Category: IGN

The best PS5 deal we’ve ever seen has just got a lot better. PS5’s latest slim model bundle with Spider-Man 2 is now down to just $449.99 at Best Buy (see here). That’s huge, and well worth considering alongside all the other top PlayStation offers right now.

Now that PS5 consoles are regularly available to buy, it’s also an excellent time to start picking up games, SSDs, accessories, and more for it. Below, you can find a variety of different sales on everything from games to SSDs and even information on where to buy a PS5 now. We’ve also included links to where you can preorder Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth ahead of its release on February 29 for PS5.

TL;DR – Best PS5 Deals Right Now

Navigate to:

• PS5 Slim Spider-Man 2 Deal
• Best PS5 SSD Deals
• Best PS5 Headset Deals
• Preorder Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Budget to Best: PS5 Deals
• Best PS5 Video Game Deals
• When Should I Buy a PS5?

PS5 Slim Spider-Man 2 Bundle Drops to Just $449.99 (Save $50)

This previous Black Friday quality deal has managed to get even better. Now down to just $449.99, you can get both the PS5 (slim model) and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 at a big discount. Plus, considering the cost of buying each of these separately ($69.99 + $499.99 = $569.98), your savings are significantly more than at first glance. This is the best PS5 deal we’ve seen in months, and it should be snapped up ASAP to avoid the disappointment of it inevitably going out of stock.

Preorder Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – Exclusively for PS5

The highly-anticipated second game in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is officially up for preorder with a release date of February 29. It comes in a variety of editions, which you can see in our Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth preorder guide, but if you’re just looking to get your hands on the game, we’ve included links to preorder it just below. If you’re still on the fence about purchasing, you can also jump into the free demo that recently released, which is available on the PlayStation Store!

• Get it at Amazon – $69.99
• Get it at Best Buy – $69.99
• Get it at GameStop – $69.99
• Get it at Walmart – $69.99
• Get it at Target – $69.99
• Get it at PS Store (digital) – $69.99

PlayStation Deals: Budget to Best

It doesn’t need to have a massive discount to be a good deal, so we thought it would be a great idea to pick out our absolute favorite PS5 and PlayStation offerings that would be relevant to buy no matter the time of year, or the sales going on. From the latest DualSense controllers, to the very best PS5 SSDs on the market, we’ve got it all right here.

More PS5 Budget to Best Picks

• Pulse 3D Wireless Headset for $98.99
• DualSense Charging Station for $29.99
• PowerA Twin Charging Station DualSense for $24.88

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Best PlayStation 5 Game Deals Right Now

There are quite a few game deals worth checking out right now. One of our absolute favorite deals at the moment is on Armored Core VI, which you can find discounted in its physical format on Amazon for just $37.99 (after clipping the 5% off coupon), 37% off its MSRP of $59.99! We have several more physical game deals listed below, and if you want to check out some digital game deals, make sure to have a look through the PlayStation Store’s digital game sales.

More PS5 Video Game Deals (Physical):

• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for $34.99
• Assassin’s Creed Mirage – Standard Edition for $39.49
• Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 for $39.99
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition for $53.90
• Stray for $24.50
• Dying Light 2 Stay Human for $28.05
• A Plague Tale: Requiem (PS5) for $39.49

Best PS5 SSD Deals: Silicon Power 2TB XS70 SSD with Built-in PS5 Heatsink for $145.99

Could your PS5 use more storage? Prices have been plummeting since Sony started letting people upgrade their SSDs. Right now, you can get a Silicon Power 2TB XS70 SSD with Built-in PS5 Heatsink at Amazon for $145.99. Now’s a great time, in general, to pick up a PS5-compatible SSD and you can see more of our favorite deals below.

More PS5 SSD Deals:

• Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD with Heatsink for $179.99
• Silicon Power 4TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD for $217.99
• Lexar NM790 1TB SSD with Heatsink for $75.99 (clip 5% Off Coupon)
• Nextorage Japan 2TB Internal SSD with Heatsink for $149.99
• XPG 2TB GAMMIX S70 Blade for $129.99 (Clip $20 Coupon)
• ADATA 2TB Premium SSD for $129.99
• Silicon Power 4TB XS70 for $279.99
• XPG GAMMIX S70 Blade 1TB SSD for $99.99
• Corsair MP600 PRO LPX 2TB for $169.99

Best PS5 Headset Deals: 25% Off the Razer Kaira Pro & More Headset Deals

There’s no shortage of PS5-compatible headsets. If you’re constantly having to turn down the volume when you play, you might want to pick up one of these, then you can listen to your games as loud as you darn well please. And if you’d like to see even more options that are worth buying, check out our collection of the best gaming headsets.

