Sony has revealed the full line-up of PlayStation Plus Games Catalog additions for July2024, which includes Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, Jackbox Party Pack 9, and more.
Announced on the PlayStation Blog, a total of 13 games are joining the library, and they’re all available at the PlayStation Plus Extra tier. They’ll be available July 16, 2024.
This is one of the more varied line-ups in recent months, as alonogside fantasy role-playing games like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion comes beloved shooter Remnant 2, party game extraveganza Jackbox Party Pack 9, and more.
PlayStation Plus Games Catalog Additions for July 2024
Remnant 2 is a fan favorite shooter designed to be played solo or in a party of three. It earned a 9/10 in IGN’s review. “Where Remnant: From The Ashes was a strong first draft, Remnant 2 is a revolutionary sequel and a sterling manifesto for the looter-shooter soulslike,” we said.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion is the PS4 and PS5 remake of the RPG originally on PlayStation Portable. “Even when its portable roots occasionally distract, Crisis Core –Final Fantasy 7– Reunion is the best way to play one of the PSP’s most beloved games, almost completely modernizing its graphics, combat, and music in the process,” IGN said in our 8/10 review.
Switching genres again, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is the sequel to the acclaimed medieval combat simulator. “Though lacking in some technical polish, Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is a very satisfying early access strategy battlefield,” IGN said in our 8/10 review.
The Jackbox Party Pack 9 brings more no-controller necessary party game fun to PS4 and PS5, as a group can instead join each game using their phones. The games are wild and wacky in a sort of Cards Against Humanity turned digital format.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous brings the beloved tabletop game to PlayStation where the player embarks on a journey to a realm overrun by demons and rise to power by choosing one of six available Mythic Paths. It earned an 8/10 from IGN too.
Travis Touchdown returns to Santa Destroy after a ten-year absence in No More Heroes 3. It’s “an amusing but extremely uneven sequel, with its entertaining bosses separated mostly by poor performance and barebones tedium,” IGN said in our 6/10 review.
From the same franchise comes Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes Complete Edition. This one “has Suda51’s eccentric charm, but the repetitive hack and slash gameplay doesn’t feel nearly as great as previous entries in the series,” we said in another 6/10 review.
Deadcraft is a simulation and action role-playing game where players must craft to survive. Battling through the apocalypse sometimes means using whatever scraps one can find to make weapons. Other times it means enlisting a loyal undead to assist in building and running an entire factory of grotesque machinery.
Steep is the totally radical extreme sports game from Ubisoft which lets players explore the Alps and Alaska. “Steep is a fresh extreme sports journey through a huge map, slowed only by dull paragliding and a lack of progression,” IGN said in our 7/10 review.
Job Simulator is a comical PlayStation VR2 game where players take on the role of a futuristic human in a world that’s seen robots take on every job. “Job Simulator is a VR funhouse that’s all about goofy experimentation, interactivity, and laughs,” IGN said in our 7/10 review.
Summoner is a classic PlayStation 2 RPG where players take on the role of Joseph: the key to an ancient prophecy who has the power of the summoner. Joseph must search the corners of the world for the five rings that will unlock his true power.
Beloved action plarform Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters also comes to PlayStation Plus this month. This one earned a 9/10 review from IGN, with the PSP game letting players take on intergalactic adventures and new worlds.
Finally, Jeanne d’Arc is a strategy RPG from Level 5 where Jeanne d’Arc escorts players into a fictionalized version of 15th century Europe as they take part in a mystical journey inspired by the heroics of Joan of Arc.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Richard Charles Lintern remembers what it was like to meet Hidetaka Miyazaki. Though he had never heard of the man until the day he recorded his voice role in Elden Ring, the game director made one heck of an impression:
“I walked in the [recording studio], and there were at least 12 or 15 people in the room,” Lintern recalls. “Mr. [Hidetaka] Miyazaki was there. So we shook hands, but he largely didn’t communicate with me in English. Other people did…a man called Adam Chapman, who was the voice director on the piece for me, works with a company called Fire Poets – I want to sing his praises just for a moment or two, because it’s quite intimidating when you walk into that room and there is clearly a god of the gaming world there.
“Now, I’m not entirely stupid, but I had not heard of Mr. Miyazaki before. I didn’t know the game, and I didn’t know the status of the game, and I didn’t know his status. But when I walked into the room, his status was very clear, very clear immediately. Everyone was very friendly, but at the same time, I could see that this was a bigger deal than I’d imagined it was going to be. And Adam, to his immense credit, took me under his wing and said, ‘Look, this is what they’re going to look for. This is what you need to do. Be open to moving in different ways with the character. No one’s quite sure what they’re going to end up with, but it’s a journey that we go on together.’”
