Some players are accidentally skipping Remnant 2’s post-credits scene. Beating the game’s final boss will trigger a short cutscene before causing credits to roll just like they would in any other game. However, skipping the credits will skip the post-credits scene as well.
Spoiler Warning: The remainder of this article contains spoilers for Remnant 2’s ending and post-credits scene.
The game ends with the player character unable to defeat the Root, the game’s antagonist, as it regenerates after being killed. With the Root threatening to consume all of reality, Clementine takes The Index from The Keeper to completely recreate reality without the Root. The cutscene shows familiar characters and locations turning into beams of light, as everything is transformed into data before being gathered into Clementine’s body.
Eventually, nothing is left on-screen except for The Index, floating in the void left behind. Credits start to roll, as The Index sits there, motionless for the duration of Remnant 2’s credits. After the credits end, The Keeper approaches The Index and looks at it for a moment before walking away. Suddenly, it pulsates and he turns around just in time for it to burst open in a flash of light. Then, we see characters and locations in the game restored the same way they left as the data becomes people and places again. Finally, it cuts to the player character laying on the ground in a field with their eyes closed. They bolt awake with a gasp before the cutscene ends with a fade to white.
While we don’t exactly know this cutscene’s implications, we do know that Remnant 2 is set to receive three separate DLCs over the next year. Gunfire Games has promised that the DLC would include more story content, so we’re likely to see this ending expanded upon when Remnant 2’s first DLC launches sometime in the next few months.
Planning on booting up Remnant 2? You can check out IGN’s walkthrough here, or watch the video below to brush up on some basics before taking on the Root.
Recently at BitSummit, the annual indie game festival in Kyoto, Japan, Patapon creator Hiroyuki Kotani announced an upcoming Kickstarter campaign beginning on July 31 to fund a new music game that will be a spiritual successor to the long-dormant Patapon series.
Originally made public last spring when Tokyo Virtual Theory announced Project Jabberwocky, a rhythm action game with Kotani in the director’s chair, the newly-christened Ratatan bears an uncanny likeness to Patapon. IGN Japan was livestreaming on site at BitSummit over the weekend, and spoke with Kotani and TVT CEO Toshiyuki Yasui about their plans for the game.
According to Kotani, Japanese artist Nelnal will handle the character design, and according to their Twitter account, visual design as well.
“I follow Nelnal on Twitter and I’m a big fan, so I’ve wanted to reach out to them and build a game using their characters for a long time now,” said Kotani.
He contrasted the new look of Ratatan to that of Patapon, noting that the artwork featured in his earlier games looked more like “silhouettes”, while Nelnal’s creations, as seen in the teaser, include much more color.
We know music will serve an integral role in Ratatan, and former Patapon composer and sound producer Kemmei Adachi has already attached his name to the new project.
“He’s already contributed a number of tracks for the game,” Kotani said, but added that unlike their previous collaborations, “the songs in Ratatan are almost like theme songs, and they will express the game’s worldview in a more expansive way.”
Kotani continued, “In Patapon, the little eyeball characters consider the player to be a kind of deity, and we wanted to do more with the music that would show their reverence for the player, almost like a scene from a musical – but we didn’t have time to implement this due to the short development period. We hope to do more with the music this time to create those kinds of scenes.”
IGN asked if any other games that Yasui or Kotani have played recently might influence Ratatan, leading Yasui to admit that he is “absolutely awful at music games” despite his involvement in this project, saying that “Patapon was one of the few music games I was able to play, so perhaps Ratatan will be another.”
Patapon was one of the few music games I was able to play, so perhaps Ratatan will be another
Kotani observed that music games have “an insurmountable barrier to entry for many people”, which they must consider carefully.
“For many people, it can be difficult to remember the inputs, and when the game gives the player too much to think about at once, they can’t keep up with the pace,” Kotani said.
“We had this issue when we were making Patapon. Before we decided on the name Patapon, the inputs were just titled ‘Square’ and ‘Triangle’ and so on. I had to give an internal presentation about the game, and I couldn’t even remember the inputs myself. And that’s when I realized the importance of onomatopoeia. By using onomatopoeia, instead of the very dry Square and Triangle type commands, we could present a more direct reference, which helped Patapon a lot. I’m not saying that Ratatan will do the same thing, but that way of thinking will inform how we approach the commands and the UI in Ratatan.”
Yasui added, “Kotani’s rhythm games are very primitive or primal, and they offer a very direct way of enjoying the music. I’m excited to see him deliver a new twist on this approach with Ratatan.”
The passion for Patapon is still strong
Patapon fans remain passionate about the series, as last week’s announcement ignited a swift reaction online. What little of Ratatan we can see at this point certainly evokes comparisons to Patapon, as a number of cute characters flee from a large monster, before a Ratatan logo suspiciously similar to that of Sony’s rhythm series settles on the screen. Kotani described Ratatan as a “spiritual successor” to Patapon, saying he hopes people find the new title “inherits from the super fun music game” he created years earlier.
