Category: IGN

Game publisher Ravensburger announced new details about upcoming competitive events for the popular Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game, including the first-ever World Championship in 2025.

“As we move into 2024, we will continue to support our growing and diverse community through new discoveries for collectors, organized play and competitive events for players and new products that help beginning fans take their first steps into trading card games,” said Ravensbuger’s Global Head of Games Filip Francke in a press release. “We’re only just getting started, but consumer feedback and industry data supports our belief that this game will be around for a very long time.”

Lorcana launched in September 2023 with a hobby store program but no official competitive events. The highly-anticipated competitive circuit begins in May 2024 for North America and Europe. There will be regional-level tournaments called Disney Lorcana Challenges, where the top four competitors earn invites to the North American or European Championship, respectively. The North American and European Championships will be held in Q4 2024. Top players from those Championships will earn invites to the World Championship 2025. Even though the Disney Lorcana World Championship is invite-only, there will be a larger competition open to other players at the event.

Ravensburger promised details on event dates, prizing, and more in March 2024.

In the meantime, there will be new competitive events for the local scene called Set Championships. The first of these will be the Into the Inklands Championship, named after the upcoming set releasing in February. These organized play events are hosted by local hobby stores and award a new Enchanted Stitch – Rock Star Promo card as the first place prize, with the first and second place players receiving a playmat also featuring Stitch – Rock Star (both prizes shown below). Details on how stores can host these events will be announced in late February 2024.

Bandai Namco is putting the Nintendo Switch on the highway to the danger zone, announcing that Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Deluxe Edition will be coming to Nintendo’s hybrid console on July 11.

According to the official release, the Switch version will include “all original content and faithfully recreates the fast-paced action of the original.” It will also include the original release’s 2-8 player multiplayer gameplay, and will bring with it six DLC packs and bonuses from the original game.

In addition to the base game, the full list of content available for Nintendo Switch includes:

• Three original aircraft sets + three single-player missions
• Part 1 “ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – ADF-11F Raven Set”
• Part 2 “ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – ADF-01 FALKEN Set”
• Part 3 “ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – ADFX-01 Morgan Set”
• Part 4 “ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – Unexpected Visitor”
• Part 5 “ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – Anchorhead Raid”
• Part 6 “ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – Ten Million Relief Plan”
• Bonus Music Player Mode
• Playable Aircraft F-104C – Avril
• Playable Aircraft F-4E Phantom II
• Three aircraft skins from past entries
• 8 emblems from past entries

Originally released back in 2020, Ace Combat 7 is the latest entry in the acclaimed aerial combat series. We awarded it a 7 in our original review, writing, “Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is a great-looking arcade flight combat game, and zipping over high-quality terrain trying to establish missile locks and evade pursuers can be a lot of fun. But the experience often gets weighed down by its weird and convoluted but persistent story and poor communication of objectives. It’s enough to prove that there’s room for the series to make a comeback, though this game will be not the one to jumpstart it.”

Nintendo Switch ports have proven problematic at times due to the platform’s aging hardware, which in many ways struggles to live up to the standards of even the PS4. To allay concerns, Bandai Namco released a trailer featuring side-by-side comparisons of the Switch and PS4 versions. It doesn’t look too far off from other versions of the game, minus a handful of environmental details, but we’ll see when it’s released in July.

Ace Combat 7 is currently available on PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam, and has sold more than 5 million units to date. There have been no updates on the next entry in the series, but Bandai Namco said that “additional DLC not included in the Deluxe Edition is planned to be available to purchase after launch” on July 11.

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.

Activision has issued a warning to Call of Duty players: it will now close the game down it it detects aim assist on mouse and keyboard.

In a tweet, Activision said Call of Duty’s anti-cheat tech, dubbed Ricochet, will now close the game app on PC if it detects if a mouse and keyboard player activate aim assist. This works across Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2, and Warzone.

“Our security detection systems now target players using tools to activate aim assist while using a mouse and keyboard,” reads the statement. “The Call of Duty application will close if detected. Repeated use of these tools may lead to further account action.”

Aim assist is one of the hottest topics within the competitive shooter space. It is designed to offer a helping hand to console players when it comes to keeping their reticle on target, and, depending on its severity, can see the reticle move about quite a bit as it tracks enemy players. Aim assist, generally speaking, is not meant for mouse and keyboard players, who benefit from the increased speed and accuracy their PC-focused control scheme provides.