Lintern was there to record the role of Igon, a new character added in Elden Ring DLC Shadow of the Erdtree who’s become a beloved community icon thanks to Lintern’s performance. Specifically, everyone loves a monologue he delivers when summoned to aid the player in the fight against Bayle the Dragon, an absolutely massive beast who Igon utterly loathes.
“CURSE YOU, BAYLE!” the monologue begins. “I hereby vow! You will rue this day! Behold, a true drake warrior! And I, Igon! Your fears made flesh! Solid of scale you might be, foul dragon, but I will riddle with holes your rotten hide! With a hail of harpoons! With every last drop of my being!”
While the Elden Ring community has made dozens of memes of Igon, Bayle, and the above monologue, until I spoke to him last week, Lintern was largely unaware of how much the fans adored his performance. In fact, he hadn’t even seen the final cut of his monologue, didn’t know what his character Igon looked like, and had absolutely no clue why he was so pissed off at this Bayle fellow. All he knew was that his experience performing in Shadow of the Erdtree was one of the most intense and unusual roles in his acting career.
From 0 to 5,000
Richard Charles Lintern is an English actor with a robust resume across film, TV, and theatre. He’s perhaps best-known for his work at the English National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and on TV as Thomas Chamberlain in BBC series Silent Witness. He’s also no stranger to voice acting, having taken on numerous roles over the past decade. But Elden Ring was his very first time performing in a video game.
“I had never engaged, or been used, or tried to be used, or even thought of myself as a possibility for use in voice work in the gaming world,” Lintern says. “And once you open that door, it’s been a real revelation for me, actually. I’ve been astonished about how worldwide it is, how enormous it is. I had kind of imagined that the world of TV and film and theater was the largest grossing, or most important, or whatever. And my eyes have been opened, not even by the work on Elden Ring, but by the response to it, and the scope of the reach, and the contact that these stories, these worlds have with people all over the world has been a real revelation for me, and really, really interesting.”
Lintern isn’t clueless about video games, to be clear. He has three sons, and he’s played games with them, including various Star Wars entries, Super Mario, GoldenEye 007, and others. But he tells me he had never really engaged with games where you “disappear into a fantasy universe” until his role in Elden Ring. Lintern says he’s still a bit confused as to why they picked him, saying that he feels his sample clips are a far cry from the work he ended up doing as Igon.
“Even though I’m an actor and you’re expected to be able to adapt to the character that you are playing, usually that adaptation is from zero to ten, or zero to seven,” he says. “In the case of the character that I played in Elden Ring, it was from naught to 5,000. He was a long way away. He was either dead, or dying, or recovering.”
When Lintern first received his lines for Igon, he says they were “largely incomprehensible” to him. He understood that his character was in pain, and kept threatening someone named Bayle, but that was it.
“Largely with voice work, the characterization, or the work is done on the day in the studio,” he says. “If I’m doing a documentary voice, I will have a conversation with the producer. Someone will say, ‘Well, we need a voice with gravitas,’ or, ‘We need a voice with a little bit of sympathy,’ or a smile, or whatever it happens to be. But that work is largely done on the day. There’s not much you can do prior to the actual meeting, other than turn up on the day sober and in good health, basically. And then you get on with it.”
In that regard Lintern’s work as Igon started off completely normal. But his day in the recording studio was anything but.
Exploding Into Elden Ring
Given the very, very small number of lines Igon has in Elden Ring, Lintern expected his recording session, taking place at a studio in Central London, to be short, maybe 40 minutes. It was not. He recalls being in the booth for maybe five or six hours, and that he had to return a week later to a follow-up session. “It was epic in there.”
“I would perform one of the lines,” he recalls. “And then there would be a quite extensive conversation between Mr. Miyazaki and various other people around him in the room. Largely, I think the way things worked was, one of the other people would then speak to Adam, and explain what direction Mr. Miyazaki wanted to move in. But he, the mysterious figure in the center of the room, was very much in control of the entire operation.
“I remember thinking when I left, A, I’m exhausted. That’s never happened to me before. I’m absolutely, my voice is wrecked and I’m physically exhausted, and I’m emotionally exhausted as well. B, that was quite an experience. There were a lot of people in there…We were doing lines hundreds of times, literally hundreds, because if I was there for five hours, the actual total amount of lines that I spoke, I could’ve done in seven minutes.”
For Lintern, Elden Ring was an “eye-opening” experience, one that’s led him to appreciate the emotional possibilities offered by video game stories. But even though he went through a wide gamut of different types of expression, he notes that never once was he asked to bring his emotional levels back down, or temper or mute them in any way. He says every single note he received in that five hours was along the lines of “Do you have more? Can you explode?”