More PS5 Gaming Headset Deals:

• SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Wireless Gaming Headset for $149.99

Best Time to Buy a PS5

Generally, the best time to buy a PS5 console is during major yearly shopping events such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the various Amazon Prime Day sales. Although PlayStation consoles rarely go on sale, you can often scoop up limited-time bundles that include additional an additional game or two, and more.

How to Trade in Your Old PlayStation Consoles

If you’re looking to trade in your old PlayStation consoles, you can do so at select retailers in-store and online. Often, the most widely available retailers are GameStop and Best Buy. However, you can also trade your used devices online at retailers such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Some retailers will offer you cash for your used goods, while others may provide you with a gift card that can be used in-store and online. This is a great way to offload your old gaming gear and get some money that you can put towards a newer console and games.

While trading devices in at retailers will often net you the lowest amount for your used consoles, there are also online marketplaces such as eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp that may fetch higher prices, but you’ll often be responsible for packing and shipping costs, or be required to meet someone in person for the transaction, the latter of which poses its own risks.

With how expensive gaming is getting in 2024, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.

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

Another day, another Palworld patch. Update v0.1.5.1 is available now for the Steam version of the ‘Pokémon with guns’ survival game, and out soon for the Xbox version.

This one makes a number of fixes across the board, makes a small number of changes to balance, and improves the servers. In the patch notes, developer Pocketpair said it was still working on an issue where auto-save fails on the Xbox and Xbox Game Pass versions. “We expect that this will be resolved in an upcoming update,” the developer said.

There’s no word yet on the much-needed addition of dedicated servers for the Xbox version of the game, which continues to lag behind the PC version when it comes to features. Palworld on Steam lets players create and join dedicated servers that enable up to 32 players to play in the same world and create guilds together. On Xbox however, co-op is limited to 2-4 players.

Last month, Microsoft said it would work directly with Pocketpair to assist development. “On Xbox’s part, we’re working with Pocketpair to help provide support for Xbox versions of the game,” Microsoft said at the time. “We’re providing support to enable dedicated servers, offering engineering resources to help with GPU and memory optimization, speeding up the process to make Palworld updates available for players, and working with the team to optimize the title for our platform.”

Palworld has seen more than 25 million players since going on sale in January. Pocketpair said the Steam version has sold an incredible 15 million copies, whereas on Xbox it’s seen 10 million players. But 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.

Here are the Palworld update 0.1.5.1 patch notes in full:

Major Fixes

・Fixed various game crashes

Balance Adjustment

・Fixed a bug where breeding Pals always had fixed passives

・Fixed an issue where the increase in condensation progress was incorrect when using Pal of rank 2 or higher as a condensation material (it will increase by the number of Pals used in previous condensation)

Dungeon Issues

・Fixed an issue where the innermost door would not open after defeating the boss of a random dungeon

Pals

・Fixed an issue where the name of a Pal would not change even after renaming them

Server Issues

・Fixed an issue where it was not possible to search for spaces or Japanese/Chinese characters in the server list

・Fixed so that if the server is no longer registered on the server list, it will be re-registered without needing to restart the server

・Fixed an issue where the settings to enable RCON were not loaded from the configuration file

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.

Some of the coolest bits in the Terminator series, and definitely the source of its best video games, are the future war parts. Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance is an RTS that tries to follow in those robotic footsteps, spinning off of the most recent movie to put you in the boots of a military officer facing down the killer machines in the months after the nukes fall. Unfortunately, trying to combine that future war fantasy with a gritty real-time tactics formula falls short here, largely because the way your units fight and the campaign built around them feel like they were designed for two entirely different games.

The meat of Defiance is a series of story-driven battles, with army management in between, set in the post-Judgment Day United States and Northern Mexico that has you fighting against Legion, the Dark Fate timeline’s equivalent of Skynet. The characters are mostly stereotypes with a few entertainingly hammy voices, while the story of your cut-off unit of military “Founders” attempting to fight alongside a local paramilitary resistance – hindered by local warlords and robotic collaborationists along the way – does the job well enough in that it (mostly) doesn’t get in the way of the cool RTS battles you’re really here for.

The battles themselves are realistic, detailed, and deadly. Soldiers can and do get picked off by stray bullets or explosions, or barely survive what should have killed them. It’s definitely modern warfare, so large numbers and logistics rule the battlefield. Every unit tracks and requires specific types of ammunition, as well as fuel and spare parts for vehicles, all of which is depleted as you fight and has to be rearmed by supply trucks. It’s the kind of realism that a good real-time tactics game is built on.