Call of Duty players have used unauthorised third-party hardware such as XIM and Cronus Zen to benefit from aim assist and reduced recoil while using mouse and keyboard for years. Last year Activision said Ricochet would detect their use and bans would follow for repeat offenders. This latest development is thought to target reWASD, an increasingly popular gamepad mapper software used to reassign the keyboard, mouse keys, and controller buttons. It creates a virtual controller, which in turn convinces the video game to enable aim assist.

Activision’s warning comes as the Season 1 Reloaded update prepares for launch across Warzone and Modern Warfare 3.

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.

Activision has warned Call of Duty fans anxious to jump straight into Modern Warfare 3 Ranked Play after the Season 1 Reloaded update goes live that the new feature will not be available immediately.

In a tweet from the official Call of Duty Updates account, Activision said Ranked Play will not be available immediately after the Season 1 Reloaded update goes live today, January 17, at 9am Pacific / 12noon Eastern / 5pm UK across all platforms. The developers want to “perform checks” before enabling the mode, Activision said.

“Heads up competitors, Modern Warfare 3 Ranked Play will not be available immediately after players receive the Season 1 Reloaded update,” Activision said. “The Ranked Play team will be performing checks before enabling the mode for all players. Stay tuned for more updates.”

It’s unclear how long players will have to wait before Ranked Play is made available after Season 1 Reloaded goes live, but hopefully it won’t be a significant delay.

Modern Warfare 3’s Ranked Play, when it does go live, lets players rise through the ranks and skill divisions in four versus four competitive play featuring the same ruleset (settings, maps, and modes) used by the Call of Duty League.

Here’s how it works, per the Call of Duty blog: Ranked Play becomes available after players reach at least Level 55. All unrestricted gameplay items are unlocked for use in Ranked Play, regardless of how much you’ve previously unlocked. Some weapons, Killstreaks, Equipment, and gameplay content are restricted in Ranked Play to match CDL competitive rules. As you’d expect, Friendly Fire is enabled in all Ranked Play matches.

You begin at Rank 1. Your rank represents your Ranked Career. Win matches to earn stars and rank up. Rank is permanent and persists across seasons. You start your first Season in Bronze I. Advance through eight Skill Divisions and Tiers by earning SR (Skill Rating). SR is awarded when you win based on personal and team performance. In subsequent seasons, you will be dropped back three Tiers.

The highest Skill Division you can start a new season in is Diamond I. (SR penalties will result from being inactive, disconnecting from matches, and engaging in repeated friendly fire.) Win three matches in a row to earn a flaming rank. Continue winning to progress the Hot Streak flames. The flames expire if you lose or after 72 hours.

And here are the Ranked Play maps and modes:

• CDL Search & Destroy: No respawning; 1.5-minute round timer; Friendly Fire enabled. Supported maps include Highrise, Invasion, Karachi, Skidrow, and Terminal.
• CDL Hardpoint: 5-minute time limit; 250 score limit; 60-second objective rotation; Friendly Fire enabled. Supported maps include Invasion, Karachi, Skidrow, Sub Base, and Terminal.
• CDL Control: 30 lives per team; 1.5-minute time limit; 3-round win limit; Friendly Fire enabled. Supported maps include Highrise, Invasion, and Karachi.

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.

We’re continuing this month’s IGN First on Dragon’s Dogma 2 with a detailed look at its new, robust character creator. The original Dragon’s Dogma had a pretty intense character creator, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 has upped the ante for just how detailed you can get for your character and ideal Pawn.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno explained during IGN’s visit to Capcom in Japan that the character creator was something they put a lot of work into for the first game, but with better hardware performance this time around, they could add as much freedom to the system as they wanted.

Itsuno-san said, “The problem is that this means that the act of creating a cool character, or the character that you want to see, becomes no different from doing so with clay… You could have your ideal character in mind, but you’d basically need to be an artist to form that character with your own hands, so that’s where we had to begin when deciding how character creation would work,”

He thought maybe they should make the character creator simpler, but because the game’s artists wanted something that detailed, they worked hard to create a system that gives players access to every available setting if they want it while also offering a simpler creation method.

They accomplished this by having two body types for each race, nine base bodies per type, and an uncountable number of base head variations created from nearly a hundred real human face scans. From there, you can make the final adjustments yourself, giving Dragon’s Dogma 2 a system where anyone can create attractive, realistic-looking faces without needing to be an artist.

The options are indeed vast, and you can get incredibly granular while editing a character if you so choose–there are 40 types of “muscle styles” and 12 sliders just for a human’s nose, for example.

“I imagine some people getting themselves stuck in the creator and having trouble starting the game,” art director Daigo Ikeno admitted. “That said, I think it’s a creator that will be able to meet the needs of most people.”