“I’m standing there with my arms outstretched,” he recalls. “And I think at the time, I don’t think I even knew that Bayle was a dragon. I think I might’ve thought Bayle was a person. Anyway, I can’t remember, but I’m giving it as much as I possibly can, vocally, emotionally, neck stretching, vocal cords ripping, everything. And then we would come back, and then there’d be silence again, during which I’d have a glass of water. And then we’d come and do it again with a tinge of sorrow, or with a tinge more rage, or slower, or faster, or whatever it happened to be.
“The attention to detail that was given to the character and the performance was pretty much greater than anything I’ve experienced before,” he adds. “Comparable with characters in Shakespeare that I’ve played and stuff. People were taking it extremely seriously.”
Too Angry to Die
At this point in our interview, Lintern asked me to explain his character to him – who he was, and how the player interacted with him. I explained that Igon is an NPC the player meets by a roadside who is clearly in great agony when he’s encountered. Unfortunately, there’s not much the player can do about Igon’s pain.
“You can’t heal me? You can’t give me water?” Lintern asks.
Sorry, Mr. Lintern, no.
In subsequent encounters it becomes clear that Igon is absolutely furious with a character named Bayle. The player will eventually learn from other sources that Bayle is a massive dragon – and not just any dragon, he’s widely regarded as the absolute worst dragon, one that even other dragons loathe. Igon, a guy who kills dragons and eats their hearts for a living, really wants to eat Bayle’s heart. But when we meet him, he’s already tried and failed, with Bayle leaving him injured, agonized, and near-dead. When Igon sees the player is capable of killing dragons, he throws in his lot with them in hopes of getting revenge. It’s basically Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, with Igon’s monologue giving off big “From hell’s heart I stab at thee” energy. Igon even uses a harpoon in battle! Lintern appreciates the comparison.
“A quest of the soul, a quest of morality, and strength, and pain, and terror, and doom,” he observes. “And an enemy that is so huge that you can’t even comprehend it, but for some reason, the bravery of the individual comes through and manages to triumph over it.
An enemy that is so huge that you can’t even comprehend it, but the bravery of the individual comes through and manages to triumph.
“Or, this is the other thing. I remember feeling rather foolish at one point, about an hour or two in, there was one line where I said something like, ‘You are defeated. I triumph over you.’ And then the next line on the piece of paper was, ‘So you have defeated me.’ And I remember saying something like, ‘I think there’s a mistake on the script thing here, because one minute he wins and the next minute he loses.’ And there was this awkward pause on the other side of the screen. And eventually, someone came back to me saying, ‘It’s a video game, Richard. Sometimes you defeat the beast, and sometimes the beast defeats you. We need both options.’ I hadn’t thought about that.”
I eventually show him images of Igon (“I look like a kind of broken down, scarecrow kind of guy.”) and the enormous Bayle. Bayle elicits quite the reaction from Lintern: “How on earth? Do you fight alongside me? How does that work?” I explain Elden Ring’s boss fights and its summon system that allows us to fight alongside Igon, but Lintern remains impressed anyone can beat such a massive dragon even with Igon and all his harpoons at their side.
“Man literally too angry to die,” he reads. “Is that me? That’s genius.”
I’m not the only one who’s been showing Lintern Igon memes. He tells me his son keeps sending references and asking him what “Curse you, Bayle,” means, but up until now Lintern hasn’t had a helpful answer. Lintern tells me he knows better than to name search himself online, but between his agent and his son, he’s seen enough positive feedback to know his role was well-received. And he’s certainly up for more video game roles in the future, he says, even if the intensity level is similarly dialed up to 5,000.
“I remember thinking for quite a few days afterwards, ‘That was quite an intense experience,’” Lintern concludes. “It was very mysterious. Mr. Miyazaki was a very mysterious character, but it was enjoyable. It felt creative, and it felt engaged. And I didn’t quite know what I was doing, but I knew that I’d had fun doing it. Put it that way.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Sonic Team studio head Takashi Iizuka wants to make a Sonic the Hedgehog role-playing game “at some point” before he retires from Sega.
In an interview with Good Vibes Gaming, Iizuka was asked if he would work on a Sonic RPG in the future, and said he was interested in doing so and shocked Sonic Team had yet to do it.
“Personally, I really like role-playing games,” Iizuka said. “The RPG game format is a lot of fun, and I’ve even thought to myself, ‘You know, for the past 30 years, we haven’t done a Sonic RPG.’ And I’m questioning myself. ‘Why haven’t we done a Sonic RPG in all this time? How have we gotten to 30 years with no RPGs?!'”
Iizuka said he would “hopefully” get to work on a Sonic RPG before he retires from Sega, but made clear there was nothing “concrete” at this time. “So, I’d like to hopefully work on a Sonic RPG at some point before I retire from Sega,” he said. “But you know, that’s just a dream right now. There are no concrete plans at this point.”
The only Sonic RPG released so far was Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, a 2008 Nintendo DS game. However, Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer Bioware worked on the project and not Sonic Team.