Battling the machines can be great, too. They fight like you expect: plodding, aggressive enemies that charge into danger with no heed for their own survival. But they’re tough, and numerous, so you have to deploy your units wisely and outmaneuver them to win. Most of Legion’s forces are low-grade homunculus soldiers or armored vehicles, but when proper Terminators show up it’s always pretty exciting as things quickly get hairy.

The infantry combat is neat, but it’s made odd because of one badly-balanced detail: Fighting in buildings is super cool, with units moving through the interiors to use windows and roofs as firing points, but cover outside of buildings is very hard to judge and finicky to use. Though you can manually pick when your troops go prone, you can’t tell them to take up positions behind walls or barricades other than by moving them close and hoping they automatically take the hint. There are no visual indicators for what kind of cover they are getting or what their line of sight is like, either, which is vital stuff in this kind of tactics game.

Leading infantry can still be amusing when you’re on up-close assaults of occupied structures at least, but armored combat doesn’t fare quite as well, sadly. Vehicles are admittedly fun to use, with chunky movement and minute interactions: They can be disabled in a variety of ways, from crew loss and armor degradation to destroyed weapons or mobility kills from losing tracks and wheels – they can even catch on fire, requiring the crew to bail out and then recover them later. That punishing detail could have been awesome in a game where the enemy is playing by the same rules as you, but Defiance’s battles aren’t actually built that way.

Even when I tested the lowest difficulty, the damage reduction it provided my troops wasn’t enough to let an RTS veteran like me win with ease. That’s because the battles aren’t strategic military exercises as much as they are trial and error puzzles, where everything has to go precisely your way in order to succeed. You rarely have enough troops to get the job done, and mid-mission replacements for your soldiers don’t exist: You lose a guy because you were anything less than perfectly attentive with your micromanagement? He’s gone, period.

That’s an interesting limitation to work around in the abstract, but the mission design just doesn’t support it. If that lost guy was the one rocket trooper you needed to destroy an enemy tank at the end of the level, well, I hope you quicksaved some time before he died. You have to hit those important few shots, you have to move in just the right way, and you have to go fast enough or you will run out of ammunition against the waves of bad guys coming at you, because those rules are only for you. The enemy has fresh guys – and therefore bullets – forever.

I think I would feel better about that if Legion were actually the ones deploying absurd amounts of troops and forcing you into grinding, brutal battles against overwhelming numbers – at least that would be on point thematically. Except it’s not Legion. The hardest and most frustrating missions are against other human factions, whose infantry are better at taking cover and therefore far harder to kill than the actual Terminators, and whose units come in the same seemingly-infinite stream.

Finishing Defiance on higher difficulties requires either silly luck or constant save scumming as you figure out the precise tricks and order of operations developer Slitherine intended you to do in its levels, which only seem open in their designs. Many of them have several routes through, but there are no strategic tradeoffs to decide between: One of those routes is always the optimal one.

I can understand, even enjoy, when an RTS mission is so hard I have to reload it a few times. But when the mission time is an hour and I’ve instead spent two or three because I’ve had to reload a save so many times thanks to pure random numbers? That’s no fun. Stuff like whether or not a unit decided to throw a grenade or bothered to get into cover shouldn’t be what the entire mission hinges on, and it’s vile to realize you lost 30 minutes ago without knowing because you wasted ammunition in what was apparently an unnecessary skirmish – let alone because you took losses from spawned-in traps that are impossible to see, or preprogrammed fights that teleport your units into an uncontrollable position because you moved one guy a little too close to an invisible trigger.

Defiance wants to be a real-time tactics wargame in the vein of Men of War or Ground Control, and at its best it absolutely did remind me of those series, but remind me is all it did. Remind me that, yes, this genre can be excellent and, no, this isn’t it. The moment to moment tactics here can and do feel fun sometimes – this is, for example, the only game I know of where you can obliterate a bunch of Terminators with a HIMARS strike. That’s just ruined when you have to reload and repeat it four or five times.

Between missions you can tweak, upgrade, replenish, and refit your units at the cost of a few different currencies. This would be a cool system if there were much more than the straightforward story missions on offer, such as procedural missions or side missions to let you bulk up and resupply between the main bouts. But there’s nothing like that, making it feel like it was meant for a structure more like XCOM’s, not a nearly-linear campaign that took me around 30 hours to complete.

In this context, army-building and management is a waste of your time full of false choices. I say that because not only are there obvious best units to use, but you also have to meet a certain supply requirement to move from mission to mission, which means that no matter how many cool new guys you recruit or vehicles you steal mid-mission you’ll end up disbanding most of them so that you have enough resources to make it to the next one. Not only that, when you do make it to a mission, you have a set number of deployment slots to put your units in. There’s no reason not to dump every resource you have into upgrading a smaller force because there’s no guarantee you could even bring a bigger one along if you somehow got it where you were going.

