Stalker 2 developer GSC Game World has released the game’s first major update, patch 1.1.
The update makes over 1,800 fixes and adjustments, GSC said, including the first iteration of A-Life fixes.
Stalker 2 launched late last month to a positive reception on Steam and one million sales. It’s a success for the Ukrainian studio, a miracle, really, considering the harrowing circumstances that followed Russian’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. But Stalker 2 suffers from well-documented bugs; chief among them A-Life 2.0.
A-Life was a key feature of the first Stalker game that governed AI behavior across the game world. At a high level, it is a system for simulating life in the Zone that works its magic seemingly independently of the player’s actions or whereabouts. It helps to create convincing AI and the emergent gameplay Stalker is famous for.
GSC had said A-Life 2.0 would make the Zone feel alive as never before, that it would fuel emergent gameplay on a scale previously thought impossible. Indeed for some fans, A-Life 2.0 was Stalker 2’s biggest selling point. But when Stalker 2 actually came out players discovered that A-Life 2.0 didn’t work properly, with some questioning whether it was even in the game at all.
A-Life fixes added with patch 1.1 include the issue with spawning NPCs behind the player’s back. Players can now encounter roaming NPCs across the Zone more often, and the distance at which A-Life NPCs are visible to the player is greatly extended.
Stalker 2 patch 1.1 A-Life fixes in full:
A-Life fixes
Fixed the issue with spawning NPCs behind the player’s back.
Players can now encounter roaming NPCs across the Zone more often.
Greatly extended the distance at which A-Life NPCs are visible to the player.
Fixed the aggressive optimization issue that prevented A-Life NPCs to exist in Offline (out of player’s visualization range).
In Offline mode, A-Life will continue to advance towards their goals over time.
Players may now have opportunities to encounter A-Life NPCs they’ve previously met by following in the same direction as the NPCs.
Improved A-Life NPCs navigation in Offline using GameGraph (global AI navigation map):
Fixed multiple issues where NPCs would fail to follow or find a path to their designated goals.
Fixed several issues with NPC being stuck in Online-Offline transition state,
Enhanced A-Life NPCs’ motivation to expand territory and actively attack enemies and mutants.
Fixed issues that could result in fewer A-life NPCs encountered than intended.
Further contextual actions improvement to ensure seamless transitions between Offline and Online states for NPCs engaged in these actions.
The groups exploring the Zone are now more diverse regarding possible factions and group sizes.
Fixed issue that while roaming over the Zone, Human NPCs didn’t satisfy their communication needs and talks.
And some other development related improvements.
Elsewhere, there’s a long list of AI improvements, balance changes, and loads of other fixes Stalker 2 fans will benefit from. This patch fixes mainline missions, story progression and side missions, crashes, and many, many bugs. It also improves performance and optimization. The patch notes, posted to Steam, are well worth checking out if you’re playing.
GSC warned that patch 1.1 is a massive download, so players should brace themselves for that. “We understand that the size of the patch is huge and the process of downloading will take some time,” the developer said. “We would like to thank you for your understanding, and we will work on this aspect as well.”
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.
The writer of the infamous Sonic Adventure 2 song “Live and Learn” is suing Sega, claiming he owns the rights to the song in part, and alleging the company has been using the song without his permission and making money off it over the last 20 years.
In a lawsuit first spotted by Polygon and also viewed by IGN, John Gioeli, the writer and performer for Live and Learn, asserts that he has maintained his songwriting registration for the song for over 20 years since he first wrote and recorded it for Sonic Adventure 2. However, he says Sega has been improperly claiming it is the actual owner of the song and behaving as such, including licensing the song to “at least 25 video games, television shows, live performances/events, and films.”
Specifically, Gioeli’s suit claims that Sega is basing its ownership of Live and Learn off “a 2001 lyric agreement where Gioeli was paid $3000 to write lyrics for a as-yet-untitled song that would be included in Sonic Adventure 2.” He did so at his home studio, using his own equipment and own vocals, allegedly without Sega’s direct involvement. He did work with Sega composer Jun Senoue over the phone, with Senoue initially sending him a music demo that Gioeli was supposed to write lyrics for. But the suit claims that the scope of Gioeli’s work expanded over the course of his work on Live and Learn without amendment to the initial agreement, which was only for the lyrics. Allegedly, Gioeli revised the song significantly, communicating changes over the phone to Senoue.
