Category: IGN

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has gotten a serious price drop before Amazon Prime Day next week, and is now available for just $56.16. That’s almost $14 off the original MSRP of $69.99, and a decent deal for anyone who hasn’t yet decided to pick up the critically acclaimed Switch exclusive. Even if you’ve had a serious case of FOMO over the past month hopefully this discount eases the pain just a little bit.

It’s not long ago that it was an incredible rarity for Nintendo games to get any kind of discount even years after launch, so it’s great to see one of the biggest games of the year get even a small deal only a month after gamers were first able to play it. It’s also down to $57.99 at Walmart if that’s your preferred retailer of choice.

We awarded Tears of the Kingdom a 10/10 Masterpiece in our review, so it’s really hard to argue against buying this game. If you do pick up Zelda, and end up getting a bit stuck at times, we’re also here to help. Here are the most popular guides our experts have created for Tears of the Kingdom, beginning with a most exciting secret section. Plus, for more Nintendo-themed discounts, check out our full Switch deals breakdown here as well.

• Top Secret: TOTK Cheats and Secrets
• Tears of the Kingdom Complete Walkthrough and Guide
• All Armor Sets and Locations
• How to Unlock Great Fairy Fountains
• All Skyview Tower Locations
• Town and Stable Locations

With how expensive everything is getting in 2023, 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 PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch 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 or follow @IGNDeals on Twitter for even more updates.

More Great Gaming and Tech Deals

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

Nintendo has released patch 1.2.0 for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, bringing with it a number of bug fixes, and, it would seem, a fresh wave of duplication glitch removals.

Soon after the patch was pushed out numerous community members took to social media to complain about the removal of popular duplication glitches, which have been joyfully exploited by Tears of the Kingdom players to stockpile resources and earn a boat load of rupees. While the extent of the cull has yet to become clear, some have complained about the removal of a glitch that exploited the game’s autobuild feature to furnish players with piles of valuable frozen meats.

Another glitch, which could be performed in the Tobio’s Hollow chasm, has also seemingly been patched out. This let players duplicate items by fuzing a resource to a single arrow, which, when fired by a multi-shot bow, created clones of the resource.

Patch 1.2.0 also fixed a number of bugged main quest missions including A Mystery in the Depths, and Secret of the Ring Ruins, which had previously prevented players from progressing through the game. Multiple side quests, including Lurelin Village Restoration Project and Seeking the Pirate Hideout, have also had their bugs addressed.

The update has also made it possible for players to receive “a number of in-game items” by launching the game from within select articles that will be posted to the Switch News channel, which can be located in the home menu after waking up your console.

Check out the full published list of changes below, courtesy of the Nintendo support website.

Patch 1.2.0 General Updates

• By starting the game from within certain articles released on a specific Switch News channel (accessed via the HOME Menu) players can receive a number of in-game items.
  • Depending on the state of gameplay progression or the location in which the data is reopened, there may be cases in which the items cannot be received.

Additional Fixes

• Fixed an issue where players could not progress beyond a certain point in the main quests “A Mystery in the Depths” and “Secret of the Ring Ruins”, the side adventures “Hateno Village Research Lab” and “Lurelin Village Restoration Project”, the shrine quest “Dyeing to Find It”, and the side quests “Village Attacked by Pirates”, “The Incomplete Stable”, and “Seeking the Pirate Hideout”. Downloading the update will allow players to proceed past that point.
• Fixed an issue preventing fairies from appearing under certain conditions when they originally should have appeared.
• Fixed an issue preventing the meals provided by Kiana of Lurelin Village from changing under certain conditions.
• Several issues have been addressed to improve the gameplay experience.

For help with everything Tears of the Kingdom, take a look at our Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough and Guide about making your way through Hyrule. In fact, you can start here:

• 16 Things to Do First in Tears of the Kingdom
• 14 Things Tears of the Kingdom Doesn’t Tell You
• How to Uncover the Full TOTK Map
• How to Expand Your Inventory in TOTK
• PSA: Your Old BOTW Save Unlocks Something Cool in TOTK

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

Microsoft has announced that Grand Theft Auto V returns to Xbox Game Pass starting today, July 5.

