If you want to add more replay value to the Resident Evil 2 remake then a mod that shifts the perspective from third-person to the traditional fixed camera might do the trick.
Roughly five years after the Resident Evil 2 Remake was released, a modder has finally added fixed camera angles to the PC version.
NexusMods user alphaZomega’s RE2R Classic mod allows players to shift to fixed camera angles, bringing back the original perspective from the 1998 survival horror classic. The mod’s listing page notes that “over 1,700 fixed cameras are all fully placed” and users who install it can complete the game from start to finish in this perspective.
As you can see from the screenshots above, the mod greatly changes the mood of the Resident Evil 2 remake, with the restriction making it more tense by adding blind spots for enemies.
Fans have debated the use of fixed camera angles since Capcom moved away from them in the original Resident Evil 4 released in 2005, instead favoring third and then first person cameras. While official support for the perspective is gone, mods like the RE2R Classic offer players the best of both worlds.
In the case of Resident Evil 4 Remake, Capcom announced it has sold seven million copies since its launch in 2024 on PC, PlayStation, Xbox Series X/S, and Apple devices.
Image Credit: alphaZomega/NexusMods
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
With Resident Evil 4’s release last year, Capcom’s project to remake the glory years of its survival horror series is complete. But, as the game’s post-credits scene suggests, the remakes aren’t over. And so the big question is: where next? The obvious answer is a remake of Resident Evil 5. But on the game’s 15th anniversary, it’s clear that moving forward chronologically will take Capcom’s remakes into the series’ weakest era – an era of gameplay and narrative decisions best left in the past. Resident Evil 5 simply can’t be remade, at least not to the standards of Capcom’s best work. And so the answer is not to remake, but to rewrite.
Resident Evil is a survival horror series, not that you’d know that playing Resident Evil 5. Sure, it features a constant flow of horrific imagery, but RE 5 is an action game through-and-through. That’s evident in its cover-shooter mechanics, vehicle chases with on-rails turret sequences, and the constant rattle of assault rifles. Even its visual design evokes the sandy shades of modern military games that experienced mass popularity in the late 2000s. It all speaks to a series that had lost its way. Rather than reflect on the tenets that were the foundation of its existence, Resident Evil 5 looked to the contemporary gaming zeitgeist in an attempt to find a new lease of life. The result is an unholy hybrid of Resident Evil, Gears of War, and Call of Duty. It’s as ugly and unwieldy as it sounds.
This design appears to be not just a misguided attempt to follow Western successes, but also a misreading of its predecessor. With Resident Evil 4, director Shinji Mikami deftly reinvented the series through the use of a new over-the-shoulder camera angle. The perspective allowed for a more kinetic, action-heavy game. Despite this, Mikami never lost sight of the terror at the core of Resident Evil. Through use of enemies that were strategically placed to provide undulating waves of tension and fear, and the inclusion of Ashley as your vulnerable charge, combat encounters were focussed on surviving overwhelming horrors rather than dominating foes.
Resident Evil 5, meanwhile, presents its enemies as waves to be gunned down with increasingly powerful weaponry. Their purpose is cannon fodder; a wall of meat to slow your progress through levels. And those levels are not locations to be explored; instead they are largely funnels that push you from entrance to exit. Resident Evil 4 may have replaced the series’ traditional continuous structure with discrete levels in an attempt to move away from the backtracking-heavy design of previous games, but it preserved the spirit of locations like the Raccoon City Police Station. The village, Salazar’s castle, and the island feature interlocking, explorable pathways that solidify these locations as authentic spaces rather than obstacle courses. Resident Evil 5 has no interest in this, with the majority of its stages being little more than corridors peppered with dead-ends to hide treasures in. Their lack of authenticity means no one will ever mention the Kijuju Autonomous Zone in the same breath as the Spencer Mansion.
A faithful remake of Resident Evil 5 would break Capcom’s seven-year streak of brilliant survival horror.
