Square Enix has shared a new look at Final Fantasy 16, this time showing off the variety of locations players will visit in the world of Valisthea.

Shared as part of Square Enix’s PAX East panel, the new footage shows protagonist Clive running through several newly-revealed locales. You can take a look at the new trailer for yourself below.

Introducing a closer look at the world of Valisthea in Final Fantasy XVI. #FF16 pic.twitter.com/ezqxe35Co1

— FINAL FANTASY XVI (@finalfantasyxvi) March 25, 2023

This video really focuses on the expansive areas found in Valisthea, as we see a montage of Clive looking over a canyon with an enormous waterfall, riding on a Chocobo through a desert, walking through a small, grassy village, exploring a castle on a dark and stormy night, and a lot more.

Final Fantasy 16 won’t have an open world, instead focusing on large, segmented areas. But if there was any doubt on just how expansive the landscape would be, this trailer will likely put those worries to rest.

Previously, Final Fantasy 16 director Hiroshi Takai explained that Final Fantasy 16’s world is constructed from multiple maps, with four large-scale zones that are “about two kilometers by two kilometers.”

Players will open the world map to travel instantly to these areas across Valisthea’s landscape, and upon completing the main objective, players will head back to the hub area called the Hideaway. And it looks like there will be plenty to discover across the game’s 35-hour campaign.

Final Fantasy 16 launches on PlayStation 5 on June 22. For more coverage, check out our Final Fantasy 16 preview, where we said, “should the story, exploration, and characters live up to what I’ve seen of the combat so far, then Final Fantasy 16 will be a JRPG worth being excited about.”

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

The dungeon-crawling PvPvE game Dark and Darker has been delisted from Steam after developer Ironmace was served with a cease and desist order and subsequent DMCA takedown.

As reported by Eurogamer, it appears Dark and Darker’s developer, Ironmace, may be in hot water as players recently noticed some of the game’s features abruptly stopped working, such as PvP and online co-op, followed by portions of its Steam page being scrubbed overnight including all trailers, screenshots, and store description.

An official statement was posted on the Dark and Darker Discord (by way of Reddit) stating, “To all our fans, we have recently been served a cease and desist letter and DMCA takedown by Nexon regarding Dark and Darker based on distorted claims.”

“We are currently working with our legal team to remedy this issue in the best manner possible. Due to the sensitive legal nature of this issue we must be careful with our statements so as to not jeopardize our position,” the Discord post read. “We ask for your understanding as we work to get the game back up as quickly as possible. Please know that we will do all that is possible for our fans. Thanks!”

Earlier this month, Ironmace had its offices searched by Korean officials on speculation that it might be in posession of stolen code and assets as nearly half of Ironmace’s 20-person team is made up of former Nexon employees. Although, Ironmace’s official statement regarding the matter was that the search was a “quick process” and “nothing was found.”

As for now, the future of Dark and Darker is uncertain. Currently, there’s no trace of the game’s page on Steam, as searching for it will bring you to the Steam home page. However, its community message board still appears to be active, with many fans confused by the sudden delisting.

Dark and Darker was scheduled to have another public playtest period run from April 14, 2023 to April 19, 2023, but as of now, it appears that may not happen.

Matthew Adler is a Commerce, Features, Guides, News, Previews, and Reviews writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @MatthewAdler as well as check out his curated IGN Playlists.

In the 1980s, everyone who owned a Nintendo Entertainment System knew the only way to fix a faulty game was to eject it, hold it to your lips, and blow on it. If it didn’t work after that, you simply repeated the process, with more force, until it finally worked. This was not only wrong but it was super gross, because you basically just sprayed spit particles all over your copy of Super Mario Bros. 3.

On top of being unhygienic, your kid-spit also probably contributed to corrosion on your cart’s contacts, and if your mouth was particularly juicy, a glob of nasty saliva could actually short some of the contacts, and that’s bad.

But what’s the real solution to this very real problem? Well, there are two that immediately spring to mind: one of which will cost you nothing but your time, and the other will cost you like $20 maybe? Depends. Oh, it also costs time. So time plus $20 for that second one.

Let’s take a look at how, exactly, your NES is able to entice the game to emerge from the cart. You might think there are ghosts inside, and the NES is a conduit for their spirits. It is simply impossible for me to prove there aren’t ghosts inside every video game cartridge, so to be safe, just assume your game collection is very haunted. However, there is science behind how your cartridge gets its code inside your game, although I guess technically it’s engineering, which is basically applied science. But I’m neither a scientist, nor an engineer, and as previously discussed I know very little about the spirit realm, but I’m going to do my best to explain the very simple theory behind how your game goes from your cart, to inside your NES, and then up on your screen.