That’s not to mention that this campaign has hands-down one of the absolute worst, highly-scripted, extremely boxed-in “story-driven” missions I have ever played in an RTS campaign. Seriously. Screw Nuevo Tortuga: It literally contains a vital fight sequence where you’re not allowed to control your units.

Defiance also has multiplayer and single-player skirmishes, which are serviceable enough modes dedicated to point capture and hold. They use a nice little point-based system to call in your units that lets you customize your army as it gradually scales up over time, letting you bring in heavier and heavier units. It also rules that you can play as Legion, deploying plodding Terminators and hunter-killer machines that use very different tactics than the human factions. Unfortunately these skirmishes have a huge flaw: There are only four maps. RTS multiplayer lives or dies on map variety, and four just ain’t enough to keep me coming back.

The Switch dock isn’t very portable. It’s a little bulky and you’ll still need to bring along a wall charger. Fortunately, there’s a pretty awesome alternative. Right now Amazon is offering the Mirabox Portable Nintendo Switch Dock Charger for only $19.99 after you apply a 50% off coupon code “50Z2VU4B“. This compact gadget charges your Nintendo Switch (at its maximum charging rate) and has an HDMI port for you to connect your Switch to a TV. It has all the functionality of your dock but in a much smaller size.

Mirabox Portable Nintendo Switch Dock Charger for $19.99

The Mirabox dock charger looks unassumingly like a regular wall charger. You can pick Black, White, or the iconic Switch Red and Blue color scheme. It even comes with a matching USB Type-C cable. It has three ports: one USB Type-A 2.0 port, one USB Type-C port, and one HDMI port. The USB Type-C port supports Power Delivery up to 31W (plus another 5W for the USB Type-A port). That’s more than enough juice to charge the Switch at its maximum rate of 18W. You can charge your Switch even while you are playing it.

The HDMI port connects your Switch to any TV with an HDMI input. The Mirabox supports up to 1080p resolutions at 60Hz, which is good enough for the Nintendo Switch, since it doesn’t natively support 4K resolution or 120Hz refresh rate anyway.

The biggest advantage of the Mirabox is that it is 1/10th the size of the Switch dock. That makes it infinitely easier to stow this away in your bag without having to buy yet another larger Switch case. You also don’t need to carry another wall charger. As mentioned earlier, a USB Type-C cable is already included, and all you need to supply is your Nintendo Switch console and an HDMI cable. The fact that this deal drops the price by 50% is just icing on the cake.

If you’re looking for more Switch accessories, check out the best Switch deals of 2024.

Get the 65W model for Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally

Note that there’s a 65W model that is $25.99 after you apply the same code “50Z2VU4B“. This is overkill for the Nintendo Switch, however it’s the preferred model if you plan to use the charger dock with the ASUS ROG Ally, which accepts up to 65W, or the Steam Deck, which accepts up to 38W.

EA is shuttering Ridgeline Games, the studio co-founded by former Halo developer Marcus Lehto that was tasked with developing the narrative campaign in the next Battlefield. The closure follows word of Lehto’s departure earlier this week and coincides with a broader restructuring announced earlier today that will see EA lay off some 670 employees amid a shift away from future licensed IPs. The work that was begun on the Battlefield single-player campaign will continue.

Electronic Arts has announced that it, too, is undergoing mass layoffs, with plans to let go 5% of its total global staff, or roughly 670 individuals.

In a note today sent to staff, CEO Andrew Wilson said that EA is reacting to “accelerating industry transformation where player needs and motivations and changed significantly.” Crucially, EA also said that it is “moving away from the development of future licensed IP.” EA currently has several confirmed Star Wars and Marvel games in development, including a third Jedi game, Black Panther, and Iron Man.

Amazon is currently offering Amazon Prime members a Romoss 40,000mAh USB Type-C Power Bank with 18W of USB Power Delivery for only $23.99 after you clip a 50% off coupon on the product page. Non-Prime members can get it for $29.99. That’s an excellent price for a pretty massive 40,000mAh power bank that’s also equipped with a USB Type-C output with 18W of Power Delivery, which is the ideal wattage for charging your Nintendo Switch gaming handheld.

Romoss 40,000mAh USB Type-C Power Bank for $23.99

Amazon Prime members only ($29.99 for non-Prime members)

The Romoss 40,000mAh power bank has a larger capacity than most portable battery backups we’ve seen. The tradeoff is its size; it’s a pretty hefty device, measuring in at 6.7 x 3.2 x 1.7 inches and weighing in at 2 pounds. It’s important to note that the Romoss can’t be brought onto the plane as carry-on. The maximum cutoff is 27,000mAh and 100Wh, whereas this powerbank is 40,000mAh and 148Wh. A smaller 10K mAh power bank might be a better choice as a daily driver or airplane travel, however the extra battery capacity is useful for when you don’t have access to a power outlet for longer periods of time.