Obviously, a crowdfunding campaign carries its own risks, so IGN Japan asked what motivated them to seek fan investment. Kotani pointed out that Ratatan was a new endeavor for both him and TVT, as their first game together, and so he feels “we need support, not just money, to motivate us to press ahead and make the game that players will want – and Kickstarter is a great way to have that communication with everyone.”
Kotani emphasized the importance of communication so that the audience will be able to have fun with the Kickstarter campaign itself, while they’re looking forward to the eventual release. “It will be a two-way process with the fans, not just us dictating the shape of the game ourselves.”
Yasui added, “We realized that there is a passionate audience out there, which is why Kotani was especially keen to do it on Kickstarter. It will take a long time for us to make the game, but in the meantime the players who are waiting for it can enjoy the process and have some input.”
While he could not confirm any specific platforms for Ratatan or stretch goals for the campaign, he said, “Naturally we want as many people as possible to enjoy our game,” adding he hopes the audience can play Ratatan “in many different ways,” hinting at a multiplatform release.
Patapon, a game where the player uses simple inputs to command an army of tiny creatures in time with the music, first launched in Japan back in 2007 on the PlayStation Portable. A Western release the following year drew just as much critical acclaim abroad as it received in Japan, making it a rare worldwide first-party success for Sony on the PSP. Two sequels followed, ensuring the hypnotic beats of Patapon would resonate in fans’ heads for many years to come.
However, the series fell silent in 2011 after Patapon 3. Aside from PS4 remasters of the first two titles, there have been no rumblings of any new Patapon releases for over a decade. The lack of a dedicated PlayStation handheld system and the closure of Japan Studio seem to indicate Sony has no interest in getting the band back together.
With the Kickstarter launch less than a week away, more detailed release information is still to come. Yasui did tell IGN Japan that TVT is developing Ratatan internally, but said that they were still deciding on a publisher. For now, new and old fans alike must wait for more information when the crowdfunding campaign begins at the end of the month.
Diamond Feit is a freelance writer based in Japan. This article includes reporting from IGN Japan Chief Editor Daniel Robson.
Resident Evil 4 Remake is one of the best games of 2023 so far, but now fans have created another take on the survival horror classic. This time, Resident Evil 4 is now a 2D run-and-gun shooter.
First spotted by PCGamesN, Resident Evil 4 2D Edition is a side-scrolling reimagining of Leon S. Kennedy’s most iconic adventure. The game was built in GZDoom, a modding tool that’s popular in the Doom community. User DooMero is the developer of this mod, and they said it’s dedicated to the entire Doom community. You can watch the gameplay for yourself over on YouTube, or check out a few screenshots in the tweet below.
— Powered by id Tech (@PoweredbyidTech) July 25, 2023
Over on Doomworld, DooMero previously explained that this mod has been in development since 2016, but kept getting put on hold. The launch of Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 earlier this year motivated the creator to start work on the project again. Some of the remake’s elements are even making it into DooMero’s recreation, like the knife parry and some select sound effects. The creator has previously teased that a playable demo is coming, but we don’t know when that’s going to happen.
The demo takes players through the opening village sequence of the game, including iconic moments like letting the dog loose from the trap and fighting off the chainsaw man. The gameplay has Leon doing all the same things he usually does — shooting enemies, collecting resources, and solving puzzles — but it’s all done on a horizontal plane.
For more on Resident Evil, check out our review of this year’s official RE4 remake, where we said, “Whether you’re a fan of the original or a newcomer with a hankering for some action-heavy horror of the highest quality, Resident Evil 4 is like a parasite-riddled Spaniard: a total no-brainer.”
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
The massive multiplayer beat ‘em up RPG Dungeon Fighter Online officially introduced a new class to its roster of characters. Dungeon Fighter Online is a 2D, anime art-style game that combines the high-energy action of old-school side-scrolling brawlers with some classic RPG elements. Since its launch in 2015, DFO has garnered a loyal global user base. The game features detailed customization options and various dungeons and raids for players to take on cooperatively. Players can also opt to dive in solo, but overcoming some of the more powerful bosses may require strategic teamwork for those who want to succeed.
Dungeon Fighter Online is known for its distinct combat system, and fast-paced side-scrolling action combat, where players can combine combos and dodge-timing fighting mechanics. The game also offers modern and retro pixel art styles, which can be toggled based on player preferences.
Choose Your Fighter
Currently, the game allows players to choose from 17 base characters, each specializing in unique combat styles. Slayer, Fighter, Gunner, Mage, Thief, and the Knight are just a few of the current choices. These character options branch further into four to five different advancements, offering over sixty options to awaken your character’s potential. Various equipment upgrades, enhancement through runes or talismans, and aesthetic customization features allow players to express themselves and make their characters their own. DFO’s latest update, launched on July 25th, introduces the Archer Class to the battlefield.