In our review of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, IGN wrote: “There’s fun to be had, and the game does pick up after the first few hours, but we’d be surprised to see many DS gamers get behind Dark Brotherhood while there are so many superior role-playing games on the platform. There’s a good design in here somewhere; it’s just lost in the shuffle of it all.”
The closest that Sonic Team got to incorporating RPG-esque elements in a Sonic game was the blue hedgehog’s first 3D game, Sonic Adventure, which implemented some RPG elements. In a cut commentary for Sonic Adventure DX, Iizuka explained that after work on NiGHTs into Dreams, he approached Naka, proposing that Sonic Adventure should be an RPG-style game.
Despite Sonic Team not making a Sonic RPG, the development studio has worked on role-playing games including the aforementioned Nights into Dreams and the Phantasy Star Online series.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is a hot topic in the wake of Microsoft announcing it will increase the price of Xbox Game Pass and introduce a new standard tier which doesn’t include day one releases.
The more basic $10.99 Xbox Game Pass Console tier is “soon” being replaced with Xbox Game Pass Standard too — a $14.99 option which doesn’t include the beloved day one release feature, “specific entries to the Game Pass Ultimate library,” access to EA Play, Xbox Cloud Gaming, perks, Quests, and discounts on games in the Game Pass library.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate was last increased in price in 2023, from $14.99 to $16.99, meaning paying $14.99 a month for Xbox Game Pass therefore nets users significantly less than it did just one year ago, with Microsoft essentially removing day one titles, EA Play, cloud gaming, and free perks from the service in that time.
“Upon launch, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be playable on Xbox and PC for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass for Console members,” Microsoft said at the time.
This is true, however. Microsoft said Black Ops 6 will be available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass Console. But it didn’t say the first two would see a price increase worldwide or that the final, cheapest tier would be made obsolete.
Microsoft couldn’t even guarantee games like Black Ops 6 would come to Xbox Game Pass Standard eventually. These titles “may be added to the library at a future date,” it said.
So the implication at the time that Black Ops 6 would be available through the $10.99 a month subscription is no longer true unless you’re subscribed to that tier already, as new customers can’t sign up for it. Instead of that $10.99, the cheapest Game Pass tier through which Xbox console players can now access Black Ops 6 is the bumped up Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, at $19.99 a month.
Fans are therefore a little frustrated, with many saying they plan to cancel their Xbox Game Pass subscriptions once their current run ends.
“No no, we’re not changing Game Pass, we’re not doing a price increase, putting Black Ops 6 on Game Pass hasn’t change Game Pass pricing,” mocked @CODWarfareForum on X/Twitter. “Two months later: Oh yeah we lied again, we’re increasing Game Pass subs and we’re changing the tiers.”
“Xbox Game Pass prices set to increase by 25%, just in time for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 release,” said @GNGNewsCOD. “Xbox Game Pass’s new pricing is basically the ‘Call of Duty day one tax’ and it’s getting seriously wild how expensive subscriptions are become for both PlayStation and Xbox,” added @SynthPotato. “It’s now official despite previous reassurances the standard version of Xbox Game Pass will not include day one titles like the next Call of Duty, Doom, or Indiana Jones,” said @oliver_drk.
Others said they expected the release of Black Ops 6 to bump up Game Pass prices, though they’re not necessarily happy about it. “Makes too much sense… incoming COD,” said SnatcherHunter on ResetEra. “Day one COD doesn’t sound so good now,” said ChEmIcAl_KeEn on Reddit.
“I thought this would happen in September before Call of Duty. The monthly costs are adding up,” said @Otikage on X/Twitter. “Price increase was expected though, all those studios to cater for. I am sure the price is just gonna keep going up with more acquisitions.”
Rumors around a spike have circulated since May 2024, essentially since Microsoft announced Black Ops 6 would be coming as a day one title. The price rise also comes after Microsoft shut down entire studios including Hi-Fi Rush and Ghostwire Tokyo developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall developer Arkane Austin.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
The developer of Palworld has signed a deal with Sony to form a new business called Palworld Entertainment to capitalize on the breakout success of the video game by expanding the IP.
Japan-based Pocketpair announced a joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment in Japan and Aniplex to establish Palworld Entertainment “for the purpose of accelerating the multifaceted global development of Palworld and its further expansion.”
This is not a publishing deal for Palworld the video game, or an acquisition by Sony, rather an attempt to make the most of the game’s huge popularity with non-video game products, such as merchandise and music. The newly formed business, headed up by Pocketpair CEO Takuro Mizobe, is responsible for global licensing and merchandising activities associated with Palworld.
Palworld, dubbed ‘Pokémon with guns’, is a survival and crafting game that enjoyed record-breaking success after it launched in early access form across PC and Xbox in January.
The player count exceeded 25 million in a month, with Palworld becoming the biggest third-party Game Pass launch of all time and an incredible 15 million copies sold on Steam alone.