All this is to say that a faithful remake of Resident Evil 5 would break Capcom’s seven-year streak of brilliant survival horror games. It’s telling that the series’ reset point, Resident Evil 7, was a reinvention of the very first game; a ‘haunted house’ that grew ever larger as you unlocked new rooms by solving its puzzles. Clever reinventions of this base conceit is the key to Resident Evil’s success – be that dropping an unstoppable force into the house’s corridors (Resident Evil 2’s Mr. X) or expanding the scope of the house (Resident Evil: Village’s titular location is effectively a giant manor – its corridors are streets and its rooms are houses). Resident Evil 5’s stage-driven structure is simply inferior to this design. A modern recreation of it would only further highlight its flaws, especially coming in such close proximity to masterclasses like the remake of Resident Evil 2.
Remakes can, of course, completely redefine the structure of their source material. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, for example, is recognisably an updated version of the classic RPG, but its world design and gameplay mechanics are a world apart from the 1997 original. And so you could argue that Resident Evil 5 is actually the Resident Evil most in need of a remake. A whole new environmental structure and scenario design that reigns in the action and dials up the horror would bring it in-line with Capcom’s other remakes. But all of this doesn’t account for Resident Evil 5’s most notorious problem: racism.
Set in a fictional West African country, Resident Evil 5’s primary antagonists are Black people. Yes, technically it’s the Uroboros virus that protagonist Chris Redfield is fighting, but the parasite’s host is depicted as a nation of mobs and primitives who are violent even before their infection. Intentionally or not, Resident Evil 5 positions Africa as the ‘Dark Continent’, an uncivilised world harbouring a diseased population that needs gunning down via Western intervention in the name of global security.
This insensitive treatment of people of colour was hotly debated even as early as Resident Evil 5’s debut trailer, with writers such as N’Gai Croal and Stephen Totilo pointing out the game’s uncomfortable, post-colonial imagery. The arguments and think-pieces continued well into the game’s release window, with IGN’s own former editor-in-chief Hilary Goldstein having also wrestled with the subject. But that was 2009 – a time when race was apparently a debate rather than a reality. In the 2020s, in a post-Black Lives Matter world, there is only one acceptable response to a white man shooting hordes of Africans for an entire video game: no.
Remakes may be able to redefine their source material, but there’s only so many changes you can make until it’s not a remake at all, but an entirely new game. And if you take Africa out of Resident Evil 5, is it Resident Evil 5 anymore? Even with a vastly improved, more sensitive take on the continent – perhaps one with a Black protagonist and more empathetic look at the outbreak – the experience would simply be too divorced from the original to hold the name ‘Resident Evil 5’.
Capcom now has the opportunity to ignore the past and completely reinvent this chunk of the timeline.
So where does Capcom go now? Personally, I’d look backwards – Code: Veronica is an ideal candidate, as is the original Resident Evil. But if the only way is chronologically forward, then a total rewrite of what comes next is the logical path. Because what followed Resident Evil 4 was not one terrible game, but two. Resident Evil 6 doubled down – no, tripled down – on the action-packed, set piece-heavy shooter design, to the extent that much of it could be mistaken for a third-person Call of Duty spin-off were it not for the monsters. Its restrictive level design practically puts you in a chokehold, forcing you to endure a barrage of bombastic moments that have no interest evoking any sense of fear. Resident Evil 6 is a survival horror only in that it’s a horrible game that you have to survive playing. But this time around, it doesn’t have to be like that. Capcom now has the opportunity to ignore the past and completely reinvent this chunk of the timeline.
In Resident Evil 4 remake’s post-credits scene, evil mastermind Albert Wesker details his plans for world domination to Ada Wong. Reflected in his glasses is an image of Excella Gionne and the Stairway of the Sun – two significant plot elements from Resident Evil 5 – which indicates Capcom’s intentions. But there’s more to consider. This scene is largely a replication of a sequence from Assignment: Ada, a non-canon chapter from the original Resident Evil 4. Its shift from unofficial to canon points to a willingness to change. Furthermore, the end of this scene is entirely re-written: when learning of Wesker’s plans, rather than dutifully deliver the stolen Las Plagas sample to him, Ada betrays her shadowy boss and forces her helicopter pilot to turn around. In this moment the future of Resident Evil becomes unclear. Capcom has given itself the freedom to do whatever it wants – I just hope it’s not a remake of Resident Evil 5.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
A Cyberpunk 2077 player has discovered an Easter egg hidden by CD Projekt Red in the main menu.
