Category: IGN

I didn’t know I needed a cosmic horror-fueled fishing game in my life – at least, not until I played Dredge. It’s not exactly a full-blown management sim ala Fishing Planet, but this 12-hour expedition through haunted open waters is both mysterious and compelling enough to tickle my brain and tug on all the right heartstrings. I felt possessed into flinging myself overboard with an unhinged smile cast across my lips, like one of its many macabre characters. …Figuratively speaking. Starting small and slow is a challenge, but upgrading my fishing boat led Dredge to spout forth a flurry of meaningful improvements to my fishing speed, inventory capacity, and my ability to scope out and evade the plethora of dangers that might rear their ugly heads at night.

Managing this fishing boat is no plank walk; five unique zones fit cozily within its relatively compact open world, hiding enough secrets, quests, and unique varieties of cartilaginous fish to fill its duration without overstaying its welcome.

All I know is that I’m a contract fisherman who’s rescued by the townsfolk of a remote island settlement called Greater Marrow. I’m given a new boat and… that’s all. But due to Dredge’s simple fishing and movement mechanics, this is pretty much all I need to know before I can begin my quest for fish on the open ocean, and it’s there that I’m immediately treated to a gorgeous sunrise stretching over the horizon. Leaving the bay of Greater Marrow for the first time and drinking in the sights and sounds is a treat.

It’s in its favor that it’s so simple to pick up, both because its mesmerizing low-poly art style is so centric to its story and because it doesn’t really need me to understand too much to enjoy it. There’s no combat to speak of; just sail around, catch fish, solve the occasional puzzle, and try to return home in one piece. In fact, most of Dredge’s story revolves around simple fishing minigames that just have you pressing the DualSense controller’s square button in a specific rhythm according to directions on screen. It’s forgiving, in that no matter how many times you mess up the prompts, you won’t lose the fish, only in-game hours. I even had a friend momentarily take over my controller through the PS5’s SharePlay feature and reveled in watching how quickly they were able to pick up the mechanics.

Controlling your boat through tight spaces and navigating harsh waters is a breeze since moving forward and backward (and braking) is as simple as moving the left thumbstick back and forth. It’s an enjoyable added touch that progressing through each step of the main quest unlocks additional movement abilities, like the Haste skill that gives a speed boost that’s especially useful when getting out of the way of a hungry sea monster – but comes with the risk of destroying an engine and damaging your hull if you don’t give it intermittent rests.

Dredge’s story is intentionally cryptic at first glance, with your ship’s bow providing minimal context to the series of events unraveling in front of your eyes. But what starts out as a relaxing fishing trip rapidly takes a darker turn through threatening encounters with the ocean’s natural and supernatural denizens – who turn hostile after dark. This tension is fleshed out through genuinely interesting and well-thought-out dialogue with townsfolk between quests, and the broader story’s concealed undercurrents are cleverly pieced together in bottled notes found amidst the waves. Tactfully breaking up its fishing minigames with these elements, Dredge gradually unveiled its hidden agenda and latched onto my brain like a series of parasites slithering onto my boat’s deck. Which is something that actually happens, in more than a few cases.

Things heat up at night when the fog rolls in and your panic meter begins to increase in the darkness. The higher it goes, the more likely it is that monsters and other obstacles will spawn, so you have to balance that against turning on lights to temporarily lower panic. Of course, light attracts monsters that will quickly destroy your boat’s hull if you don’t evade them, so it’s a bit more challenging to manage than a simple fishing game. That brings balance and danger to every expedition.

Adding even more challenge, the world shifts around at night, meaning I sometimes ended up running headfirst into a rock that definitely wasn’t there during the daytime. For this reason, it’s never a great idea to make a beeline for the nearest port of call when panic sets in. At least, not without making sure the next few feet in front of you are clear, which is made easier by upgrading your boat with bigger, brighter lights. This interaction between systems gives Dredge a layer of strategy that keeps things interesting even when I’m not making substantial progress on the main quest.