Pocketpair has also teased Palworld on PlayStation, and after today’s announcement such a release seems closer than ever.
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.
Just as Endwalker opened with you and the crew setting sail for the distant city of Old Sharlayan, Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail expansion kicks off with a long cruise to a place we’ve never been before. But instead of connecting with a long-referenced society, you step into an entire region no one from Eorzea knows very much about. From the outset, venturing into the Mesoamerican and Latin American-inspired land of Tural might lead you to believe that this is a summer vacation for a band of heroes that has saved entire realms from calamity. However, I can assure you that whatever you thought Dawntrail was, that’s exactly what it’s not. It’s the start of a new era for the MMO, and the growing pains of that transition can be apparent at times – but Dawntrail manages to prove once again why FFXIV is the standard-bearer for the Final Fantasy series.
This latest expansion explores culture, family, and legacy in ways FFXIV hasn’t in the past – and before long, it begins to ask questions about the lengths we’ll go to preserve the things we hold dearest. On the surface, that will sound familiar to anyone who has stuck around all these years, but Dawntrail takes its own angle on these themes as to not retread well-worn territory. Instead, it offers new perspectives that, at times, hit just as hard as anything in the MMO’s 14-year history. The main scenario quest (MSQ) takes you in unpredictable directions, blending its deep real-world influences with high-tech sci-fi that incorporates concepts seen in the cyberpunk genre, and then manages to weave in the Final Fantasies of yore and have it all still make sense.
It takes some work to get there, however. I appreciate the groundwork Dawntrail lays in the first half of the main questline, painting such a vivid picture of Tural with all its cultural context at the forefront. Deep cuts are tucked underneath the more obvious references to the inspirations it draws from – we all know what tacos and mezcal are, but having a quest focus on the in-world cochinita pibil recipe is one example of several nice touches. From the architecture of the hub city of Tuliyollal to the vibrant environmental design of its early zones, Dawntrail wears its influences on its sleeve, naturally fitting those societies and the peoples who embody them into an already-rich fantasy world.
At critical points, I was reminded that FFXIV always gets me in my feelings in ways no other piece of fiction can, game or otherwise.
But for as fascinating as the cultural exploration is, there’s a noticeable lack of momentum in the way you experience the story, which doesn’t surprise me given the nature of establishing a whole new story arc. For roughly the first half of MSQ, you travel across the lands of Tural alongside a new character named Wuk Lamat, a naive but always-optimistic female Hrothgar who has a heart of gold. She’s in the middle of an anime-like tournament arc against her siblings in hopes of becoming the new Dawnservant, or ruler, of Tural. This leads you to gain an intimate connection with the region’s people and bridge gaps between the seemingly disparate societies of each zone. It’s structured so that you go through similar motions for very long stretches, and the story itself in the early goings is written in a way that’s uncharacteristically surface-level. Not everything needs to be poetic and profound (and Dawntrail eventually gets there), but conflicts are brought up and resolved in a rather simplistic manner that isn’t as powerful as the story seems to want you to feel they are. Instead, I found unraveling the complicated relationships between the siblings to be one of the highlights in the front half, which is an interesting dynamic that remains consistent throughout.
Initially, I was quite surprised that Wuk Lamat is essentially the main character of Dawntrail while you, as the Warrior of Light, and your Scion friends are put in supporting roles. However, she is the link that connects you to the new region and having her as your lens while being part of her traveling band provides the necessary context as for why you’re involved in the first place (other than not having much to do back in Eorzea and seeking adventure for the sake of it). I like Wuk Lamat as a character since she has the heart to carry Dawntrail’s themes, but she isn’t really given the depth needed to be a de facto protagonist. FFXIV hasn’t really used this kind of approach to its characters before – even as the Warrior of Light, the supporting cast has always played their part in uplifting the story as a whole. The closest thing in past expansions is the Crystal Exarch from Shadowbringers, but his personality immediately shined and his impact was unmistakable whether he was on-screen or not. So, when Wuk Lamat extolls the virtues of peace without fully grasping the nuances that come with that, it tends to ring hollow.
With a tinge of shonen-style “power of friendship” energy, Dawntrail has its heart in the right place – and although it sometimes seems superficial, it’s nice to have a story that outright says that embracing our differences and engaging in an honest cultural exchange would make the world a better place, which Wuk Lamat does represents admirably. Its quest structure can sometimes be unexciting, but I’m hesitant to say that FFXIV is finally showing its limitations or anything because I’ve seen quests (main and optional) be truly creative within the confines of its MMO bounds over the years. Rather, it’s apparent that Dawntrail’s storytelling priorities mean it has a lot to get through while moving you along at a pace that tries not to drag on too much.
