Here’s How To Get Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for Just £56 Before Launch Day in the UK (Back In Stock and Available)

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth preorders are currently down to just £55.99 in the UK right now. This is a tremendous deal, and guaranteed to arrive on launch day February 29. All you need to do is use code REBIRTH20 at checkout when preordering at Currys. This is the best Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth preorder deal in the UK right now, but, the only caveat is that this deal has sold out a few times before, so there could be a limited time frame to take advantage.

It was also announced at the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth State of Play, that a demo is now available to download via the PlayStation Store. It will let fans play as Cloud and Sephiroth in a sequence from the early part of the game among other content. This is a great opportunity to try the game out before you commit to purchasing via the deal we mentioned above.

In our final hands-on preview of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, we said: “This second game in the reimagined trilogy is like an extension that flows out of its predecessor rather than another radical rethink. But Rebirth is layered with several new ideas that, at least across the duration of a recent three-hour playable demonstration, suggests Cloud and co’s upcoming journey will feel like a genuine sequel rather than a full-priced expansion.”

There’s also a new relationship system, called Bonds of Friendship, that has been added to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. As explained in the system’s tutorial, “the strength of these bonds can alter portions of the story.” One of those story moments is the Gold Saucer date, and you’ll be able to see how your potential partner feels about you via a variety of emoji-like faces.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

‘Palworld Has Lost X% of Its Player Base’ Discourse Is ‘Lazy’, Dev Says

The developer of Palworld has commented on the debate around the declining number of people playing the game since launch, calling the discourse “lazy”.

Taking to Twitter/X, Pocketpair community manager Bucky, who has become the voice of Palworld’s development team in the West, reflected on the game’s first month since going on sale in early access form across PC and Xbox Series X and S.

“In May of 2023, I was convinced that Palworld could break the 50,000 player mark,” Bucky said. “Anything above that seemed unobtainable though, and I certainly never expected it to reach into the millions.

“It has taken years to get to this point, and Palworld only really begins from here. Everyone is working hard to fix the issues and prepare new content and Pals. Some of you may have had your fun over the last three weeks and found yourself putting the game down. That is fine.”

Palworld’s astonishing launch saw 12 million sales on Steam alone and a peak concurrent player count of 2,101,867, the second-highest of all-time on Valve’s platform. Over on Xbox, Palworld is the biggest third-party launch on Game Pass ever with over seven million players and a daily player peak of just shy of three million. While the concurrent player count on Steam has fallen steadily since the peak, it’s worth pointing out Palworld is currently the third most-played game on Steam behind only Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2. It remains hugely popular.

Still, that hasn’t stopped some from proclaiming the Palworld party is over, and it’s this sentiment that Pocketpair appears keen to counter.

“This emerging ‘Palworld has lost X% of its player base’ discourse is lazy, but it’s probably also a good time to step in and reassure those of you capable of reading past a headline that it is fine to take breaks from games,” Bucky said.

“You don’t need to feel bad about that. Palworld, like many games before it, isn’t in a position to pump out massive amounts of new content on a weekly basis. New content will come, and it’s going to be awesome, but these things take a little bit of time.

“There are so many amazing games out there to play; you don’t need to feel guilty about hopping from game to game.

“If you are still playing Palworld, we love you. If you’re no longer playing Palworld, we still love you, and we hope you’ll come back for round two when you’re ready.

“Play lots of games, try different genres, and frequently flick through indie libraries to find hidden gems.”

Last month, Pocketpair said Palworld would get PvP, raid bosses, and new islands in future updates, but it has targeted critical issues first. Crossplay between Steam and Xbox is also in the works (presumably this will up the co-op player count on Xbox at the same time), as well as improvements to the building system.

Clearly, the success of Palworld has taken Pocketpair — and the video game industry — by surprise, so much so that the developer has issued a recruitment drive, saying it’s “overwhelmingly short of people”.

While Palworld is one of the biggest game launches ever, it’s also one of the most controversial. Pocketpair has said its staff have received death threats amid Pokémon “rip-off” claims, which it has denied. Soon after launch, Nintendo moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod, then The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue.