The Greater Marrow lighthouse remains a central landmark no matter where you are on the map, but you still need to get there safely on your own gumption if you find yourself lost at sea. And because there is only one limited method of fast travel, the stakes are raised even further if you find yourself adrift after dark. Since time only moves when you move your ship or play a fishing minigame, the constant, creeping fear of being snuck up on by a rogue sunset keeps my watchful eye pinned to the clock – which conveniently sits overhead – at all times.

Thanks to all that, I often found myself pulled along with Dredge’s current, solving puzzles and gathering hidden relics as I carefully built up my ship and kept a stream of currency rolling in. Following the main quest is crucial to unlocking advanced fishing rods and nets, but most objectives are bite-sized, adding up to little more than fetch quests. They’re made more worthwhile by the fact that each one contains interesting writing that fleshes out the world’s lore or is somehow tied to the broader story, and the cast of characters are interesting and likable until the end.

Likewise, completing quests is necessary to loosely flesh out your encyclopedia of up to 128 fish, but it’s nice that I didn’t need to catch ‘em all if I didn’t want to. But if you do want to, you’ll need to grind. Each species of fish only shows up in certain environments that require specialized gear to fish in, and most only appear at certain times of day, including species that are necessary to solve certain puzzles and progress the main story. This made it important to max out my ship’s hull so it could survive the long treks to other zones, which inevitably meant traveling at night.

Upgrading the ship’s hull largely centers around scavenging coastal shipwrecks – an activity that’s a little more monotonous than it needs to be, given how sparse resources can be, and how hard it can be to find certain crucial items like wooden planks early on. This is the main upgrade path that I spent most of my time working on, accounting for most of the heavy lifting in terms of improving my ship’s critical functions. But the upgrade path is disappointingly linear, and a lot of grinding is involved in maxing it out. Moreover, if one were to play to the end and max everything out, their boat will be exactly like mine, minus a select few deviations in some equipment choices, so the decisions I made along the way didn’t end up feeling meaningful.

The tugboat is as fragile as it looks, meaning it takes only a few collisions – even small ones – to send you back to the dock from which you most recently set sail. Full disclosure: autosaves are frequent in Dredge, conveniently taking place whenever you bring your ship into any port. Plus, docks are scattered liberally across the world map, so it never feels like a safe haven is too far away to have a fair chance at evading danger. It’s great then that dropping anchor at a friendly settlement and sleeping through the night can eliminate your panic gauge so that you get a fresh start at the beginning of the following day. This allows me to fully appreciate moments of tension, since its difficulty always feels just balanced enough to provide a challenge and a handful of scares without ever crossing a line or feeling unfair.

I enjoyed getting to specialize my research tree with a scarce resource that unlocks specialized and increasingly powerful nets, rods, and engines – giving me at least some leeway to craft my own build. These choices would move me in the direction of certain quests faster, depending on which zones I wanted to explore first. For example, I installed a fishing rod early on that granted access to Volcanic fishing holes, letting me solve the quests in the volcano-themed Devil’s Spine zone at my own leisure.

It’s also really smooth. I can’t think of a single moment I ran into a bug or a crash in my entire 12 hours playing Dredge, and this might be the first game in recent memory I’m able to say this about. On the PS5, the DualSense controller emits satisfying pulses of feedback in response to the motion of the ocean, and even with a basic soundbar, the ambiance makes a strong impression.

A UK insurance company is now offering a Dead Island 2 life insurance policy that will pay for bereaved friends to travel to Los Angeles for a zombie-themed wake.

As reported by VGC, the Dead Happy life insurance company, which offers a variety of different life insurance packages (with some quirkier than others), is offering the Dead Island 2 package for £8,000.

“Send your mates to the real LA for a zombie cocktail fuelled party before it goes to hell,” reads the insurance description. “A wake to end all wakes, in your honour.”

The package covers funeral expenses as well as the booze-fuelled trip, insisting that “we should all die responsibly”. Dead Happy makes clear, however, that it can’t force someone’s friends to travel to LA, and that the Dead Island 2 package, alongside the rest of the company’s offerings, are just wishes.

