How revenge falls.
Among all the Switch 2 excitement, we didn’t want this to get lost: Xenoblade Chronicles is now 15 years old! To celebrate, Alana recalls something which turned the game from a great one into a special one.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles, so be wary if you haven’t at least made it to the final hours of the game.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Hello! We’re Kati and Florent, Lead Narrative Designer and Creative Director, from the Aphelion team at Don’t Nod. Now that you’ve seen our game’s world premiere during Xbox Games Showcase, we wanted to talk more about it – including its conception, story, and what you can expect in terms of gameplay before it launches in 2026.
Aphelion is a linear action-adventure game set in space, blending exploration, traversal, stealth, and mystery. But more than anything, it’s a story-rich human journey with a grounded approach to sci-fi, and includes a dual-protagonist structure that shapes both the gameplay and the emotional core of the story.
Aphelion is set in the near-future – Earth is dying and humanity is desperately searching for another home in Persephone, the uncharted icy planet that Ariane and Thomas find themselves on. One of our early inspirations was the real-world hypothesis of Planet Nine – the theory that there’s a previously undetectable planet in the outer edges of our Solar System: what if it existed? What if we found it? In developing this vision, we’re proud to be collaborating with the European Space Agency (ESA) on Aphelion to ground our game’s science in reality.
You’ll play as both Ariane and Thomas, alternating between their perspectives as they try to find one another and reunite after a crash landing. Their separation is central – not just to the story, but to the game design too. Each character offers a different experience, and their unique situations reflect their personal journeys.
Ariane is physically capable and equipped for traversal. Through her, players will explore dangerous terrain by climbing, rappelling, navigating environmental hazards, and more. Thomas was injured in the crash, but can investigate and discover the mystery of the planet in different ways. This contrast creates a rhythm and duality that allows you to feel the weight of each character’s journey, separately and together.
Exploration is the heartbeat of Aphelion. What starts out as a mission compromised from the beginning becomes a deeper journey into the unknown. As you explore the environment and gather information, you’ll uncover clues as to the planet’s strange conditions, and what caused the crash of Ariane and Thomas’s ship, the Hope 01.
But at its core, this isn’t a game about a planet. It’s a tale about what we bring with us when everything else is lost. The game’s conception began with Ariane and Thomas, not the wider story around them. Their relationship, strained by duty and sacrifice, is the emotional heart of Aphelion. As they navigate this new world and the unknown, they are confronting something deeply personal: how we face the prospect of loss, and whether hope can survive in the aftermath.
It’s an emotional story about love, resilience, and hope, and we can’t wait to show you more. Aphelion will be released in 2026 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and Xbox Cloud. It will be an Xbox Play Anywhere title, and available day one with Game Pass. To stay up to date, follow Don’t Nod on X, Instagram, and TikTok.
DON’T NOD
By 2060, Earth will be uninhabitable. The discovery of a 9th planet – Persephone – at the edge of the solar system, is humanity’s best hope. The European Space Agency is dispatching the Hope 01 scientific mission, consisting of 2 of their accomplished astronauts, Ariane and Thomas. Their mission: to survey the planet and determine whether humanity can prosper anew here.
Your adventure begins in chaos, as the crash landing of their ship scatters them across the planet, launching them on a desperate quest to find one another.
Aphelion is a cinematic third-person action-adventure set on the planet Persephone, an uncharted, frozen world. Stranded and isolated, you must survive the truly unknown, find each other, and complete the mission. Traverse stunning alien landscapes, avoid lurking threats, and discover the haunting secrets buried beneath the ice.
EXPLORE AN UNCHARTED PLANET
Explore the surreal beauty of Persephone, a vast frozen world shaped by deadly weather and ever-changing terrain.
Armed only with your explorational tools – pathfinder, oxygen tank, grappling hook, and more – you must face the unknown, traverse treacherous terrain, and gather clues about the strange, reality-bending phenomenon threatening your existence.
FIND EACH OTHER
Helpless on the edge of the solar system, the Hope 01 crew faces a brutal new world and the echoes of a complicated past. Ariane Montclair and Thomas Cross share a deep connection, a relationship left unresolved by the demands of their careers and their mission. Facing overwhelming odds, their fractured bond becomes a lifeline as they grasp in the dark for one another.
HIDE TO SURVIVE
You’re not alone. Something lurks beneath the ice.
Key Features:
– A realistic depiction of space exploration
– An emotional drama on an alien world
– Cinematic action-adventure with gripping traversal gameplay
– Tools-based exploration and survival
– Tense and exciting stealth-based sequences
A game in collaboration with: European Space Agency (ESA)
The post Aphelion: Learn More About the Exploration and Emotions Behind This Brand-New Sci-Fi Adventure appeared first on Xbox Wire.
If you’re playing Mario Kart World, you’ll likely be unlocking a steady stream of new vehicles simply playing the game as you normally would — progressing through Grand Prix Cups, Knockout Tour and hunting down challenges in Free Roam.
All in all, there are 30 karts to unlock on top of the game’s basic eight vehicles. Every 100 coins unlocks a new kart, so you’ll need 3,000 coins to nab them all.