If you’re playing, be sure to check out IGN’s interactive Palworld map.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The Best SD Cards for Nintendo Switch in 2024

The Nintendo Switch is one of the few consoles where extra storage is borderline essential if you’re planning on playing multiple Switch games. Nintendo only provides 32GB for regular models and 64GB for OLED models, which is barely any storage. Without more, you’re lucky to have three or four titles installed at once. Luckily, Nintendo allows Switch users to quickly slot in an SD card to gain access to loads of more storage.

TL;DR – These are the Best SD Cards for Nintendo Switch

  1. SanDisk 512GB Extreme (Best Overall)
  2. Samsung EVO Select 512GB (Budget Option)
  3. SanDisk 1TB Ultra A1 (Highest Capacity)
  4. SanDisk 256GB Extreme PRO (Fastest Option)
  5. SanDisk 1TB – The Legend of Zelda (Best Design)

Installing an SD card into the Nintendo Switch is incredibly easy, with no removal of any casing required. You simply access the port and slot in the microSD card. Below, we’ve compiled five SD card options for your Nintendo Switch system. You’ll need to determine what features are most important to you to decide on the best SD card for your situation.

1. SanDisk 512GB Extreme microSDXC Card

Best SD Card for Nintendo Switch

The SanDisk 512GB Extreme A2 microSDXC Card is our pick for the best overall Nintendo Switch SD card. At 512GB of storage, you should have no issues installing any games you’d like on your Switch without consistently deleting titles to free up space. You can expect to install dozens of games before you’re even close to approaching the storage capacity.

The SanDisk Extreme A2 also has great transfer speeds of up to 190MB/s. You can download games and immediately dump the files onto the SD card without delay. Overall, you can’t beat the quality and features the A2 Extreme has for the price. At $39.99, there’s no better SD card on the market for your Nintendo Switch system.

2. Samsung EVO Select A2 512GB microSDXC Card

Best Budget SD Card for Nintendo Switch

This Samsung EVO Select A2 SD card is a perfect choice if you’re looking for something on a budget. Although the write speeds aren’t as strong as other options, the A2 rating allows for much faster optimizing for the card. By using Cache functionality, your files can be read in a much more timely manner than other cards.

Naturally, some features aren’t available on a budget card like this. The biggest culprit here is the lower transfer speeds overall, which isn’t too big of a deal unless you’re downloading a lot of titles. At under $30, you can’t go wrong with this SD card for your Nintendo Switch.

3. SanDisk 1TB Ultra A1 microSDXC Card

Best High Capacity SD Card for Nintendo Switch

With 1TB of storage, the SanDisk Ultra A1 SD card is an excellent choice for the Nintendo Switch. The SanDisk Ultra A1 has transfer speeds of up to 150MB/s, which is well above the range needed for fast downloads on the console. It’s likely that you won’t even come close to running out of storage, with room for well over 75 titles to be installed at once.

Most games on Nintendo Switch are well below 15GB, so this SD card should more than suit your needs. The biggest games range from anywhere between 30GB and 60GB, but there are less than ten that fall under that umbrella. Any extra space on this SD card is perfect for taking as many screenshots and video captures as you’d like!

4. SanDisk 256GB Extreme PRO microSDXC Card

Best High Speed SD Card for Nintendo Switch

If you’re looking for the best high speed SD card for your Switch, look no further than this SanDisk Extreme PRO SD card. This card uses SanDisk QuickFlow Technology to quickly optimize files and give you the best performance possible. When it comes to launching or downloading games, this feature can come in extremely handy for load times.

With 256GB, you shouldn’t run into any issues installing a healthy library of games to your system. Although the Switch does not have 4K support of any kind, this SD card is made for quick transfer of 4K content. So, your 1080p screenshots and videos will quickly transfer over to a laptop or PC with the blink of an eye.

5. SanDisk 1TB microSDXC Card – The Legend of Zelda

Best SD Card Design for Nintendo Switch

This Zelda SD card has arguably best design you can find for a compatible Switch SD card. At 1TB of storage, you should have no issues with running out of space for new games. Although the speeds are a bit lower than other options on this list, this is the only SD card officially licensed by Nintendo we feature here.

This card is made with the Nintendo Switch in mind, so you can expect a quality product overall. The design featured is the iconic triforce symbol from The Legend of Zelda series, which is a perfect way to showcase your love of the Nintendo franchise. Overall, there are better options, but this is a good choice if you prefer to snag a unique design.

