Warhorse Studios, the developer behind the popular role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance, is getting ready to reveal its next game.
The Czech studio took to X/Twitter on Thursday to announce that it would be revealing a new game on April 18 at 11am PT / 2pm ET. Fans immediately began buzzing about the possibility of a sequel to Kingdom Come, which earned a loyal following thanks to the way that it grounded its Skyrim-like design in a more realistic medieval open world.
Referring to Kingdom Come’s protagonist, one fans asked, “Oh my god are we finally gonna see the rest of Henry’s story?”
First released in 2018, Kingdom Come Deliverance has consistently topped lists of the best RPGs. We wrote in our review at the time, “There’s a shining suit of mail underneath Kingdom Come: Deliverance’s authentically medieval grime. Strong characters and storytelling, one of my favorite first-person melee combat systems ever, and special attention given to building moment-to-moment immersion come together as a mighty alloy that ranks among the most unique, memorable RPGs I’ve played in years.”
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and also received a Switch release last March.
Shortly after the release of Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Warhorse Studios was acquired by Plaion, the company formerly known as Koch Media that includes Deep Silver. Plaion is part of the Embracer Group, which recently underwent layoffs and cancellations amid heavy restructuring.
We’ll know soon enough what Warhorse Studios has in store. In the meantime, check out all the biggest game releases of 2024.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
The 2024 BAFTA Games Awards have come and gone but didn’t leave without another round of wins for Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3. The Dungeons and Dragons RPG rolled away from the show with five wins (including Best Game) while other highlights saw solid wins for projects like Alan Wake 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Viewfinder.
Larian’s night at the BAFTAs saw studio head Swen Vincke and the rest of the team taking home awards for Best Game, Music, Performer in a Supporting Role, and Narrative. It also won the public vote for EE Players’ Choice award, giving the studio that grand total of fine wins.
The total of 18 categories saw awards spread out among the nominees. Alan Wake 2 developer Remedy Entertainment nabbed awards for Artistic Achievement and Audio Achievement, while Nintendo managed to grab the Family and Multiplayer Awards for Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Viewfinder was another surprise standout, taking home awards for New Intellectual Property and British Game. Other highlights saw Venba win for Debut Game, Tchia win for Game Beyond Entertainment, and Dave the Diver win for Game Design.
The BAFTA Games Awards also took the time to honor this year’s Special Award recipient: the UK-based gaming charity, SpecialEffect. Since getting off the ground in 2007, the organization has utilized technology to allow and enhance access to video games for disabled players. As SpecialEffect explains on its website, “Whatever we do, we’re committed to making life better for the people that need us, for as long as possible.”
SpecialEffect CEO and founder Dr. Mick Donegan MBE accepted the award on the organization’s behalf. He shared a few thoughts about the recognition in a pre-ceremony interview.
“We are utterly delighted,” he said. “We’re delighted because, well, it’s great that the charity is recognized, but what we’ve achieved has been in partnership with the people who’ve helped us, who have funded us, the people we’ve worked with who’ve helped, and the industry that has collaborated with us to make their games more accessible. It’s just a lovely endorsement for accessibility all together and the effort that everybody’s made.”
BAFTA Special Award winners span across games, film, and television. Past recipients include Amy Hennig, Epic Games, Nolan North, Brenda Romero, Idris Elba, Spike Lee, The Jim Henson Company, Ridley Scott, and many more.
You can take a look at every winner and nominee from the 2024 Bafta Games Awards below. As awards season winds down, don’t forget to check out IGN’s list of the best games of 2023.