There are four total ports: one USB Type-A input, one USB Type-C input/output, and two USB Type-A outputs. The maximum amount of Power Delivery is 18W via USB Type-C, which also happens to be the max charging speed for the Nintendo Switch. The Steam Deck, on the other hand, supports a max of 38W and the ASUS ROG Ally even higher at 65W. If you want the most efficient charging for those gaming systems, there are better (and more expensive) options. If you’re not in a rush, though, this power bank can still charge up all three without a problem, it will just take a little onger.

It’s important to note that technically, the Romoss can’t be brought onto the plane as carry-on. The maximum cutoff is 27,000mAh and 100Wh, whereas this powerbank is 40,000mAh and 148Wh.

For more options, check out our picks for the best powerbanks of 2024.

The day has finally come for Peacemaker fans to step into the shoes of the DC anti-villain in Mortal Kombat 1, becoming available to those who purchased Kombat Pack 1 as one of the previously announced DLC characters. And with that, we’ve also gotten a sizable patch that includes a number of fixes.

In addition to adding Peacemaker to the roster, the patch, released across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Steam, Epic Games Store, and Nintendo Switch, fixes some visual bugs with brutalities, and remedies a few issues in online play. Janet Cage has also been added as a DLC Kameo fighter, although she won’t be available until March. You can check out the full patch notes below.

Peacemaker, along with Omni-Man (from Invincible), Quan Chi, Ermac, Homelander (from The Boys), and Takahashi Takeda, was announced as one of the first DLC characters coming to Mortal Kombat 1 at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con. The characters are included as part of the Kombat Pack 1, but will be available as a separate purchase after a brief early access period for those who purchased the DLC pack.

In our review of Mortal Kombat 1, we wrote: “The bone-crunching gameplay of Mortal Kombat 1 is some of the best the series has ever seen, thanks to the game-changing Kameo system. Netherrealm delivers a fantastic single-player story mode as well. However, the new Invasions mode is a grind, and the online options feel dated.”

Mortal Kombat 1 February 2024 Patch Notes

PC, Steam, & Epic Games Store

• System requirement changes
  • Size from 100GB to 140GB to account for current and future Kombat Pack content

General Fixes & Adjustments

• Move list corrections & Localization fixes
• AI adjustments & improvements
• Improvements to Screen Reader functionality
• Added Peacemaker Roster Character
• Added Janet Cage Kameo Character (Available March 2024)
• Added UMK3 skins for Scorpion, Reptile, & Smoke and MK3 Skin for Sub-Zero
• Fixed several visual issues with brutalities
• Fixed visual issues with several projectiles after being reflected
• Fixed issue with cloth physics becoming active on frozen opponents during the in-game Fatal Blow attacks
• Match Timer now resumes immediately if a Fatal Blow misses or is blocked
• Added Kameo Form sound option to Accessibility Extra Audio Feedback Settings
• Fixed issue with Up Block vulnerability persisting after knockdown if some wakeup attacks were performed
• Fixed rare issue near arena corners that could result in excessively long delay before a turnaround occurs
• Using a Breaker while a Kameo Summon is being performed will now always put the Kameo on cooldown

Online

• Players can now manually link a game profile to a WB Friends Account
• Added Social Menu where players can add others to their WB Friend List & manage their WB Friend Account
• Added Krossplay support (PC, Xbox Series X/S, & PlayStation 5 versions) to Private Versus Matches
• Added Krossplay support (PC, Xbox Series X/S, & PlayStation 5 versions) to Ranked Kombat League & Kasual Versus matchmaking
• Fixed rare issue where UI & Announcer timing could be mismatched at round start in online matches
• Fixed rare issue where health could be slightly visually incorrect for a few frames after losing a round during some Fatal Blow cinematics
• Fixed online rollback issue with characters’ visuals changing when blocking certain brutalities starting attacks while at low health
• Adjusted Match found sound when looking for a Kombat League match
• Fixed an online issue that caused framerate to drop when the opponent continuously pauses during the match.