Nintendo Switch SD Card FAQs

Do you need an SD card for the Switch?

For the Nintendo Switch, a microSD card is an essential Switch accessory. Without it, you’ll only have enough space to install a few games on the system. An SD card will allow you to install dozens of titles on Switch without any worry of deleting games to free up storage.

Generally, Nintendo tends to keep its games on the smaller side, but there is a sizeable amount of third party titles available that are well over 32GB. This is the onboard storage for standard Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite models, so you won’t even be able to install that game without an SD card.

How much storage do you actually need?

Most likely any SD card with 256GB of storage or higher will be more than enough for your Nintendo Switch. Some of the largest Nintendo titles, like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Xenoblade Chronicles 3, only weigh in at 16GB and 14GB, respectively. If you plan to primarily play Nintendo-developed titles, you should be more than fine with a 256GB SD card.

However, if you would like to play big third party releases on the platform, like Mortal Kombat 1, you should aim for an SD Card with over 512GB of storage. The latest NBA 2K game takes up over 60GB on Switch, which adds up quickly if you don’t have a substantial SD card. Overall, the size of SD card best for you depends on the games you play, but it is essential for any Nintendo Switch owner to have one slotted into their system.

Phantom Blade Zero’s Anime Trailer is a Historical High-Stakes Duel

In honor of 2024 marking the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar, S-Game has revealed an introspective and suspenseful Phantom Blade Zero anime trailer called Rain & Blood that recalls Phantom Blade’s history–and its upcoming future as a third-person action game.

S-Game is celebrating the Year of the Dragon as dragons are a pillar of the phantom Blade universe, embodied by the mighty Loong (meaning “dragon”) Clan. In Phantom Blade’s timeline, the Loongs have been honored, even worshiped, as the vanguard of justice for over a century, until the clan collapsed in a history-making event. Within Phantom Blade Zero, players will find some of the Long relics and feel their lingering influence. This alignment between the game world and the real world makes this an apt opportunity to recollect, reflect, and get ready for the next step forward. The journey from an indie game to a self-contained universe of six games took 15 years, and S-Game is ready to take a step forward.

S-Game dropped the Rain & Blood anime trailer, featuring a high-stakes duel that seamlessly transforms a storm-lit sword fight into traditional ink and paper drawings, and back again as sworn rivals and former comrades Soul and Zuo Shang try to cut each other up. The clash calls back to 2008’s original Rainblood, the game that launched the franchise and its distinctive “kung-fu punk” aesthetic that’s equal parts Chinese history, fantasy/mythology, and contemporary pop culture.

S-Game’s history spans well over a decade and has leveraged some of China’s most renowned 2D artists to capture and amplify the speed and power of kung-fu fighting with striking style, blending traditional martial arts with visual dynamics that appeal to a modern audience. The opening of the Rain & Blood trailer takes viewers through their distinct history, cutting from the franchise’s 2D roots to 3D space powered by Unreal Engine 5, showing Soul slicing his way through enemies. Despite this change in visual aesthetics, the dark, ominous atmosphere and choreography of intricate kung fu moves remains. If you’re a fan of Blue Eye Samurai, Karas, or Afro Samurai, it may be right up your alley.

Observant fans might notice the latter half of the trailer is captured on PlayStation 5, which will accompany PC as the platforms Phantom Blade Zero is designed for. Players can dive into a playable demo coming sometime later this year.

Keep up to date with Phantom Blade Zero’s release on its official Twitter account, or join the Phantom Blade Discord. Then watch Rain & Blood one more time for good measure.

Phantom Blade Zero’s Anime Trailer is a Historical High-Stakes Due

In honor of 2024 marking the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar, , S-Game has revealed an introspective and suspenseful Phantom Blade Zero anime trailer called Rain & Blood that recalls Phantom Blade’s history–and its upcoming future as a third-person action game.

S-Game is celebrating the Year of the Dragon as dragons are a pillar of the phantom Blade universe, embodied by the mighty Loong (meaning “dragon”) Clan. In Phantom Blade’s timeline, the Loongs have been honored, even worshiped, as the vanguard of justice for over a century, until the clan collapsed in a history-making event. Within Phantom Blade Zeroplayers will find some of the Long relics and feel their lingering influence. This alignment between the game world and the real world makes this an apt opportunity to recollect, reflect, and get ready for the next step forward. The journey from an indie game to a self-contained universe of six games took 15 years, and S-Game is ready to take a step forward.