ANIMATION
ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
HI-FI RUSH Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks – WINNER
HOGWARTS LEGACY Development Team – Avalanche Software/Warner Bros. Games
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR Nathan Dunlap, David Nam, Thomas Cannell – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT
ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games – WINNER
BALDUR’S GATE 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio
COCOON Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive
DIABLO IV Development Team – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
FINAL FANTASY XVI Hiroshi Minagawa, Kazuya Takahashi, Naoki Kurihara – SQUARE ENIX – Creative Business Unit III/SQUARE ENIX
HI-FI RUSH Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks
AUDIO ACHIEVEMENT
ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games – WINNER
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE III Matt Grimm, Eric Wedemeyer, Robbie Elias – Sledgehammer
Games/Activision
HI-FI RUSH Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR Development Team – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
BEST GAME
ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
BALDUR’S GATE 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio – WINNER
DAVE THE DIVER Development Team – MINTROCKET/MINTROCKET
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
BRITISH GAME
CASSETTE BEASTS Development Team – Bytten Studio/Raw Fury
DEAD ISLAND 2 Development Team – Dambuster Studios/PLAION
DISNEY ILLUSION ISLAND Development Team – Dlala Studios/Disney
FOOTBALL MANAGER 2024 Development Team – Sports Interactive/SEGA Europe
VIEWFINDER Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing – WINNER
WARHAMMER AGE OF SIGMAR: REALMS OF RUIN Development Team – Frontier Developments/Frontier Developments
DEBUT GAME
COCOON Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive
DAVE THE DIVER Development Team – MINTROCKET/MINTROCKET
DREDGE Development Team – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital
STRAY GODS: THE ROLEPLAYING MUSICAL Development Team – Summerfall Studios/Humble Games
VENBA Abhijeeth Swaminathan, Sam Elkana, Shahrin Khan – Visai Games/Visai Games – WINNER
VIEWFINDER Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing
EVOLVING GAME
CYBERPUNK 2077 Development Team – CD PROJEKT RED/CD PROJEKT RED – WINNER
FINAL FANTASY XIV ONLINE Development Team – Creative Business Unit III/Square Enix
FORTNITE Development Team – Epic Games/Epic Games
FORZA HORIZON 5 Development Team – Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios
GENSHIN IMPACT Development Team – HoYoverse/HoYoverse
NO MAN’S SKY Development Team – Hello Games/Hello Games
FAMILY
COCOON Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive
DAVE THE DIVER Development Team – MINTROCKET/MINTROCKET
DISNEY ILLUSION ISLAND Development Team – Dlala Studios/Disney
HI-FI RUSH Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks
HOGWARTS LEGACY Development Team – Avalanche Software/Warner Bros. Games
SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo – WINNER
GAME BEYOND ENTERTAINMENT
CHANTS OF SENNAAR Julien Moya, Thomas Panuel – Rundisc/Focus Entertainment
GOODBYE VOLCANO HIGH Development Team – KO_OP/KO_OP
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 John Paesano, Scott Hanau, Keith Leary – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR Gordy Haab, Stephen Barton – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
NARRATIVE
ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
BALDUR’S GATE 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio – WINNER
DREDGE Joel Mason, Alex Ritchie, Nadia Thorne – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital
FINAL FANTASY XVI Kazutoyo Maehiro, Michael-Christopher Koji Fox – SQUARE ENIX – Creative Business Unit III/SQUARE ENIX
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR Stig Asmussen, Aaron Contreras, Dori Arazi – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
NEW INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
CHANTS OF SENNAAR Julien Moya, Thomas Panuel – Rundisc/Focus Entertainment
DAVE THE DIVER Development Team – MINTROCKET/MINTROCKET
DREDGE Development Team – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital
HI-FI RUSH Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks
JUSANT Development Team – DON’T NOD/DON’T NOD
VIEWFINDER Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing – WINNER
PERFORMER IN A LEADING ROLE
AMELIA TYLER as Narrator in Baldur’s Gate 3
CAMERON MONAGHAN as Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
NADJI JETER as Miles Morales in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – WINNER
NEIL NEWBON as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3
