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Atomic Heart is out and Cardy, Mat, and Dale have been having a dabble with it as well as dipping into the PS VR2 waters. That isn’t all, though. Dale has some thoughts on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Mat has been enjoying Like a Dragon: Ishin, and Cardy has had a blast with Kerbal Space Program 2.
Got a game for us to play, or just want to tell us the weirdest thing you’ve eaten for breakfast? Drop us an email: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
The 26th annual D.I.C.E. Awards have arrived and, while God of War Ragnarok led the night with seven wins, Elden Ring took home the ultimate prize of Game of the Year for 2022.
The D.I.C.E. Awards are hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) and this year’s show was hosted by IGN’s Stella Chung and Kinda Funny’s Greg Miller. Additionally, IGN was proud to be the media partner for the 26th D.I.C.E. Awards.
There were 23 different categories in the show and, as previously mentioned, God of War Ragnarok won the most categories, including Outstanding Achievement awards for Animation, Art Direction, Character, Original Music Composition, Audio Design, and Story.
Elden Ring, alongside winning Game of the Year, won four other categories – Outstanding Technical Achievement, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Outstanding Achievement in Game DIrection, and Role-Playing Game of the Year.
Alongside honoring games and their studios, the D.I.C.E. Awards took the time to induct Double Fine Productions founder Tim Schafer into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame for his over 30-year impact on the games industry.
With all that out of the way, here are all the winners from the 26th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards:
Outstanding Achievement in Animation
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
Outstanding Achievement in Character
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design
Outsanding Achievement in Story
Outstanding Technical Achievement
Action Game of the Year
Adventure Game of the Year
Family Game of the Year
Fighting Game of the Year
Racing Game of the Year
Role-Playing Game of the Year
Sports Game of the Year
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
Immersive Reality Game of the Year
Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game
Mobile Game of the Year
Online Game of the Year
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Game of the Year
For more, check out which game we crowned the greatest of last year, the full list of winners from The Game Awards 2022, and what games you should be looking out for this year!
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 PlayStation Plus games for March 2023 have been officially confirmed to be Battlefield 2042, Minecraft Dungeons, and Code Vein, and they’ll be available to all subscribers from March 7 through April 3.
PlayStation shared the news during its latest State of Play, where it also shared that Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, Tchia, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Immortals Fenyx Rising, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction will all be joining the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog, which is available to Extra and Premium members.
Minecraft Dungeons, Code Vein, and Battlefield 2042 are your PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for March, with Tchia and much more coming to Game Catalog. pic.twitter.com/PNYOlz8mQC
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) February 23, 2023
Battlefield 2042 is the latest entry in the long-running first-person shooter franchise and, while it doesn’t feature a single-player campaign, it does introduce the Portal mode. For those unfamiliar, this new mode lets you mix and match maps, weapons, classes, and equipment from Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, and Battlefield 2042 to make the experience you’ve always wanted to play.
In our Battlefield 2042 review, we said its “highpoint is its powerful Portal mode, which lets you relive the series’ past glories and tweak them to your liking. Its current batch of modes is overstuffed with players and utter chaos, though Hazard Zone scales things down in an interesting, high-stakes way.”
Minecraft Dungeons is a twist on Mojang’s game and looks to combine the best parts of dungeon crawlers like Diablo with all the charm and aesthetic of Minecraft. It was first released in 2020 and we enjoyed our time with it, even it is isn’t revolutionary.
In our Minecraft Dungeons review, we said it “is a beautiful and fun dungeon crawler with a simple but tried-and-true set of systems in place. It plays it extremely safe, though, without bringing anything mining or crafting spins to the genre to accompany Minecraft’s signature look and feel. Still, it’s just so damn charming, and so fun, it’s hard to fault it for going the safe route.”
Lastly, Code Vein is an “anime Soulslike” that aimed to give players a new way to experience the brutal yet rewarding challenge of games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and more. It also sets itself apart from being a simple clone by including a unique post-apocalyptic setting, a flexible class system, and an AI partner.
In our Code Vein review, we said it “takes some interesting chances with Soulslike mechanics and finds mixed results, but there’s something worth sinking your teeth into here”
As for the Game Catalog games, there are some heavy hitters in there, but Tchia is the sole new release. This gorgeous tropical open-world adventure game is heavily inspired by New Caledonia, and it also lets you soul jump into animals and most objects you find. Tchia will be released on March 21.
While you wait for these games to arrive, be sure to check out our full recap of the latest State of Play and don’t forget to download February’s PlayStation Plus games – OlliOlli World, Mafia: Definitive Edition, Evil Dead: The Game, and Destiny 2: Beyond Light.