S-Game dropped the Rain & Blood anime trailer, featuring a high-stakes duel that seamlessly transforms a storm-lit sword fight into traditional ink and paper drawings, and back again as sworn rivals and former comrades Soul and Zuo Shang try to cut each other up. The clash calls back to 2008’s original Rainblood, the game that launched the franchise and its distinctive “kung-fu punk” aesthetic that’s equal parts Chinese history, fantasy/mythology, and contemporary pop culture.

S-Game’s history spans well over a decade and has leveraged some of China’s most renowned 2D artists to capture and amplify the speed and power of kung-fu fighting with striking style, blending traditional martial arts with visual dynamics that appeal to a modern audience. The opening of the Rain & Blood trailer takes viewers through their distinct history, cutting from the franchise’s 2D roots to 3D space powered by Unreal Engine 5, showing Soul slicing his way through enemies. Despite this change in visual aesthetics, the dark, ominous atmosphere and choreography of intricate kung fu moves remains. If you’re a fan of Blue Eye Samurai, Karas, or Afro Samurai, it may be right up your alley.

Observant fans might notice the latter half of the trailer is captured on PlayStation 5, which will accompany PC as the platforms Phantom Blade Zero is designed for. Players can dive into a playable demo coming sometime later this year.

Keep up to date with Phantom Blade Zero’s release on its official Twitter account, or join the Phantom Blade Discord. Then watch Rain & Blood one more time for good measure.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Performance Review

It was always going to be a tall order for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League to emerge from the shadow of the mighty Arkham series. From an architectural perspective the game has moved from Unreal Engine 3 to 4, while from an art and style perspective think more multi-coloured Marvel comics than a dark DC tome. From the bright sunshine across Gotham City and vibrant greens, reds and purples, each character and enemy stand in stark contrast to the subtle and muted tones of Rocksteady’s prior games. The same wide-open city is available to you early on, and each of the 4 playable characters have their own unique and fast means of travel. However, this presents one of our biggest issues when it comes to performance.

Available only on current generation consoles and PC, the game comes with a single performance mode on all platforms, aside from separate settings for motion blur, FoV, and other post effects. Thankfully that one mode targets 60fps on all platforms, but the level of success on that front largely depends on the console and area of play, while PC is an entirely different story. Starting with the Series S, performance is good in the earlier, limited sections, with a close-enough 60fps readout as you play, but the game struggles with streaming, decompression, and general memory management once you get into the open city and moving fast with any character. This gives us some low 50s at points and even some 50+ms spikes at times, which cause minor but noticeable pauses. The shift from gameplay to realtime cinematics and back is as seamless as the Arkham games, and generally these run very well at that 60fps target.

The Series X and PS5 are similar but not perfect, again holding a close lock on 60fps but both can still drop frames and stutter into the low 50s. Of the two, Series X is slightly worse, with it having more streaming stutter and hiccups over the PS5. That said, the PS5 can still drop frames, but it tends to hold a higher, albeit largely invisible, level of performance of approximately 10% in like for like sections. Anyone with a variable refresh rate screen will benefit when these areas arise on all formats but the long stutters will still be noticed.

Console Performance

Visually the Series X and PS5 are a close match to the PC version running at the maximum High settings, though with shadows and LoD down a rung and without the ray-traced reflections that PC offers. Both output a full 4K target, but the actual geometry maxes out at a counted 1800p level on both with a low of 2240x1260p, highlighting that DRS is enabled here. The choice between TAA or DLSS is only available on PC, pointing to the fact that PS5 and Series X are likely using TAA also. This does present a far cleaner and sharper image than the Series S, although the huge hike in pixel counts and texture quality is a big reason for that. They both suffer from dithering artefacts and ghosting in the TAA which is why I am inclined to think that they use TAA and DRS. While the Series S relies on a fixed 900p base (from all counts) using FSR1 back to 1080p.