SAMANTHA BÉART as Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3
YURI LOWENTHAL as Peter Parker in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
PERFORMER IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
ANDREW WINCOTT as Raphael in Baldur’s Gate 3 – WINNER
DEBRA WILSON as Cere Junda in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
RALPH INESON as Cidolfus “Cid” Telamon in Final Fantasy XVI
SAM LAKE as Alex Casey in Alan Wake 2
TONY TODD as Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
TRACY WILES as Jaheira in Baldur’s Gate 3
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
FINAL FANTASY XVI Ryota Suzuki, Yasuhiro Yanamoto, Kei Honda – SQUARE ENIX – Creative Business Unit III/SQUARE ENIX
HORIZON CALL OF THE MOUNTAIN Development Team – Guerrilla and Firesprite/Sony Interactive Entertainment
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo – WINNER
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
STARFIELD Development Team – Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks
EE PLAYERS’ CHOICE
BALDUR’S GATE 3 Larian Studio/Larian Studio – WINNER
CYBERPUNK 2077 CD PROJEKT RED/CD PROJEKT RED
FORTNITE Epic Games/Epic Games
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
LETHAL COMPANY Zeekerss/Zeekerss
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
Players of wacky co-op horror game Content Warning are being asked by publisher Landfall if their wildest recordings can be used for a lost footage project which would see it hidden in-game for other players to find.
Content Warning doesn’t revolve around looting or fighting your way through a shadowy and monster-infested world but instead your objective is to use the 90 seconds of film on your video camera to capture your crew’s spine-chilling and/or hilarious misadventures, then survive long enough to extract the footage, upload it to ‘SpookTube’, and rake in the views. The resulting reel, including your screams, exclamations, and deadpan narration of someone being eaten by a hole in the ceiling, is then available for you to download to your PC as a memento.
Being picked up and hurled into the air by a horrifying knobbly slug monster is therefore an ideal turn of events (as long as your cameraman catches it on film), and it’s this kind of footage Landfall is looking for.
Come join our lost footage project for the chance to get your crew’s footage found by other players in Content Warning! 📹
It’s asking for players’ exported camera footage for the lost footage project, with the idea that, when other players are exploring the ridiculous and terrifying world of Content Warning, they’ll come across an equally ridiculous and terrifying recording and perhaps gain an idea of what lurks nearby — or at least have a good laugh.
Footage must be unedited to be eligible for inclusion, and you’ll need to sign a waiver and post the video on social media first. Applications are currently open, so give it a shot if you think your expert camerawork deserves a larger audience.
Jen Rothery is a Deputy Editor on the IGN Guides team. She can be found on Twitter and Twitch at @sylfGG. If she invites you to play Dota 2, you may safely decline.
Getting around in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is perilous at the best of times. Hordes of goblins and lizard-like saurians dog the player’s steps at every turn, and then there’s the deadly cast of enormous mythological creatures that want nothing more than to grab the player character — known as the Arisen — and bring their noble quest to an unceremonious end.
On top of that, the undead come out at night, and swimming is an absolute no-go thanks to an omnipresent insta-killing enemy known only as the brine, which is particularly troubling in light of the fact that many bridges can easily be destroyed by accident in the heat of battle.
However, many of the settlements and locations studded throughout Dragon’s Dogma 2’s content-packed map don’t feature a portcrystal of their own, and so aren’t easily accessible until later in the game, when the player gains the ability to place their own custom teleportation points.
Well, players struggling to traverse the high fantasy world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 can breathe a sigh of relief, thanks to a new mod from NexusMods creator rthomasv3. It lets players fast travel anywhere they desire without the need to rely on either a ferrystone or portcrystal.
Once installed, the aptly named ‘teleportation’ mod allows players to open up an overlay to browse a range of preset fast travel locations and settlements, including the Excavation Site, Melve, and the elven village of Sacred Arbor. Players can also travel to any location on the map, and add it to the list of quick access points.
