Category: IGN

Helldivers 2 is finally getting a minigun and other weapons fans have long-called for as part of the jungle-themed Python Commandos Warbond.

Due out December 2, the Python Commandos Premium Warbond adds new armor and weapons to Arrowhead’s explosive third-person action game. As well as the new minigun, which Helldivers 2 has been crying out for since launch, the warbond includes a chainsword and a flame dog.

But it’s the minigun that’s the star here, and this, coupled with the jungle theme rekindles memories of the original Predator movie, in which Jesse Ventura fired a minigun called ‘Old Painless’ at hapless enemy soldiers as well as a Yautja, while uttering the iconic line: “I ain’t got time to bleed.”

Of course, if you’re fighting back against the Automatons, perhaps Helldivers 2’s new minigun will give off Terminator 2 vibes. After all, Arnold Schwarzenegger was partial to the occasional minigun, wasn’t he? At least he kept those cops alive.

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Katherine Baskin, Social Media and Community Manager at Arrowhead, leaned into the long overdue arrival of the minigun with a fun, in-universe message to players:

“The Ministry of Defense received thousands of requests from squad commanders for a minigun and we’re excited to finally give our Helldivers access to the M-1000 Maxigun! Belt-fed with ultra-high ammo capacity, this one is sure to make those bugs bleed.”

The AX/FLAM-75 “Guard Dog” Hot Dog, meanwhile, is a drone equipped with a flamethrower “to coat your foes in the fires of freedom before returning to your backpack to refuel.” And then there’s the CQC-9 Defoliation Tool, aka a chainsaw. The new primary weapon is a combination assault rifle and grenade launcher called the AR/GL-21 One-Two. “Heavy to wield, but the damage dealt is heavy too, making your primary slot more versatile than ever with two guns in one,” Arrowhead explained.

The armor, too, leans into the Predator vibes. The RS-20 Constrictor light armor set is the official uniform for the League of Patriotic Arm Wrestlers, Arrowhead said, “so it’s guaranteed to give your squad bigger and more rippling biceps to intimidate the enemy.”

And here’s a fun Rambo reference: “but if you’re carrying the team, maybe you need the RS-40 Best of Prey: a heavy armor set patterned after legendary Helldiver, Ronald Mambo and his famously powerful and burly physique.”

Both of these armors are equipped with the Rock Solid passive, which makes your Helldiver more steadfast against staggering and ragdolling attacks.

You’ll also have two capes and coordinating player cards available: Foe Rent Asunder, which is pre-tattered to give a battle-worn appearance, and Mark of the Constrictor, for Helldivers who strangle out any anti-democratic behavior they encounter.

If you’re hunting for the best offers this week, we’re actively rounding up the strongest Black Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full Black Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Activision has revealed significant changes to the Call of Duty battle pass for Season 1 of Black Ops 7 that should make progression a lot quicker.

The battle pass has been the subject of much debate in recent years, with Call of Duty players often bemoaning how long it takes to unlock all its content — even if you pay for the premium version and, on top of that, the more expensive BlackCell version.

In a new blog post, Activision said it had “taken learnings” from Black Ops 6 battle pass completion times and made tuning adjustments for “a more satisfying journey.” The result is each season’s battle pass in Black Ops 7 should be “more rewarding for your time spent in-game, no matter where you’re playing across all parts of the game.”

So, how does this work? Earlier pages in the Black Ops 7 battle pass can now be completed faster with fewer tiers needed to unlock High-Value Target (HVT) content at the end of the page, while later pages in the battle pass will contain more rewards. This means players will earn more HVT content sooner across all 100 tiers, Activision said.

And, for the first time, Activision is adding the ability to earn battle pass tokens through completing daily challenges, which are now available not only in Multiplayer, Zombies, and Call of Duty: Warzone, but also Co-Op Campaign and Endgame. On certain days in the season, completion of your bonus daily challenge will grant you a battle pass token, which can be used right away to unlock a tier.

Call of Duty players who regularly grind through the battle pass will welcome these changes, particularly the addition of earning tokens via challenges. That should speed things up by default, but it remains to be seen how progression overall will feel now the later pages of the battle pass have more content to work through.

The Season 1 battle pass includes up to 1,100 COD Points, 11 operator skins, 26 blueprints and weapons, and 119 total rewards, 23 of which are free to earn, including two new base weapons. You can buy the battle pass for 1,100 COD Points, or get the battle pass bundle for 2,400 COD Points, which also grants you 20 Tokens to use.

Earlier this week, new data showed Black Ops 7 sales were lagging behind those of Battlefield 6 and even Black Ops 6. Activision has yet to announce a sales figure for the game, or comment on its commercial performance. Microsoft has yet to say whether Black Ops 7 boosted Game Pass subscriptions in any way.

Activision is also in hot water with a member of the U.S. Congress, who called out the company’s use of generative AI in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, demanding tighter regulation to “prevent companies from using AI to eliminate jobs.”