As a result, Gioeli says Sega claims it owns both the recording and musical composition, but argues this is not actually the case and that there is no agreement stating such. And Gioeli also claims that Sega has acknowledged in the past that the composition is “likely jointly owned”, with one Sega lawyer allegedly telling Gioeli at one point that he is entitled to 50% of profits from its use.
Gioeli allegedly was somehow unaware that Sega has been using Live and Learn with regularity in a number of other formats over the last 20 years. This is despite Gioeli working closely with the company on a number of songs throughout this time, all of which had far more specific agreements signed about who owned what. Per the suit, he only found out about its myriad uses through a fan telling him, and has since identified 25 video games it exists in. These include multiple Yakuza and Sonic games, Super Smash Bros, Phantasy Star Online, the maimai series, and Monster Hunter Rise). Notably, Gioeli was involved in the song’s inclusion in the recent movie Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (which we’ve just reviewed), and even signed the deal with Paramount for song placement.
Gioeli is seeking a court decision as to the ownership of Live and Learn, as well as a restitution for any money he is owed and damages for breach of the 2001 Lyric Agreement.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
It’s been rumoured for a while that Sony are about to buy Kadokawa Corporation, a monolithic Japanese media conglomerate that means nothing to the bulk of you unless I append the magic words “parent company of Dark Souls developers FromSoftware” and possibly also, “parent company of Spike Chunsoft”. Sony and Kadokawa were reported to be in talks last month, fomenting all sorts of speculation about, say, the PC version of Bloodborne being ritually sacrificed to consecrate the PS6-exclusivity of Dark Souls 4. Now, the pair have emerged from the Cave of Haggling and announced… “a strategic capital and business alliance agreement”. What does this mean? Is it safe to scream yet?
December is a big month for me. It’s a time to celebrate the holidays with friends and family, surprise loved ones with unique gifts, and attempt to reconnect with the ever-growing monstrosity that is my backlog. December is also a time for me to reflect on games that launched throughout the year – especially those that continued to demonstrate the rise in accessibility acceptance, as well as push the innovative boundary for future titles.
2024 was rife with accessible games, spanning across numerous genres and developed by various sized studios. As the industry’s understanding and implementation of features and designs continues to evolve, games are far more accessible than before. And with this year-end issue of Access Designed, IGN would like to recognize several games for their accessibility excellence.
Runner-up: Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Bioware’s latest installment in its fantasy RPG series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, is the purest definition of normalizing and standardizing accessibility. Not only does it demonstrate the studio’s increased commitment to disabled players since Dragon Age: Inquisition’s release in 2014, but Veilguard’s accessibility offerings also impressively cater toward an array of disabilities.
Visual features like subtitle adjustments, colorblind filters, and both melee and ranged threat indicators allow deaf and hard of hearing users to process gameplay information without audio. For blind and low vision players, Veilguard’s options offer audio indicators for incoming attacks, dialogue options, and interactive objects – all of which are crucial for combat, storytelling, and overworld traversal. Physically disabled players can remap controls, toggle options for mechanics like blocking, aiming, and holding inputs, and even remove QTEs and combos with rapid button presses.
Veilguard’s greatest accessibility achievement, though, comes in the form of dynamic difficulty. Difficulty is not unanimous. Not only do the rules, methods and understanding of challenge vary between studios, individual games, and player experiences – the majority of difficulty settings only tackle enemy aggression, player damage output, and player health. But in Veilguard, disabled players can alter settings like enemy resistances, enemy vulnerability, timing windows for dodging and parrying, enemy health and aggression. You can even toggle player death, allowing you to remain alive no matter how much damage you take. Combine that with settings that allow players to continuously access previously learned information, have consistent waypoints for objectives and overworld items, and the capability to pause whenever you like, and disabled players are given the chance they need to process each encounter or recover stamina.
