more incentive to repeat battles again and again, as these can drop after each win against a Lapras deck.

Players then have just a one-in-five chance of pulling the Lapras ex in the booster pack, though those looking to collect ’em all will be eager to pick up all five cards anyway. Grinding through the Lapras decks will be necessary to do so, but the Auto Battle feature is still available to speed things up.

Lapras ex itself is a Basic Pokémon with 140 hit points and an 80 damage attack at the cost of three energy: two water and one colorless. This Bubble Drain attack heals 20 damage from Lapras ex too.

Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived in October as a streamlined, digital version of the beloved trading card game. It lets players open packs, collect cards, build decks, and battle others, a simple formula that has already proved popular given it made $12 million in just four days.

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