Grab Your Bow and Get Ready to Unleash Your Arrows
DFO players can now play as the Archer character and we all know you can’t have a dungeon-crawling RPG without a capable bow-and-arrow class! The Archer debuted on July 25th, bringing another level of depth to Dungeon Fighter Online’s roster of characters. Her unique play style and mechanics blend agility and precision, specializing in ranged combat, helping deliver a new update for seasoned DFO players while adding some options for players jumping in for the first time. The Archer gives players access to two advanced class options (aka advancements): the harmonious Muse and the mist-laden Traveler.
The Muse advancement option serves as a buffer class, allowing the Archer to use her musical abilities to wield the Lyra Bow. This new signature weapon will enable her to fire off melody-infused arrows that bolster the strength and morale of her allies while still dealing damage to enemies on the battlefield. This support role is critical, and the Muse’s abilities focus on enhancing her teammates’ abilities, making her a valuable addition to any party-based combat scenario. Her harmonious medley of buffs and ranged attacks allows the Muse to help turn the tide of battle by boosting her entire team.
The Traveler advancement is a DPS (damage per second) class. The Traveler uses her Mist Gear and Longbow to unleash powerful auxiliary missiles onto the battlefield, causing widespread havoc on enemies. The Traveler’s skills focus on area damage, massive output, and crowd control. This second customization option promises fast-paced action and adrenaline-pumping gameplay.
It’s A Celebration!
DFO has planned a series of events and rewards for both new and veteran players to celebrate the arrival of the new Archer character. Players can log in and jump into fast leveling modes (a mode where players can reach cap level 110 in one day), receive daily login rewards, and gain new dungeon completion perks. Another update is an event that allows players to duplicate the Archer’s equipment onto another character of their choice, enabling players to explore and try out different characters. Players can also tune into DFO Twitch streams to earn even more official Twitch Drops rewards this summer.
Dungeon Fighter Online is expanding its reach by launching on the Epic Games Store. If you’re new to DFO, you can play from their official website service, STEAM, or the Epic Games Store. So come grab your bow and jump into the new Dungeon Fighter Online update!
To coincide with the launch of Dreams into PlayStation Plus, Media Molecule’s latest game, Tren, will be available to play inside of it. Sony describes Tren as “a nostalgic adventure that puts you in the driving seat of a remarkable toy train, and tells a personal tale about growing up – and the transformative power of play”.
Isometric action adventure Death’s Door and PGA Tour 2K23 round out August’s lineup. IGN’s Death’s Door review returned a 9/10. We said: “Death’s Door expertly blends classic dungeon puzzle solving with fast-paced combat encounters to create a memorable adventure across a moody world brimming with secret paths and hidden rewards.”
PGA Tour 2K23 fared less well in IGN’s 6/10 review: “There’s not much to be excited about in PGA Tour 2K23, with poorly presented golfing on second-tier courses. It’s fiercely accurate to the real sport but lacks personality and variety.”
This is your last call for July’s monthly games: you have until July 31 to claim Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Alan Wake Remastered, and Endling – Extinction is Forever to your game library.
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.
2023 is finally the year where 2TB PS5 SSD upgrades are actually worth the price. Last year, prices for 1TB PS5 SSDs averaged around $150, whereas 2TB SSDs hovered closer to $300. This year, we’re seeing 1TB SSDs trickle below the $70 price point and 2TB SSDs can drop to $100 or lower (like the Silicon Power 2TB SSD w/Heatsink for $96). Note that you can’t use any old SSD and expect it to perform well on the PS5 console. You’ll want to pick up a PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid-state drive with at least a 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive.
TL;DR – The Best PS5 SSD Deals Right Now
Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD and not all SSDs listed here have pre-installed heatsinks. For the ones that do, we’ll be sure to mention it. For the ones that don’t, all you have to do is purchase your own heatsink (we recommend this one for $10) and install it yourself. For our top recommended picks for 2023, check out our full breakdown for the Best PS5 SSDs.
Silicon Power 2TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink for $95.97
The Silicon Power XS70 SSD with a preinstalled robust aluminum heatsink costs just under $100. The aluminum heatsink is still slim enough to fit in the PS5 without obstruction. It boasts transfer speeds of up to 7300MB/s read and 6800MB/s write, comfortably faster than the 5500MB/s minimum recommended requirement. It actually performs a little better than the Crucial P5 Plus, the original WD Black SN850, and the Samsung 980 Pro, although that won’t make a difference in your PS5. Otherwise, the 1TB drive is also down to just $58 right now as well.
Adata Premium 2TB M.2 SSD for PS5 for $94.99
The Adata Premium SSD boasts transfer speeds of up to 6,100MB/s, which is more than fast enough to surpass the PS5’s recommended minimum speed threshold of 5,500MB/s. Yes, there are faster SSDs out there, but if your intention is to put this in your PS5, then that extra speed is worthless because you’re bottlenecked by the stock PS5 SSD. Better to save that money and put it to better use. It also includes a thin aluminum heatspreader… too thin to be appropriately called a heatsink, but still enough for the PS5 console.