While the role-playing game features layers upon layers of open-world exploration with all manner of references hidden throughout, fans were perhaps overlooking this one, which was available from the moment they booted up the game.
Shared by @crushovitz_b on X/Twitter, below, players can discover the Easter egg for themselves by clicking on the version number, which is currently 2.12, in the top right corner. The number flicks between several different symbols and numbers before unfolding into 2.0.77.
“Good find, I started to doubt you chooms will ever find it!” game director Paweł Sasko tweeted in response. “Was hidden way too well.”
It’s unclear when CD Projekt Red added this reference to Cyberpunk 2077, but it wouldn’t be too surprising if it had sneaked in alongside the latest patch. Update 2.11 added an unexplained “munch munch” sound when consuming food in the menus, for example, which turned out to be the result of one developer’s hard fought mission.
This isn’t the only hidden reference to be found in March 2024 either, as one player recently discovered a wild Easter egg that involved finding a random diner, climbing to its roof, and looking through a pair of binoculars at a red bird (akin to CD Projekt Red’s logo) to see a photo of the development team flash across the screen.
The easter eggs keep coming for Cyberpunk 2077, and this one is especially wholesome as it honors the dev team behind CD Projekt Red’s first-person RPG. pic.twitter.com/jj2t4WhLQU
In our 9/10 review of the game, IGN said: “Cyberpunk 2077 throws you into a beautiful, dense cityscape and offers a staggering amount of flexibility in how you choose to take it from there.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Are you searching high and low for the best Nintendo Switch deal going in 2024? Well, we’ve found what should be considered a pretty excellent offering for this time of year, as we usually don’t see such generous deals before the summer. You can currently secure a Nintendo Switch console for $276 at Amazon, down from $299.99, alongside an additional free $25 in Amazon credit when using promo code NSWNEON25.
Now considering how rare deals like this are, we wouldn’t be surprised if this sells out before the end of the day — you have been warned. If you are unlucky this time, you’re best off checking Best Buy, Walmart, and Dell for their respective deals on the Switch right now as well. Otherwise, ensure you’re following @IGNDeals on Twitter/X and Instagram as well for even more updates on the best gaming deals right now.
There are plenty of other great Switch deals right now as well, including over $20 off games in the Mario Day sale that extends through to March 16. This is a pretty standard deal price for Nintendo Switch games in 2024, but still notable for any new Switch owners or those who have missed a couple of titles over the past few years. This includes popular entries like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Luigi’s Mansion, Mario Party Superstars, and more all for $39.99.
Also as part of MAR10 Day, Nintendo is offering a Nintendo Switch Online 14-Day Free Trial Membership (typically 7 days), available now through until March 17. This is available even for those who have used a free trial before, so there’s plenty of opportunity to take advantage of this offer while it is still live. Great news for anyone picking up a Switch right now as well.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Sony has released the PlayStation 5 system software update 9.00 after a period in beta, and published the patch notes on its website.
This update for Sony’s console lets you adjust the brightness of your PS5’s power indicator, improves DualSense mic noise cancellation, lets you interact with the Share Screen using pointers and emojis, and enhances DualSense speaker audio.
To adjust the brightness of your PS5’s power indicator, go to Settings > System > Beep and Light, and then select Brightness.
As for the DualSense, the controller speakers can now produce higher volume sound, letting you hear in-game sounds and voice chat audio more clearly. Sony said the mic input quality on the DualSense has been improved with a new AI machine-learning model. This means background noise from button presses and game audio are “suppressed”, which, hopefully, makes for a better voice chat experience.
Elsewhere, Sony has added new features in Parties and Share Screen. As mentioned, players watching Share Screen can use pointers and emoji reactions to interact with the host’s gameplay. Viewers can use a pointer or indicate a specific location on the gameplay screen with ping, and send emoji reactions. To make this feature available, turn on Viewer Interactions in the Share Screen settings. Unicode 15.1 emoji is supported, which means you can now use them in messages.
And finally, Sony has updated the device software of the DualSense and DualSense Edge controllers, the PlayStation VR2 headset, PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers, and Access controller to “improve stability.” Yep, it’s the classic “we’ve improved system software performance and stability” patch note from Sony.
The PS5 launched November 2020 during the height of the pandemic, and has now sold 54.7 million in just over three years. This November the console turns four years old, with rumors that a PS5 Pro model is waiting in the wings.