I’m one of those people who consider a character creator as deep as the one in Dragon’s Dogma 2 as the “first boss,” as I can easily spend more than an hour (happily) tweaking a character – which I was tempted to do at Capcom Japan despite my limited time hands-on.

Of course, the most obvious new addition to the character creator is a brand new race: the Beastren – anthropomorphic big-cats Itsuno-san wanted to add since the first game, but couldn’t due to hardware limitations. Specifically, rendering their fur on many subjects on the screen at once.

To make sure the Beastren had enough diversity compared to humans, Ikeno-san explained that the team “looked at the kinds of patterns and colors found in felines and made sure that the kind of variety that players would surely want were included.”

Ikeno-san concluded: “I hope that players will try changing both beastren and human faces to see what they can make.”

Casey DeFreitas is the deputy editor of guides at IGN. Catch her on Twitter @ShinyCaseyD.

Blizzard has revealed the next chapter in its live-service ARPG, Diablo 4, and it revolves around a really handy mechanical spider.

Dubbed the Season of the Construct, the upcoming update will send players into the perilous and trap-riddled vaults of the legendary Zoltun Kulle in search of treasure, battling demonically possessed mechanical constructs in the process.

The main power grind will center on your new robotic companion, a spider-like friend called the Seneschal who comes with its own management UI and can be customized with magical stones of different rarities and power levels to alter its behaviors and abilities to your liking. With nearly 40 different stones to collect, there will be a wide variety of options for how your multi-legged buddy can complement your playstyle.

“You can make a build on the utility side that’s there to suppot and healing you. You can also build out one that does a little more defense and get a combination of stones that intercept any incoming projectiles and further modify that to pull all enemies in for a big hit,” lead designer on Diablo 4 season 3 Dan Tanguay told IGN. “We’ve tried to bake in a lot of possibilities there for players to discover.”

Season 3 also brings some hotly anticipated quality of life changes, the most noticable of which is WASD key control support for more direct control over your heroes on PC — seemingly a necessity in a season that will feature so many deadly traps that you would really be best off avoiding.

There will also be a plethora of competitive leaderboards driven by ladder-based trials called The Gauntlet, where players compete for a high score, the mightest of which will be greanted “a permanent home in the Hall of the Ancients,” and medals to show off on their profiles.

Other notable additions include an extra stash tab to store your ever-increasing pile of loot, and a reworking of Helltide events so that you don’t have to wait for short windows to engage in one of the Diablo 4 endgame’s most profitable events.

Diablo 4: Season of the Construct will launch on January 23rd.

Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.

Developer MGP Studios and publisher Red Deer.Games have announced that Project Downfall, their upcoming retro-themed cyberpunk first-person shooter, will be released on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on February 2. Watch the release date trailer above, and check out screenshots in the gallery below.

MGP describes Project Downfall as such: “Project Downfall is an action-filled, pixelated shooter set in a cyberpunk world, where the present is drastically different from ours. The players will be thrown into the life of Johnny Wick’s lookalike and smashed with gunfights left and right, where both reflexes and tactical thinking will be of the essence.”

The developers also promise a “non-linear plot that reacts with the players choices and moral decisions.” It’s already available on PC if you’d like to check it out there.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Microsoft has snapped up 11 bit studios’ promising city-builder sequel Frostpunk 2 as a day-one PC Game Pass title.

Frostpunk 2, which for some time now has been one of the most wishlisted games on Steam alongside the likes of Hades 2, Manor Lords, and Hollow Knight: Silksong, launches on PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG, in the first half of 2024.

Then, Frostpunk 2 launches later on console, with the game hitting Xbox Game Pass as soon as the Xbox Series X and S version comes out. A PlayStation 5 release is also in the works. We were told “further Game Pass additions from 11 bit studios portfolio are set to be unveiled at a later date”.

“As a Steward in Frostpunk 2, you will oversee an ever-growing metropolis and be required to carefully weigh the needs and demands of its society,” reads the official blurb. “Your people are concerned with the fate of their children and crimes on the streets. They complain about unhealthy squalor, escalated by industrial growth, but need places to work. And what if you cannot afford to reward their toil with food and shelter or take care of their health? You can’t please everyone and when radical factions start rising, it only takes a tiny spark for the boiling tension to blow up.

“30 years after the Great Storm, the tyranny has ended. The delegates can vote, with or without certain persuasions, to pass laws to fulfill people’s will and steer the entire City into one of many futures.

“All this with a mantra echoing in everyone’s minds: The City must not fall. But will you be the one to persist and witness its triumph?”

Check out IGN’s Frostpunk 2 preview for more.

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.