Veilguard isn’t perfect. Some features like single stick movement and robust guidance systems are missing. Yet it still acts as the quintessential modern accessible experience. The industry continues to rightfully praise games like The Last of Us Part 2, but Veilguard demonstrates it’s time to move beyond the notion that a single game deserves all the accessibility praise. Instead, accessibility is evolving across the industry, and Veilguard is one of this year’s prime examples.
Runner-up: Botany Manor
It’s a common misconception that accessibility can only be achieved by companies owned by wealthy megacorporations like Microsoft or Sony. This belief that accessibility requires dozens of developers and untold amounts of money continues to plague innovation. But Botany Manor, a low-budget puzzle game, is proof that such a belief is a fallacy.
Developed by Balloon Studios and published by Whitethorn Games, Botany Manor is a soothing puzzle solving game set in a stately home in 19th century England. This genre is, admittedly, not my favorite – I prefer action and turn-based RPGs. But the accessibility features and design of Botany Manor made this game an unexpectedly pleasant surprise. For starters, it offers full support for mouse and keyboard or controller, depending on your preferred setup. It also offers single stick gameplay, with an option to toggle the capability to look around. Finally, a toggle to sprint is also offered.
That’s an admittedly small selection of options, but they’re augmented by Botany Manor’s impressive use of inclusive design. There are no time limits for solving puzzles; instead players are allowed to take as much time as needed to figure out ways to grow specific plants. Furthermore, puzzles are relegated to a select number of rooms per chapter. Rather than opening the entirety of the manor to players, which could feel overwhelming, those with physical and cognitive disabilities can preserve energy knowing puzzles are within sections.
Botany Manor is by no means perfect, as blind and low vision players will undoubtedly struggle without specific audio-based options. But an indie studio that creates a game with such accessibility-focused attention to inclusive design should be rewarded for its efforts. Botany Manor is proof you don’t need an extensive budget nor dozens of options to make puzzle games accessible.
Winner: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
The winner of this year’s accessibility award is bittersweet. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown proved truly innovative for the Metroidvania genre. However, publisher Ubisoft recently disbanded the Montpellier-based development team and assigned them across several new projects, meaning that a sequel or future innovations from the studio has very little chance of happening. But I’m not awarding developers because of pity. Rather, I’m awarding the team because they created the most innovatively accessible experience of 2024.
The Lost Crown offers customizable controls, subtitles, audio indicators for varying attacks, and a toggle that automatically unfreezes your character when frozen by a frost status effect. But these options ultimately pale in comparison to the innovative Memory Shards and Guided Mode features.
The Metroidvania genre relies on extensive memorization and backtracking. Areas are meant to be explored numerous times throughout a playthrough, with each segment opening new layers on repeat visits as players acquire new tools or powers. Memory Shards allow players to place a screenshot of a location on the overworld map, reminding them of hidden items or barriers to new routes that can only be accessed with yet-to-be-acquired skills or equipment. Spotted a power up at the beginning of a zone that’s inaccessible? Just place a Memory Shard on the map to remind you to return when you’ve progressed. This feature has been praised as a gameplay tool in general, but it is an incredibly helpful tool for players of all cognitive abilities.
To coincide with Memory Shards, Guided Mode shows players precisely where their next objective is, as well as highlights any upcoming barriers along the path. Combined, these two features dramatically reduce the chance of cognitive overload while still respecting the core feature of a Metroidvania – exploration. While guides and placeable hints are not new to gaming, Metroidvania games have always been dense and obscure and, as a result, cognitively inaccessible. That is until the release of The Lost Crown. This year’s Prince of Persia really is a game (and genre) changer.
2024 continued the trend of improving accessible experiences for disabled players. No longer are we expected to follow specific studios for accessible games. From AAA to indie, disabled players are no longer confined to specific genres because of accessibility offerings. And while barriers still exist, 2024 is indicative of increasing support from studios that continuously adopt the best accessibility practices. Some shortcomings aside, 2024 was as accessible as ever, and another fantastic year for disabled players.