PS5 9.00 update patch notes:
We’ve updated the device software of the DualSense and DualSense Edge wireless controllers to improve their sound features.
The controller speakers can now produce higher volume sound, allowing you to hear in-game sounds and voice chat audio more clearly.
The mic input quality on these controllers has been improved with a new AI machine-learning model. Background noise from button presses and game audio are suppressed, resulting in a better voice chat experience.
You can now adjust the brightness of your PS5’s power indicator.
Go to Settings > System > Beep and Light, and then select Brightness.
We’ve added new features in Parties and Share Screen.
Players watching Share Screen can use pointers and emoji reactions to interact with the host’s gameplay.
Viewers can use a pointer or indicate a specific location on the gameplay screen with ping.
Viewers can also send emoji reactions.
This feature is available when the host turns on Viewer Interactions in the Share Screen settings.
Unicode 15.1 emoji is supported. You can now use them in messages.
We’ve updated the device software of the DualSense and DualSense Edge wireless controllers, PlayStation VR2 headset, PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers, and Access controller to improve stability.
We’ve improved system software performance and stability.
We’ve improved the messages and usability on some screens.
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.
Developer TiMi Studio Group and publisher Activision are promising that Call of Duty: Mobile isn’t going anywhere yet after its Shoot House and Alcatraz maps were removed.
The title’s official X/Twitter account calmed fans with a message today, revealing that both fan-favorite locations will be back “later this year.” It’s a much-needed update on the game’s status, as fans were quick to worry that the spinoff would soon stop receiving new content in the wake of Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile’s launch later this month.
“We wanted to let you know that Shoot House and Alcatraz will soon be leaving Call of Duty: Mobile,” the post says. “This is not permanent, both will be returning later this year, rotating in and out each season like other playlists in the game.”
In a follow-up post, the team assured players that fresh content is still on track to arrive in future seasons. No information on some of the upcoming content was revealed, with fans only told to “stay tuned” for any updates.
Call of Duty®: Mobile will continue to get new content every season and there are no plans to change the breadth of content we bring to COD:M players. Stay tuned for more info on exciting new content we have coming this year!
Fans have worried that Call of Duty: Mobile and its more traditional multiplayer options would be shuttered when Warzone Mobile eventually came to iOS and Android devices. The on-the-go experience will allow players to partake in mobile versions of iconic battle royale maps like Verdansk and Rebirth Island.
The latter is actually a reimagining of the Alcatraz map, which is especially notable considering Shoot House will also make an appearance in Warzone Mobile. With both maps coming to the new game and leaving the old, fans got worried, and rumors ran rampant.
Though Call of Duty: Mobile will share some similarities with Activision’s next mobile release, there are no signs that it is going anywhere. Warzone Mobile, meanwhile, will make its proper debut on iOS and Android devices worldwide on March 21, 2024. For more on Activision’s upcoming release, be sure to read our preview, where we went over how it manages to pack massive game modes on tiny devices.
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.
Many of the best board games tend to be geared towards smaller groups of players. So what’s one to do when you have a party or other gathering of fun-loving friends in higher numbers? Thankfully, board game and card game makers have not left these scenarios in the cold. If you know where to look, you can find some awesome tabletop experiences that cleanly and elegantly scale up to 10 or even more players, giving everyone something to partake in.
If you’re seeking a good board game to break out at your next gathering (like a New Year’s party), these are the best board games for parties and large groups. You can also check out our list of the best family board games if you’re looking for something for all ages.
TL;DR The Best Party Board Games
Don’t want to read a bunch of words? These are our favorite board games for groups to play:
This horse-racing game is founded on a simple, but powerful, premise: the earlier you risk putting down a bet on a horse, the more handsomely it’ll pay out if it comes to pass. The race – which can either be facilitated by a games-master style player or an app – is carried out in real-time and is based on dice odds, so some horses are more likely to do well than others. As the action unfolds, it’s down to players to slap down their betting chips on individual horses, or colour groups, making various race positions. While these core bets are vital to victory, each race also includes a random selection of prop bets and exotic finish bets to make sure there’s plenty of variety. And that’s your lot: it’s simple, fast, and guaranteed to get everyone on their feet, shouting, hollering and cheering for the horses they’re backing to be first across the line, with groans and commiserations for the unlucky losers.