Textures on the Series S are of a lower quality than both bigger consoles, level of detail is paired back significantly in medium to long views, as is the shadow map cascade and resolution. Screen space reflections are also disabled, which removes dynamic reflections and means less light bounce with darker shade to most surfaces along with reduced volumetrics. Overall, the Series S looks closer to a mix of Low and Medium settings when compared to PC. And comparing it to Series X and PS5 it does suffer, with a big degradation in image quality and slightly worse performance. Series X does run with a higher resolution on average – in one long shot across the city, for example, it was a flat 1440p on PS5 and 1620p on Series X. This is more an academic difference than something you would actually notice, but shows that the wider GPU of the Series X is being used to push more pixels.

PC Performance

PC is not such a positive tale of performance, with options that enable a limited level of tweaking. Ray-traced reflections are a welcome but minor boost over consoles, however they are broken on my AMD RX 6800 machine. DLSS will remain the default choice for Nvidia players and the best balance of performance versus image quality. On AMD or Steam Deck you have the choice of TAA or AMD’s FSR1, which means the lower the base resolution the worse the image quality will become. With my RX 6800 and Zen 2 5600x at 4K TAA DRS High settings to match consoles, we see a game that can hold a decent level of 60fps in those smaller battles and is often a full 4K.

With Ray Traced reflections on, the increased BVH management, traversal and data impacts CPU and bandwidth. On this machine, and likely even more powerful ones, it causes horrible performance. As such, I simply cannot recommend ray tracing at all. With mid-30s and large 150+ms spikes when travelling and fighting through the city, and due to the engine trying to improve performance, heavier resolution drops do happen, just as we see on the console version. The GPU utilisation can drop very low and in general any recommendations are moot as the game’s performance appears to be more impacted by the code than the hardware, aside from disabling ray tracing, which helps the worst cases seen here.

A Work in Progress

The lighting artists did an exceptional job here in fill, point and coloured lights. Many sections use distinct hues and shadows to emphasise mood, atmosphere, or the excellent models. Even though they are a step up over Arkham and Gotham Knights, much of this comes down to material quality across all surface types, from the white dull matte paint of Harley Quinn’s face to the sub surface diffuse of Shark’s flesh. The animators also deserve huge praise, with the mixture of performance capture and key framed animation being a highlight. The exaggerated expressions, winks, and teeth gnashing of each character portrays great emotion throughout. Eyes are incredible, with rapid movement, blink, and rolling adding a great deal of realism without crossing into the uncanny valley. The cutscenes shine the most and are the highlight of the game’s visuals.

Sadly, the in-game action falls from these heights, almost as if they were managed by different teams. Compared to Arkham Knight, it does not make any big or even small leaps. The city has less activity, fewer NPCs, and worse art direction – the extensive use of purples and oranges in some sections is drab, and with the overly busy UI feels at odds with some of the more story-focused sections. Add in repetitive and samey enemies and missions that entail travelling around a city with little charm, and the game loses much of the identity that Arkham City and Knight had. Even the water is not as good. Animation cycles and blends are a mix of re-use and awkwardness, such as Harley’s gangly run and swing or Shark’s jump and strike attacks. I found little in the gameplay art or style that impressed me throughout play.

Summary

Killing the Justice League is in the title, but killing the best Batman trilogy in games is something else entirely. The game has some excellent models and humorous moments and cutscenes, but in the roughly nine years since the last Arkham game, it still hangs on to the same core engine and coattails of that great trilogy. Suicide Squad offers little new or impressive elements from a visual, audio, or even gameplay perspective. Performance is good but not great, with classic data streaming stutter, which impacts the PC version the most and is why console versions are recommended over that. Ironically, Gotham Knights also fell short of the Arkham series, but in hindsight it did many things better than this latest entry from Rocksteady.

The Search for Lost Species Board Game Review

Logical deduction games are a curious and awkward sub-genre. For the game to be interesting, they need to present a puzzle with a lot of dynamism and moving parts. However, doing so poses a significant problem because unless the players communicate their clues and instructions exactly right, the entire game can collapse. In 2020, The Search for Planet X tried to solve this problem by having an app direct players with their uncovered clues, meaning that any errors you make are yours, and yours alone. It proved very popular and now the designers are back with another, more complex, spin on the concept: The Search for Lost Species.

What’s in the Box

As an app-driven game, the box contents might look a little underwhelming at first because you’ve got an electronic gizmo to download that does most of the heavy lifting. Mandatory apps in tabletop games is a controversial issue, and some gamers loathe the reliance on a third-party digital component that might become unavailable at a later date, rendering the game useless. You’ll have to be happy with that risk if you want to get on board this title. It’s best if each player can run their own copy of the app, but it’s easy to install and smooth to use, although, oddly, it doesn’t save game state, which can be a problem playing solo.

