Category: IGN

Rocksteady Studios is teasing major post-launch support for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League while explaining how its RPG gameplay works in greater detail.

Information on the game’s core elements comes from Game Director Axel Rydby, who clarified the project’s features and offerings in a post in its Discord server. When one fan asked about build possibilities for Task Force X team members like Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, and King Shark, Rocksteady teased “hundreds” of possible build combinations.

“Well, first of all, when we designed the game, player choice and player freedom was one of our core design philosophies,” Rydby said. “We really want you to feel like you can make each character your own, and build it to suit your playstyle. But if you take the leap and really play into the gear, you can find truly crazy powerful combinations.”

Rydby continued, explaining that, while players will start with enough possible combinations to kill a superhero, post-launch content will help shake things up even more.

“At launch, we’re looking at hundreds of possible combinations and permutations for builds across our four characters, and this is something we’re adding A LOT to in post launch. We’re not supposed to talk about that today though, but I’m really excited for you all to see the cool stuff we’ve got cooking.”

Rocksteady names a few “core parts” of builds that will allow players to customize their playstyle, including things like gear and eight loadout slots. Things like Afflictions, meanwhile, can then be applied to melee weapons and grenades, creating effects, such as Deep Freeze and Diablo Blaze, based on other DC characters.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League players can also toy with Talent Trees and traversal mechanics, which allow players to make the most of their villain’s abilities. Rocksteady seems confident that fans will have plenty of options when it comes to how they choose to build each character. Rydby’s entire explanation can be seen below:

Capcom has quickly rolled back a Resident Evil Revelations update which added digital rights management (DRM) after it was review bombed on Steam.

As reported by Eurogamer, the addition of DRM — which essentially looks to stop piracy but allegedly causes performance issues and mod malfunctions too — arrived on January 10 and slammed by Steam users who brought Revelations’ rating down to “mostly negative”.

It didn’t take long for Capcom to hear the outcry and revert Revelations to its former state, though it did say DRM would return once the associated issues were resolved

“Due to an issue observed with the latest update released, we have reverted the corresponding update,” Capcom said in a Steam update. “We apologise for the inconvenience caused, and once the issue is resolved, we will re-release the update. Thank you very much for your patience and cooperation.”

Fans complained the DRM update had stopped mods working for the 2012 single player game. “Added DRM to an 11 year old game,” nyenye said on Steam. “F**k you Capcom. This is the second downgrade in recent years.” GigaDesu said simply: “Capcom killed modding.”

Revelations was originally a Nintendo 3DS game that soon saw itself ported to just about every other platform. It starred Resident Evil mainstays Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine investigate a deadly threat aboard a stranded cruise liner.

In our 8/10 review of the original, IGN said: “Resident Evil Revelations is a great handheld game, one that not only pushes the boundaries and standards of the Nintendo 3DS but one that recaptures a long-forgotten spirit of a classic franchise.”

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

The third-person multiplayer online battle arena Smite is getting a shiny new standalone sequel: Smite 2 has been officially announced at the 2024 Smite World Championship. The sequel will retain the same core gameplay Smite players are familiar with, but the game itself is being rebuilt from the ground up for the next generation. Check out the announcement trailer above and our first-look preview video below.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Smite is a MOBA like League of Legends or Dota 2 – two teams of five players battle for control of a three-lane map, each team growing stronger throughout the match until one is able to destroy their enemy’s base. Unlike other MOBAs, though, Smite is played from a third-person perspective, so you’re right in the heat of battle clashing with powerful gods, instead of strategizing from a top-down overview. It’s also designed to be console-friendly, and easily played using a controller.

The original game was released in 2014 and runs on Unreal Engine 3, so Smite 2 – built using Unreal Engine 5 – represents a significant leap in technology. Travis Brown, General Manager at Titan Forge Games, describes Smite 2 as a “chance to go back, take all the learnings from 10 years of making Smite into one of the most successful multiplayer games of all time, and do it all strictly better.”

Alongside visual upgrades and new animations and effects for Smite’s pantheon of playable Gods, Smite 2 will also include several gameplay improvements: new abilities for certain characters, a brand new backend and matchmaking system, new map features, and new UI.

5 new Gods are also planned for Smite 2, starting with Hecate, the Greek goddess of sorcery, who will be available to play as part of the Smite 2 alpha playtest, planned for Spring 2024.

Since they’re rebuilding Smite 2 from scratch, the development team at Titan Forge Games are also taking the opportunity to make some more fundamental adjustments to the game, in an effort to introduce more strategic depth.

In Smite 1, Gods use either Physical or Magical Power, and can’t use items that don’t belong to their power type. Smite 2 will eliminate these restrictions, allowing all Gods to build all items, and scaling individual abilities based on new Strength and Intelligence stats. Relics are being removed entirely, and the item store will be restructured to make it easier for players to dynamically adapt their builds during a match.