Challengers!
Challengers! is a peculiar and innovative title, a real party game with a difference, which is one reason it won the prestigious 2023 Kennerspiel award. Its unique angle is that it’s essentially an auto-battler video game, stripped down, stuck in a box, and presented in a format that allows up to eight players to duke it out, in a similar time frame regardless of the number of combatants. The secret to this slick pitch is that everyone buys new cards for their deck and then splits into pairs, flipping cards off their stack and keeping the winner, while the looser has to keep flipping until they build up enough strength to defeat the opposing card. It’s fast, strangely addictive and surprisingly strategic, with lots of little wrinkles in its formula that a skilled player can exploit. But there’s still a whole lot of absolute nonsense match-ups to enjoy if you just want to throw down and chill out.
That’s Not A Hat
A lot of the most fun party games involve bluffing. Many other top titles involve a degree of memory. And now you can combine them both into one tiny but triumphant package in the form of That’s Not A Hat. Everyone gets a face-up card showing an everyday object. The start player draws a second such card and then all the cards are flipped face down. On the back there are arrows indicating what direction you have to pass the card in round the table, and as you pass the card you have to state what it is. The catch? You don’t get to flip the cards face-up again: you have to rely on your memory, and if someone thinks you’re lying, they can call you out. Three strikes and you’re out! The result is a fascinating and hilarious mix of recollection and pop psychology that plays in ten minutes and is sure to have every player rushing out to buy their own copy.
Wits and Wagers
Do you enjoy trivia board games, but aren’t very good at them? If you answered yes, then Wits and Wagers is the game for you. It’s a trivia game, but instead of using your own answer, you bet on who got the right answer. So if a football question comes up and you have no idea how many Super Bowl rings Peyton Manning has, you can bet on your friend who is a huge football nerd. If they get the question right you earn a point. It’s that simple. Because you don’t need to be versed in every topic under the sun, Wits and Wagers is the most accessible trivia game around. There are three versions of the game, with the party and family games having easier questions than the standard version. The party game, as the name suggests, also accommodates more players. You’ll have no reason to go back to Trivial Pursuit after picking up Wits and Wagers.
Codenames
In this approximation of a spy thriller, players are split into two teams, with one player on each team assuming the role of “spymaster.” It’s the spymaster’s job to make their team name the codewords that will earn them points. In any given game, there are 25 available codewords arranged into a five-by five grid, and the spymaster must, without actually speaking the words, use a code phrase to describe what words belong their team. For example, if three of the words are “fence,” “tree” and “door,” the spymaster might say “wood, three” to indicate that three of the words might have to do with wood. Codenames depends heavily on the spymaster to think quickly, and poorly thought-out clues can lead to some hilarious arguments. If you tire of seeing the same codewords after a handful of plays, Codenames has seen several expansions and reimaginings since its 2015 release, which can add a great deal of replay value.
It’s worth noting that there is also a version called Codenames: Duet that is one of our favorite board games for couples.
Time’s Up – Title Recall
Like all the best party games, Times Up builds a neat twist into a very simple premise, in this case by combining the best bits of pop culture quizzes and charades. You start with a pool of 40 cards showing the titles of famous films, TV shows and songs which are used over three rounds of clues and guessing. In the first round, you can say anything other than the title on the card. In the second, your clue has to be one word. And in the third, it has to be a non-verbal pantomime. This escalating series of restrictions keeps delivering the most hilarious associations that only work because players have an idea of what’s already in the pool after the first round. A fascinating combination of trivia and free-association wordplay, and all fun, all the way.
Snake Oil
Cards Against Humanity has come to dominate store shelves and nearly every online party game recommendation list, but for my money Snake Oil is an infinitely better option. It sticks to a similar formula as CAH, but injects a healthy dose of player creativity. On the active player’s turn, they randomly draw a “customer” card. The other players then take turns pitching a product to that active player by combining two object cards from their hand. For example, if the active player draws the cheerleader card, other players must combine two cards in order to make an item that might appeal to a cheerleader. The sales pitches are the meat of the game, and it’s an absolute blast to watch your friends scramble to sell a “meat bicycle” or a “puppet helmet” to a caveman. In a perfect world, Snake Oil would replace Cards Against Humanity on every game shelf.