It’s not a particularly tall order, but that hasn’t stopped fans from immediately trying to maximise their Mario Kart World time to get everything even quicker.
Most tips involve Mario Kart World’s Free Roam mode, where players are hunting down the most lucrative spots to grind for coins — or even go AFK and watch their coffers slowly fill.
If you’re happy to rinse and repeat loading the game over and over, fans are recommending honing in on any of the game’s giant stacks of coins you can find in Free Roam which respawn every time you reload the game.
IGN has tested this method with the stack of coins by the Boo Cinema fast travel spot. Load into Free Roam from the game’s main menu, turn around and you’ll see the coin stack to your left. After collection, simply reload the game and repeat the process.
For something less labor intensive, other fans recommend parking up at Toad Factory, behind the conveyor belt which continually spits out a stream of coins and item boxes. It’s going to take some time to collect individual coins this way, but as an AFK method when you wouldn’t otherwise be playing the game… it works.
Finally, if you fancy chilling in Free Roam while actually driving, keep an eye out for the coin cars which toss out coins behind them as they drive. You’ll need to follow these vehicles fairly slowly to collect the currency it drops, but as an activity to cool off from a heated few Knockout Tour matches, it’s quite relaxing.
After unlocking all of Mario Kart World’s 38 karts, players are reporting still receiving stick rewards for milestones at 18,000 coins and beyond. But beyond stickers, there does not seem to be any reason (yet) for continuing to farm coins beyond the 3,000 mark.
Could a top secret golden kart still be hiding in the game, as it has in other Mario Kart entries? If it is, players are yet to find it. But there’s clearly plenty to do in the game — 394 P-Switches, for one — and fans are still discovering more. Earlier today, we noted the secret method that’s been found to explore the game’s world in Mirror Mode Free Roam, for example.
Check out our Mario Kart World guide and learn how to unlock every hidden Mario Kart World character, plus how Kamek Unlocks work — you’ll need them to unlock NPC Drivers. We’ve also got a guide to all the Mario Kart World food scattered across the open world and where to find it, which will help you get all the Mario Kart World outfits and costumes permanently.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Finding Lies of P: Overture a bit too hard? Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you just “get good” like those randos you see littered all over Twitter. I’m actually here to say that you’re not alone on this one. The story expansion for the conceptually weirdest Soulslike in town dropped during Geoff’s Onslaught Of Generally OK Announcements (aka, Summer Game Fest) as a surprise release, and it seems like the general feedback so far has been “please make it a bit easier so Twinkocchio doesn’t get battered so hard.”
IGN’s Dune: Awakening map is here! Our interactive map tracks essential locations across Arrakis, including Main Quests and Contracts, Enemy Camps and Enemy Outposts, and Trainer locations.
The available map filters for our Dune: Awakening interactive map include:
Dune: Awakening is a giant MMORPG, meaning there’s always a lot to do, and our guides are here to help! Our Game Help coverage includes:
Visit our Dune: Awakening Wiki for more game help.
Meg Koepp is a Guides Editor on the IGN Guides team, with a focus on trends. When she’s not working, you can find her playing an RPG or cuddling her corgi.
Helldivers 2 developers Arrowhead have unleashed the latest twist in the game’s Galactic War, with urban battles against the Terminids now on the cards. Rather than defending cities on Super Earth, this time the task is swatting bug invasions of population centres across multiple planets.
A tough assignment, but to be fair, successfully protecting their home planet against the still-at-large Illuminate should have given players plenty experience of street fighting (not the Ryu and Chun-Li kind).
Dune: Awakening won’t release on console until some point in 2026, developer Funcom has said.
The survival MMO launched as planned on PC on June 10, and it had been hoped the console version would release not far behind. But it sounds like fans will have a bit longer of a wait than expected.
Funcom failed to expand on why the survival MMO had been delayed on console, only writing in a press release that while the game “will be coming” to PlayStation and Xbox, that release is expected “sometime in 2026.”
The team was able, however, to confirm that the Dune: Awakening Season Pass is now live, offering the Wildlife of Arrakis DLC which boasts four in-game statues celebrating some of the planet’s most “tenacious” creatures: the sandworm, chiroptera, kulon, and Muad’Dib.
Three more DLCs are scheduled over the next year or so — expect one in Q4 2025, Q1 2026, and another in Q2 2026 — with free updates peppered between those bringing “new content, features, and enhancements.” Funcom also strengthened its commitment to “no subscription fees or microtransactions.”
We’re still in the process of reviewing Dune: Awakening. While there’s no score at yet, and we’re still a little unimpressed by the gunplay, our reviewer wrote: “After more than 35 hours I still feel like I’m fairly early into my Dune: Awakening adventure, and still have new zones to visit, haven’t gotten very far into the main story, and have only had a few encounters with PvP. There’s a ton for me to do, so look for an update sometime this week as I work my way through to the endgame.”
Did you know that you can (sort of) ride sandworms in Dune: Awakening after all? It turns out that if you’re super patient and don’t mind a little screen-tearing or clipping through assets, it can be done if you’ve the right equipment. Here’s how.