If you’re hunting for the best offers this week, we’re actively rounding up the strongest Black Friday deals on video games, tech, and more. You can find all our top picks and price drops in our full Black Friday hub, or check out our relevant pages for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox deals.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Persona and Metaphor: ReFantazio director Katsura Hashino claims Japanese role-playing games — often categorized as JRPGs — are entering a new age, dubbing the resurgence as JRPG “3.0.”

Speaking at the Korean G-Star 2025 gaming conference (as reported by 4gamer and translated by GamesRadar+), Hashino suggested that the foundational RPGs — think “true classics” like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, although Hashinon did not mention specific games — form JRPG 1.0, the current crop of games with their “current style, which feels higher quality due to how much more responsive they are to the player,” are JRPG 2.0. And JRPG 3.0 signifies the role-playing games coming in the future.

Reflecting on the JRPG games still to come, Hashino said, “There will be a greater dimension to these games, and they’ll change the genre’s structure and presentation at a fundamental level.”

One of the big talking points around JRPGs revolves around combat, specifically if games like Final Fantasy should return to the turn-based combat of old. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 co-director Naoki Hamaguchi recently reflected on features like turn-based combat following the huge success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which boasts traditional JRPG-inspired turn-based combat, saying: “If you would ask me, ‘Is [my next game] going to be an RPG?,’ yes, there is definitely a possibility. But is it going to be a turn-based RPG? We’re taking this aside from the fact that Expedition 33 was received well, we received a lot of ‘JRPGs are back’ comments. For me, I’m thinking about what game experience fans will enjoy. That’s the most important point.”

In July, Naoki Yoshida, the director/producer of Final Fantasy 14 and producer of Final Fantasy 16, was asked in an interview with AnimeNewsNetwork whether mainline Final Fantasy games could go back to being turn-based, in the wake of Clair Obscur’s success.

“With this question of turn-based versus action, it tends to isolate the gameplay to just the battle system,” said Yoshida. “That doesn’t take into account what kind of game the creators want to deliver to players. For example, based on a certain graphical quality we want to present to our players, or the narrative we want to deliver to our players, it relates to how we set up the game’s systems around it. This includes the battle system, game design, and gameplay feel. It’s not a clear-cut answer, whether it will become all turn-based, or if it’s going to become more action-based.

“[I’m] not necessarily going to be on Final Fantasy 17, so we also don’t want to obstruct or limit our future director or whomever will be producing the games like 17 or even 18,” Yoshida continued. “We don’t want to put them on a rail.”

It later emerged that several members of the Clair Obscur team had recently visited Square Enix’s offices and met with some of the development leads there, including Hamaguchi and Visions of Mana director Ryosuke Yoshida. In a social post, Hamaguchi described it as a “creatively rich exchange of visions and ideas.”

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has sold five million copies in five months, making it one of the biggest hits of the year. It also received a record-breaking 12 nominations at this year’s The Game Awards, and is up for Best Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score and Music, Best Audio, Best Independent Game, Best Debut Independent Game, and Best RPG, as well as the ceremony’s coveted Game of the Year gong. Three of its performers are also up for Best Performance.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

As the darkness of winter descends and people are driven to gather indoors for the holidays, it suddenly becomes a lot more important to have good board games on hand. If your board game shelf is looking a little barren, worry not; Amazon’s Black Friday sale has the excellent Azul for just $21.49 – a 33% drop from its usual price.

For the uninitiated, Azul is a strategic tile placement game in which two to four players are tasked with creating mosaics to win. It’s on IGN’s best beginner board games list – so at over $10 off, if you’ve never tried it, now is a good time.

Black Friday Deal: Azul Down to $21.49 at Amazon

Black Friday is one of the best times of year to pick up board games, full of great discounts to peruse. Among them is the 6th Edition of Catan, available from Amazon and Target for $24.99, a more than 50% discount.

Black Friday Deal: Save on Catan at Amazon and Target

Far Cry is taking its special brand of mayhem to FX and streaming service Hulu with a new series based on the games. Alien Earth’s Noah Hawley is producing with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Rob Mac starring and producing.

“What I love about the Far Cry game franchise is it’s an anthology. Each game is a variation of a theme, the same way each season of Fargo is a variation on a theme,” said Hawley.

“To create a big action show that can change from year to year, while always exploring the nature of humanity through this complex and chaotic lens is a dream come true. I’m excited to partner with Rob and bring our shared irreverent, ambitious sensibility to the screen.”

The plan is for each season of the show to take on a new setting, similar to the games with Mac in the starring role. Details on the release date or content are still under wraps, but the games have given us everything from Montana, USA to the Himalayas and cults, insane dictators and pirates, so there’s plenty to work with.

“Getting to work alongside Noah Hawley is a dream realized,” added Mac, who also worked with Ubisoft on Apple’s Mythic Quest, where he played a game developer.