In an Xbox Wire post, Microsoft announced the next slate of games hitting its Game Pass subscription service, with Grand Theft Auto V headlining. Rockstar’s critically-acclaimed open-world game is available on the console version of Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

This marks the third time Grand Theft Auto V has released on Microsoft’s game subscription service after debuting initially in April 2020. It was removed roughly a month later and replaced with Red Dead Redemption 2. The fifth mainline Grand Theft Auto then returned to the service in April 2021 with support for Xbox Cloud Gaming, before it was removed for the second time in August of that year.

In our 10/10 review of Grand Theft Auto V’s single-player story, IGN said “Grand Theft Auto V is not only a preposterously enjoyable video game, but also an intelligent and sharp-tongued satire of contemporary America”.

This news comes one day before Xbox Game Pass prices increase for the first time since the service launched in 2017. Starting tomorrow, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will cost $16.99 a month, and the regular Xbox Game Pass for consoles will cost $10.99 a month. However, PC Game Pass will remain at the $9.99 monthly price. So if you have not purchased or renewed your Xbox Game Pass subscription, now would be a good time to do so.

In addition to GTA V, here’s a list of games coming to the service this month and which games are leaving.

New to Xbox Game Pass in July

• Sword and Fairy: Together Forever (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 5
• Forza Horizon 5 Barbie (DLC) – July 5
• FIFA 23 Women’s World Cup (DLC) – July 5
• Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – Battle of Zhongyuan (DLC) – July 5
• Sniper Elite 5: Kraken Awakes (DLC) – July 6
• McPixel 3 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 6
• Common’hood (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 11
• Insurgency: Sandstorm (PC) – July 11
• Exoprimal (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 14
• Techtonica (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC) – July 18
• The Cave (Cloud and Console) – July 18

Leaving Xbox Game Pass in July

• Exo One (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Spelunky 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)

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

If you’ve been lucky (unlucky?) enough to have been graced by the presence of Diablo 4’s infamous The Butcher, you may have noticed he appeared larger than you expected. Or perhaps he grew in size as you fought, likely in vain, to survive.

It turns out there’s an explanation for this Giant Butcher, and it suggests all enemies are similarly susceptible to enlargement.

Our story starts with a Reddit post from a confused IronHeart_777, who ran into a Giant Butcher while killing demons in a Nightmare Dungeon. Alongside posting a screenshot of this larger than virtual life demon, IronHeart_777 asked: “So uh… anyone know why we found a Giant Butcher? He appeared this big…”

Strange! But there’s more. Icy-Veins subsequently reported on a video from streamer Vinsonte showing one Diablo 4 player surprised by a Butcher encounter, but this time the imposing beast grew bigger over the course of the fight, starting off default size before growing large enough to dominate the screen.

These player reports sparked some good old-fashioned theory-crafting from the Diablo 4 community. The current theory puts the blame on a dungeon modifier (affix) appropriately called Avenger.

The Avenger affix description text states killing a monster enrages monsters near it, making them deal more damage. This text fails to mention also making enemies bigger, and yet this is what appears to be happening. Perhaps Blizzard left this line out deliberately in order to surprise players and spark a bit of community fun. Perhaps it’s a bug. With Diablo 4, it’s hard to know.

It is difficult to see this effect in action on the vast majority of enemies, which start small and increase in size by a tiny amount with each nearby kill. But with the already big Butcher, the effect is more noticeable. At least, that’s what the theory suggests.

If the Avenger affix is the cause of the Giant Butcher, it also suggests something pretty amazing about how the enemy actually works. It may skulk around near enough to the player to trigger Avenger from defeated enemies but, and this is the important part, off-screen. As IronHeart_777 put it, the Giant Butcher “was there (but off the screen) slowly powering up into his final form”.