TeamGroup 1TB SSD with Heatink for $54.99
The TeamGroup T-Force CARDEA A440 1TB SSD boasts lightning-fast reading and writing speeds up to 7,000/5,500 MB/s. This SSD supports PCIe Gen4 x4 and the latest NVMe standard, ensuring seamless compatibility. The CARDEA A440 tackles high temperatures with its two heat sinks, a slim Graphene heat sink (3.7mm) for the PS5 SSD slot and an Aluminum heat sink (12.9mm) for installation without the slot’s lid. Enjoy 1TB of space, backed by a 5-year or TBW limited warranty, and access the true power of your PS5 gaming with unparalleled speed, performance, and reliability.
Crucial P5 Plus 2TB SSD with Heatsink for $107.99
Amazon just dropped the price of the Crucial P5 Plus 2TB SSD to $107.99. Crucial’s newest M.2 SSD meets all the requirements for your PS5 SSD upgrade. It supports transfer speeds of up to 6,660MB/s which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. Yes there are faster SSDs out there, but if your intention is to put this in your PS5, then that extra speed is worthless because you’re bottlenecked by the original PS5 SSD. If you’re worried about opening up your PS5 case, don’t worry it’s very easy. Crucial has an official YouTube PS5 SSD install guide to see you through the process.
WD Black SN850X 2TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink $119.99
The WD Black SN850 is the most popular SSD upgrade option for the PS5 console. That’s not a surprise, considering WD is the only company that sells an officially licensed PS5 SSD. The SN850X is WD’s fastest M.2 SSD current available. It’s a generation update from the original SN850 with faster speeds. It easily fulfills all of Sony’s requirements, like a minimum read speed of 5,500MB/s, a PCI-Express Gen4x4 interface, and a slim yet effective heatsink that fits within the confines of the PS5 bay.
Corsair MP600 PRO LPX 2TB SSD with Heatsink for Only $119.99
Corsair is a very well known brand for DIY PC builders. Corsair makes some of the best gaming products on the market, and that includes solid-state memory like RAM and SSDs. The MP600 Pro is Corsair’s fastest M.2 SSD and the “LPX” model is “optimized for PS5” because it includes a rugged preinstalled heatsink that is slim enough to fit in the PS5 bay without any issues. We like this RAM so much, we rated it the best PS5 SSD for 2023.
Samsung 980 Pro 2TB PS5 SSD for $119.99
Looking for a fast and inexpensive M.2 SSD from a brand that you recognize? Here’s your answer. Amazon is offering the Samsung 980 PRO 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe Gen 4 solid state drive for only $119.99. In terms of performance, it’s no longer the fastest SSD on the market (the 990 Pro is), but it’s still a very fast drive. It certainly more than meets the minimum 5600MB/s speed requirement to be used as a PS5 storage upgrade, with speeds of up to 7,100MB/s.
Nextorage 2TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink for $139.99
There’s an interesting story behind this drive. Nextorage was actually originally created by Sony as an SSD division catered to the PS5 console. For whatever reason, Sony decided to ditch that idea and sold this business to another stakeholder in the company, Phison (they make memory controllers found in SSDs from Seagate, Corsair, and Sabrent, and more). Phison eventually accomplished the goal of releasing an SSD catered specifically for the PS5 console in the form of this product right here.
What if the SSD Doesn’t Include a Heatsink?
Sony recommends you install an SSD that has an attached heatsink. If the SSD you purchase doesn’t include one, it’s simple enough to buy one for about $10 on Amazon and add it yourself. Most of these heatsinks are just attached using an adhesive like thermal tape.
Budget to Best: PS5 SSDs
There may be other SSD deals out there, but these are the PS5 SSDs we’ve tried ourselves and highly recommend. They also double up as outstanding boot drives for your gaming PC, in case you don’t need additional storage for your PS5 console.
How To Install a New PS5 SSD
It’s extremely easy! Removing the case cover is completely toolless. In fact, the only screw you have to remove is the one that keeps the cover for the SSD bay in place. You don’t even put it back when you’re done. Sony has a quick and easy YouTube video guide.
When it comes to game night, it’s always a great idea to have a variety of board games around for people to choose from. Unfortunately, building that collection of games can oftentimes cost you more than you’d expect. Have no fear, though, as we’re here to help you out with a variety of deals on board games that are worth picking up. This doesn’t just cater to events like Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday, either. We try to find deals on the best board games all throughout the year, so you can buy your favorites without breaking the bank.
TL;DR – The Best Board Game Deals
Below, you can find a selection of the best board game deals at the moment. Amazon Prime Day may be done and over with for the year, but there are still plenty of sales worth taking advantage of.
The Best Board Game Deals
Board Games: Budget to Best
For when board games aren’t on sale, it’s nice to know you still have options that don’t cost you tons of money. Here, we’ll point you in the direction of more affordable options that are still worth the investment for your next game night.
When Is the Best Time to Find Board Game Deals?
Board games go on sale at sites like Amazon, Target, Walmart, and even GameStop fairly regularly — you can generally find special discounts every month or two. In addition, they absolutely get big discounts during major sale events like Amazon’s Prime Day and Black Friday, the former of which kicks off very soon on July 11 and 12.