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.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy has sold more than 12 million units since its debut earlier this month, making it the biggest global launch ever for Warner Bros. Games.
Hogwarts Legacy’s sales numbers were revealed alongside Warner Bros. Discovery’s earnings, which saw the company lose some $2.1 billion. That makes Hogwarts Legacy, which has been controversial itself, a rare bright spot for the company’s financials.
On top of the large sales figure, Warner Bros. Games touted $850 million in sales globally and 1.28 million peak concurrent viewers on Twitch — a new record for a single-player game.
Developed by Avalanche Software under the Portkey Games label, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy earned notice by allowing players to roam a fully-realized version of Hogwarts Castle on next-gen platforms.
“Its open-world adventure captures all the excitement and wonder of the Wizarding World with its memorable new characters, challenging and nuanced combat, and a wonderfully executed Hogwarts student fantasy that kept me glued to my controller for dozens of hours,” we wrote in our review. “It’s certainly weighed down by technical issues, a lackluster main story, and some poor enemy variety, but even those couldn’t come close to breaking its enchanting spell over me.”
Hogwarts Legacy is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
Changes are coming to the Call of Duty franchise’s upcoming release in 2023, and players will remain settled in the modern era.
In a new report from Bloomberg, Activision has modified its annual Call of Duty release schedule plans. Shifting away from a planned expansion for Modern Warfare, reports now state that it will move towards another full game set in the Modern era, to be developed by Sledgehammer Games. Previous reports last year stated that plans for Call of Duty in 2023 would be an experimental phase for the franchise, focusing on a high-end expansion for last year’s Modern Warfare 2, which is apparently scaled up for a full release.
Though no official details are out as of this time, the Bloomberg report stated that the game would focus on a continuation of Modern Warfare 2 and its systems, but it will not be Modern Warfare 3. Sledgehammer Games, the developers behind Call of Duty: Vanguard, will be heading up the game’s development, with support coming from other Activision studios, including Infinity Ward and Treyarch.
According to previous reports, the original plan for COD 2023 was to maintain growth and support for Modern Warfare 2, which is now the fastest-selling game to hit $1 billion in franchise history. In the Bloomberg report, this shift has caused concerns among the development team at Sledgehammer Games. However, anonymous staff has stated that Activision is putting significant resources toward the new game to ensure its release in 2023.
Traditionally, Call of Duty games would switch off between different installments made by alternating teams; the Modern Warfare series from Infinity Ward, the Black Ops series from Treyarch, and different variations and experimental games from Sledgehammer Games. However, recent years have seen the franchise go through some growing pains, with some developers having to ship games sooner than expected or having more time than expected.
With the growing reports about the development of the COD 2023, and the looming Activision/Microsoft merger still in litigation, this year will likely see the franchise in its most unusual spot. Still, the franchise will continue on as planned.
Furthermore, Activision has also pledged to release future COD games on the Nintendo Switch and Nvidia’s games streaming service.
Alessandro Fillari is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @afillari.
We got our first early at the events of Destiny 2’s Lightfall expansion during Sony’s February State of Play showcase. Launching next week on February 28, Lightfall sees the Guardians embrace the Strand darkness power to even the odds against The Witness and their army.
In the cinematic trailer showing the next major phase of Destiny 2, we see the Guardians prepare for their fight against The Witness and Callus’ Shadow Legion of Cabal. The trailer highlighted the immense scale of the battle, which brings many different factions from the Destiny universe to face off against the growing forces of Darkness. We also looked at the new Cloud Strider faction in the city of Neomuna, located on Neptune.
BREAKING: Lightfall Launch Trailer pic.twitter.com/GECpFgKxzL
— DestinyTracker ? (@destinytrack) February 23, 2023
We also got new footage of Destiny 2’s upcoming Stand subclass along with the new story beats. This new class will allow Warlocks, Titans, and Hunters to manipulate energy to bind enemies, use a grappling hook across levels, and even command smaller energy beings to attack foes.
Destiny 2 is in its final week of Witch Queen seasonal events before the launch of the Lightfall expansion, and the community is wrapping up missions and unlocks before the big reset for Lightfall. Today, Bungie also announced that Witch Queen and its exotic weapons will be free for all players for this weekend until February 26. The Monday before Lightfall drops will see a day-long update ahead of the expansion, with the game opening back up on launch day.
For more on the game revealed during the State of Play livestream, go check out IGN’s full breakdown of the event.