In electrical work, the kind that concerns itself with outlets and wiring and the like, the most important requirement is that all connections be two things: electrically and mechanically sound. In other words, you could hypothetically just lay two bare wires across one another and have them conduct electricity, but a slight breeze or mouse whisper could separate them, breaking the circuit. In modern wiring, wires are twisted together snugly and then a wirenut is twisted over the top. This makes the wires play nicely together… forever. Electrically and mechanically sound.

With your NES cart, or pretty much any video game cartridge, the requirement isn’t there for a permanent, powerful connection. In fact that’s kind of the point. But you also don’t want your cartridges to just flop around inside the machine, so a balance has to be struck. The springiness of the NES’ 72-pin connector is such that you can slide in your cartridge without too much effort and have the pins give it just a nice little squeeze, a little electronic hug. The metal contacts of the connector and the contacts of the cartridge then create a beautiful pairing that allows the free movement of electrons from one to the other. It’s electrically sound and mechanically sound-enough.

But therein lies the problem. You see, the need to rely on that “springiness” to make a good connection to the cartridge contacts means given enough use, it wears out JUST enough to make it a real hassle. The 72-pin connector needs to make full contact with the cartridge’s contacts in order to work. The rituals we used to do as kids, like blowing on the cartridge, worked sometimes because the fail-state of the 72-pin connector wasn’t total. You might put the cart back in, all gross with spit, at a slightly different angle and that angle is enough to make contact.

“Why not just make the 72-pin connector grip harder, then?” That’s a good question. Without knowing for sure, I would imagine the designers of the original NES hardware probably didn’t expect man-children like me to use their products 30 years later, but it doesn’t take 30 years for the problems to start to arise. If the 72-pin connector’s grip were more forceful, the trade-off would be… well, ask anyone who had a first-generation Hyperkin Retron5 how terrifying it was to try to remove a cart from its vice-like grips. On top of that, every time you insert and eject a cartridge, you’re kind of ruining it. I mean, at basically a microscopic scale, sure, but it’s a destructive process nonetheless. That metal-on-metal contact, coupled with pulling the cart in and out, removes just the littlest bit of metal from the contacts and the connector. Just the smallest amount, you won’t even notice, probably in a lifetime. But if the connector had more force, the metal-on-metal scraping would be worse and perhaps even visible on the contacts after just a few use cycles. Again, looking at you, first gen Retron5.

So, to sum it up: the NES, and pretty much every other cartridge-based system, relies on an electrically sound contact between pieces of metal, which in the case of the NES is done through the 72-pin connector. That connector’s ability to grip weakens over time, which leads to bad connections between the NES and the game cartridge, which leads to that annoying blinking red light and things like a flashing screen or random characters on the screen instead of sprites.

I should quickly point out, there are plenty of other things that can cause NES failure. Corroded contacts on the game or the 72-pin connector, issues with the kind-of annoying spring-loaded mechanism inside the NES not lining up correctly, corrosion on the board of the NES or the game. There are lots of reasons why your system might not work, but the biggest culprit of all is that 72-pin connector. Thankfully, it’s really easy to fix. In fact, I’ve already made a video to show you how, as well as show you a little trick to get a little extra use out of an old connector that involves a pot of boiling water and some patience. It’s at the top of this column! And it’s a delight.

Beyond blowing on carts, did you have any NES rituals you would undertake to try and get them to work? Let me know in the comments.

Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. You can find him hosting the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast.

The Destiny 2 community has been mourning the passing of Lance Reddick, remembering him through tributes like flocking en masse to The Tower. And, according to Bungie, Reddick will continue to live on in more voicework for the game.

Reddick, who’s also known for his work in The Wire, Fringe, and the John Wick series (including this weekend’s John Wick: Chapter 4), voiced Commander Zavala in Destiny 2. Bungie followed up on its initial statement about Reddick’s passing in a blog post yesterday.

“The tributes that have poured in for Lance have been overwhelming; from endless heartfelt messages on social media to impromptu gatherings of respect in Zavala’s corner of the Tower, overlooking the Last City,” the blog read, in part. “As an actor, musician, gamer, and family man, the passion Lance brought to the things he loved was reflected in the eyes and hearts of all who loved him. For now, we will honor his presence through his performances yet to come in the game, and in the memories that will last us a lifetime.”

Reddick, who died on March 17 at the age of 60, appeared in other games as well, voicing Sylens in Horizon Zero Dawn. And, as Bungie noted, he was an avid gamer himself, and was an active voice in the Destiny community (read our tribute to Reddick’s impact on the gaming community here).

In its initial statement, Bungie called Reddick “an iconic presence on screen, in Destiny, and most importantly, in person.”

“His love for our community shined through in Commander Zavala, in his uncompromising dedication to his craft, and out of the radiating kindess that touched those around him,” it went on. “To say he will be missed is a profound understatement, yet no less true.”

Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Fans of Magic: The Gathering, the Pokémon TCG, Yu-Gi-Oh, Flesh and Blood, and other trading card games are likely familiar with eBay-owned TCGplayer, one of the largest card buying and selling platforms in the U.S.

What they may be less familiar with are the recent unionization efforts of employees at its Syracuse authentication center, and the several complaints the union has raised accusing TCGplayer of increasing surveillance of organizing workers, holding anti-union meetings, and more.

TCGunion officially voted to unionize on March 10, but after an employee involved in the union organizing was fired just a few days later, further concerns were raised. “We do not believe that the termination of an organizer this close to our election is a coincidence,” TCGunion said on Twitter (below).

We do not believe that the termination of an organizer this close to our election is a coincidence, and we will not stand for the denial of our Weingarten rights. @TCGplayer and @eBay, stop with the intimidation tactics and accept that your workers have spoken. #TCGUstrong

— TCGunion-CWA (@TCGunionCWA) March 15, 2023

TCGplayer itself has made clear it isn’t happy that employees of its authentication center voted to unionize, with 136 voting yes and 87 voting no.

“We are disappointed our authentication center team members in Syracuse have decided to end their direct relationship with TCGplayer,” a company spokesperson told IGN. “Our priority continues to be building a positive workplace culture that supports our team members and benefits our TCGplayer community.”

The TCGunion may not agree that a positive workplace culture is being built, however. Formed in conjunction with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the union has so far filed four unfair labor charges against TCGplayer to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the latest in relation to the firing of organizer Iris St. Lucy following the union vote.

“Organizing on the job is a protected right. No worker should lose their job as a result of their commitment to making their workplace better by joining a union,” CWA secretary-treasurer Sara Steffens told IGN.

“Not only are eBay and TCGplayer violating labor law, the company is undermining its workers’ rights to union representation, fair wages, dignity on the job, and the ability to support their families. TCGplayer needs to stop these attacks and commit to bargaining a contract in good faith.”

The first complaint to the NLRB arrived on Jan. 27, two days after the TCGplayer employees announced their intentions to unionize. The CWA alleged that “multiple TCGplayer supervisors and managers, including CEO Chedy Hampson, have patrolled the floor of the authentication center, taking note of employees who have worn any clothes or insignia identifying them as supporters of TCGunion.”

We have an update for everyone who is looking for ways to show their support! Join us in a show of solidarity and tell TCGplayer to stop union busting! https://t.co/StRYOsfJth https://t.co/1HsBSThBDA

— TCGunion-CWA (@TCGunionCWA) January 27, 2023

Another complaint was filed a week later on Feb. 6, with the CWA claiming TCGplayer was “holding anti-union captive audience meetings to counter the ongoing union drive.” A third complaint on March 3 claimed it was “interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees engaging in protected and concerted union activity.”

When the fourth complaint arrived on March 13, TCGunion said on Twitter that the firing of St. Lucy only further highlighted the importance of the union. “We won our union four days ago, and have the right to representation at any investigatory meeting which we believe could result in disciplinary action or termination,” it said. “This decision by management emphasizes the need to negotiate for a just cause termination clause in our contract.”

This idea was supported by CWA Local 1123 executive vice president Nikki Penner, who told IGN that “a collective bargaining agreement will not only give TCG workers the safeguards and protections they deserve, but a voice on the job to create positive change for other workers in this industry to follow.

“I’ve been around TCGplayer workers since the early stages of their organizing and have witnessed their dedication to each other and to improving standards for the warehouse and card selling industry by forming their union,” they added.

Whether or not the accusations against TCGplayer bleed through to its customer facing storefront remains to be seen. Magic: The Gathering YouTuber PleasantKenobi told IGN that, while condemned union busting certainly wouldn’t help TCGplayer’s reputation, it doesn’t mean the community will boycott the company as a result.

Customers’ opinion on the company worsened when it was purchased by eBay in October last year, he said. “There was a vocal fear of monopolization of the card game space, which goes hand in hand with Magic itself growing as a game, appearing more in big box stores, and on Amazon [and so on],” PleasantKenobi said. “Anti-union sentiment does nothing to disarm the fears that the company is becoming a cartoonishly evil big bad corporation.”

He continued: “I know a lot of the vocal Magic community spaces online, and the creators that stand as community leaders are quite progressive in their attitudes, and are vocally pro-union. In spite of that, there is an old adage that Magic players complain a lot but take very little action, although consumers did actively reject recent exploitative and prohibitively expensive products from Wizards of the Coast to positive effect.

“Coupled with Hasbro changing course with Dungeons and Dragons recently due mostly to community outcry and reaction, it gives me faith that tabletop gaming’s enfranchised communities would take action to stand in solidarity with TCGplayer’s workers; that we are becoming more savvy as consumers.”