There were a few times where I began to question what Dawntrail was really building towards. Every expansion has a sense of momentum to it right from the beginning, and this one’s new start presents a challenge that FFXIV hasn’t really had to face since A Realm Reborn. However, some well-designed dungeons, engaging boss fights with fresh battle mechanics, and hype moments in story-based solo instances kept me engaged and invested – and if anything, I was just happy to be along for the ride. That’s also because I knew I would inevitably hit a turning point in Dawntrail, like all of FFXIV expansions tend to have – and when I got there, it left me floored with revelations that ripple throughout the MMO’s long history.
The switch flipped in the second half, which ushers you into FFXIV’s version of the old-timey American West. Hearing a Texan accent, let alone an American one, in FFXIV for the first time gave me whiplash on the same level as any plot twist. It’s charming as hell how another piece of the real world effortlessly blends into the rest of the expansion’s personality. That’s also to say that what it has up its sleeve deeper in creates a stark contrast that is both conceptually and aesthetically superb. The high-tech sci-fi aspect of Dawntrail is pretty well-known in the lead up to its release – the main city of Solution Nine was revealed well beforehand, but it’s the reasons for bringing you there that make for quintessential FFXIV storytelling. It goes for some wild swings, and in this second half, contains truly stunning moments I’m still trying to wrap my head around.
It fills me with joy to be genuinely surprised by a game I thought I’d known so well. Having been so invested in FFXIV for all these years and carrying many of my favorite story moments into my own life, I can’t always expect it to keep reaching those highs. Yet, Dawntrail does it again – perhaps not as consistently or elegantly, but it has left a significant impact nonetheless. It questions what makes family important, asks why we harbor such resentment for those different from us, and shows what’s possible when we work together. More effectively, it also builds on the questions posed in Shadowbringers and Endwalker, about how we handle loss, mortality, and the inevitable passage of time sweeping away the things we hold dear – and the uncomfortable truth that we ascribe value to life because it will end.
This expansion is a worthy extension of FFXIV, and it leaves a world of fascinating possibilities.
At critical points, I was reminded that FFXIV always gets me in my feelings in ways no other piece of fiction can, game or otherwise. Much of that can be attributed to the fact that certain characters I’ve loved continue to grow and be voices of reason to give clarity when everything else in my life feels like utter chaos. Yes, you are venturing into new and compelling beginnings in a land foreign to the characters you’ve been with for years, but Dawntrail is made stronger for the way it remembers where it came from.
Part of me feels like Dawntrail conjoins two very different halves, and I often imagine the depth to which FFXIV could have explored its larger themes had it dedicated more time to one or the other. But with just enough connective tissue for its hard-hitting moments to not ring hollow, it’s able to land with the same kind of impact that previous expansions have, and for its own reasons. If there’s one particular theme to point toward, it’s that peace isn’t just the absence of war but a two-way street that must be worked for – whether that be peace in the world or the struggle for inner peace amid indelible heartbreak and tragedy.
For all its shortcomings in the earlier hours, it certainly makes good on the ideas it tries to build. The way Dawntrail wields its final zone as a storytelling device, conceptually and visually, left me shocked and with my stomach in knots. The absolute onslaught of its last few dungeons had me on the edge of my seat frantically executing my attack rotation. The creative battle mechanics that even surprised me as a long-time Savage raider left me grinning as I took those Damage Down debuffs like a champ. And to have fought almost all those battles alongside my favorite characters through the Duty Support system let these gameplay sequences also shine as peaks in its storytelling.
The emotional core that always ushers FFXIV’s best moments is found in its music. Composer Masayoshi Soken alongside the sound team has broken new ground for the MMO, and for Final Fantasy as a series, here in Dawntrail. The Spanish and Latin American influences have been effortlessly woven into the songs that fill the new zones and towns with wonder and excitement, and the Flamenco-style battle theme is stuck in my head as I write this. The wistful melodies of the old western guitar riffs in Xak Tural standout as catchy tunes that set an unmistakable mood. Then you have synth-infused metal and trance tracks for pivotal battles that pack a punch unlike anything else in Dawntrail’s eclectic soundtrack. And yes, there are some really sweet lo-fi beats to chill or study to. Oh, and let’s not forget the jazzy swing theme of the new hub city of Tuliyollal. Regardless of style, Soken and company create incredible music that bends, fuses, and elevates genres while consistently incorporating the classical musical themes that naturally become part of the storytelling experience – just another common W for FFXIV.
Story may be at the forefront of Dawntrail’s launch, but with a new expansion comes tons of new content on top – most notably the two new Jobs: Pictomancer and Viper. After leveling Pictomancer and perfecting its attack rotation full of adorable painting abilities turned destructive, it’s become one of my all-time favorite expansion Jobs. Pictomancer is so cute, so unserious, and so much damn fun to play as. It finds a middle ground between its magic DPS counterparts Black Mage and Summoner; not so complex that you’ll struggle to learn but not so simple that you’ll mindlessly cycle through your rotation. Popping your paintings pre-pull is an adorable visual, as is dropping Moogle poms before whipping out a magic hammer to crush your foes. It’s satisfying when you line up all the cooldowns and casts while bouncing between the different spells you’re expected to execute, and as of now, it sits pretty high on the DPS charts (although some tweaks are planned to mitigate certain exploits).