2023 might finally be the year where 2TB PS5 SSDs might actually be worth the upgrade. Last year, prices for 1TB PS5 SSDs averaged around $150, whereas 2TB SSDs hovered closer to $300. This year, we’re seeing 1TB SSDs trickle below the $100 price point and 2TB SSDs are under $200. The reason PS5 SSD upgrades are pricey is that you can’t use any old SSD and expect it to perform well on the PS5 console. You’ll want to pick up an PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive with a rated 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive. That means, for better or for worse, picking a top-shelf SSD.
Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD. Not all SSDs listed here have pre-installed heatsinks. For the ones that do, we’ll be sure to mention it. For the ones that don’t, all you have to do is purchase your own heatsink (we recommend this one for $10) and install it yourself. It’s very easy.
Samsung SSDs need no introduction. They’ve made some of the most popular and reliable PS5 SSDs on the market. The 980 Pro has been out for a while now, but it’s still one of Samsung’s fastest M.2 PCIe SSD, with only the newly released 990 Pro being faster. It is fully PS5 compatible in terms of form factor and performance, with blistering speeds of up to 7,100MB/s. It goes toe to toe with other well-known options like the WD Black SN850 and the Seagate Firecuda 530.
Amazon has the newest WD Black Series SN850X M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD for the best price we’ve seen. In fact, this is lower than the price we saw on Black Friday. The SN850X is the successor to the SN850 SSD. It has newer flash chips (BiCS5 vs BiCS4) and an updated firmware, which combined offer improved sequential and random read/write speeds. For PC gamers, there’s also an updated Game Mode 2.0 utility that’s designed to tune the SSD for better performance during gaming sessions.
Corsair is a very well known brand for DIY PC builders. Corsair makes some of the best gaming products on the market, and that includes solid-state memory like RAM and SSDs. The MP600 Pro is the same super-fast M.2 NVMe PCIe x4 Gen4 SSD that’s marketed for enthusiast gaming PC builds. This one is “optimized for PS5” because it includes a rugged preinstalled heatsink that is slim enough to fit in the PS5 bay without any issues. Performance wise, the MP600 Pro matches the best SSDs out there with its 7,100MB/sec sequential read and 6,800MB/sec sequential write speeds.
There may be other SSD deals out there, but these are the PS5 SSDs we’ve tried ourselves and highly recommend. They also double up as outstanding boot drives for your gaming PC, in case you don’t need additional storage for your PS5 console.
It’s extremely easy! Removing the case cover is completely toolless. In fact, the only screw you have to remove is the one that keeps the cover for the SSD bay in place. You don’t even put it back when you’re done. Sony has a quick and easy YouTube video guide.
Sony recommends you install an SSD that has an attached heatsink. If the SSD you purchase doesn’t include one, it’s simple enough to buy one for about $10 on Amazon and add it yourself. Most of these heatsinks are just attached using an adhesive like thermal tape.
For more deals, take a look at our daily deals for today.
Battlefield’s next single-player campaign appears to be a big focus for EA DICE, as the company is reportedly building a new team to support Ridgeline Games in creating the franchise’s first single-player campaign since 2018’s Battlefield V.
Ridgeline games is a new studio led by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto. The studio was established last fall to create a new narrative campaign set in the Battlefield universe. Reported by GI.biz, the new support team is a slight change of course in the previously-established plan for the Battlefield series.
EA tasked three studios with the future of Battlefield: DICE was handed the multiplayer aspect, Ridgeline Games was to work on the single-player campaign, and Ripple Effect is making a “completely different” Battlefield experience. Now, DICE is expanding to help Ridgeline Games on the campaign while continuing work on multiplayer.
We just heard last December that former Battlefield 4 producer David Sirland returned to DICE to lead development of Battlefield. In addition to producing Battlefield 4, Sirland’s long history with the franchise includes credits on Battlefield 2, Bad Company, 1, and V.
Battlefield’s last entry was 2021’s Battlefield 2042, which was met with lukewarm reception. Players were frustrated with the lack of features at launch, and the game failed to draw in the same playerbase as Battlefield 1, 4, and V. EA is still releasing new content for Battlefield 2042, with Season 4 set to kick off on February 28.
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.
Playground Games has announced that the Rally Adventure expansion will be the second piece of major DLC for Forza Horizon 5.
Announced on Forza’s YouTube channel, the expansion arrives on March 29 and includes a whole new rally career mode. A brief trailer for the expansion (below) also showed off new gameplay and teased some features that players can enjoy in the Rally Adventure DLC.
Playground also revealed some new customisation options coming to Forza Horizon 5, promising that players can “build a rally monster”.