Creating a brand new version of the game after 10 years of continual updates is a huge undertaking – there are 130 Gods in Smite 1, and they won’t all be available to play in Smite 2 right away, though the developers plan to eventually bring every God over to the sequel.

Not all Smite content is going to make it over to Smite 2, however. In-game Skins released before Year 11 won’t carry over, as the team state it simply isn’t feasible to recreate the vast amount of content released over the past 10 years, although there is a Legacy system planned to reflect the investment veteran Smite players have made.

Fortunately, for those who’d prefer to stick with the original, Smite 2 won’t be replacing Smite 1. The original will still continue to run as a standalone game, and will receive regular updates for the foreseeable future.

Smite 2 will be released on PC, Steam Deck, Xbox Series X and S, and PlayStation 5 with full crossplay, and signups for the alpha playtest are live now.

The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered includes a Guitar Free Play mode where the series’ composer Gustavo Santaolalla is a playable character.

A post on X/Twitter from developer Naughty Dog revealed the “familiar face” while announcing the option to play the banjo in Guitar Free Play, too. Santaolalla composed the soundtrack for both The Last of Us games, and actually leaked the remastered second game back in July 2023 by referencing this cameo.

“In the new editions you can make me play certain themes and well, I can’t tell you anything else,” he said at the time, before any new editions or musical modes had been revealed.

Yes, you can play the banjo in The Last of Us Part II Remastered’s Guitar Free Play mode… and you can even do it with a familiar face! 🪕

Pre-order now, available January 19: https://t.co/rjaUcqYTL5 pic.twitter.com/czmuYDYCZn

— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) January 11, 2024

It wasn’t to be the only leak for the game, however, as the PlayStation Store posted details of the remaster’s existence before its official announcement. Naughty Dog confirmed it soon after, revealing The Last of Us Part 2: Remastered would arrive on January 19 with a roguelike mode called No Return, Lost Levels with developer commentary, graphical enhancements, DualSense integration, and the Guitar Free Play mode.

The Lost Levels — which were cut from the original game but are being included as bonus content for the PlayStation 5 upgrade — are called Jackson Dance, Boar Hunt, and Sewers, the last of which has fans particularly worried.

In our 10/10 review of the original game, IGN said: “The Last of Us Part 2 is a masterpiece that evolves the gameplay, cinematic storytelling, and rich world design of the original in nearly every way.”

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

It’s time to look ahead and get excited about all of the new games, films, and TV shows coming in 2024. Cardy, Matt, and Dale are here to go through an extensive list of the things we’re scheduled to watch and play over the next 12 months. From Star Wars Outlaws and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth to Dune: Part Two and True Detective: Night Country, there’s plenty to delve into.

What are you most excited about watching or playing in 2024? Get in touch at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast 731: The Big 2024 Preview

• IGN UK Podcast 730: Flo Rida’s Christmas Catch-Up
• IGN UK Podcast 729: The 2023 Alternative TV Awards
• IGN UK Podcast 728: The 2023 Alternative Game Awards
• IGN UK Podcast 727: The 2024 Alternative Movie Awards
• IGN UK Podcast 726: GTA 6 Looks Decent

Classic Konami collections of games including Felix the Cat and Rocket Knight Adventures will be re-released in 2024, both physically and digitally.

As reported by Polygon, the Felix the Cat collection will include both the NES game and the Game Boy game, while what’s dubbed Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked will include Rocket Knight Adventures, Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, and Sparkster. No release dates for either game were announced, though they’ll come to PlayStation 4 and 5 plus Nintendo Switch.

Physical editions will be released through Limited Run Games. Standard and Classic editions of Felix the Cat will be available (priced at $34.99 and $64.99 respectively), with the latter including a CD soundtrack, reversible poster, and NES-inspired packaging alongside the standard disc.

Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked will come in Standard, Classic, and Ultimate editions, priced at $34.99, $64.99, and $134.99 respectively. The Classic includes a CD soundtrack, reversible poster, steel book, and retro inspired packaging, while the Ultimate includes all this plus a Sparkster statuette, comic, design document collection, mini cartridge display case, and certificate of authenticity.

Further collections will be announced too, with another being revealed on February 24. Konami is also making various quality of life upgrades and other improvements.

“This release includes both the classic Nintendo Entertainment System title and the Game Boy title that was released a year later,” it said of the Felix the Cat collection. “Through Carbon Engine, and some help from Felix’s Magic Bag of Tricks, new features for the titles, including save states and other quality-of-life fixes, bring them into the modern era of gaming.”

Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked will also include a new animated intro from Studio Meala, a rewind feature, Boss Rush mode, and Museum mode featuring never before seen content.