While Prime Day is primarily an Amazon shopping holiday, other retailers always put on competing sales events at the same time. Those are great times to look for board game deals.
As for Black Friday, it’s not just a one-day event: you can often find deals on board games the whole week of Black Friday, as well as on Cyber Monday and throughout that whole following week. Keep in mind that stock runs out (particularly at Amazon), so if you see a good price on a board game you want during one of these major sale events, grab it before it’s gone.
How to Know if it’s Really a Good Board Game Deal
At online board game retailers like Amazon and Walmart, prices are always in flux, to say the least. Many of the board games in the board game section will be discounted to some degree from their MSRP. But there are a few ways to know when a board game is on sale for a notable discount.
For one, you can check Amazon’s daily deals page, where you’ll occasionally find an actual sale on various board games. Sometimes these are from one company, sometimes they’re on the whole category of board games. Target also periodically runs sales on board games, so check their deal page, too.
If you’re looking at a board game and are wondering if the sale price is good, copy the URL and paste it into the search field at camelcamelcamel. That’s an Amazon price tracker that shows you price history. Better yet, it works for any item, not just board games.
Finally, you can follow IGN Deals on Twitter, where we’ll always tweet any notable board game deals we come across.
How Do You Know if a Board Game Is Any Good?
IGN reviews board games fairly regularly, so you can always search to see if we’ve reviewed a game you’re considering picking up. Other websites do, too. We also have a whole lot of board game roundups, ranging from the best classic board games and the best cooperative board games to the best horror board games.
Outside of IGN, the best board game resource around (for my money) is Board Game Geek. It maintains a database of every board and card game you’d want to know about, with all kinds of news, stats, and user reviews all gathered together in one place.
Developer Infinity Ward changed first-person shooters forever when it launched Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007. Set on the frontlines of a politically murky war, its adrenaline-fueled action set pieces redefined campaign design for an entire generation. But while levels like Crew Expendable and Charlie Don’t Surf channelled the trademark intensity of Call of Duty’s World War 2 days, one mission set the series’ rulebook ablaze and threw it out of the window. It was called All Ghillied Up.
Unfolding amongst the ghostly remains of post-Chernobyl Pripyat, All Ghillied Up is a sniper mission that embraces patience and precision. Its Metal Gear Solid-inspired stealth sensibilities mark a significant shift in gears not just for Modern Warfare’s story, but the entire Call of Duty franchise.
To find out how All Ghillied Up was put together IGN spoke to designer Mohammad Alavi, who created the mission alongside colleagues at Infinity Ward. With his insight, we examine how All Ghillied Up makes use of custom artificial intelligence, combat puzzles, and tense scripted sequences to create a heart-stopping mission behind enemy lines.
For the first few games in the series, Call of Duty was pretty much all action, all of the time. Developer Infinity Ward built its first game in the Quake 3 Arena engine, and it’s not hard to see traces of Quake bleeding through in those rapid-paced 1940s shootouts. But by Call of Duty 4, Infinity Ward was exploring new methods with which to deliver its trademark intensity. By filtering the story through a more cinematic lens, the studio was able to shift the atmosphere of the campaign from mission to mission. The first clear example of this comes with Death From Above, a chillingly detached aerial mission witnessed entirely through the monochrome targeting display of an AC-130 gunship. But it’s Modern Warfare’s thirteenth mission that would truly change the series forever.
All Ghillied Up puts players into the boots of John Price, the moustachioed SAS captain who until this moment was only ever a non-player character. Told through flashback, the mission’s events see a young Price and his superior, Captain MacMillan, head to the ruins of Pripyat, the Ukrainian city devastated by the Chernobyl disaster. There they must assassinate Imran Zakhaev, a Russian arms dealer and Modern Warfare’s shadowy antagonist. But before they can set up their sniper nest, the duo must first work their way through a number of stealth-driven gameplay sequences in order to cross the enemy-occupied town. It’s a design that, back in 2007, was worlds apart from anything Call of Duty had ever done before.
The idea for All Ghillied Up was first imagined by Steve Fukuda, one of Modern Warfare’s four lead designers. Inspired by fellow designer Mackey McCandlish’s suggestion of a mission set in Pripyat, Fukuda realised that the location’s abandoned buildings, rusted fairground rides, and overgrown fields provided the perfect setting for snipers draped in ghillie suits. However, not everyone at the studio was as enthusiastic about the idea as Fukuda was.
“Nobody thought it was cool, including myself,” says Mohammad Alavi, former Infinity Ward member and designer of All Ghillied Up. “I always liked the more bombastic missions and this was the opposite of that. And I was finishing up cargo ship and [Fukuda] couldn’t find anybody who wanted to make this level.”
Nobody thought it was cool, including myself. I always liked the more bombastic missions and this was the opposite of that.