What you do get is high-quality stuff. There’s a double-sided fold-out game board with an island hex map on each side, rendered in clear, attractive art. There are a variety of clean-cut wooden pieces, two pawns in each of four player colors, an expedition leader pawn and some mountains that highlight barriers on the board. A pad of note sheets is also included, and each player has a screen to hide their notes and a set of cardboard tokens behind. Finally, there are two small decks of cards and some timing tokens alongside a slightly bizarre but amusing boat-shaped tray to build and hold them in.

As a game with an ecological theme, The Search for Lost Species takes its green credentials seriously. There’s an information sheet included explaining how most of the materials were sourced in an environmentally-friendly way. The six lost species you can hunt for are all real animals, and all on the brink of extinction, none having been seen for several decades. The paragraphs about them at the end of the rulebook make for sobering reading.

Rules and How It Plays

The Search for Lost Species uses a time mechanism to determine turn order. Different actions you can take demand that you move your pawn forward on the time track different numbers of spaces. Whoever is furthest behind gets to take their turn, until their pawn overtakes another on the time track, and so on. So you’re always caught on the horns of choosing less impactful, faster actions against slower, more useful ones in terms of where others are on the time track.

Your two most common options will be to search the island, either by boat or by foot. In both cases, you choose a range of hexes and either look for empty hexes or select one of the four animal types. You put this into the app, and it’ll tell you how many of that particular animal there were in the hexes you searched. Going by boat is faster, but it’s restricted to coastal hexes and has a minimum search range of four, meaning the information you get is less useful. Knowing there’s one toad somewhere among those four isn’t terribly helpful. As a result, tapping your locations in and seeing the results has a fun frisson of excitement as you’re on tenterhooks to find out if you’ve pinned down some helpful information.

However, from the outset you’re given extra information to narrow down the location of each animal. There’s only one species per hex, and the app starts you off with a few titbits on which animals are absent from some hexes. You can configure this to give more starting clues to particular players, which is a fantastic way to give a leg-up to younger or less experienced participants. Each animal also has some fixed rules about where it lives. The four Lories – a kind of parrot – for example, always live next to each other in a fixed diamond pattern. So once you’ve found two, you can narrow down the other two are very easily.

As well as varying the location of species for each game, the app also offers additional rules about animal locations that vary between games. You can access these via the fastest action, visiting a town. This requires you to spend a town token, of which you only have one, and lets you take a card from a face up selection and do some research. The cards either improve one of the game’s actions or offer bonus points for certain conditions, while the research gives you an extra clue for whatever species you choose. So in every game you know that each of the two toads is adjacent to two empty spaces, but in your particular game you might learn that exactly one of the toads lives in the hills.

Using this drip feed of information, you can make educated guesses about what species lives in which hex. There are a lot of these clues, and piecing them together is fun and challenging. But it’s also weirdly stressful because one mistake can be disastrous. Getting one animal in the wrong hex means you’re going to make errors in following other clues, and misidentify further species, a chain reaction of chaos. But then again, making intuitive stabs based on good odds can pay dividends. The order in which you choose to pick up research or search for species can have a big impact on how your game unfolds. It’s up to you how you piece your game plan together and how much you want to rely on educated guesses.

There are a lot of these clues, and piecing them together is fun and challenging.

Every so often, all the player pawns will the expedition leader pawn on the time track. When this happens, one of several things can occur. Most often, players get to place sighting tokens, which indicate hexes where they think particular animals live. You’re allowed to check whether your sightings were correct several turns later, which is both a big source of points and of clues as to the makeup of the island. Before they’re revealed, you can use sightings to guess about what’s on the island: if they put down a token for a python in a hex you know they’ve explored for pythons, there’s a good bet that’s where the python is. They might have made a mistake, though, or even be bluffing. The latter is a high-risk tactic, however, as incorrect sightings not only lose out on the points but are punished on the time track.