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

Resident Evil 4 Remake may have new boss fights, reworked maps, and a shiny new look, but one thing that remains the same as all previous versions is the terrifyingly scarce ammo. There are many ways to save ammo in RE4 remake, we document those right here, but for new players and returning veterans alike there’s a new method of ammo conservation you need to know about: The Bolt Thrower. This entirely new weapon is available from the merchant in Chapter 2 (and on sale at said merchant in Chapter 3, which you should take advantage of if you are short on money – as well as ammo). There’s a video about how the Bolt Thrower works and exactly where to get it at the top of the page, so check that out.

Players hoping to join the Diablo 4 open beta this weekend must prepare themselves for “unprecedented” queue times as the developers test online infrastructure.

The official Diablo Twitter account reiterated Blizzard’s comments last week that a beta is about testing functionality instead of just letting people play early. “As we prepare to open the gates to Sanctuary, we’d like to remind our players that the Diablo 4 open beta is a test to ensure a smooth launch,” it said (below).

“We expect unprecedented traffic and queue times as a result. We appreciate your patience and understanding.”

As we prepare to open the gates to Sanctuary, we’d like to remind our players that the #DiabloIV Open Beta is a test to ensure a smooth launch.

We expect unprecedented traffic and queue times as a result. We appreciate your patience & understanding.

?: https://t.co/Q4Q3Manehg

— Diablo (@Diablo) March 23, 2023

Other Blizzard employees also took to the internet to warn players of the lengthy times. “Best to set some expectations early but any issues this weekend are better found now than at launch,” tweeted Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson. “Please be patient with us as we expect a lot of players joining to help test our game and infrastructure.”

In an accompanying forum post, community manager PezRadar explained that, “while we know it can be frustrating, we need queues to properly stress test our services, and we are designing to ensure we have them [the queues] some of the time.”

He also forewarned players that there will be short periods wherein the game is taken offline entirely while the team deploys infrastructure fixes and performs maintenance. Queue times are likely to be at their worst soon after the open beta begins on Friday, and “during peak regional windows”.

The remarks follow last weekend’s beta where participants already experienced long wait times to access the game and were met with a number of error messages. A positive for some players, though, is that this weekend’s one doesn’t require a KFC to enter, and will be available to all from March 24 to March 27.

Diablo 4 is set to release on June 6 on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series, and PC. For more on the game be sure to check out IGN’s review in progress, and for tips on how to get the most out of this weekend’s open beta head on over to our Diablo 4 Wiki page.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

If you couldn’t get enough of the Mario Day sales earlier this month, don’t worry, Nintendo has plenty more to offer before we move into April. Wave 2 of Mario Day is kicking off now (which has basically made March into Mario Month instead), and you can pick up select digital Mario games for just $39.99 each.

Below, you can find a selection of discounted digital Mario games available to pick up on Amazon. However, you can also find these sales going on at Best Buy, the Nintendo eShop, and on Humble Bundle.

Digital Mario Games on Sale at Amazon

Mario Day Switch Bundle

The Mario Day sales don’t just end with these digital games, either. You can also still pick up the Nintendo Switch Mario Day bundle, which contains a Switch console with red Joy-Cons and a game of your choosing (between Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe or Super Mario Odyssey) for just $299.00.

This second wave of Mario Day sales is set to end on April 7 at 11:59 p.m. PT, so it’s a perfect time to pick up some of these digital games at a lower price before the clock runs out. And, if you’re looking to get your hands on some tickets for the Super Mario Bros. Movie that’s set to hit theaters on April 5, you can click on the link below to pre-order your tickets for the upcoming film.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Ticket Pre-Sale

Mario isn’t the only Nintendo character with quite a year coming up, either. For those looking forward to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you can pre-order the game now ahead of its May 12 release and you can even pre-order extra Link amiibos to go with it.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.

Sony has officially dropped the PS5 God of War Ragnarok Bundle down to just $509.99 at all retailers in the US, that’s a $50 discount from the list price of $559.99. This includes Amazon, PS Direct, Best Buy, Walmart, GameStop, and Target.

This is the first major discount we have seen since the PlayStation 5 launched over two years ago. A standard PS5 will cost you $500 at the moment, so with this discount you’re effectively only paying $10 for God of War Ragnarok on PS5. This is an absolute steal and well worth considering.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the PS5 was completely out of stock, with many gamers unable to secure the new consoles for almost two years. But, the tide seems to have turned, as PS5 consoles are now available 100% of the time, and fans are now even getting discounts on the console in 2023.

If you’re curious to see what other PlayStation items are worth picking up alongside the console, make sure to visit our gift guide for the best PlayStation and PS5 gifts to pick up this year. Alongside games, this guide also includes the PlayStation Pulse 3D wireless headset and the PS5’s DualSense controller.

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