What a terrifying thought! Perhaps the Butcher does not always spawn on top of the player and start fighting immediately, but sometimes appears off-screen, watching, waiting, biding his time, getting ever so slightly bigger with each nearby kill, before exploding into view to terrify, and probably kill, the player. The Butcher’s unsuspecting victim would never know they were feeding the demon all along. That does sound like the kind of thing the Butcher would do, after all.

Add this fun Giant Butcher theory to the pile. Since launch Diablo 4 players have done some pretty out-there stuff, including convincing themselves rats lead to better loot, hunting for a secret cow level Blizzard insists does not exist, and running through 1,270 cellars in just three days to “see what happens”.

Diablo 4 launched big, becoming Blizzard’s fastest-selling game ever. It is also a hit with critics, and, generally, has gone down well with fans. However, the cost of Diablo 4’s microtransactions has raised eyebrows, and, surprisingly, Whoopi Goldberg called on Blizzard to release Diablo 4 on Mac.

Check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.

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.

Persona 3 Reload players won’t have to worry about the original game’s most frustrating features as Atlus isn’t including broken social links in the remake.

As reported by Noisy Pixel, director Takuya Yamaguchi told Famitsu the developers are removing the ability to break social links but will keep the potential to reverse them.

For those unfamiliar, social links are the connection the protagonist has with fellow party members, where hanging out in the social simulator side of Persona powers up their abilities in the dungeon crawling part.

Much like real life, saying something horrible to a friend, hanging out with someone else after making plans, or ignoring them for weeks on end would result in a falling out, and the social link would reverse or eventually break as a result.

“In [Persona 3 Reload], the Broken system has been removed,” said Yamaguchi. “However, Reverse can still happen, though the conditions have been made severely less strict, so simply leaving a social link character alone will not cause it to Reverse, as it did in the original version.”

Atlus removed the feature for Persona 4 and Persona 5, so while it may still be in the remake on some level, fans of the later games will seemingly find an experience closer to those.

It’s not the only thing changing in the remake, as Persona 3 Reload also features a brand new English voice cast. The game was finally announced at the 2023 Xbox Games Showcase following a string of rumours and one final leak ahead of the event.

It will specifically recreate Persona 3, not Persona 3 FES or Persona 3 Portable, meaning there won’t be a female protagonist or any of the other additional content those versions brought.

Unlike Persona 5 Tactica, which was announced alongside it, Persona 3 Reload won’t be coming to Nintendo Switch, though rumours around that version have also begun after Play Asia listed the game and said it wasn’t a mistake.

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

Advertising standards officials have dismissed a complaint about a Diablo 4 “Welcome to Hell” billboard displayed in Melbourne.

The unnamed complainant contacted the Australian Ad Standards Community Panel to say the billboard “brought back memories of the hell of the two years of lockdowns in Melbourne”.

The person also accused the advert of causing offense to Christians and Catholics, and “promoting evil and satanic paraphernalia”.

lol someone complained to Ad Standards that the Diablo ad reminded them of lockdown?? pic.twitter.com/osqdpLYcms

— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) July 4, 2023

“The words ‘welcome to Hell Melbourne’ as part of the advertisement for this game and a picture of a devil are offensive to me as a Christian,” reads the complaint.

“The imagery is also inappropriate for my children to see and has already given them nightmares. The imagery is frightening to children as the demonic looking character is staring at the camera, creating the effect of staring at the observer. It is located in an prominent position beside a busy freeway where children have a clear view of the very large Billboard.

“I feel it’s inappropriate to show such disgusting and disturbing content on a billboard where children are seeing this on a daily basis. It has no context and for an adult of 43, I found it unsettling.

“It’s scary for young children who see it, but even as an adult it brought back memories of the hell of the two years of lockdowns in Melbourne. The language and words used are not necessary to get across the message about the release of this game.”

As you’d expect, the Ad Standards Community Panel dismissed the complaint, in hilarious fashion.