The Resistance: Avalon
The original The Resistance was a sci-fi bluffing game in which a pool of players had to discover and out rogue agents. The Resistance: Avalon shifts the action to King Arthur’s court and ups the ante with some new roles and rules to enjoy. Everyone gets a secret role and then loyal knights have to try and complete five quests while keeping Merlin alive. The Merlin player knows who is loyal and who is not, but can’t reveal this without also revealing who they are and painting a target on their back. There are various other named roles with special powers like Percival and Mordred, creating an incredible, escalating soup of paranoia in which players have to stew for twenty or so minutes. After which it’s almost irresistible to deal some new roles and do it all again.
Telestrations
This is a commercial version of a popular family of games that involve image-based Chinese whispers. You start with a card with a phrase on it and do a sketch to illustrate that phrase. You then pass that to the next player in line who guesses the phrase, writes it down and passes that on for the next player to draw. And so on, until the whole thing comes full circle and you marvel at the garbled nonsense that’s come back to you, and every step in between, complete with ridiculous drawings to delight and amuse. For real party animals, there’s a twelve player expansion pack available to make the chains of nonsense even longer.
Dixit Odyssey
In 2010, the original Dixit won the Spiel des Jahres, Germany’s coveted game of the year award. Since then, its unique approach to storytelling in games has been expanded on and reiterated nearly a dozen times. Despite all the new content in recent years, 2011’s Dixit Odyssey remains the best version of the game. The concept is simple: each turn one player is the storyteller, and uses a simple word or phrase to describe one of the cards in their hand. Then the other players choose a card from their own hand that they feel best fits the description the storyteller gave. The cards are shuffled and then revealed, and everyone attempts to choose which card was the storyteller’s, who gets points if people correctly guess their card. The rub is they get no points if nobody or everybody guesses their card, so it’s important to find a balance between vague and descriptive when describing the card. Dixit boasts surreal and beautiful artwork that makes the game a joy to experience and discuss, and the reliance on creativity will bring out the storyteller in even your most stubborn friends.
Wavelength
Wavelength brings a new dimension to guessing games by getting players talking about their opinions rather than their trivia knowledge. Each round posits a pair of extremes, such as “straight” and “curvy”. Players take turns giving clues to their teams, which involves spinning a dial in secret to get a point somewhere between these two limits and then trying to come up with a hint to guide them to the right point. So for those clues, if the dial is showing two-thirds toward “straight” a good clue might be “hand-drawn line”. Not only is this a fun, fresh challenge every time but it’s subjective enough to be a real talking point for your party. With cooperative and competitive modes, Wavelength is a great pick across all tastes and ages.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf
The One Night franchise has become nearly synonymous with the term “party game,” and for good reason. It’s simple to learn, encourages a lot of player interaction, and plays in about 10 minutes. At the start of the game, each player is dealt a secret role, and it’s the goal of group to weed out who the werewolves are, unless of course you are a werewolf yourself. Each role has a special ability that help offer clues, such as the seer who can look at some of the roles, or the troublemaker who can switch roles with someone else. Because there’s no 100 percent way to know who is telling the truth, the game depends on your ability to read your friends’ tells. Each game is a chaotic flurry of accusations that will have the table in lively conversation during and after the game. If you want a good idea of what One Night Ultimate Werewolf has to offer, check out this video of a sample game. There are also several different flavors available, from vampires to aliens, if werewolves aren’t your cup of tea. Fair warning if you choose to pick this one up: friendships may be destroyed while playing this horror board game.
Monikers
In Monikers–a brand new take on the old Charades-like game Celebrity–you’ll act out a variety of goofy characters like Count Chocula, Drunk Jeff Goldblum, a dead horse, and literally hundreds more. Rounds get progressively more limiting as the game goes on–for example, words and gestures are legal in round one, but you can only use one word in round two, and round three takes away your ability to speak altogether. Because you’ll be using the same cards in every round, you’ll wind up making clever in-jokes with your group as you start to repeat cards. The subject choices pay homage to not only celebrities, but to modern viral memes and videos like David After Dentist and Lady Gaga’s Meat Dress. Shut Up and Sit Down put it quite bluntly in its review: “It’s the most you’ll laugh playing a game.” Truly, Monikers is the be-all-end-all of party games.