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

After a round of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League previews from media went live this week, developer Rocksteady has lifted its non-disclosure agreement (NDA) on the recently held closed alpha, allowing players to talk freely about their time with the game.

IGN was among a number of publications that published impressions of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League earlier this week. “Rocksteady’s first large-scale game in almost nine years is not clicking with us yet,” we said.

Warner Bros.-owned Rocksteady has now lifted a portion of the NDA on the closed alpha, letting players talk about the game but not publish assets like videos and screenshots.

“Now that there is more news out on the game and players are asking, we’re no longer enforcing a portion of the NDA,” Rocksteady said in a statement. “And we’re allowing players to talk about their experience from the Closed Alpha Test. We’ve heard the community requests and want to give players an opportunity to discuss what it’s like to explore Metropolis as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark.

“To the amazing players who tested the game, please feel free to talk and write about your gameplay experience.”

As mentioned, other terms of the NDA remain in place. “Players may not post imagery or videos from the Closed Alpha Test,” Rocksteady said.

In Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League you play as one of four supervillains who take on members of the Justice League. You can play solo or co-op with friends in the open-world city of Metropolis. Suicide Squad follows Rocksteady’s critically acclaimed Batman Arkham series, which includes a number of single-player and story-focused games.

Suicide Squad, on the other hand, is very much a live service, with a battle pass to work through and gear score to increase as you pick up incrementally more powerful loot. But Rocksteady really does not want to call Suicide Squad a live service, perhaps to avoid the negative connotations the phrase now has.

Indeed, Rocksteady has faced an uphill challenge bringing its fans on-side following the announcement of Suicide Squad and the revelations about its live service elements, with many hoping for a return to the developer’s roots with a Batman Arkham-style game in the future.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League comes out February 2, 2024 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC.

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.

Sand Land launches on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and S, and PC on April 26, 2024, publisher Bandai Namco has announced.

Announced in 2023, Bandai Namco’s Sand Land looks to translate a cult Japanese comic into an open-world adventure. Sand Land debuted in 2000 as a short-lived tale of a demon prince exploring a desolate wilderness.

Created by Akira Toriyama, a manga artist of major renown for his Dragonball series as well as his contributions to many games such as Dragon Quest, Sand Land remained a print-only phenomenon until 2023. A feature-length film debuted last summer, with this game serving as the next multimedia tie-in.

“Joining Beelzebub, the Fiend Prince, his chaperone, Thief, and Sheriff Rao, prepare to explore the vast desert and take on the Royal Army in various customisable vehicles,” reads the official synopsis.

“This unlikely team uniting humans and demons sets out on an adventure in search for the Legendary Spring capable of ending the terrible drought that has taken over the world. Together, they will travel beyond Sand Land to uncharted territories.”

IGN played a Sand Land demo at last year’s Tokyo Game Show. “Sand Land has a long way to go before I’d consider giving it another look,” we said at the time. “At present, the driving, combat, and exploration don’t entice me to dig any deeper.”

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.

At last, Nintendo is bringing two of the Game Boy Advance’s best RPGs to Nintendo Switch Online. Stand up, Golden Sun fans, because we’re finally getting Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age on the service next week, on January 17.

We knew Golden Sun would make its way to the service eventually – it was teased last year, when Nintendo first unveiled its plans for GBA games coming to Switch Online. But with Golden Sun and its sequel effectively being two critical halves of a full story, it makes a lot more sense to drop them both at the same time.

Two epic adventures dawn…

Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age are coming to #NintendoSwitch for #NintendoSwitchOnline + Expansion Pack members on 1/17! pic.twitter.com/d3Y5Lx5RX0

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) January 12, 2024

For those unfamiliar, Golden Sun was a 2001 RPG from developer Camelot, better known now for its work on the Mario Golf and Mario Tennis franchises. It follows a group of four heroes wielding elemental magic on a quest to stop a team of villains from lighting four elemental lighthouses and plunging the world of Weyard into chaos. However, Golden Sun only tells half of the story – its sequel, The Lost Age, was released two years later and follows some of the supposed “villains” from the first game as they work to finish the job they started in Golden Sun, while the first game’s heroes are in hot pursuit.

Both games are still beloved for their interesting and nuanced class systems revolving around elemental spirits called Djinn, the hybrid ways the game’s magic, or Psynergy, could be used both in and out of battle, and their incredible soundtracks by renowned composer Motoi Sakuraba. We reviewed both Golden Sun and The Lost Age very highly back in the early 2000s when they came out. Camelot did eventually release a third Golden Sun game, Dark Dawn, for DS in 2010, but it wasn’t as well-received as its predecessors, and we noted that it felt “somewhat dated.”