Thankfully, Fukuda had a killer pitch that would convince Alavi to take on the project. “He’s like, ‘You’re walking in a field, you come up to a bush and you see two guys past the bush and you raise your gun. You’re about to take a shot, and the bush turns to you and goes, hold up,’” recalls Alavi. “And that’s all he said. And I was like, ‘I’m in.’”
In direct contrast to Alavi’s previous work, the explosive cargo ship-sinking Crew Expendable, this was going to be the series’ first genuine stealth level. And to achieve that, Alavi would have to pick apart the very fundamentals of Call of Duty. For a series that had trained players to shoot at targets with impunity, All Ghillied Up would demand that players move their finger off the trigger.
“The key was in the very, very, very beginning, I had to set a tone,” Alavi says. “So that very beginning part was very intentionally slow, very intentionally sombre, the music was sombre.
“[Captain MacMillan] very calmly gets up to show you that’s what you look like,” he explains, referring to MacMillan’s ghillie suit that makes him look like a bush. “So you’re completely invisible if you’re not moving.”
Call of Duty has always used a friendly character to coax players from objective to objective, but All Ghillied Up casts Captain MacMillan as your indisputable senior. His tone of voice and custom animations make it clear he’s not to be trifled with: he’ll tell you when to shoot, when to crouch, when to run, and you’ll follow along willingly. This helps disguise the tightly scripted nature of the level, and guides you through its consecutive sequences at an exact pace.
“We went through a lot of very custom animations for MacMillan at the very beginning,” he recalls. “He slowly walks up there, he’s like, ‘Hold up’, a lot more than any other Call of Duty mission normally [was]. But it was all to just set the mood, set the tone, to basically tell the player, ‘Hey, slow down. Hey, watch me. Hey, watch me.’”
Tactical Espionage Action
So All Ghillied Up was going to be a sneaking mission. Quiet. Restrained. Just that fact alone introduced a huge amount of complexity into the project. Alavi was faced with a simple truth: Call of Duty was an intense shooter. Its very DNA – the code underpinning the whole experience – didn’t understand the concept of stealth.
“It was war all the time,” says Alavi. “The AI was never designed to not see you. So I was like, ‘We can fake this.’ But I don’t like doing that because you can see through it instantly, right? I was like, ‘Or, I can make this Metal Gear Solid style. I can make this the best stealth mission in a Call of Duty game.’ And without telling anybody, because I knew they were going to try to stop me, that’s what I tried to do.”
By his own admission, Alavi is not a programmer. And he’s certainly not an AI programmer. But after a conversation with Infinity Ward’s AI master, he was able to envision a way he could force Modern Warfare’s enemies into a stealth format.
“Basically [the AI programmer] gave me the ability to shorten the [enemies’] view cone,” Alavi explains. “So I hard coded it where if you’re standing up, the enemy’s view cones are standard. But if you’re crouching, it’s less. And if you’re prone, then it’s way less.”
“And then on top of that, I just had to hard place everything. I started placing triggers for grassy areas versus non grassy areas, which would change that view cone. And then I started placing triggers for shadows. So I baked the shadows into the level, figured out where they were, and then placed triggers where the shadows were so it would bring in the view cone even more. And then what started out as just a couple of simple things ballooned into almost 20,000 lines of poorly written script that literally took me, I want to say, two months.”
The script may have been poor, but only one thing mattered: it worked. The enemy Russian troops were quite literally blind to the player crawling just inches away from their ankles, and that was the first step in creating a heart-pounding stealth experience. The next was to craft a sequence that would have players holding their breath along with their character. Enter All Ghillied Up’s tense crawl through a Russian convoy.
Alavi wanted to create something that felt more dangerous than anything Call of Duty had attempted so far. “Okay, well what if you’re in this situation that in any other terms, you’d just be dead? Like a hundred percent dead,” he says. “There’s no way you and this other guy with two sniper rifles can take on an entire army that’s coming straight for you. Well, what if you can just lay in the grass and they just don’t see you? [That] was the cool idea. But then the hard part was making that actually fun.”
“Originally I had all these dynamic paths [the enemies] could take that would adjust to your position,” he explains. If they thought they saw something, then they would shift the whole convoy. It was just too much. It was too hard, it was too complicated, it was unreadable. And I stripped it back a lot and I basically just made it so they all have set paths, they’re just not going in a straight line. They’re doing this slight curve so that it constantly feels like, ‘Oh shit, oh no, now I kind of need to [adjust my position]’. It’s to give you a little bit of tension so it’s not just a straight line, but something that’s learnable and easier.”
“I’m obviously faking a bunch of stuff there,” he reveals. “I’m bringing their view cone to zero basically, so they can walk right on top of you. The only difference is that if you turn, then their view cone opens up to give you that feeling of, ‘Okay, I’ve got to move slowly, I’ve got to turn slowly’. And it’s literally only for that section. But it feels innate, it feels like it makes sense, so it doesn’t really need to be taught.”