Grant Stoner is a disabled journalist covering accessibility and the disabled perspective in video games. When not writing, he is usually screaming about Pokémon or his cat, Goomba on Twitter.
Undertale creator Toby Fox has rolled out his “holiday newsletter” for 2024 and it’s got some “progress updates” in it about Deltarune Chapter 3, 4, and 5.
Chapter 3 has recently been tested by a “professional team on PC” and it’s “pretty solid now”. According to Fox, “only console-related aspects remain”. He’s even got some impressions from the team who playtested it:
SNK has announced new ACA NEOGEO Selections – this time including Vol. 3 and Vol. 4. It will be releasing for the Switch next year on 10th April 2025, with each collection featuring 10 games previously released as ACA NEOGEO games on the eShop.
Here’s a look at the collection, courtesy of Gematsu:
The comeback wasn’t going to happen. I was blowing it. I lost my first character in my first match of The Hidden Ones because I didn’t cash out with my Ultimate Skill, but I made a comeback with my mid before losing her to my opponent’s anchor. I didn’t have a great answer for what he was doing, and I was convinced I was going to waste what had started off as a great comeback. Then my anchor came out. It was my first game; I’d never used her before. And at first, it was going about the same, and then I realized what I was doing. I canceled my default combo into another combo then another, and cashed out with my Ultimate. And on the last hit, I got the kill. God, I love fighting games, and if my time with it is any indication, The Hidden Ones is living up to what makes the genre so great.
If you’re not up on The Lore ™, The Hidden Ones is based on the anime Hitori No Shita: The Outcasts, which in turn is based on Under One Person, a Chinese webcomic. Whew. Okay, so the history is a little complicated, but you don’t really need to know what’s going on with the other parts of the series to vibe with The Hidden Ones. I have no experience with the anime, but I was able to follow what I saw pretty easily. I started with the story mode, which dropped me into the shoes of Wang Ye. Ye is one of the Outcasts, blessed with one of the Eight Secret Arts, which were generally believed to have been lost to time. Once people figure out what Wang Ye has, though, they go after him to get it.
Wang Ye tries to nip this in the bud by speaking with Li Gaofeng, the head of the Li Troupe, and trying to convince him to leave Wang and his family alone. Impressed by Wang’s gumption and fighting prowess, Li agrees to let him go and leave his family alone. Of course, things don’t go as planned and Wang finds himself framed for Li’s murder and battling the Li Troupe as he tries to escape.
The Devil’s in the Details
Whew, okay, set up. What’s cool, though, is the game Morefun games has made out of this. The Hidden Ones would probably be best described as an arena fighter, but you don’t just go from fight to fight. Between the fights themselves, you’ve got the ability to run around and check out The Hidden Ones’s world, whether that means enjoying the environmental detail on display or checking out a ledger or diary you find in the world. This attention to detail is important: during an interview that happened between my two play sessions, Lead Game Designer Fox Lin and Senior Game Designer Stan Fan told me that the team at Morefun spent a long time capturing the detail of these environments, many of which are based on actual, individual Chinese streets. They wanted the world of The Hidden Ones to feel real, and that comes across even in the relatively small area I was playing in.
The same is true of The Hidden Ones’s visual style. This game is stunning, and that attention to detail is clear in everything from the characters to the way they fight. This is intentional, too. The story and world of The Hidden Ones are based heavily (though not exclusively) in Chinese martial arts and myth, and that meant getting the little details right, right down to the motion capture done by real martial artists.
These are regular people, and that’s a major part of the story here, even if they are throwing punches and casting magic.
Morefun is also quick to note that while the Outcasts are incredibly powerful, they’re also folks going about their day. Maybe they’re going out to buy groceries or just using their abilities to accomplish their goals in subtle ways. The point is these are regular people, and that’s a major part of the story here, even if they are throwing punches and casting magic.