On the point about religion, the Panel pointed to the comma between “hell” and “Melbourne”, stressing the ad is not saying the city itself is hell. Never forget the important of a well-placed comma!

Does the ad contain violence? The panel didn’t think so. It compared the image of Lilith, Diablo 4’s antagonist, to Disney’s Maleficent and even noted a Melbourne Australian rules football club nicknamed The Demons.

It’s yet another odd Diablo 4 story among a raft of weird and wonderful reports about Blizzard’s action role-playing game. IGN recently covered the Diablo 4 players who convinced themselves rats lead to better loot, and the community-wide hunt for a secret cow level Blizzard insists does not exist. Then there’s the Diablo 4 player who said they ran through 1,270 cellars in just three days to “see what happens”.

Diablo 4 launched big, becoming Blizzard’s fastest-selling game ever. It is also a hit with critics, and, generally, has gone down well with fans. However, the cost of Diablo 4’s microtransactions has raised eyebrows, and, surprisingly, Whoopi Goldberg called on Blizzard to release Diablo 4 on Mac.

Check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.

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.

Xbox and Bethesda are officially locked in for Gamescom 2023, meaning fans attending the event may get a chance to play Starfield ahead of its September 6 launch.

Gamescom itself announced the news in a tweet (below). “Breaking. Xbox and Bethesda will join us on the show floor for Gamescom 2023,” it said. “More details soon.”

Xbox is a regular exhibitor at the convention in Germany, having shown up every year in a time when PlayStation hasn’t. Sony is yet to confirm if it will attend the 2023 show.

🚨 BREAKING 🚨 @‌Xbox and @‌bethesda will join us on the showfloor for #gamescom2023! More details soon.

Get your tickets now: https://t.co/epzkwnZye9#XboxGC pic.twitter.com/ylcK23Bti5

— gamescom (@gamescom) July 5, 2023

Sony last appeared in 2019, opting not to have a presence at the digital-only show caused by COVID-19 or the subsequent events. Nintendo was in the same boat, but confirmed in April it would return to Gamescom in 2023.

2022 saw the return of over 250,000 visitors to the physical show floor in Cologne, Germany. This year’s event takes place August 23 to 27. An Opening Night live launch event kicks off the show a little early though, taking place the night before on August 22.

Last year’s Opening Night Live saw the announcement of Lies of P, a new release date revealed for Gotham Knights, the re-introduction of Dead Island 2, and much more.

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

A former F-Zero developer believes Nintendo’s long-dormant racing franchise has remained that way due to the success of Mario Kart.

Speaking to VGC, F-Zero artist and the designer behind Captain Falcon, Takaya Imamura, implied the game wouldn’t be worth the risk when Mario Kart is already incredibly successful (having sold nearly 50 million copies for Nintendo Switch as of November 2022).

Imamura was asked why Nintendo games such as Star Fox get more attention than F-Zero. “I think it’s because Mario Kart is Nintendo’s most popular racing game, and a new F-Zero would cost a fortune,” he said. “My impression is that [Nintendo executive Shigeru Miyamoto] is very affectionate about Star Fox.”

The original F-Zero launched way back in 1990 and was followed up with a handful of games, the final one being F-Zero Climax in 2004. That marks almost two decades since fans last saw a new entry, despite Nintendo showing love to other older franchises with remakes like Super Mario RPG or sequels such as Luigi’s Mansion 3.

Nintendo hasn’t completely forgotten about F-Zero, of course, ironically making Mario Kart 8 DLC based on the classic racer, and last year released N64 game F-Zero X on the Nintendo Switch Online library.

In our 9/10 review of that one from 1998, IGN said: “F-Zero X is another proof that nobody does sequels like Nintendo. The developers kicked out everything that stood in the way of perfectly-tuned gameplay.”

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

Long-time Yakuza protagonist Kazuma Kiryu will have a new English voice actor starting in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and fans are unsure about it.