Invasions

• Added in-game HUD indicators showing Invasion Character Level & Elemental Types for the player & their opponent
• Added in-game HUD indicators displaying Modifiers active during a match
• Significantly increased Fighter & Kameo Mastery XP base rewards per Encounter, which is no longer no longer repeatable and are no longer subject to diminishing returns if the opponent is a lower level
• Increased Fighter & Kameo Mastery XP & item rewards from Encounters in the Gateway Mesa
• Removed negative passive bonuses from some Relics
• Konsumables with Stat Bonuses are now rewarded in more areas
• Krowns can now be rewarded for defeating Major Enemies
• Relic & Talisman Buy & Sell prices are now affected by Level & Rarity
• Fixed end of round slow motion happening on certain attacks when there could be more opponents left to fight in the encounter
• Fixed rare situation where the opponent losing to time out while performing an armored move could cause an incorrect animation

Practice Mode

• Damage text in Practice mode when hitting an opponent with an air-only attack will now display AIR instead of UNBLOCKABLE
• Added ability to configure the following Fighter & Kameo specific mechanics under “Practice Settings”
  • Ashrah
    • Heaven / Hell Mode Debuffs
  • Geras
    • Countdown Charges
  • General Shao
    • Axe & Dark Energy
  • Johnny Cage
    • Hype & Wowing Out
  • Kenshi
    • Sento & Spirit
  • Havik
    • Link Active
  • Nitara
    • Blood Sacrifice
  • Raiden
    • Electric Charge
  • Sindel
    • Inspire Active
  • Tanya
    • Royal Guidance
  • Quan Chi
    • Zones
  • Tremor
    • Variation
  • Khameleon
    • Disguise