Decrypto
In Decrypto, two teams attempt to work out a numeric code by interpreting clues given to them by an encryptor. At the start of a round, four words are randomly assigned to the numbers one through four, and the team’s chosen encryptor secretly draws a three-digit code. Their job is to make the rest of the team guess the code–in the proper order–by giving clues about the words associated with the numbers. It’s a bit like Codenames in that way, but the twist comes thanks to a clever “interception” mechanic that allows a team the opportunity to guess their opponents’ code. This means encryptors must be careful about giving out too much information about their code, making Decrypto a fascinating balancing act that does an admirable job of making players feel like actual spies.
Matt Thrower is a contributing freelance board game and video game writer for IGN. (Board, video, all sorts of games!)
The Grandia HD Collection is finally coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (and PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S via backwards compatibility) on March 26, 2024, publisher GungHo Online Entertainment America has announced.
The collection, which launched on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2019, puts the two role-playing game classics of Grandia and Grandia 2 in a remastered collection with improved UI, sprites, and texture art alongside widescreen support and visually enhanced cinematics.
The Grandia HD Collection will be available digitally and in a limited edition physical version through Limited Run Games. This version can be preordered as of March 15 for $34.99 but, unlike other classic game remasters like Konami’s recently announced Felix the Cat, this one won’t come with any fancier editions or bonus content.
“The Grandia HD Collection features two genre defining role-playing games: Grandia and Grandia 2,” the official synopsis reads. “These games send players on epic adventures with protagonists Justin and Ryudo, respectively, to explore the worlds of Grandia and protect them from the forces of evil.”
It includes Japanese and English audio options alongside English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified and traditional) text language support.
The original versions of both Grandia and Grandia 2 earned a 9/10 in IGN’s reviews.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
System Shock fans who lack a gaming PC will be able to play the remake of the first game pretty soon. A new trailer for the System Shock remake console ports revealed that the game will be released on May 21, 2024, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
You can check out the new trailer below. Unfortunately, Nightdive Studios did not provide any details on when Linux and MacOS users can expect their respective ports to be released.
The announcement comes nearly a year after Nightdive Studios released System Shock Remake on Windows PCs. The console release has been a long time coming for PlayStation and Xbox players itching to play the remake of this influential ’90s sci-fi shooter.
A few days after the PC version was released last year, Nightdive Studios revealed that the console versions were “running smoothly” in a developer Q&A held on its 100th Kickstarter post. However, it mentioned that it required “a few rounds of QA support” before it could receive certification, ensuring it was putting out the best product to players.
Nightdive Studios began development for System Shock Remake in 2015. Roughly a year later, the developer launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2016, raising over $1.3 million in funds. However, the game had a long and troubled development cycle, and Nightdive had to delaythe releaseseveral times. The reasons for the game’s delay include the switch from the game engine Unity to Unreal Engine 4 and the pivot from making it a reboot to making it a “faithful remake.”
In our review of System Shock Remake, we awarded it a 9/10, saying, “System Shock deftly returns a classic immersive shooter to its place on top of the heap, updated for nearly anyone to enjoy.”
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi was surprised the remake once again spurred a debate around the use of yellow paint in video games.
Using yellow paint on ledges and walls to indicates a traversable area in a video game has been a hot topic among players ever since its rise in popularity in the likes of Uncharted on PlayStation 3. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth uses this tactic too, with players voicing their opinions on it since the first demo for the role-playing game was released.
Speaking to Red Bull, Hamaguchi said he “didn’t think that the yellow paint [debate would be] discussed on social media” following the demo’s release, and said he and the development team at Square Enix have heard players load and clear.
“For things like camera options, where people have a wide variety of preferences and there’s no one right answer, our basic approach is to offer various accessibility options,” Hamaguchi said. “So I would like to take on board the valuable feedback we have received towards this for future games.”
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is just the middle part of an entire remake trilogy, so this comment perhaps suggests Square Enix may make the yellow paint an optional accessibility feature in the third and final game, or perhaps allow players to adjust the intensity of it themselves.
In our 9/10 review of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, IGN said: “Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion, both as a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenges and an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long.”