The mod can also transport the player directly to some of the more soughtafter monsters in the game, including the legendary sphinx, and even contains the locations for the elusive seeker token collectibles that are hidden throughout the world. Of course, the teleportation mod isn’t the only unofficial download giving players the tools needed to tailor Dragon’s Dogma 2 to their liking. For example earlier this week NexusMods user ’emoose’ created a mod that grants Arisen the ability to silence their ever talkative pawns by preventing them from pointing out every chest and ladder that they come accross.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
Square Enix has released a patch for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth which finally fixes its bugged Platinum Trophy alongside a handful of other issues.
As reported by GamesRadar, the patch notes for version 1.030 have so far only been released in Japanese but make clear Square Enix has addressed the trophy issue, which arrived via a bugged side quest called Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.
The publisher had already announced a fix for the bug was coming in the next patch after fans reported the issue upon the release of update 1.02. The quest requires players beat a high score in the G-Bike minigame, but wouldn’t trigger the quest progressing cutscene upon doing so, leaving the “complete all quests and side quests” trophy, and thus the coveted Platinum, unobtainable.
Players will need to beat the high score again to progress the quest following the installation of patch 1.030, but once they do so the quest will progress as intended. The full patch notes are available below.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Update 1.030 Patch Notes
Fixed a bug in the side quest Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” that occurs in Chapter 12 that may prevent the quest from progressing even if the G-bike clearing conditions are met.
In order to progress through the quest, you will need to meet the conditions for clearing the G bike again after the update. Thank you for your understanding.
If you have already completed the quest, your progress will not be reset.
Fixed a bug that occurred when proceeding with certain procedures in some research reports.
Fixed a bug in “Battle Simulator” that in rare cases, new courses were not released.
Fixed a bug that if certain conditions were met, the favorability would not increase even if you selected an option that would increase your favorability.
If there was a bug that prevented you from obtaining the trophy “Cactuar Crusher” even if the conditions were met, it was fixed so that you could get it.
Fixed some problems when loading save data that occurred under certain conditions, as well as the phenomenon of forced termination and inability to progress during play.
When the previous save data is read repeatedly, the status of the last saved data of the previous game that was read is reflected.
Fixed some display bugs.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Disney Speedstorm players have grown upset at developer Gameloft after it announced the premium track of its battle pass can only be purchased with real money going forward.
Players could previously spend tokens earned through gameplay on the battle pass, called the Golden Pass in the Mario Kart-esque racer, but as Gameloft announced in a community update, this would no longer be the case as of Season 7, which is expected to begin sometime in April 2024.
Disney Speedstorm is a free-to-play game, but players looking to earn the premium battle pass rewards must now spend $9.99 of real money to do so. Akin to most battle passes available today, a free track which requires no additional spending is also available.
Much frustration comes from players who’ve been around since the beginning of Disney Speedstorm and bought Founder’s Packs to gain early access to the game alongside various other benefits like a hoard of tokens. IGN has asked Gameloft for comment.
“I bought two Founder’s Packs, one on Steam and the other on the Microsoft Store,” said BellMellor on Reddit. “My idea was to have enough tokens to buy season passes for at least one year and a half. Now they’ve breach what they promised, saying we would be able to buy season pass with those tokens, and since they are breaking their agreement, shouldn’t we be able to ask for a refund? I mean, what I bought is not what they sold me anymore.”
Gameloft did make clear across several instances of its own content, like its support page and its early access FAQ, that tokens could be used to purchase the battle pass premium track and even the more expensive tier, which lets players skip several levels. This information is still live on both Gameloft’s website and the PlayStation Store and Microsoft Store where tokens can be purchased.
“Tokens are an in-game currency that can be earned for free by achieving goals in the game or by being purchased using real-world money,” the description across multiple sites reads. “They are not season-based and can be accumulated. They can also be used to obtain items in the shop, buy the Golden Pass, skip Golden Pass tiers, and much more.”
It’s worth noting this information is still correct until Season 7 arrives later in April, though none of the mentioned sources indicate any change is coming.