Character Specific Adjustments

• Main Fighters
  • Ashrah
    • Bleeding Blade (Down + Back Punch) now deals bonus damage & causes knockdown reaction when hitting an opponent’s Kameo
  • Baraka
    • Fixed Chop Chop using same input regardless of Alternate Kontrols setting
  • General Shao
    • Fixed incorrect animation used when Kameo Fatality is performed while Axe is planted
    • Fixed issue that could cause incorrect blood locations when komboing Jump Attacks into Basic Attacks
  • Geras
    • Fixed a rare issue that could cause Geras to not teleport after hitting a Main Fighter & Kameo with Inevitable at the same time
  • Havik
    • Skab Stab (Away + Back Punch, Back Punch, Throw) no longer allows the opponent to perform a Kameo Ambush Attack while in its hit reaction
    • Fixed Enhanced Neoplasm having no sound effects when performed at very close distance to the opponent
    • Fixed lingering visual with Enhanced Blood Bath if Disarmed And Dangerous (Fatal Blow) is used before activating Corpse Taunt
  • Johnny Cage
    • Fixed invulnerability to high attacks during the some of the recovery frames of Ball Buster while in Wowing Out hype state
  • Kenshi
    • Kameo Meter color is now blue when Ancestor is active
    • Kenshi will now take 20 damage when Ancestor is hit by an attack
    • Ancestor is now vulnerable to attacks while Kenshi is performing a throw attempt
    • Fixed situation where hitting the Ancestor while in certain actions would cause two hitsparks to occur
  • Kung Lao
    • Fixed throw immunity during some recovery frames of Hat Toss
  • Li Mei
    • Enhanced Nova Blast’s followup hits are no longer sometimes blockable when done at full screen against certain characters
  • Liu Kang
    • Fixed visual issue that could occur when Dragon’s Breath is interrupted by Sub-Zero’s Ice Klone
  • Mileena
    • Slightly adjusted Hit Region on Straight Sai & Enhanced Straight Sai
    • Fixed issue with Feral Gashes (Front Punch, Back Punch, Throw) no longer allows the opponent to perform a Kameo Ambush Attack while in its hit reaction
    • Fixed issue that could cause (Air) Enhanced Teleport Down & (Air) Homing Ball to not be possible while in the air from Khameleon’s Fan Lift
    • Fixed issue causing a misaligned teleport attack to occur if Enhanced Sai Toss connects with an opponent’s kameo
    • Fixed visual misalignment during “Maybe Next Time” brutality
  • Nitara
    • Fixed visual issue with Wings having improper animation after missing Fatal Blow
  • Rain
    • Rain God Waterball is no longer destroyed if Rain is hit after the projectile becomes active
    • Fixed Ancient Trap interacting with some reflect moves
    • Fixed issue that could cause (Air) Confluence Beam to not be possible while in the air from Khameleon’s Fan Lift
  • Reiko
    • Fixed rare issue that could cause Reiko to switch sides with the opponent when performing The Soldier’s Spearit (Fatal Blow) while close to the arena corner
      • Fixed visual issue when Tactical Takedown is interrupted by Kameo Kung Lao’s Away We Go
  • Shang Tsung
    • Fixed Bed of Spikes interacting with reflect moves
    • Added visual effect to signify when Form Stealer damage boost has ended
    • Fixed issue with Form Stealer cloth physics not functioning correctly in certain circumstances when returning to Shang Tsung form
  • Sindel
    • Kameo Meter color is now pink when Enhanced Queen’s Kommand is active
    • Using Snatched (Fatal Blow) while Enhanced Queen’s Command is active no longer ends control over opponent’s Kameo
    • Fixed rare issue that could cause Sindel’s Kameo to become unresponsive if some Fatal Blows were performed immediately after hitting an opponent’s Kameo with Enhanced Queen’s Command
    • Stolen Kameos using Enhanced Queen’s Kommand performing a buff move will no longer wait for the buff to expire before returning to their partner
  • Smoke
    • Fixed rare issue that could cause Smoke to become invisible for an extended period of time if he is interrupted during Everywhere (Back Punch, Front Punch, Back Punch) at specific timing
  • Sub-Zero
    • Fixed visual issue that could cause Ice Klones to appear in cinematics
  • Tanya
    • Spinning Splits Kick and (Air) Spinning Splits Kick can now hit the opponent’s Kameo
    • Heavenly Hand & Enhanced Heavenly Hand now continue to be active after hitting an opponent’s Kameo
    • Spinning Splits Kick & (Air) Spinning Splits Kick air hit reaction knocks down for 1 frame longer
    • Fixed Cudgel Strike (Down + Back Punch) now deals bonus damage & causes knockdown reaction when hitting an opponent’s Kameo
    • Fixed rare situation with 100 Hands (Fatal Blow) not going into cinematic despite its attack connecting on opponent in certain circumstances with Kameo Goro
  • Omni-Man
    • Fixed issue with Spilled Kontents (Towards + Back Kick, Front Punch, Throw) no longer allows the opponent to perform a Kameo Ambush Attack while in its hit reaction
  • Quan-Chi
    • New move Zone of Waste added. It creates a zone that drains meter from the opponent and if the opponent stands in it for an extended period Quan Chi will briefly gain armor
    • Zone of Fear now lasts 2 seconds longer
    • Zone of Fear & Zone of Power along with Zone of Waste can now be active at the same time
    • Field of Bones & Enhanced Field of Bones now activates the cage trap if the opponent blocks the attack
    • Field of Bones & Enhanced Field of Bones now has an increased duration on the cage trap
    • Adjusted victim region while duck blocking
    • Fixed inconsistency between air and ground hit reactions for Zone of Power Enhanced Head Rush allowing the opponent to block followup attacks at certain distances
    • Fixed Koccyx Krusher (Away + Front Kick, Back Kick, Back Punch) having improper animation and auto-correcting if performed as the opponent jumps over
    • Fixed Sareena Jataaka’s Kurse still triggering if it is only connecting with Field of Bones
    • Fixed Skewer Strike tracking the opponent if the first hit connects with Field of Bones
    • Fixed lingering visual effects if opponent is interrupted during the hit reaction of Enhanced Head Rush
    • Fixed several unintended visual effects lingering during cinematics
    • Fixed visual issue with skull projectiles lingering on screen if they are evaded by Omni-Man’s Viltrumite Stance
    • Fixed visual issue with lingering effects after hitting Field of Bones with Sub-Zero’s Ice Klone Charge
    • Fixed an issue which would allow opponent’s Shujinko to use Zone of Power to buff their projectiles
    • Fixed visual issue with Zone of Fear that could cause visual effects on the opponent to linger after they have exited the zone
• Kameo Fighters
  • Darrius (Kameo)
    • Fixed AI being unable to perform several followups to Tornado Kick
    • Twister Kicks, Double Daegon Kick, Eat Dirt, & Heelturn Attacks are no longer affected by projectile Invulnerability
  • Jax (Kameo)
    • Kameo Meter color now changes when Ground Pound is active
    • Adjusted AI behavior when it tries to avoid Ground Pound
  • Kano (Kameo)
    • Fixed visual issues with several Fighters’ weapons during the Eye Laser and Forward Throw animations
  • Kung Lao (Kameo)
    • Fixed animation issue when the Spin is blocked at far ranges
  • Motaro (Kameo
    • Fixed rare issue with Reflect which could cause some projectiles to still be reflected after it hits a main character
  • Scorpion (Kameo)
    • The main character will now pass through other characters when pulled by Get Over Here
    • Fixed visual issue with Hell Blades brutality causing the victim to move in certain circumstances
  • Shujinko (Kameo)
    • When morphing into the opponent Shang Tsung’s kameo and using the full Kameo Meter, Shujinko will return to his normal state
    • Stolen Kitana Fan-Nado can now be directed close or far
    • Fixed issue causing Kopy Kat & Mimic to increase the hype meter for Johnny Cage when used
    • Fixed visual issues with using Reptile Invisibility and Stolen Acid Spit at the same time
  • Sub-Zero (Kameo)
    • Fixed rare issue with Arctic Armor not deactivating when hit by low attacks in certain circumstances
    • Fixed lingering visual effects appearing after missing Fatal Blow
  • Tremor (Kameo)
    • Fixed issue with Tremor still being vulnerable to attacks after using Crystal Armor and disappearing
    • Fixed Rolling Rock visual effects lingering after it collides with Sub-Zero’s Ice Klone
  • Khameleon (Kameo)
    • HUD weapon icon will now pulse to indicate Disguise is about to change
    • Slightly increased damage scaling on Glaive, Roll, & Fan Lift when used in a combo
    • Fan Lift will now work on characters that have projectile immunity active
    • Fixed Breaker being possible while Khameleon is on cooldown
    • Using Khameleon Roll & Mileena Roll in the same combo will no longer cause alternate hit reaction
    • Fixed visual issue that could cause weapons to appear incorrectly in Tower victory cinematic