Moving the leader can also result in players regaining their town tokens so they can make another visit, or also their camera trap tokens, an additional action that allows you to pinpoint the animal that lives in a particular hex. Finally, on two occasions, the leader will result in all the players getting the same research information about the lost species. This animal, of which there are numerous possible options to keep things varied, has its own placement rules like other species. But it’s so elusive that you can’t ever find it by exploration: its hex will appear to be empty. All you have to go on is elimination, from identifying other habitats, and the various rules that you’re given through research.

Guessing the location of the lost species is the game’s final, and longest, action. If you’re right, you’ll get a huge points bonus and trigger the end game. Other players can still win if they’re close to making the deduction themselves, and they have better sightings than you, but getting their first is a big boost. As a result, once the pieces begin to fall into place, this very cerebral, puzzly game acquires an extraordinary amount of tension. You’re always nervous that your neighbor is just about to declare that big search action and pinpoint the lost species, and there’s a mounting temptation to risk those intuitive leaps and see if you can get in there first. But it’s almost certainly game over if you get it wrong.

Where to Buy

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Demo Update to Address Performance Issues

The Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo update set for February 21 also addresses performance concerns with the game, Square Enix has announced.

Revealed in a post on X/Twitter, the update will upgrade Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s Performance Mode, both in the demo and the main game.

Players had raised concerns over the quality of the PlayStation 5 exclusive, with IGN’s own performance review saying Performance Mode comes with a “drastic clarity and detail reduction” compared to its Graphics Mode counterpart.

Square Enix appears to have taken this feedback on, and has implemented an update coming as early as next week, before the full game even launches on February 29. “The update to the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo scheduled for February 21 will apply improvements to the visual quality when selecting Performance Mode from the graphics options,” the post said. “The same improvements will also be applied to the full game.”

Fans will need to wait until then to see if the changes result in a significant improvement, but Square Enix certainly has high expectations to meet for what’s arguably the most important chapter of its Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy.

The demo is available now and lets players explore the opening chapter of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, playing as either protagonist Cloud or antagonist Sephiroth in the Nibelheim chapter.

Developer Square Enix hasn’t been shy about sharing details of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth so far, releasing huge dumps of information on several occasions. It’s highlighted characters like Cait Sith and Vincent, plus iconic returning locations like Gold Saucer and Junon. The game will feature brand new locations not in the original Final Fantasy 7, too.

Square Enix has added new playable characters, plus a card game akin to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s Gwent, and impressive fast travel. An ESRB rating has otherwise teased deep cleavage, pools of blood, and a clue to Aerith’s fate.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 Will Feature an Uncapped Frame Rate, Director Confirms

Despite what previous rumors suggested, the director of Dragon’s Dogma 2 has clarified that the upcoming action RPG will not be locked at 30 frames per second but rather will feature an uncapped frame rate.

In a post on X/Twitter, Dragon’s Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno confirmed the game would feature an unlocked frame rate and support for variable frame rate (VFR).

While Itsuno did not specify whether these features are available on all the platforms Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set to release on, they should be on PC and consoles alike, as Itsuno liked a reply a fan posted when asking if uncapped frame rates and VFR were coming to the console versions, too.

Unlike variable refresh rate (VRR), variable frame rate (VFR) is when the the video display adjusts the frame rate depending on certain factors such as how much action is going on in a scene or the hardware the game is running on. In contrast, VRR is a technology that will automatically sync a display’s refresh rate to match whatever the game is outputting.

Uncapped frame rates can be a double-edged sword depending on the situation, mostly concerning the stability of a game’s performance. As Digital Foundry’s John Linneman points out, from what he has seen, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is “wildly unstable,” with hopes that there will be a Performance Mode or at least an option to lock the game at 30 frames per second.

In IGN’s final preview of Dragon’s Dogma 2, we wrote: “In the 10 hours I played, these were very compelling decisions to have to make, but the real test will be whether those decisions remain compelling or turn exhausting in hour 20 or 30 when the map has expanded dramatically, and you still have quests remaining to complete in a town you’re super far away from.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is out on March 22 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Sony Boss Says PlayStation Has ‘Room for Improvement’ When It Comes to Cutting Development Costs

Sony boss Hiroki Totoki has offered what he called his “frank impressions” of the PlayStation business, suggesting its studios can do more to cut development costs.

Rising development costs and increasing development schedules are two of the hottest topics within the video game industry right now. As huge layoffs devastate developers, the triple-A business is seen as under threat, with fears of a market crash.