“I’ve been a player since the free to play launch,” wrote ArfenZard on Reddit. “I’ve hung on for dear life through all the bad decisions since then because at its core this game is great. The latest news though… Unless something gives at some point before or during the next season I think it will be my last.”
They continued: “I’m never gonna fork out actual cash for something that has been directly taken away from me and anyone who does is actively paying to help the demise of the game.”
Myriad similar complaints have appeared all over the internet, and Disney Speedstorm’s Steam reviews have taken a hit too. “The gameplay isn’t too bad, not perfect but a solid 7/10,” wrote one user. “Everything else is god awful. I have never known of a game to be so predatory with it’s micro-transactions.”
Another added: “Incredibly greedy company. Monetization gets worse and worse. They have no respect for their players and don’t care about making a great game or experience. As someone who has always been a big Disney fan, this game makes me less likely to purchase Disney products going forward.”
Monetization has been long considered an issue in Disney Speedstorm, even appearing as a major factor in IGN’s 5/10 early access review of the game in April 2023. “Disney Speedstorm is a fundamentally good kart racer currently buried beneath so much gacha garbage and so many currencies that it almost seems like a parody of the entire free-to-play genre,” we said.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Six new ship upgrades are now in the Playstation 5 and PC third-person shooter, one for each section of the ship module.
Helldivers 2 new ship modules:
Superior Packing Methodology: Resupply boxes refill support weapons with the maximum number of carriable magazines.
Atmospheric Monitoring: Orbital HE barrage spread reduced by 15%.
XXL Weapons Bay: Eagle stratagems that drop multiple bombs will drop one additional bomb(s).
Enhanced Combustion: Fire damage from stratagems increased by 25%.
Circuit Expansion: Lightning arcs, fired from weapons and turrets, jump to one additional enemy.
Blast Absorption: Sentries take 50% less damage from explosions.
Let’s dig into the details here and offer some initial thoughts. 15% less spread on barrages may convince some players to give them another shot (they’re considered weak in the current meta because they’re not focused). Superior Packing Methodology may end up essential for players who use the Recoilless and Spear support weapons. And Enhanced Combustion is going to cause all sorts of chaos with the already buffed flamethrower. Circuit Expansion looks like it could be fun, too.
These new ship upgrades require the previous upgrade in each module to already be unlocked before you can buy them with samples, so only pliers who have mixed out their ship upgrades and have plenty of samples on hand will be able to test these out straight away. For everyone else, the grind continues.
If you’re looking for more on Helldivers 2, check out IGN’s feature on the Let Me Solo Her of Helldivers 2, a player who has answered over 100 SOS Beacons as part of a mission to help others.
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.
Helldivers 2 has its next premium warbond, called Democratic Detonation, and there’s an explosive theme with this one.
Democratic Detonation adds new weapons, including an Exploding Crossbow and Grenade Pistol that are sure to cause as much damage to teammates as they are the automatons and terminids. However, there is new armor that helps with the inevitable increase in explosive damage across the battlefield.
As with previous Premium Warbonds, Democratic Detonation costs 1,000 Super Credits. While you can earn Super Credits from gameplay and Warbonds, you can also buy them for real-world money. Via the in-game shop, 1,000 Super Credits costs $9.99. Premium Warbonds do not expire, so you can work your way through them at your own pace safe in the knowledge their items will remain available.
Here’s a list of everything in Helldivers 2’s new Democratic Detonation Warbond, per Arrowhead:
Firepower
BR-14 Adjudicator Rifle
Deliver righteous judgement to your enemies with accuracy. This armour-penetrating assault rifle is best used against smaller groups.
R-36 Eruptor Rifle
Keep your distance… this bolt-action rifle fires jet-assisted shells that explode shrapnel in all directions upon impact. All directions. Even your face.
CB-9 Exploding Crossbow
Kaboom! Enjoy powerful exploding bolts that dish out max damage upon direct impact. Gravity must be accounted for when aiming.