To help you survive on Arrakis, we’ve got Dune: Awakening resource guides that’ll help you find iron, steel, aluminium, and more. If you’re just getting started, check out all the Dune: Awakening classes you can choose from, and keep an eye on our in-progress Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step guide to the story.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
New content ink-oming.
Here’s a Switch game we thought would get a little boost on Switch 2 — Splatoon 3! While it wasn’t part of the initial free update line-up, Nintendo (via the Nintendo Today! app) has announced that the game will be receiving a Switch 2 update later this week, on 12th June.
That’s not all, though — 30 new weapons in the form of the Splatlands Collection (based on older weapons), a raise on freshness caps, new badges to earn, and a new stat in Anarchy Battle which will help with matchmaking.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Nintendo has announced Splatoon Raiders, a brand-new Splatoon spin-off exclusive to the Switch 2. The surprise reveal was made with a trailer that was released first on the Nintendo Today! app.
Hey, everyone—you might have seen this in the Nintendo Today! app, but we thought you might want to hear it straight from the squid’s beak: SRL has prepared a little trailer for you. Take a look! pic.twitter.com/sOEaHor5yX
— Splatoon North America (@SplatoonNA) June 10, 2025
Splatoon Raiders is the first ever Splatoon spin-off game. Nintendo failed to announce a release window, but said to keep an eye out for more information in the future.
Splatoon Raiders revolves around a mechanic adventuring with the Deep Cut trio to the mysterious Spirhalite Islands. This new protagonist for Splatoon Raiders is described as an “expert mechanic with a mysterious background.”
The new protagonist for #SplatoonRaiders is an expert mechanic with a mysterious background. That ink tank and walking robot look rather intriguing, wouldn’t you say? pic.twitter.com/XeP9t75JAW
— Splatoon North America (@SplatoonNA) June 10, 2025
We’ve identified a variety of interesting findings, including a floating ship-like structure that serves as the mechanic’s base and an island with a unique atmosphere. We’ll keep investigating! #SplatoonRaiders pic.twitter.com/huFy5BlF4Z
— Splatoon North America (@SplatoonNA) June 10, 2025
Meanwhile, a significant free update for Splatoon 3 is also coming, due out on June 12. Splatoon 3 ver 10.0.0 includes 30 new weapon kits from the Barazushi and Emberz brands (the Splatlands Collection), the return of the Urchin Underpass stage from the original Splatoon game on Wii U, and performance and visual improvements for Switch 2. Nintendo said Switch 2 players will notice more detailed visuals, and the game will appear smoother in certain locations such as Splatsville and the Grand Festival Grounds. Switch 1 and Switch 2 Splatoon 3 players will still be able to play together.
Plus, all weapon Freshness caps will be raised and players can earn new in-game Badges, Nintendo said. A new stat will be added for Anarchy Battle (Series) called Series Weapon Power. It will track a player’s effectiveness per weapon based on their win/loss ratio in battles – and will then match them with players of a similar power. This makes it possible for players to try new weapons without being disadvantaged and push the limits their favorite weapons.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
With seemingly excellent timing following the launch of the Switch 2, the steelbook edition dual pack of Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet is now back in stock at My Nintendo Store for £99.99 physically.
As the name implies, this not only comes with both Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, but with a special gold-themed steelbook adorned with Legendaries Koraidon and Miraidon, with dual cartridge slots, so you can store both games together.
What’s more, if you prefer the standard-coloured cover art of both games, the My Nintendo Store of this listing also includes individual Pokémon Scarlet and PokémonViolet steelbooks as bonus items.
This dual pack has been sold out everywhere else for quite some time, and is only available elsewhere via an at least £20 mark-up on eBay, making it the best time to buy both games and get a gorgeous trio of steelbooks at the same time.
As said, this is the perfect buy for new Nintendo Switch 2 owners, given the massive performance upgrades that allow the games to run in 4K at 60 FPS on the new console.
While plagued with performance issues on the original Nintendo Switch, our performance comparison video shows just how buttery smooth both titles look on the new system now, finally making them play as they should, two and a half years after release.
This only bodes well for the upcoming Pokemon Legends: Z-A, which is launching on both the base Switch and Switch 2 on the 16th of October, 2025.
Now available to preorder at retailers, you can preorder the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Pokemon Legends Z-A for just £52.95 at Amazon UK, an over £7 saving compared to other retailers like Very and Game UK.
While you can buy Pokemon Legends: Z-A for cheaper on the base Nintendo Switch, like for £49.99 at Amazon UK, the Switch 2 version comes with “improved performance with higher frame rate and resolution” on the newer console, as Nintendo states on its list of upgraded games.
While you’ll be able to buy an upgrade pack, it seems like it will be more expensive than just buying the Switch 2 Edition outright. Although the game isn’t out yet, Nintendo has the Legends: Z-A upgrade pack listed at £7.99, just like it costs for Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom.
So, if you don’t want what could be a repeat of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s performance problems at launch by basing the base Switch version, preorder the Switch 2 version of Legends Z-A for less by securing the physical version right now at a lower price tag.
Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.