The release of data stolen from Sony-owned developer Insomniac late last year revealed internal concern at the growing cost of the studio’s games. According to Kotaku’s report on the breach, Spider-Man 2 development costs ran $30 million over the original $270 million budget, and ultimately needed to sell 7.2 million units to break even. The latest sales figures suggest Spider-Man 2 has now veered into profitable territory, although Sony has yet to confirm that itself.

Responding to a question from an analyst during a financial call viewed by IGN, Totoki reflected on his four month-tenure as chairperson of Sony Interactive Entertainment, a role he took on following the announcement that previous SIE boss Jim Ryan was leaving the business.

“I’m trying to demonstrate leadership, and trying to have as many meetings as possible with the management team,” Totoki said. “Also visit studios. Everyone is working really hard to fulfill their responsibility, to try to optimize the business, and I understand that.

“But overall growth and sustainable profitability, or increasing margin, how will that translate to these goals? I don’t think people understand that deeply. I think that is the problem of the organization.

“So as far as I am concerned, I’m trying to understand what is happening in the company, in the industry, and also the perspective of analysts, and try to explain in a transparent manner so people can recognise and notice these issues, so we can have a harmonized approach going forward. That is a very general comment since I became the chairperson.

“There are concrete points, which I will not go into today.”

Totoki then went into more detail on what he called “room for improvement” at PlayStation studios, specifically calling out development costs and scheduling.

“Now, about visiting the studios, I’ve had meetings with leaders at the studios,” he said. “People who work in the studios are very highly motivated, they’re very good people, and they’re very creative people, they have great creative minds, and they also have knowledge about live streaming.

“However, having said that, when it comes to the business itself, I think there is room for improvement. And that has to do with, how do you use the money? Or about the schedule of development, or how to fulfill one’s accountability towards development. Those are my frank impressions.

“So I will continue to engage in dialogue with the people so we can find the right way to proceed.”

Following the release of the data stolen from Insomniac, files revealed Sony-owned studios were put under pressure to make staff cuts. As reported by Kotaku, the files contained meeting notes that claimed “there will be one studio closure” at PlayStation Studios. It is currently unclear if this claim remains valid. Sony and Insomniac are yet to comment.

Elsewhere, the files showed Insomniac was under pressure to make budget cuts, with 50-75 layoffs earmarked for the studio. Insomniac staff reportedly discussed how to “remove 50-75 people strategically”, as requested by Sony, with the best option supposedly to “cut deeply” into the Wolverine and Spider-Man 3 teams, and replacing staff with team members from the unannounced new Ratchet & Clank game and a new unannounced IP.

According to the leaked documents, Sony called on staff cuts across its first-party studios. Officially, we know of a number of layoffs at PlayStation Studios, including a wave of redundancies at Dreams developer Media Molecule, significant cuts at Destiny developer Bungie, and layoffs at The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog.

During the financial call, Totoki said Sony would try to improve PlayStation game margins by leaning further on non-PlayStation platforms, such as PC and mobile.

“In the past, as you all know, we wanted to popularize console and the first-party titles main purpose was to make the console popular,” Totoki said. “It is true, but there is a synergy to it. So if you have strong first-party content, not only with our console but also other platforms like computers, first-party can be grown with multiplatforms, and that can help operating profit to improve. So that is another one we want to proactively work on.

“I personally think there are opportunities out there for improvement of margins, so I would like to go aggressive on improving our margin performance.”

Sony has already demonstrated a willingness to release its big first-party PlayStation exclusives on PC some time after they launch on console, although has so far resisted following in Microsoft’s footsteps by launching its games day-and-date across console and PC. However, it has released some of its multiplayer-focused games on console and PC at the same time. The recently released Helldivers 2, for example, launched on PS5 and PC via Steam on the same day, and has become Sony’s biggest game ever on Valve’s platform with over 200,000 peak concurrent players.

Sony has revised its PS5 sales forecast for the current financial year, down from its lofty target of 25 million consoles sold to 21 million. This despite a year-on-year increase in PS5 sales for the holiday 2023 quarter, from 7.1 million sold to 8.2 million. Elsewhere, Sony has said it will not release any major existing PlayStation franchise games before April 2025, ruling out big sequels in the God of War and Spider-Man franchises any time soon.

Image credit: Sony

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.