Secondary Weapons & Utility Booster
G-123 Thermite Grenade
This little beauty can stick to surfaces before burning up to a toasty 2000°C.
GP-31 Grenade Pistol
Does what it says on the label – a pistol that fires grenades. Don’t forget to reload between shots though.
Expert Extraction Pilot Booster
Need to get out of a jam fast? This booster lowers the time it takes for the extraction shuttle to reach the extraction beacon. Home in time for dinner.
Armor
CE-27 Ground Breaker
Medium Armor.
“The ground is just another obstacle that hasn’t yet been cleared.” – SGM Janet Jones, Excavation Corps Founder.
CE-07 Demolition Specialist
Light Armor.
Originally worn by Lunar terraformers, this suit can withstand rapid changes in pressure, heat, and personal velocity.
FS-55 Devastator
Heavy Armor.
Domestic versions of this armour allow colonial farmers to safely plant crops and mines side-by-side while staying in one piece.
Of course, always accessorise your choice of armour with brand-new capes – Harbinger of True Equality, Eagle’s Fury, or Freedom’s Tapestry – as you mix and match your lethal loadout of liberation.
If you’re looking for more on Helldivers 2, check out IGN’s feature on the Let Me Solo Her of Helldivers 2, a player who has answered over 100 SOS Beacons as part of a mission to help others.
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.
There’s a huge price drop on one of the most popular board game classics. Walmart is offering the Pandemic board game on clearance for only $14.12, a hefty 70% off the original $45 MSRP. Get free shipping for Walmart+ members or on orders $35 or more (otherwise you have to pay a $6.99 shipping fee). The price of this game dropped to about $16 last week, but this deal is even better.
Pandemic Board Game for $14.12
Pandemic was released back in 2008, but the gameplay is so fundamentally intuitive and engaging that it’s still one of the best beginner board games you can get right now. For new or casual board gamers seeking a cooperative experience rather than a competitive one, there are few games that offer it quite as well as Pandemic. Each player will be assigned one of six potential jobs, such as the Dispatcher, which can move other players around the map, or the Medic, which can remove extra diseases from their location; you and the other players will need to work together to cure and eradicate four deadly diseases that are quickly spreading around the globe. This board game is worth it at MSRP, it’s practically a must add to your collection at this bargain price point.
If you’ve replayed the game enough times, there are also many different thematic expansions to keep it fresh. If you’ve run it completely dry and nothing you can add on can convince you otherwise, we have plenty of other recommendations on fantastic board games that might whet your appetite.
You might have heard about a game called Wingspan, which went from being acclaimed in the hobby space to selling a massive million-plus copies in retail. It did so not only by being a fun board game but thanks to its accessible and appealing theme where players manage a bird sanctuary. It was not without its critics, particularly over its slightly repetitive structure, and those concerns have fed into the design of a more complex re-skin, Wyrmspan, where players represent mighty dragon wranglers in a fantasy setting.
What’s in the Box
The original game was famous for its high production values–that’s another key plank of its wide appeal–and while Wyrmspan isn’t quite as pretty, it doesn’t disappoint in that department either. It has a collection of multicolored, speckled resin eggs just like its predecessor, a slew of punch out cardboard resource tokens and two neat plastic storage boxes to keep them in. The coins are cardboard but are silvered, which is a lovely touch.
Players each get a selection of wooden cubes and an adventurer piece in their color, along with one of five boards to track their growing menagerie of dragons, which is where most of the game state will get tracked. There are three other shared boards, one to track the round and its associated bonuses, another is a dragon guild board with four different bonus tiles to sit in the middle, and the final one organizes the dragon and cave decks.
The dragon deck is enormous–almost 200 cards–each with its own distinctive art. While the dragons are impressive, it’s not on a par with the luminous illustrations of real-world birds in Wingspan. And the graphic design generally verges on the bland, with most of the boards being empty space printed with generic fantasy-style fonts. Not that that matters so much once they’re covered in face-up dragons.