“Ubisoft has been remarkably generous, entrusting us with one of the most iconic video-game worlds ever created. And through it all, my FX family continues to lift me up with their constant belief and support.”

Rachel Weber is the Senior Editorial Director of Games at IGN and an elder millennial. She’s been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, and French Bulldogs. Those extra wrinkles on her face are thanks to going time blind and staying up too late finishing every sidequest in RPGs like Fallout and Witcher 3.

We’ve officially entered the week of Black Friday. Pretty much every retailer under the sun has already unleashed a whole bunch of deals, so there’s no reason to wait to do your holiday shopping. If you or someone on your list is into Sonic the Hedgehog video games, you’re in luck: a bunch of them are on sale across the Switch, Switch 2, PS5, and Xbox. Here’s a rundown of every Sonic game that’s already on sale for Black Friday 2025.

Sonic Games – Black Friday Deals

There’s no shortage of Sonic game deals for Black Friday. Here’s the full list.

Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

Sonic Superstars

Sonic X Shadow Generations

Black Friday is an excellent time of year to stock up on video games. Especially with the holidays right around the corner, now is a great time to fill up your library with options to play when you’ve got downtime. If you’ve been looking for a big, open-world game to jump into during that time, Star Wars Outlaws has received a major price drop in Black Friday sales.

The PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Star Wars Outlaws are down to just $19.99 right now, and even the Switch 2 Gold Edition is on sale for $39.99. These discounts make for the lowest prices yet for PS5, Xbox, and Switch 2, which is even better news. Don’t miss out on these excellent Black Friday deals.

Save on Star Wars Outlaws

Publisher Devolver Digital and developer Sam Eng have announced their celestial skateboarding game, Skate Story, is launching day one for the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog on PlayStation 5.

News of the bonus for Sony’s gaming subscription service was unveiled in a PlayStation.Blog post today. It’s a last-minute addition to Skate Story’s launch lineup, which includes PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2.

PS Plus Extra and Premium subscribers will have access to the trippy skateboarding game at no extra cost come December 8. Sony has yet to reveal the rest of its upcoming Game Catalog additions for December 2025, with its PS Plus Essential monthly games also under wraps for now.

Skate Story, meanwhile, was announced by Devolver Digital and Eng back in 2022 as an action skateboarding game with a cosmic twist. Its official description teases that players will step into the shiny shoes of an underworld demon made entirely of “glass and pain.” The adventure begins when the devil gives this sparkling creature a skateboard and one simple task: “Skate to the Moon and wallow it – and you shall be freed.”

“Skate fast to destroy vicious demons, help a forgetful frog, and save other tortured souls on your journey from fragile beginner to hardened skater,” the description says. “Push through hell and discover The Devil’s greatest weakness: humility, perseverance, and a disgustingly sweet backside tailslide.”

The wait for Skate Story has been long, but not without updates. Charlie Wacholz went hands-on with it for IGN last year and said they were excited about its “promising story, absorbing vibe, and responsive skating controls.” Skate Story was also recognized by the 2024 Tribeca Festival.

We’ll know more about the experience Devolver Digital and Eng are spinning up when Skate Story launches for PC, PS5, and Switch 2, as well as PS Plus, in a few weeks. In the meantime, PS Plus subscribers can see which games joined the Game Catalog and Essential list for November 2025 and prepare for December 2025 with a list of every game leaving the service. Sony typically waits to reveal which Essential games it’s adding until closer to the end of the month, so be sure to stay tuned for updates.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Ubisoft has confirmed Attack on Titan as the next big brand crossover coming to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, with a free story quest and paid cosmetics arriving this week.

From tomorrow, November 24, players will be able to take on a new free mission and purchase a series of in-game items. But you’ll need to act quickly, as the Attack on Titan mission content will only be live until December 22.

Hit anime media franchise Attack on Titan is the second crossover for Assassin’s Creed Shadows following the game’s earlier Dead by Daylight collaboration. Similarly, that offered up a simple mission (which lasted around 15 minutes) and then let you pay to adorn Shadows’ main characters in themed cosmetics, if you so chose.

A series of other, non-crossover story missions have also been added to Shadows for free since launch, one of which starred Critical Role’s Robbie Daymond as a new character you can recruit as an ally. Another update, which arrived in late September, immortalized a fan’s beloved pet cat. Fans expect Ubisoft to continue supporting Shadows with further content through 2026, as it also prepares its long-awaited (but still unannounced) Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag remake.

Last week, Ubisoft celebrated its latest set of financial results which it said had been driven by a “strong performance” for the Assassin’s Creed franchise. But while there was an update on how many people had played 2023’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Ubisoft gave no further update on how Shadows has sold. Back in July, Ubisoft said Shadows had surpassed 5 million players, and that its performance had been in line with expectations.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is currently half price in Amazon’s Black Friday sale.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social