While some of the packages, called Deathwishes, are fairly simple, like leaving money for a charity or paying off debts, others do fall on the quirky side. These ones include sending your ashes to space and getting a bronze statue of yourself made.

In our 7/10 review of the actual game, IGN said: “Dead Island 2 is a hilarious gore-fest and a competent zombie-slaying adventure, but lacks creativity outside of its great sense of humour.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

The old guard is in town as Cardy, Dale, and Alex talk about some hot new video games that you can play with your fingers. Dead Island 2 is finally out after a decade of development. Was it worth the wait, though? Maybe you’ll find out if you listen. The new Burning Shores DLC for Horizon Forbidden West is here as well as the remasters of Advance Wars 1 and 2. Dredge is also bangin’. Good times are had. Plus, Alex spends the best part of 20 minutes telling us about his Orlando holiday. It’s all good stuff. Oh, and the Endless Search returns.

What film have you seen the most times? What’s the best toilet ever? Drop us an email: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

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You may have heard Disney Speedstorm was going to launch as a free-to-play kart racer from the crew behind Gameloft’s long-running Asphalt series. In fact, you may have heard this because that’s what we told you about it back when it was unveiled in June last year. Well, that’s changed. It’s still a kart racer from the Asphalt team, but it’s not actually going to officially launch in its free-to-play state until late 2023 or early 2024. What we have in its place is an “Early Access” version of Speedstorm that just… costs money to play – which, of course, is how all good video games worked before the game industry started copying the gambling industry’s homework. However, despite packing an entirely decent brand of arcade racing action on track, Speedstorm’s drowning level of gacha guff and free-to-play DNA may leave those shelling out a fee to play feeling a little goofy.

For those of you curious about how Speedstorm’s Early Access program works – and what you’ll receive for your money beyond simply being able to play it – a 5,000-word FAQ awaits you on its official website. This is roughly 4,950 more words than I generally like to absorb before playing what’s ostensibly a family-friendly kart racer. At any rate, if you come out the other side of that under the impression Speedstorm is a mobile game masquerading as a PC and console game, know that in its current Early Access state that feels like a fairly accurate way to describe it.

The Bare Necessities

This is unfortunate for a few reasons, though none more so than the fact that, on track, Speedstorm is a plucky little arcade combat kart racer. It’s got a great drift feel in particular, with easy mid-slide adjustment that allows us to open them up into long, low-angle powerslides. There’s also a really satisfying ability to transition between drift directions very smoothly. With responsive controls and a good sense of weight to the karts as they jostle on track and crash back to the course from jumps, I really don’t have any complaints about the handling at all – and that’s obviously a massively crucial part of any kart racer equation. That, and four-player split-screen – which thankfully Speedstorm has, albeit only on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. PS4, Xbox One, and Switch only get two-player.

There are also some interesting layers to the combat, with items able to be used in different ways depending on how you activate them. For instance, a fire pickup can be tapped to send flames licking from the side of your kart that will stun any opponents you touch, or charged over a few seconds to trigger a blast all around you that can knock out multiple other racers simultaneously. The jellyfish pickup can be triggered to make you temporarily invisible, or it can be charged to become an attacking forcefield that will actually explode and take out opponents. There’s just a little more depth to the combat here than usual, and I can appreciate that.

Each of the characters also has a distinct themed power-up. Donald Duck, for instance, gets a protective raft that turns into a ghostly flurry of fists. I like these close-quarters attacks over the ranged ones, and they seem to work well with my driving style and Speedstorm’s tightly bunched racing. I also have a lot of time for Donald Duck because he’s angry, a World War II veteran, and he’s too proud for pants.

On that note, the dartboard approach to Disney characters represented in Speedstorm has resulted in a pretty random shortlist of characters and tracks for launch, with The Jungle Book, Hercules, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, and Monsters, Inc. making the cut alongside Mickey and his mates. The modern race suits are a cute touch but I reckon the art team has missed a trick with the vehicles, which seem super vanilla compared to the karts of something like Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, which are brimming with personality to match their drivers.