The debut of both Golden Sun and The Lost Age on Nintendo Switch Online is great news for fans of the series who were struggling to find ways to play these games in 2023 without digging up ancient handheld gaming devices. Now, if only we can convince Camelot to tackle a fourth Golden Sun game…

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

They say it’s better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. Well, “they,” in this case, happens to be a guy who literally calls himself the Prince of Lies, so we may want to take that with a grain of salt. But from the time I’ve spent with Solium Infernum so far, I think he may be right. As a refreshed and reimagined update to a 2009 4X cult classic, it’s sort of like Civilization set in the bowels of Hades – but with a greater emphasis on politics and, of course, betrayal.

Where Civ puts us in the boots of figures like Teddy Roosevelt or Montezuma, Solium Infernum features a devilishly-rendered cast of archfiends, from the straightforwardly malevolent warlord Astaroth to a nightmarish Beelzebub monstrosity. Each of the models shows off a certain wicked imagination, which allows their personalities to really come across when you’re cutting deals or scheming against them. The dialogue lines are even recorded in Enochian, a language created by occultists under the pretense of being the spoken language of angels, which is a neat touch.

Solium Infernum’s version of Hell isn’t the fire and brimstone you may be imagining, though. Heavily inspired by Jonathan Milton’s Paradise Lost, it’s a cold and ashen place run by an intractable bureaucracy that doesn’t so much reflect childhood nightmares, like being attacked by shadow monsters, but more adult ones, like having to deal with the DMV.

Not that it’s lacking at all in dark fantasy imagery, of course. The Places of Power you need to capture to secure victory each represent some kind of creative torment for sinners or equally disturbing point-of-interest. These amazing unit cards for each of the dozens of recruitable legions of Hell provide scintillating tidbits of lore, along with evocative, animated 2D art. The names are just fantastic, too. Sometimes the only solution to a problem is 10,000 Screaming Bastards.

DOWN, DOWN, DOWN…

A game of Solium Infernum starts you off with your citadel and a respawning, personal legion that’s a bit different for each Archfiend. Our boy Lucifer stepped out for some cigarettes and never came back, so the throne of Hell is empty and up to six human or AI players are looking to be the next to sit on it. This starts by maneuvering units around to capture hexes – called Cantons – as the first to touch each one adds it to their territory. More importantly, capturing Places of Power grants passive benefits and increases your Prestige score, which is tallied up at the end to see who gets to become Pandaemonium’s Next Top Devil.

Securing cantons early can be crucial because, somewhat unintuitively, this contest isn’t just a bloodsoaked free-for-all. Hell has a lot of rules you have to follow, and part of that means you can’t cross your rivals’ cantons or attack their units and Places of Power without a formal beef being declared. To do so, you have to either demand some tribute from another archfiend or send them an insult, wagering some of your own Prestige in the process. They can back down and give you what you want, or they can rise to the challenge. Feuds can be settled with a limited period of open warfare, in which the initiator must complete an objective like killing a certain number of legions or capturing a Place of Power. Or, both sides can nominate a Praetor – powerful recruitable hero characters – to duel instead.

Combat takes place in three phases: Ranged, Melee, and Infernal, with each unit having a different strength in each. The legion with the highest strength in each phase deals an amount of damage equal to the difference. Astaroth, for instance, excels in melee, but isn’t much good with magic. So I found it’s better to end the battle before the spells even start flying by stacking up melee damage, or else I’d be in for a world of hurt.

SCHEMES UPON SCHEMES

Solium Infernum isn’t a game won by bloodshed alone, though. There are also mechanics for spying on your enemies, changing the rules temporarily with rituals and event cards, framing other archfiends for your misdeeds, and even snatching victory at the last second by offering to become a vassal after choosing a “Power Behind the Throne” objective. Your Archfiend levels up in a variety of powers from Wrath, which benefits straightforward conquest, to Charisma, which allows you to manipulate the politics of Hell to favor you and spurn your enemies. Increasing your infernal Rank costs an increasing amount of Prestige, which runs the risk of falling behind, but is also the main permanent way of improving your economy, since cantons don’t actually pay you taxes or produce food. I mean, look. I don’t think anything is growing down there.

The devs assert that the best way to play is an asynchronous multiplayer mode with a turn timer that can be set from one day up to a full week, potentially creating games that last months. It even has Steam notifications for when your turn is up. The number of things you can do on a turn feel overwhelming at first, but as you have a limited number of orders, you’re really forced to think carefully about how to get the most out of your legions and pre-empt what your rivals are trying to do. An auction mechanic for buying new legions, artifacts, and praetors, along with Hell’s deliberately fiddly currency system that requires combining different tokens and never getting any change if you overpay, speak to the layers upon layers of bluffs and careful counterplay that are possible.

If you want to try your hand at sitting upon the Big Spooky Chair of Satan yourself, you’ll be able to fall from Heaven on February 14th.