Hiding in the grass and not moving a muscle while enemies walk by is one of All Ghillied Up’s most recognisable images. But this is also a mission that hands you a silenced rifle and challenges you to become an elite sniper. It’s when the safety catch is flicked off that the level unlocks what has become a Call of Duty hallmark: synchronised sniping.
Two Targets, One Trigger
“So what happened was actually that, in that very first encounter, I had MacMillan not shoot the second guy,” Alavi reveals. “But it felt terrible. Because if you’re bee-lined on this one dude, you’re putting all your focus in on him and you’re trying to get to the other guy, and if he just starts firing his loud AK, then you feel cheated, right?”
The answer was to have MacMillan observe your every shot and clean up if things went wrong. Players who instantly grasp the stealth sensibilities of the mission will wait for the soldiers to separate and look away from each other before taking them out one at a time. But MacMillan works as a safety net; if the second guy sees your shot, he’s dead before he can even raise his gun. This keeps the mission flowing, and creates an authentic sense of teamwork between you and your partner.
Considering how synchronised sniping has become the iconic image of All Ghillied Up, it’s actually used pretty infrequently; just twice across the entire mission. The best example of it comes at the mission’s midway point in a sequence in which you must cleanly dispatch four enemies. As with all the best stealth encounters, this is a lethal puzzle to be solved.
“It was like two guys right next to each other, and they’re kind of walking and then they face away and that’s your opening,” Alavi explains. “And then there’s the second set by the pond where they’re throwing the bodies away. Now you’ve got four guys. […] And now there’s a puzzle. It’s like, do I shoot immediately? Because I’m probably going to lure all four of them. Or do I wait for them to come by? And obviously MacMillan’s giving you some advice, but he leaves it up to you.”
Player choice is not something typically associated with Call of Duty campaigns. But All Ghillied Up, a mission that seems practically ‘on-rails’ from a distance, is actually surprisingly malleable. Many scenarios across the level can be solved in multiple ways, and the script will even acknowledge and respond to your actions.
“So basically I will say this: I will never make a stealth mission again,” laughs Alavi. “Because what started off as ‘I want this to feel right’ turned into ‘I need to account for every goddamn situation’.”
“So yeah, what if you shoot the helicopter?” he says of an attack chopper that flies by mid-way through the mission. “Well, it’s going to look dumb if it just goes by. It’s also going to feel bad if it’s an insta-kill, so I’ll just throw some rockets in here. And now I’ve got to make the roof [of the church] explodable. So I’d have to spend a week making the roof explodable.”
“I just brute forced everything, to be honest,” he reveals. “But I did it because I wanted you to be able to be like, ‘Can I do this?’ and the answer’s, ‘Yes, yes you can.’”
In most cases, All Ghillied Up rewards your curiosity. You can destroy the helicopter, you can sneak by without shooting, you can go all-guns blazing, and you can disobey orders. But there is one moment in which, should you defy MacMillan, your choice comes back to bite you. You definitely shouldn’t shoot the wild dogs that roam the streets of Pripyat.
“That was super gamey, but I didn’t care,” laughs Alavi. “I just thought it was funny. I was like, ‘You deserve to have the hounds of hell attack you if you shoot this dog.’ But there was a bit of research that went into that. We’d learned that there were a bunch of feral dogs that had somehow survived the radiation and started hunting in packs. They’d kind of reverted back to their wolf days.”
Heart Racing, Legs Crawling
All Ghillied Up is followed by One Shot, One Kill; the explosive second half of the assassination mission in which you must hold out against wave upon wave of relentless enemies as you wait to be extracted from Pripyat. The pacing of these two missions almost mimics the act of a calculated shot; the slow, steady intake of breath that’s held just long enough to steady the crosshair, followed by the explosion in the chamber.
This careful attention to pacing can also be seen within All Ghillied Up itself, which weaves between slower moments of predator-like confidence and hurried dashes to new hiding spots. But, as with almost everything in game design, this masterful pacing didn’t come out of Alavi’s head fully formed.
“Working on that level actually taught me a lot about how important pacing is,” he says. “Not just inside of a level, but across the game as a whole.”
“The first mistake I’d made was putting way too many enemies in the level and you had no breathers in between,” he recalls. “I realised that it didn’t feel good and I needed these moments to both rejoice in doing so well or getting out of a hairy situation, but also just kind of reset the tension again.”
We can see this unfold in the final two sequences of the level. As Price and MacMillan close in on the abandoned hotel from which they will conduct their assassination, they cross paths with a second Russian convoy.
“I was like, ‘Okay, well you’ve gone through this whole mission with your ghillie suit, right? Well, what if I take that away from you? What if you can’t hide in the grass anymore? Can we still do something fun there? Can we still do something with high tension?’”
Working on that level actually taught me a lot about how important pacing is. Not just inside of a level, but across the game as a whole.
With no way around and no grass to hide in, you must use your enemies’ own trucks as cover and cross to the other side unseen. It’s a moment that forces you to break every rule you’ve learnt so far.