The selection has made for tracks that all boast sufficiently different atmospheres – from a dank pirate port to the Monsters, Inc. factory, and from Disney’s black-and-white origins to the opulence of Mount Olympus – but they’re not especially technical and don’t tend to feel very different to one another during the moment-to-moment racing. The bigger problem is, despite seemingly boasting several track ribbons per environment, the courses reuse such significant sections I’m simply never able to tell them apart within locations. There’s more variety in the remixed music tracks than the racing tracks. As a result, Speedstorm begins to feel very repetitive very early.

It doesn’t help that this solo format of one-off races is frankly a bit boring – and when your competition is incumbents like the untouchable Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the terrific Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, that’s a problem. Obviously I’m fully aware that, with its destiny as a live service game, there’s no doubt that there’s a whole wad of new tracks in the pipe set to arrive at regular intervals – but they’re not here yet. So what are you buying right now? Some digital tokens and an exclusive racing suit that tells people you were here before they were? That’s a tough sell.

Gosh it Disturbs Me to See You, Gacha

This brings us to the point where this 40-year-old dad checks out both physically and spiritually, because gacha-style, mobile-inspired upgrade and currency systems are like absolute kryptonite to me. Put clearly, the sheer amount of menu nonsense and overlapping economies in Speedstorm is simply absurd.

Tokens are blue. You earn these from completing objectives during races and moving up reward tiers, and we will apparently be able to buy Tokens to access locked content faster. Then there are tokens that are like Tokens, but yellow. These are Season Coins. You get these from moving through the Golden Pass, which is Speedstorm’s battlepass equivalent. I bought that with a Golden Pass Credit. That’s another currency that came with the Early Access pack, separate to the Tokens and Season Coins. Then there are the Seasonal Tickets and Universal Box Credits, which seem like Tokens but they’re purple.

Also separate are the Multiplayer Coins, which are tokens that naturally come from competing online. There’s ranked multiplayer racing, where you take your characters in at whatever level you have them, and “regulated” racing, where racer stats are standardised. I’ve won races in both, but kart racing seems quite soulless racing against strangers and I can’t understand the appeal. It belongs on the couch, if you ask me.

You’ll have to do it if you want to use the Speedstorm shop, though, because sometimes things cost Multiplayer tokens. However, some other things cost blue tokens, and some things cost yellow tokens. Sometimes they cost a purple one, because why not? Sometimes items are just there, a la carte, and sometimes they’re in a blind box. Did I mention there are different types of boxes? There are different types of boxes.

Then there are Racer Shards, which are essentially another currency unique to each individual character that you use to unlock racers and upgrade your characters’ star levels, and then there are upgrade materials, which also stack as basically another currency you also need to upgrade your characters. You’ll need to do that to keep up with the competition. This stuff can be found in the loot boxes you earn playing, rewarded via the Golden Pass, or simply bought from the shop with one of several currencies. Maybe in a box. Maybe not. For 1,200 Tokens I bought 20 Mulan shards, which are automatically traded for one Mulan star. I want to make my Mike Wazowski faster, but now I need four Scare Tanks, one turbo, and four wrenches, and I’m short two wrenches. Did anybody say any of this out loud?

Are you still following? Because frankly I don’t think I am anymore. The mechanical monkey in my brain just backflipped off a building. I haven’t even got to the crew mechanic, which appears to be JPGs of other random Disney characters here to be another thing you need to upgrade. Or the Loot Points. Or the Collection Level, which are points, but different. Are kids meant to understand this? This doesn’t sound like a game; it sounds like a job.

The Street Fighter 6 Showcase has not only revealed that a demo for the latest entry in the legendary fighting franchise is available now on PS5 and PS4 and soon on other platforms, but it also announced who the Year 1 DLC fighters will be alongside new details for the single-player World Tour mode.

Let’s start with the demo, which will let players check out a bit of the World Tour Mode and certain modes in Fighting Ground. Furthermore, players will be able to use the extensive Avatar creator to build their very own fighter that can be imported into the full game when it is released on June 2, 2023.