Pictomancer is so cute, so unserious, and so much damn fun to play as.
Viper on the other hand isn’t quite as exciting as I’d hoped – maybe it’s because I’ve played melee DPS for most of my time in FFXIV and have stuck with Ninja through every raid tier. But in contrast to Pictomancer, it lacks that rewarding buildup and burst window, or even a distinct personality to make it stand out within a crowded field of DPS Jobs. Don’t get me wrong, it looks cool as hell to see a Viper swap between dual swords and the double-sided blade, but when compared to Reaper (which shares similarities), the dynamic of Viper’s branching attack rotation doesn’t quite reach those satisfying heights. At launch, the development team even said that it’ll be reworking Viper, and although it’s impossible to say how that might change the core concept of the Job, there is certainly potential for it to grow into a better one.
As per usual, there are two Expert-level dungeons in the post-game, both of which make good use of the more whimsical settings of Dawntrail and experiment with a few new battle mechanics. And although I’m still progressing through them as of writing this, the Extreme trials currently available stretch the base-level boss fights into wild and chaotic battles. The other important piece of content worth mentioning are the role quests, which carry on the tradition of providing additional backstory based on the Jobs you have leveled up. They’re not quite as defining as the ones seen in Shadowbringers or Endwalker, but they are worth seeing through and add a nice touch to tie in other parts of FFXIV. The lasting legacy of Dawntrail also lies in future patch content – the Arcadion raid series, the Beastmaster special Job, Cosmic Exploration, and all the new things the FFXIV team will roll out over the next two years. I’ll be sat ready for them when they arrive, but for now, Dawntrail has earned its place in the pantheon of great expansions.
Xbox is preparing to raise prices on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, according to emails sent out to some subscribers today.
A number of Xbox users based outside of the United States began sharing screenshots of emails sent to them today, which state that beginning in September, they will be charged an increased price for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Following these reports, Windows Central reported that the pricing changes are real and are coming alongside a number of other shifts to the service beginning September 12, 2024. According to the report, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is going up to $19.99/month in the United States (up from $16.99/month previously), while PC Game Pass is going up from $9.99/month to $11.99/month. Xbox Game Pass Core (the subscription that only includes online multiplayer and a small selection of games) will go up to $74.99/year from $59.99/year, but the monthly subscription will remain at $9.99/month.
Xbox has since confirmed to IGN that these numbers are accurate and that the changes apply to U.S. subscribers.
Additionally, Xbox Game Pass for Console will soon no longer accept new users (existing subscribers can continue their plans). New subscribers will instead be funneled to Xbox Game Pass “Standard” priced at $14.99/month in the United States, which includes back catalog games and multiplayer functions, but does not include day-one game releases or Xbox Cloud gaming.
Finally, Xbox will only allow its users to pre-pay for Xbox Game Pass for Console for up to 13 months going forward. Users with more months than that already paid for will not be impacted.
All these changes will go into effect September 12, 2024, and will impact all markets globally. More pricing details for different regions are expected to be shared soon.
Starting today, Walmart is offering the professional grade PlayStation 5 DualSense Edge Controller for $174.99. That’s 13% off the $200 MSRP, which might not sound like too much, but the DualSense Edge is almost never discounted. This is part of Walmart’s larger sale that competes with Amazon Prime Day. We don’t expect to find a better deal during Prime Day. In fact, we doubt that Amazon will offer a deal on this controller at all. This is a professional grade controller for the PS5 console, much like the Xbox Elite is for the Series X. Check out our IGN review.
PS5 DualSense Edge Controller for $174.99
The DualSense Edge is Sony’s high-end controller for the PS5 console. Like the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, it offers pro-level features like grips, adjustable analog sticks, mappable rear buttons, profiles, and more. You can swap out the standard analog stick tops with convex replacements that come in two different heights. You have two different options for the back buttons: levers like in the Xbox Elite Series 2 or smaller nubs. One of the most important features of any pro controller are the triggers, and they’ve gotten attention in the DualSense Edge as well. Next to each trigger is a stop slider that lets you adjust how far you have to press the trigger down to make it register. You can choose standard, medium, or short travel distances, the better to get off quick shots in competitive shooters.
All this tech is housed in a hard shell case for easy storage and transport. The case even has a flap that lets you charge the controller while it’s in the case. A 9-foot USB-C charging cable is also included. Plus, if your analog sticks crap out, you can buy replacements for $19.99.