Like a Flowing Stream
Speaking of the fighting, The Hidden Ones feels great when you’re throwing punches. This is an arena fighter, so movement is crucial, but the rock-paper-scissors interactions of what makes a fighting game a game fighting work are here, too. You’ve got your basic attacks, which lose to special attacks; those losey to your defensive stance; and your defensive stance loses to attacks, which become throws if they’re in that stance. There’s also a dodge, which costs a limited amount of stamina, and you can time perfectly for a Witch Time-style slowdown that will allow you to retaliate when you otherwise wouldn’t, and a parry that you can perform out of your defensive stance during special attacks, so you can swap from defense to offense with a well-timed button press.
Stamina also comes into play on offense. You can spend it to cancel actions — whether they’re physical or special attacks — allowing you to build custom combos and combos into your Ultimate Skills, which is how I won that match I told you about at the start. If you’re the one getting your face rearranged, you can also spend stamina to break out of combos and reset to neutral. Put together, all of this means that, despite The Hidden Ones’s fairly simple control scheme and combo structure, you’re constantly making interesting choices where you’re alternating between playing neutral, reacting, and pre-empting your opponent, all while managing your character’s unique skills (Wang Ye, for instance, has a special attack that can go into three different variations). The right play at the right time, like say, throwing out a special attack when you think they’re going to swing at you, can swing a match.
Nah, He Just Looks Big
The real meat and potatoes, and my favorite part of my time with The Hidden Ones, is going to be the mano a mano fights between your three-person teams against other players, but I also really enjoyed the three boss fights I got to play. The first, which I ran into during the story mode, started off as a one-on-one brawl before the boss in question brought out her skyscraper-sized snake, forcing me to play around its massive fangs before its master would come down and I could get back to the fine art of knocking her out.
Arena fighters are a tricky business, but so far Morefun has nailed the balance of simplicity, depth, and game feel that any good fighter needs.
If that’s not enough for you, though, there’s also Trial mode, where you can face off against a boss with any of the characters you’ve got. There were two available in the demo I played, and both were challenging, especially on the highest of the available difficulties. Both eventually went down, but they forced me to use characters I knew, pick my spots, and learn their patterns. It’s a fun change of pace for a game like this, and I’m eager to see what other fights look like in the future.
When my time with The Hidden Ones ended, I left excited, and wishing I could have played more, especially more multiplayer. But I left with a good idea of what Morefun is trying to accomplish, and I liked how much cool stuff there was and how unique and interesting the characters they’ve created here are. Arena fighters are a tricky business, but so far Morefun has nailed the balance of simplicity, depth, and game feel that any good fighter needs while providing more to do if you’re not looking to throw down online. I’m excited to see where The Hidden Ones goes, and in the meantime, I’ll be thinking about landing that Ultimate Skill at the right moment, and how cool it was that The Hidden Ones gave me the options to play how I wanted in that moment. Like its characters, The Hidden Ones knows even when the chips are down and the outcome is uncertain, there’s always a play to be made, hidden in plain sight.
Around £250k’s work have been taken in a “targeted attack”.
Thousands of pounds of Pokémon Trading Cards have been stolen from Ace Grading, a Banbury-based Card Grading company run by TCG YouTuber Randolph.
As reported by the BBC, the break in took place on Friday 13th December in what Randolph and his company has called a “targeted attack”. Thames Valley Police believes that an estimated GBP £250,000 worth of cards have been stolen from the company’s headquarters.
From iconic names like Indiana Jones and Final Fantasy to indie sensations like Balatro and Animal Well, 2024 has provided gamers with a variety of incredible experiences. IGN is in the process of picking our game of the year, but now you have the chance to have your voice heard too in the IGN People’s Choice Tournament.
With our partners at Truth, we’ve selected 64 of the best titles of the year to be placed in a bracket and randomly sorted into groups. They’ll go head-to-head, with the winner moving on to the next round and the loser being eliminated. As the rounds progress, the competition will get tougher, until there’s only one title left standing as the fan-voted Game of the Year. If you’re familiar with how March Madness brackets work, it’s the same concept.