The demo is available right now for PS5 and PS4, and it will arrive on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Steam on April 26.

Street Fighter 6 to Get Four DLC Fighters in Year 1

Street Fighter 6 is meant to be a platform that will keep fighting fans coming back for years to come. To help with that mission, Capcom will be releasing new fighters to keep things fresh and exciting.

In the first year, Street Fighter 5’s Rashid will kick things off in Summer 2023. Newcomer A.K.I. will be the second fighter in Autumn 2023, Street Fighter 4/5’s Ed will be third in Winter 2024, and Street Fighter II Turbo’s Akuma will finish Year 1 in Spring 2024.

While it’s always exciting to have new fighters join a roster, these fighters will also be added to the World Tour mode so players can interact with them, learn more about their history, and incorporate their moves into their own Avatar.

Street Fighter 6’s World Tour Is a Single-Player Mode with RPG Mechanics, an ‘Overarching Story,’ and Much More

Players will obviously flock to Street Fighter 6 for the world-class multiplayer, but Capcom isn’t resting on its laurels for the game’s single-player mode. In World Tour, players will be able to create their very own Avatar and become an integral part of the world of Street Fighter.

Your adventure will begin in Metro City, but players will be traveling the world to complete missions, fight and learn from iconic Street Fighter characters, level up skills and abilities, unlock cosmetic items, and experience a story that develops as you battle foe after foe.

There is a bit of an open-area feel to World Tour, and players can challenge people in the streets and fight as bystanders gather to watch the action unfold. However, the big draw will be interacting with the established Street Fighter characters like Chun-Li.

When you run into Chun-Li or others, you will be able to learn from them and build your relationship levels, give them gifts, and undertake special missions. This will let you unlock the ability to use their basic and advanced move sets, find out more about them, and more.

Players will also be able to use the fighters’ Master Actions, which will let your Avatar break barrels, cross platforms, and more in the world. There will also be a special Master Action called Drive Stall that will let players slow down time to get critical hits on enemies and power up their Master Actions.

All of this progress will go toward building a unique Avatar that can be a combination of multiple Street Fighter characters and cosmetics that will make them your own. Avatars can then be taken to the Battle Hub to participate in Avatar Battles and more to show off you character to the world.

There is so much more to Street Fighter 6, including a wide variety of online and offline versus modes, extensive tutorials, multiple control schemes, custom rooms for up to 16 pleayers, ranked matches, and so much more.

For more on Street Fighter 6 before its launch on June 2, be sure to check out our impressions of the game’s closed beta, which we said was the best fighting game beta we’ve ever played.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The next game from the team behind Tetris Effect, called Humanity, is finally on the way next month. The bizarre people-leading puzzler is headed to PS4, PS5, and Steam on May 16, 2023.

? HUMANITY launches May 16 on PS5/PS4/Steam, day 1 to PS+ Game Catalog! ?

We were so flattered to hear Humanity compared to some of the great, unique Japanese action & puzzle games on the PS1/PS2 that we had to pay tribute to the era in our announce video: pic.twitter.com/CSZO8PWYlo

— HUMANITY (@HumanityGame) April 20, 2023

Humanity is, well, a bit of a strange one, but in an appealing sort of way. It was first announced back in 2019 as a puzzle game where a Shiba Inu directs massive crowds through puzzle environments, and we’ve seen a few more glimpses of it since. The humans are seemingly “on their way to salvation,” and must be directed through various obstacles to get there. Humanity will include a story mode as well as a stage creator that allows players to share their creations with friends, similar to Super Mario Maker or LittleBigPlanet.

Despite how all that may sound, the trailer indicate that Humanity stands to explore some potentially heavy subjects around mob mentality, blind following of leaders, and how groups conflict with those they see as “other.” It’s from Enhance, the developers of Rez Infinite and Tetris Effect, the latter of which could be pretty profound (especially in VR). So take that as a cue as well for what Humanity might be like.

Humanity will also come with a VR mode for PSVR headsets, as well as PC.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.