Per the series’ longstanding tradition, Ys X: Nordics, the latest chapter in the long-running action-RPG saga starring Adol Christin, has left fans in the West waiting quite a long time before they can get in on the fun. Thankfully, that wait is about to end, and after an hour hopping between various sections of the game to check out its dual-combatant action, get a taste of its all-important story, and even try my hands at the new naval battle system, I’m inclined to think this seafaring tale might end up being worth the customary localization delay. By swapping out the usual larger party seen in recent Ys games for just two characters, Nordics benefits from a more focused experience, whether that be its action-packed combat or its seemingly more concentrated story. Those changes proved more than enough to reignite my interest in this longrunning odyssey.
If you’ve somehow managed to avoid Ys (pronounced like “ease”) for the past 37 years, this series follows the dramatic adventures of a young adventurer named Adol, most of which involve a whole lot of swashbuckling sword fights and larger-than-life stories. Ys X: Nordics brings him to the viking-inspired Obelia Gulf to fight against undead creatures called the Griegr, and make a new warrior princess friend named Karja. If you’ve missed some entries in the series though, fear not, as each adventure is mostly self-contained, and as this one takes place after Ys II from way back in 1988, you won’t be expected to learn too much anyway. I was basically caught up on everything I needed to know after a quick cutscene introducing a couple returning characters and ready to beat up a giant, evil salamander in typical Ys fashion.
Each Ys game brings its own particular style, and Nordics is no exception. The biggest change is the decision to move away from the typical party system found in more recent entries, opting instead to focus on just two characters: Adol and Karja. This impacts everything from the combat, which has been tuned around these two mighty warriors, and the story, which even early on already felt like it would be much more focused than some previous Ys entries.
The biggest change is the decision to move away from the typical party system found in more recent entries, opting instead to focus on just two characters: Adol and Karja.
Combat was smooth, quick, and even a little challenging, as I was expected to swap between Karja, whose nordic strength made it a breeze to peel off enemy armor, and good ol’ Adol, who I used to deal finishing blows once my opponents had been stripped of their defenses. There were far too many menus and upgrade options for me to get a good grip of things during my brief demo, but it was clear to me there’s quite a bit to master, like learning the joint attacks I was able to unleash after building up enough mana.
That focus on the story’s two protagonist has an impact on the plot too, as Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo told me, “By limiting it to only two characters that you do more with, it actually allowed [the development team] to do more with that because they knew that they could focus everything on [Karja].” As someone who can get exhausted by convoluted stories with too many characters to follow, that was music to my ears.
There’s a more practical reason too: the smaller scope. As Kondo-san told me, “We wanted to put this one on the [Nintendo] Switch, and when you have that many party members, there’s kind of a limitation on the console itself.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be an Ys game without some new mechanic to shake things up, and in Nordics, that mechanic – true to the viking vibes it’s got going for it – is naval combat. In the short bit of it I played, I fought off waves of enemies with cannonfire, while targeting shield generators to power down a force field protecting an island. This goofy section definitely was amusing, with cannonballs cartoonishly homing in on their targets, but also a bit overly simplistic, feeling more like a minigame than something substantial, and I can’t really see myself enjoying too much more of it over the lengthy campaign. That said, it’s hard to say how much this will evolve over the 20+ hour runtime, and it’s quite possible it will build up into something with more meat on it.
Rocksteady Studios is delaying the release date of Suicide Squad Season 2, days before the new content was set to go live.
Update: Task Force X, we’ll be adjusting the release timing for the next season, #SuicideSquadGame Season 2 will now launch on July 25. Thank you for your patience.
— Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (@suicidesquadRS) July 9, 2024
In a post on X/Twitter, the official account for the game revealed that it was “adjusting the release timing” for the next season from July 11 to July 25. The second season of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will introduce Mrs. Freeze as a playable character, in addition to a new map, new weapons, and two “episodes” titled Frozen Hearts and Winter. It is the second of four seasons planned as post-launch content for the game following its release in late January.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s second season receiving a delay comes as the game has struggled with player retention following its release earlier this year. At launch, the game was panned by critics and players.
Last month, Bloomberg spoke to multiple sources who revealed that the game had a troubled development cycle. The report alleges that Warner Bros. executives told staff at Rocksteady Studios that they expected Suicide Squad to become a billion-dollar franchise; after the game flopped, many members of the development team are reported to have shifted to development work on a director’s cut of Hogwarts Legacy.
Despite many of the staff at Rocksteady apparently moving onto another project, a WB spokesperson told IGN last month that it plans to complete its already announced post-launch roadmap. Though its future beyond a fourth season remains unclear.
In our review of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which scored a 5 out of 10, my colleague Simon Cardy wrote: “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a repetitive and bland looter-shooter that, despite an engaging story, never stays fun for long enough.”
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