Tournament Schedule and How to Vote
Voting will take place on IGN’s Instagram starting today, December 18. We’ll post the matchups to our Instagram stories around 3 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. CT / 12 p.m. PT, and you’ll have 24 hours to vote. The 32 winners will move on to the next round, where the process will repeat. Here are the dates when each round will be posted (around the same times listed above), so make sure to check back on our Instagram stories to continue voting for your favorite games:
Round 1: December 18
Round 2: December 20
Round 3: December 23
Quarterfinals: December 27
Semifinals: December 30
Finals: December 31
Which Games Are Grouped Together?
As we mentioned earlier, the bracket placements of the 64 games we selected were randomized. They were split up into four groups, like the regions of March Madness. Group 1 is led by some heavy hitters: Helldivers 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. But they’ll have to go up against breakout indie Animal Well. Plus, three popular sports games: Madden NFL 25, College Football 25, and MLB The Show 24. And you can’t look past the beautiful visuals of Unicorn Overlord and Infinity Nikki.
Group 2 is led by the excellent Silent Hill 2 remake, but it’ll face stiff competition from a trio of RPGs — Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. There’s also heralded remasters and remakes from Nintendo with Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. And we can’t leave out the technical marvel Senua’a Sage: Hellblade II, or another standout indie in Lorelai and the Laser Eyes.
Group 3 ended up stacked with three games that have been cleaning up during awards season: Astro Bot, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Black Myth: Wukong. They’re joined by an eclectic group of competitors. There’s entries from massive franchises in Star Wars Outlaws and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (which will face off against each other in Round 1). There’s games from other long-running series in Tekken 8 and Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. There’s the latest version of sports franchises in EA Sports FC 25 and NBA 2K25. But also some notable new IPs with Stellar Blade and Slitterhead.
Rounding things out, Group 4 is also full of some big names. First, there’s indie darling Balatro, which has also done very well for itself this awards season. But it’ll have to get through two huge RPG sequels in Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Dragon’s Dogma 2, as well as a popular RPG remake in Persona 3 Reload. And they’ll be up against several family-friendly opponents in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, LEGO Horizon Adventures, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and The Plucky Squire. Not to mention the often overlooked Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and surprise hit Enshrouded.
As you can see, this year is going to be a hotly contested race. So make sure you head over to Instagram to vote for each matchup and help determine which games will move on and which will be sent packing. It’ll all build to a big reveal of the fan voted Game of the Year. Happy voting!
According to tradition, the holiday season actually began over a month ago when Mariah Carey once again emerged from a giant block of ice to sing Christmas anthem “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Fortnite’s is arriving a bit late to the holiday party, but leakers say an upcoming update to the game will replicate this timeless holiday tradition and have Mariah Carey burst forth from a large block of ice in the game, bringing with her holiday character skins and the Winterfest event.
This news comes from prominent Fortnite leaker iFireMonkey, who has previously been a source of credible Fortnite leaks. Per their information, Mariah Carey will be getting a Fortnite skin as part of its upcoming Winterfest 2024 event, alongside Snoop Dogg and Shaquille O’Neal. All of them will, of course, be dressed in holiday finery.
Another leaker, Egyptian_Leaker, suggests that there will be an additional event involving a large block of ice that’s already appeared on the Fortnite map. Per them, the ice block will defrost after three days, and Mariah Carey will appear in-game as an NPC handing out gifts to players.
MINI-LIVE EVENT CONFIRMED: There’s a very small Winterfest event at the start of it ‼️
Mariah Carey will be an Ice block on the map for 3 days. After she defrosts there will be a small sequence with Fireworks. Mariah Carey will then be available as an NPC that gives gifts to… pic.twitter.com/lzoBCUuues
For the time being, she remains tragically frozen:
Alongside Mariah Carey, iFireMonkey has posted a number of other holiday-themed leaks we’re likely to see in the coming days. These include loads of holiday-themed skins and accessories (one of them is a backpack full of bread dogs!), new emotes and dances, and the return of Sgt. Winter as an NPC. We’ve also heard that Skibidi Toilet is coming to Fortnite…tonight. Just in time for the holidays.
Winterfest 2024 launches on December 20 and runs through January 7. In addition to the rumored holiday skins and Mariah Carey’s ice block extravaganza, Epic Games has confirmed we’ll see the return of Jonesy’s Cabin.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