“And I’m like, ‘Well there’s a big convoy and there’s no grass’,” Alavi recalls. “I want to do the same thing I did last time, but I want to make it amped up and more exciting. It’s not you moving slowly, it’s you hauling ass and praying for God. It’s just like, how could I make this section different and interesting from the last but still stick to the theme?”
This almost suicidal Hail Mary is the heart-stopping final hurdle. After such a tense, focused journey through enemy-occupied territory, the closing moments of All Ghillied Up give you time to regain your composure as you make your way through a maze of abandoned buildings completely devoid of enemies.
“I had originally put enemies in there, but quite frankly I couldn’t get it to work,” Alavi admits. “Because the beginning of the level was all outdoors and I had scripted all the AI to work with that super well. So by the time I got inside, it wasn’t really great. Also you’re in a ghillie suit, so it doesn’t really make sense to be able to be in cover. And I didn’t want to change the feeling of the level yet because I knew the next one, the one that Mackey made, which was One Shot, One Kill, was basically turned up to 10. It’s a full on action level, right? So I was like, ‘That’s doing its own thing. You know what? Everybody’s expecting something to happen. I bet I can just pull tension with music and dialogue’. And I feel like it worked out.”
The execution of pacing and tension across the duration of All Ghillied Up is the secret to its success. While the custom artificial intelligence is the vital technology that makes the entire mission possible, it’s the careful and deliberate positioning of enemies, cover, and scripted scenarios that make it an all-time classic. By forcing players to slow down, take precautions, and consider each and every shot, it succeeds in being a memorable high-point of not just Modern Warfare, but the entire Call of Duty series.
As a result of All Ghillied Up’s success, most subsequent games in the franchise feature a stealth-focused mission. Synchronised sniper shots have become as much a part of the Modern Warfare series’ DNA as Captain Price’s bushy moustache. But the mission’s legacy is more than just stealth. Along with Call of Duty 4’s other experimental approaches, it helped steer the future of the series towards what it’s been for over a decade now: a globe-hopping collection of concept missions built around an ever-changing array of novelties. All things considered, it’s not hyperbole to say that All Ghillied Up changed Call of Duty forever.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
UPDATE: Ubisoft has issued a statement on the cancellation of Immortals Fenyx Rising 2.
“As part of our global strategy, we are redirecting and reallocating some creative teams and resources within the Quebec studio to other unannounced projects,” Ubisoft said in a statement issued to IGN. “The expertise and technologies these teams developed will serve as an accelerator for the development of these key projects focused on our biggest brands. We have nothing further to share at this time.”
ORIGINAL STORY: Ubisoft has reportedly canceled its plans for a sequel to Immortals Fenyx Rising. This decision was made earlier this month by Ubisoft’s leadership due to difficulties establishing it as an IP.
According to VGC, the sequel was reportedly in development at Ubisoft Quebec, the same studio in charge of the first game. While Immortals Fenyx Rising received positive reviews, it reportedly only sold a moderate amount of copies. Many of the units sold apparently came from heavy discounting during sales. Additionally, its European sales were reportedly 70% lower than Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s during a similar period.
Ubisoft has recently pivoted to focus on its most prominent franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, so it might be unsurprising that a planned Immortals Fenyx Rising sequel was canceled. After all, Assassin’s Creed Mirage is launching later this year, and Ubisoft is reportedly working on a remake of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
Immortals Fenyx Rising first launched in December 2020. In IGN’s Immortals Fenyx Rising review, we said, “Immortals Fenyx Rising gives us a gorgeous world to explore, filled with mythological beasts, deities, and powers to wield. Its combat is satisfying, with plenty of choice in upgrades, while its central characters, comedic tone, and storytelling are a real highlight.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
Sam Lake, the writer and director best-known for his work on Alan Wake and Control, has a unique connection to Max Payne. In the original game, Lake’s face was used to bring the NYPD police detective to life. Lake even went so far as to dress up for the role in the original game’s cutscene.
So it’s perhaps no surprise then that Lake’s attention was grabbed by a new Max Payne 3 mod that faithfully restores his mug on the eponymous detected, comple with Lake’s “legendary facial expression.”
“Wow, this is very impressive work,” Lake wrote to modder Alexey Savvon.
The mod, which released late last week, fully-integrates Lake’s face into Max Payne 3. Savvon writes that “all of the textures of the head have been adapted and every wound that appears on Max’s face during the story has been saved.” The mod also incorporates all 14 hairstyles from the story, each of which has been adapted to Lake’s head.
The mod description promises, “In total, the mod replaces 98 models and 66 textures. Plus models and textures in the mirror for the scene where Max shaves his head. Yes, you will see how Sam Lake shaves his head!”
No wonder Lake’s impressed.
The original May Payne 3 was released back in 2012 for console and PC. Like the other games in the series, one of its primary draws was its focus on bullet time, which was inspired by the then-relatively recent Matrix films.
Our review said at the time, “Action games continue to inch the dial towards 11, sometimes at the expense of their narrative integrity. Max Payne 3, however, has the conviction to reign in the action, imbue it with purpose – the spectacle still sparkles but it also makes sense.”