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

Square Enix has caused havoc in Japan by accidentally mislabelling all the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth discs.

As reported by Gematsu, the once boasted two-disc physical edition of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has had a bit of a misstep, as a manufacturing error has seen every Play Disc printed with “Data Disc” and every Data Disc printed with “Play Disc”.

Square Enix issued a statement on its Japanese website announcing the error and explaining to players they’ll need to swap the discs during the installation process. “We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused,” it said.

Square Enix advertised the two discs boldly when it announced Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s launch window, putting “on two discs” on the big screen to the amusement of fans.

The highly anticipated sequel to Final Fantasy 7 Remake arrives tomorrow, February 29, and lets players explore iconic locations from the original like Gold Saucer and Junon. The latter can be explored in the recently updated demo too.

In our 9/10 review of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, IGN said: “Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth impressively builds off of what Remake set in motion, both as a best-in-class action-RPG full of exciting challenges and an awe-inspiring recreation of a world that has meant so much to so many for so long.”

Those looking to see how long it takes to get through the epic can also check out IGN’s How Long Is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth? guide.

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

The developer of Steam hit Last Epoch has addressed the influx of negative reviews that came in after the action RPG’s bumpy launch.

Last Epoch is one of the most-played games on Steam, but its long-standing Early Access user review rating of ‘mostly positive’ plummeted to ‘mixed’ in recent reviews after the game launched in 1.0 form with a raft of issues that prevented people from playing. Online connectivity was so bad that Eleventh Hour Games announced plans to give players an in-game gift as compensation.

Now, in a post on Steam, Eleventh Hour Games founder and game director Judd Cobler expressed his surprise and delight at hitting 265,000 players online at one time over the weekend, the 39th highest concurrent user count recorded on Steam ever.

“We appreciate you all bearing with us as the load initially gave us trouble for online gameplay, but we’re happy to say that we’re holding mostly steady above 200,000 players in-game and have made improvements each day in the backend infrastructure to support the demand,” Cobler said. “We’ll continue to monitor and address any issues that crop up.”

Still, Last Epoch’s ‘mixed’ user review rating remains, at least for now, and clearly it’s caused some concern within the game’s community and Eleventh Hour Games itself, so much so that Cobler moved to calm the player base, declaring: “Last Epoch is here to stay.”

“While we’re continuing to receive high praise about the game itself, Steam reviews and sentiment took a heavy hit due to the initial turbulence of online services at launch,” Cobler said. “We are committed to regaining that trust by making improvements to our backend infrastructure for this amount of load and providing a great experience for online play.

“We take time to read your reviews and feedback on Steam, socials, and our forum and take swift action to improve the areas that we see players are dissatisfied with. We know that seeing our Steam reviews lower than they’ve ever been is concerning to players who are looking forward to the future of Last Epoch, but we want to assure you that the team has always been committed to making a game you can enjoy and expect updates from for years to come. We’ve seen that passion reflected back at us in the community this past week, and it has bolstered our resolve to that goal even further.

“Last Epoch is here to stay.”

To that end, Cobler outlined future content plans, including the upcoming patch, 1.1. There’s a heavy emphasis on expanding end-game content now Last Epoch has launched out of early access. “For future patches we have plans to expand the monolith, bring great new itemization options, add more boss content, class and balance updates, campaign content, etc,” Cobler revealed.

“For 1.1 specifically we’ll be focusing on bringing some ‘pinnacle’ content, or very hard fights that will give you challenges to aspire to. We’ll be sharing more on this and more of what’s to come in 1.1 in the not too distant future.”

Elsewhere, Cobler reaffirmed plans to release Last Epoch on console “in the future”, and so improvements it’s making to the existing gamepad support will benefit the game long-term.

IGN’s Last Epoch review returned an 8/10. “Push past its one-note campaign and Last Epoch is an impressive, time-bending action RPG that combines rich customization with modern action,” we said.

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.