As reported by The Gamer, YouTuber Yong Yea is replacing Darryl Kurylo and gave fans a preview of the new voice at Anime Expo 2023’s Dragons of Japan panel.

“That little monologue he did was painful,” said a Reddit user in response. “And the yell at the end was very much not Kiryu.” Others were less critical of the performance, though still didn’t think it was a good fit. “Yong Yea’s voice isn’t horrible but it sounds like a 20 year old, not a 50 year old,” said one.

Here’s a clean version of the Kiryu voice & dialogue from Anime Expo in more ideal conditions. This is NOT an official recording, line, or direction from the game, it’s a quick off the cuff recording from my home booth. Wait for the final game to see how it all comes together. 🫶 https://t.co/R7j23sQUhE pic.twitter.com/HtO8JOoXdU

— Yong Yea 🐉 Eng Voice of Kiryu (@YongYea) July 3, 2023

The YouTuber posted on Twitter to defend himself though, and released a better quality but still not professional version of the audio clip.

“Here’s a clean version of the Kiryu voice and dialogue from Anime Expo in more ideal conditions,” Yong Yea said. “This is not an official recording, line, or direction from the game, it’s a quick off the cuff recording from my home booth.”

Finally, reiterating what a lot of commentors were saying in defence of the new voice actor, he added: “Wait for the final game to see how it all comes together.”

Yong Yea will star in The Man Who Erased His Name as it connects the events of Yakuza 8 and the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. It’s due to launch on November 9, while Infinite Wealth only has a vague 2024 release window so far.

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

As Terraria’s next major patch approaches, developer Re-Logic has revealed it’s “hard to move on” and start a new project owing to the success and demand generated by the 2011 cult game.

“After 12 years the game still sells like hot cakes,” said Re-Logic head Andrew Spinks in a Twitter post from his now deactivated account, as reported by PC Gamer. “There is so much demand it makes it hard to move on.”

Since its release in May 2011, Terraria has graced every active gaming platform under the sun, ranging from the PC and Nintendo Switch to the PlayStation Vita, smartphones, and even Google Stadia, following a fraught development process.

During its 12-year lifespan Terraria has expanded significantly in scope, thanks to a slew of patches and free content updates. It is now one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 44 million copies sold as of May 2022. It is also one of the most-played games in Steam history, boasting a concurrent player peak of almost 490,000 in May 2020, with a current all-time approval rating of 97 percent.

But all good things must come to an end, and it seems developer Re-Logic’s long, and arguably heroic display of post-launch support could finish with Terraria’s next major update, patch 1.4.5. Or, it wont. Only time will tell. The (potentially) final 1.4.5 update will see crossover content from the roguelite metroidvania Dead Cells make its way to the game, along with a slew of other updates and improvements.

It’s worth noting this isn’t the first time Re-Logic has sought to put a bow on Terraria’s post-launch updates. In an interview with PC Gamer, Re-Logic’s head of business strategy and marketing Ted Murphy pointed out the team had initially intended to end support for the game with patch 1.3 back in 2015. However, the team had too many “cool ideas” and “unfinished business, so to speak”, to walk away from the game.

2020’s Journey’s End update represented another stepping-off point, but that too was followed by a string of patches. Murphy now believes the time may be ripe “to start work on a second project”, which would allow the team to “explore ideas that might not work, or work as well in the current iteration and technology of Terraria”.

However, Murphy also didn’t rule out the potential of subsequent updates. “We’ve felt that way before — so we do never say never. When will Terraria’s final update truly happen? I don’t even think we can say that with certainty.”

In June Re-Logic revealed it had teamed up with Paper Fort Games to develop a Terraria board game. The crowdfunded offering will “expand the universe of Terraria by faithfully combining the digital game’s biome exploration, character progression, base building, and epic combat with tabletop mechanisms”, according to a Steam store update. No release date has yet been given for the project, beyond the admission it likely won’t launch until 2024 at the earliest.

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