Rules and How It Plays
If you’re familiar with Wingspan you’ll already have a good grasp on how to play Wyrmspan–there’s a boxout in the rules that should make learning it a cinch–but there are some key differences. Players start each of four rounds with six coins, and each of the game’s three actions–excavate, entice and explore–costs a coin to perform. Sometimes an action will cost an additional coin or give you a coin back, so the number of actions you can take each turn varies.
Excavate lets you play cave cards from your hand into one of three different dragon habitats on your player board. You’ll need to have a cave card to get dragons into anything other than the initial slot, and playing a card also nets you a bonus printed on the card, such as additional resources or card draws. Entice allows you to play a dragon from your hand into an empty cave. This will cost you resources like meat and gold, printed on the dragon’s card, in addition to the coin. Dragons are a major source of victory points, and most have other printed effects.
Some dragons have an ability when played, others at the end of a round, but for most you’ll need the third action type, Explore, to get the most out of them. This is the most complex action, in which you send your little adventurer meeple into any inhabited caves, gaining benefits depending on which habitat you’re exploring and what dragons you’ve got played there. The Crimson Cavern will let you get food resources to spend on dragons, while the Golden Grotto and Amethyst Abyss will net you cave and dragon cards, respectively, from a face-up selection. The more dragons in a given habitat, the deeper you can go and the better the rewards will be.
The dragon deck is enormous – almost 200 cards – each with its own distinctive art.
You’re thus immediately caught in a classic board game dilemma: you need food and cave cards to play dragons, but without dragons, it’s hard to get food and cave cards. There’s nothing for it but to bite the bullet and take some pathetically weak explore actions while you try and build a strategy, but the big question is what aspects are you going to favor, and which can you neglect?
Decisions here will be heavily impacted by what dragon and cave cards you start with. For example, some cave cards give you food tokens, so you might feel you can wait on populating your Crimson Cavern. And this is where the additional complexity of Wyrmspan begins to bear fruit over its predecessor. The extra concepts ensure there’s a lot more interplay in effects between the cards in your hand and the actions you can take, ensuring there’s more strategy and tactics in your choices.
Perhaps the most notable of these new features is the dragon guild board. You can earn moves on this board in various ways, and each earns you a small bonus from the space you land on. However, for each half-cycle you get to pick a larger bonus from the tile in the middle, many of which include big end-game scoring bonuses. The rewards you get here are substantial enough to build a strategy around, and with four different middle tiles together with that colossal stack of dragon cards there’s a ton of variety to explore during repeat plays.
This is where the additional complexity of Wyrmspan begins to bear fruit over its predecessor.
Other particularly noteworthy changes include the removal of the random food roll of Wingspan in favor of a free choice of food resources and the swapping out of action cubes for the coins resource. While the latter might sound like a small change it has a big impact, because now cards can earn or cost you coins, changing the amount of actions you can take in a turn, which you have to factor into your planning. It even introduces a bigger element of timing into the game, as if you have more or less actions than other players it will change the urgency with which you feel you might have to take things from the shared boards, like the selection of face-up dragons and caves.
Hatchlings, a specific subtype of dragon card, add to this sense of time-based pressure. They can be awkward to put into play because they require milk, a resource that’s otherwise largely useless. But once on your player mat, each visit from an adventurer yields a bonus until the third, which offers an extra-impressive benefit. This imparts a real sense of urgency to try and get these whelps played, to make sure you’ve got time for enough visits to trigger the bonus and enjoy its effects.
However, timing your plays effectively to get what you need before others do is about the only level of player interaction you’ll find in the game. For most of it, you’ll be preoccupied with building your own dragon-powered game engine, not caring what your opponents are doing. Thankfully, this is a fully absorbing task on its own, thanks to all the different ways in which card effects overlap, and the sheer amount of in-game variety takes up some of the slack left by the lack of in-game interaction.