Get your tires muddy. The Forza Horizon 5 Rally Adventure is here. pic.twitter.com/cSQz1AWVYy
— Forza Horizon (@ForzaHorizon) February 23, 2023
The first expansion was announced last June and reintroduced Hotwheels to the Forza Horizon world. The over the top toys were added to the game’s open world Mexico map and let players race through all sorts of ridiculous settings, like a loop-the-loop in a volcano.
In our 10/10 review of the base game, IGN said: “Forza Horizon 5 is the result of a racing studio at the peak of its craft and the best open-world racing game available.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
While Cal Kestis was part of a crew in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – exploring the galaxy in the Stinger Mantis ship with his mentor, Cere Junda; its captain, Greez, and (eventually) his former bitter enemy turned bestie, Nightsister Merrin – once he was boots on the ground planetside, it was largely a fairly lonely adventure. Outside, of course, of the companionship of the ever adorable BD-1.
That changes in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor thanks to the addition of Bode Akuna, a new character in Jedi Survivor, played by Noshir Dalal, who can be seen in the reveal trailer lending a hand to Cal both in a cutscene and in gameplay where he executes a cool tandem finisher on a Scout Trooper. But Bode’s presence as a companion character goes far beyond just cool finishing moves. It’s actually part of a system that Respawn has dubbed “Character-in-Gameplay.”
Characters-in-Gameplay is a term used internally at Respawn to differentiate between NPCs that accompany Cal in actual gameplay segments from characters that stayed behind at specific narrative hubs. As Senior Game Designer Jason Zhu explains it: “There was a desire for NPCs to be used as guides in the levels, and while talking it through, one thing led to another until people started wondering, ‘Why don’t we have NPC’s travel and fight alongside Cal?’”
The team then evaluated whether implementing such a system was feasible with the tech they had, and ultimately decided that it was worth the time and effort to create a system that allowed for companions to join Cal in battle. There was even a precedent already set back in Fallen Order – the boss battle against Malicos where Merrin supports you throughout the battle. That served as the jumping off point, and the character-in-gameplay system is largely an expansion of what players saw during that boss battle.
When he’s accompanying Cal, Bode will actively participate in the fight. He can attack and kill enemies on his own, draw the attention of some enemies to take pressure off the player, and you can command him to help you out by doing some sort of special move on a single target to disrupt them.
To give a specific example, Narrative Technical Designer Joanna Robb said, “When you see a good opportunity, you can give Bode the signal to perform the attack, and he’ll use his jetpack to ram the enemy with a brutal dropkick, and then he quickly follows it up by slamming down a shock grenade to stun other nearby enemies. It’s a great way to send a tough enemy flying, taking them out of the fight briefly, or you could run them down with a sprint attack to get a quick hit in.”
Robb goes on to say that there are also a lot of custom behaviors for Bode that help make him a dependable ally. Bode will respond to your own abilities and attacks with a technique of his own. If you force push an enemy, Bode will fire a charged shot that deals a ton of damage. You can even force grab a Probe Droid, toss it at a group of Stormtroopers, and Bode’s shot will essentially detonate the droid causing a big explosion that takes out the group of enemies all at once.
“We don’t necessarily tutorialize all of these behaviors, they are just designed to give you these emergent moments that are totally your own, but feel almost choreographed like you’re in one of the movies,” said Robb.
Outside of combat, Bode will follow you through the world, using his jetpack to reach places that Cal’s force powers typically allow him to reach via double jumps, wall runs, and so on. Robb said that one of the coolest parts about making an AI companion that can travel such complex spaces is how it pushed the team to develop a new Motion Matching animation system for Bode.
“He needs to be able to think very quickly about where he should go and how to get there, and the Motion Matching system allows the animations to drive his movement, which makes him much more responsive and dynamic than our other AI characters. It really makes him feel like he’s on the same level as Cal as a character with agency in the world, not just a combatant who happens to be on your side,” explained Robb.
Don’t expect Cal to always have someone covering his six, though. According to both Robb and Zhu, the prevalence of companion characters is really driven by the story. If you’re spending time exploring all of a planet’s side content, Bode will stick around on the Mantis. Robb added that, “There’s a nice rhythm to it. When the plot is reaching a peak, the companion will give extra momentum to both the narrative and gameplay.”
As far as whether or not there will be more companion characters than just Bode, Robb did say that Bode will be the first character that Cal would team up with, but rather than talk about characters that would be joining Cal as a combat companion, she preferred to rule one out.
“I’m sure many fans of the first game are dying to know if everyone’s favorite member of the Mantis crew, the stowaway bogling that Cal adopts, will also be a Character-In-Gameplay, and I regret to say that they will not,” said Robb.
Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit
