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Tears of the Kingdom Community Is Divided Over a Pretty Wild Ganondorf Theory

When Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma revealed what would become The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2014, he said the new Zelda game would be all about “revisiting the conventions of the Zelda series.” Breath of the Wild absolutely delivered on Aonuma’s promise — from a gameplay perspective, at least.

The 2017 game’s story, on the other hand, stuck very close to the rest of Zelda history: Ganon returns, and Link and Zelda must combine their powers to seal the ancient evil away… Again. But with Tears of the Kingdom on the horizon, some fans think the Breath of the Wild sequel could shake up the long-standing power struggle between the Triforce’s three main wielders.

Potential Spoiler Warning: This story goes deep into theories about what could end up happening in Tears of the Kingdom. If you don’t want to know anything ahead of the game’s release, turn away now!

Some Zelda fans on Reddit are convinced that Ganondorf could end up being the hero of Tears of the Kingdom’s story. This theory has been floating around in many fan’s heads (including my own) since some of the earliest trailers for Tears of the Kingdom, but Ganondorf’s proper reveal in the latest story trailer has the speculation picking up even more steam.

To properly explain the theory, we’ve got to go back to a key moment in Breath of the Wild. Early on in the game, Impa shares a legend with Link from the first Great Calamity that took place 10,000 years ago. There’s an image of a hero wielding the Master Sword and a Princess or Goddess figure fighting Calamity Ganon. The hero has red hair and has a green body/outfit, both of which line up with new official Ganondorf art.

Initially, fans drew comparisons to the hero’s tattered green outfit in the mural to Link’s torn green tunic from early Tears of the Kingdom trailers. This started the speculation that Tears of the Kingdom would take place across two distinct time periods: Present day following the events of Breath of the Wild, and 10,000 years ago during the events of the first Great Calamity.

But Ganondorf’s proper reveal has some fans thinking the traditional Zelda villain could actually be the true hero from the events that happened 10,000 years ago. Multiple Reddit posts are theorizing that Ganondorf could be the one wielding the Master Sword in the mural, taking matters into his own hands to put an end to the Zelda series’ endless cycle of reincarnation.

As Reddit user Must_Go_faster_84 put it, “What if this mural is depicting a non-evil Ganondorf from 10,000 years ago? He was the hero (aka the ‘Link’ of that time period) that helped Zelda defeat Calamity Ganon (which is really an incarnation of Demise). His resurrection in TOTK is Demise basically possessing the corpse of a dead hero.”

Much of this theory also draws upon the events laid out in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The 2011 Wii game takes place at the very beginning of the Zelda timeline, explaining the origins of the endless cycle of rebirth that sees Ganondorf constantly returning to fight Link and Zelda’s ancestors.

Skyward Sword explains that it’s actually Demise — the final boss of the game — that sets these events in motion. Many fans think they spotted Demise in the latest Tears of the Kingdom trailer, when a mysterious figure with flowing red hair is staring directly into the blood moon. It’s also possible this figure is just mid-transformation Ganondorf regaining his human form, but the similarities to Demise are noticeable.

And then there’s this mysterious woman who appeared in the trailer. While our initial gut reaction had us hoping this could be the Hylian Goddess Din, fan speculation has taken things in a different direction. Many believe this is the Goddess or Princess character depicted in Breath of the Wild’s mural, and others think it could be the Goddess Hylia herself, who originally created Skyloft and sealed Demise away in the events preceding Skyward Sword.

Content creator Austin John Plays was one of the first to jump on this theory, and it’s gained a lot of popularity in the last few days. Tears of the Kingdom already has very obvious similarities to Skyward Sword, given that chunks of Hyrule are rising from the ground into the clouds above.

There are a lot of fans who aren’t buying into this theory, with Reddit user thepurplecubby writing, “I see post after post after post saying that Ganondorf had to be the ancient hero because red hair. Like literally that’s the only reason. It was absolutely an artistic choice I won’t argue that. But…it throws out all existing lore and mythos that’s been well established. It was even said in the tapestry scene that the warrior used the sword that sealed the darkness and he carried the spirit of the hero. Two things Ganondorf can not and will not have.” Another Reddit post claims that the hero featured in the mural is Link, and nothing more.

It certainly seems like Tears of the Kingdom is set to deal with the Zelda series’ ongoing story of Ganondorf’s reincarnation. The game’s logo itself depicts an ouroboros, which is a dragon eating its own tail. The ouroboros represents the eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth. Maybe Tears of the Kingdom will finally end the Zelda series’ story as we know it, allowing Nintendo to set off in a fresh, new direction for the franchise’s plot in whatever comes next.

Will Ganondorf take on Demise itself, freeing himself from this endless cycle of reincarnation and violence? Or, could Tears of the Kingdom actually link back to Skyward Sword, rendering the entire Zelda timeline into an endless loop? Fans only have a few weeks left to speculate before Tears of the Kingdom launches on May 12.

For more on Zelda, check out Bucket Head, the Tears of the Kingdom character the internet is in love with. And, our opinion piece on why we’re finally ready to return to Hyrule in Tears of the Kingdom.

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

Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp Is Up for Preorder

It’s been a very long time coming, but Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp is finally coming out. It’s set to release exclusively for Nintendo Switch on April 21, which just so happens to be this Friday. Re-Boot Camp is a collection of from-the-ground-up remakes of the 2001 Game Boy Advance game Advance Wars and its 2003 sequel Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. It’s available for preorder now (see it at Amazon), so read on to see where to get it, how much it costs, and more.

Preorder Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp

Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp is only available in a standard edition. If that changes down the line, we’ll add the information here.

What Is Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp?

For years (and years, and years) strategy game fans had been pining for a new Advance Wars. But it seemed Nintendo had left the franchise behind in favor of its other turn-based strategy game series, the fantasy-flavored Fire Emblem. And while this isn’t a new entry per se, it’s good to see new life breathed into the modern military series Advance Wars.

This game contains full remakes of the first two Advance Wars games, which originally appeared on GBA in the early 2000s, before the series graduated to the Nintendo DS. In them, you’re in command of the Orange Star Army, which means you’re responsible for telling your land, sea, and air-based troops where to go and which enemies to engage. The idea is to win battles using your wits and strategy. You can play through the two campaigns, or you can go up against friends in Versus Mode.

Re-Boot Camp was originally announced with an April 2022 release date, but the war in Ukraine caused Nintendo to delay its release. (The enemy army bears some cartoonish resemblance to Russia). So after a year’s delay, it’s finally slated to release April 21, 2023.

Other Preorder Guides

Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

Capcom Accidentally Removes Ray Tracing From Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remakes on PC

Capcom has revealed that ray tracing support will return to the PC versions of Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 3 Remake in a future update after it was accidentally removed last week.

“We’re aware of an ongoing issue with the ray tracing option not appearing in the graphics menu and presets,” said the Resident Evil Twitter account (below), acknowledging the error. “We’ll have this addressed in a future update and apologise for any inconvenience.”

The issue came to light when PC players took to Steam and Reddit forums to vent their frustrations over the missing graphics options after an update was pushed out to Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remakes late last week. The option to turn on 3D audio support had also vanished from the menus of both games.

Capcom was silent about the missing options over the weekend, making it unclear as to whether the features had been removed intentionally. However, the new tweet seems to confirm the settings were removed accidentally by a bug introduced in the recent update.

This isn’t the first time that Capcom has had to fix issues with its Resident Evil PC remasters. Capcom previously allowed players to roll back to an old update after performance issues triggered an “overwhelming community response”.

IGN awarded the glow-up of Resident Evil 3 a 9/10, describing it as “a wonderful continuation of Capcom’s latest remake efforts” that did a good job “balancing 2020 gameplay and a classic Resident Evil tone”.

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

Dead Island 2 Review

Like an Orange County socialite, Dead Island 2’s great looks and seemingly ideal first impression belies a striking lack of imagination. On one hand, Dambuster Studios has delivered a charming and hilarious apocalyptic sequel to the 2011 original that’s littered with great one-liners and dismembered body parts in equal measure. But aside from its balls-to-the-wall silliness and considerable comedy chops, there just isn’t much to it that hasn’t been done better in a dozen other zombie-filled games since the original Dead Island came out more than a decade ago, including and especially Dying Light 1 and Dying Light 2 (which, notably, were made by Techland, the studio that created Dead Island). But even though it lacks originality, Dead Island 2 still competently executes on its over-the-top, LA-based zombie parody and injects some much-needed botox into a series that’s been languishing for far too long. Making Hollywood’s red carpets even redder by applying generous helpings of gore was laugh-out-loud funny and time generally well-spent.

This is a lighthearted first-person action game where committing unspeakable acts of violence against the zombie hordes of “Hell-A” is the most mundane thing about it. After choosing one of six virus-resistant playable characters aboard a failed plane evacuation, you’re thrown gore-first into the ridiculous streets of Southern California where absolutely no one seems to be taking the apocalypse seriously. Alone or with up to two co-op pals you’ll drop-kick and disembowel your way through a cattle call of the undead over the course of this 30-hour adventure, during which you’ll meet a bevy of larger-than-life quest-givers that include a drug-addled rockstar and a geriatric former movie star who gets his fashion tips from Hugh Hefner.

Like a cheesy B-movie, the story makes so little effort to produce anything approaching coherence that the attempt itself may in fact be sarcastic, and that fits in quite nicely with the absurdist tone of an adventure where some zombies have hives of aggressive bees stuck in their torsos. What few twists and turns exist in this familiar apocalyptic tale aren’t terribly surprising or interesting, and that highlights one of the many ways Dead Island 2 feels like a game I’ve played several times before.

Dead Island 2 feels like a game I’ve played several times before.

The good news is, although it lacks storytelling substance, that meandering odyssey at least has some very funny writing and memorable characters throughout, and the fact that both are completely unhinged works to Dead Island 2’s advantage. One chapter had me searching for a squeamish assistant on the set of a horror movie featuring a giant, acid-spitting mechanical spider, while a sidequest had me slaying zombies in creative ways for the benefit of a social media influencer looking to boost her clout. The numerous ways in which the developers expertly poke fun at the stereotypical vanity and vapidness of the Los Angeles setting is reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto 5’s Los Santos in the best kind of way.

Many of the steady stream of laughs comes out of your chosen protagonist, who mocks most everything and everyone around them. For example, the character I played as the most, Jacob, repeatedly questioned the motives of a zombie clown who stalked a kid-friendly carnival in a section that had me cackling uncontrollably. One downer, though, is that a lot of the fantastic dialogue is stepped on by NPCs who use the same dialogue no matter which character you’re playing as. All too often, this means they’re oblivious to the hilarious thing your character said and just moving on with whatever they wanted to tell you. Other than that, though, great writing is helped along by high-quality voice performances as you recklessly charge your way through whatever preposterous hijinks before you, and that’s hands-down the best part of Dead Island 2.

Great comedy writing is hands-down the best part of Dead Island 2.

If you’ve ever braved a virtual zombie apocalypse before, then you’ll be quite familiar with the combat formula that this cheeky iteration sticks quite close to. You start with basic melee weapons like baseball bats and hammers before crafting more elaborate tools of destruction like an electric katana or the demon lovechild of a sledgehammer and a flamethrower, and eventually guns, too. But while the more eccentric melee options have interesting designs, in practice they don’t feel much different than their unmodded peers, aside from applying various status effects, so they aren’t as exciting as they look. The melee creations at your disposal are also far less original and crazy than the kinds of bonkers weapons we got to play with in the Dead Rising series – you definitely won’t be seeing any umbrella lasers or sledgehammers with grenades duct taped to them, for example.

Because of that, the novelty with Dead Island 2’s by-the-numbers close-quarters combat wears thin quite quickly. Despite how they look and how they sound on paper, there’s simply a lack of variety in the way the available tools of destruction work, and the fact that fighting against this zombie horde is about as challenging as whacking a T-ball off a stand. You can only slice a brain-eater in half so many times before the monotony sets in and you start to feel as jaded as Woody Harelson in Zombieland, and there aren’t enough late-game changes to inject any kind of variety into the mix. Multiplayer is the best remedy for staving off repetition, since it’s a laughing riot when friends are there to help you dropkick enemies off of rooftops.

It’s a laughing riot when friends are there to help you dropkick enemies off of rooftops.

One thing that took some tension out of it, though, is that alone or as a team, failure becomes an increasingly rare occurrence. You unlock ample tools to keep yourself standing atop the pile of undead corpses instead of being swallowed beneath it, but the threats don’t keep pace and there aren’t any difficulty options to up the challenge. For example, it’s crazy that a perfectly timed dodge or parry, both of which have a very generous window, makes you invulnerable as you execute the offending zombie, restoring a good chunk of your health in the process (if you’ve got the right skill equipped). As a result, I never really felt like I was in any kind of danger. There’s nothing actively awful about getting up close and personal against the undead, but I definitely felt blasé about my title as the Los Angeles area’s newly appointed king of extreme plastic surgery after only a couple hours.

Matters are made worse with the introduction of ranged weapons, which feel sloppy, inaccurate, and don’t benefit from most of the melee-focused skills and upgrades. Guns almost feel like an afterthought that was tacked onto the sandbox at the last minute, but never tuned to feel good. Not only are firearms rarely the most effective method for mowing down zombies, but ammo is extremely limited and firing them never satisfies. Beyond that, the steady stream of zombies coming at you from all directions means you rarely find yourself in a situation where you’re able to fire on the enemy before getting interrupted by a quick-time event to shove a pushy zombie away, which forces you back into melee. Also, owing to my time parkouring around Villedor in Dying Light 2 just last year, movement during combat in Dead Island 2 feels downright sluggish by comparison.

Ammo is extremely limited and firing guns never satisfies.

It’s not all underwhelming news, though. In a fantastic change from previous Dead Island/Dying Light games, consumable tools like grenades, molotov cocktails, and shurikens are replenished via cooldown rather than having a finite amount that you craft and use. That ensured I made liberal use of gadgets instead of hoarding them for fear of a future scenario where I’d require them that never comes.

Another thing that keeps combat fresh is a steady stream of passive perks and active abilities that unlock as you progress through side quests and stories. By the end, a wide variety of options are available to customize your character to fit the playstyle you favor, which in my case was optimizing my attack speed to be ultra fast and making counter-attacks following perfect parries as devastating as possible. There’s even special options depending on which character you’re playing, which play into their particular strengths. If you want to get extra weird, you also gain access to superhuman powers like a powerful AoE ground pound or the ability to enter a frenzied rage and tear zombies apart with your bare hands. Though these powers have cooldowns and mostly serve as a way to break up the otherwise conventional hacking and slashing, it does go a long way to making repetitive combat encounters more interesting.

If you want to get extra weird, you also gain access to superhuman powers.

In addition to the bugs that creep out of torso-mounted beehives, Dead Island 2 is also host to a variety of less amusing technical bugs. It was nothing game-breaking, but I saw people sink into the ground during cutscenes, captions that lied about who was speaking, and plenty of other unintentional silliness. Multiplayer makes a somewhat buggy game even more unpredictable by introducing lag, disappearing characters, and a whole host of other issues. Usually these things just make the already rowdy streets of Hollywood even more ridiculous and hardly ever get in the way of having a good time, but it does give Dead Island 2 a somewhat unpolished feel.

My final gripe is that there’s an annoying rule where no one can join your game unless they’re at the same part or further along in the campaign as you, meaning you’ll have to backtrack a lot to help friends catch up with you if you want to play together – only to have to do so again if one of you gets ahead of the other player down the line. It’s an especially weird decision because I can’t think of a single plot development that’s meaningful enough to warrant protecting against spoilers in this way.

UK Daily Deals: Last Chance to Save Over £16 on Your Star Wars Jedi Survivor Preorder

This might be the absolute best Star Wars Jedi Survivor deal we see before release day on April 28, but you’ve only got the rest of the day to secure it (April 18). You can currently get 15% off select purchases from trusted retailers at eBay, and this includes the Star Wars Jedi Survivor listing at The Game Collection.

Down to just £53.51 after using the promo code APRIL15 at checkout, you’re saving a total of £16.49 on your preorder. This is an awesome deal on one of the most anticipated games of 2023, and well worth checking out before the promo code expires today.

It’s a big few weeks for games as well, as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is also out on May 12; preorders are also down to £44.99 at Currys with code ZELDA25 at checkout. We’ve left some handy links to the preorder deal just below, and make sure you’re following @IGNUKDeals on Twitter for more updates.

TL;DR – Best UK Deals Right Now

Best Star Wars Jedi Survivor Preorder Deal (Use Code APRIL15)

Just a quick reminder, that this is you’re absolutely last chance on this deal, as the APRIL15 promo code will expire after midnight on April 18. You’ve got until the end of the day to secure this preorder, so don’t hang around if you’re looking to play on release day.

Incredible LEGO Discounts on Amazon

Whether you’re looking to build your collection or buying a gift for someone else, Amazon has plenty of LEGO deals that are worth checking out. From new sets like the Star Wars BD-1 Posable Droid to even more obsecure sets like the Harry Potter Hungarian Horntail Dragon, there’s something for everyone.

Best Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Preorder Deal (Use Code ZELDA25)

Bonus: Where to Preorder Tears of the Kingdom – Switch OLED Model

If you’re looking to add the special Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED model to your collection, then look no further. Preorders for this special edition console are still available and will launch on April 28, just a few weeks before the new game.

PC Accessories Brand Week at Amazon

Amazon are running a bumper sale on a range of PC and gaming accessories this week. Steel series items are still discounted, which we’ve covered this week already, but there is also a range of Logitech PC accessories at slashed prices now too. Check it out.

3-Months of Audible for 99p (was £23.97)

This is a great deal on Audible. For 99p you’re essentially getting three audiobooks of your choosing (one per month), alongside the whole Audible podcast catalogue. Some of my favourites I’ve listened to on Audible this year include Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino, Strong Female Character by Fern Brady, and I Am Not Nicholas by Jane MacSorley.

But there’s plenty else to choose from as well, such as The Sandman, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Dune, Lord of the Rings, and more. For 99p, you’re getting plenty of value out of Audible, so I defintiely recommened giving it a go. (This is for new and returning subscribers only)

Latest 4K UHD Preorders and Deals: Mario Movie, The Last of Us and More

There’s some pretty awesome 4K UHD and Blu-ray preorders that the IGN UK audience have been loving recently. At the top of these is The Last of Us Season 1 steelbook, but we’ve had a couple of new popular preorders announced recently as well. Both John Wick 4 and the Mario movie are getting the special edition or steelbook treatment, and you can check out the preorders for both just below as well.

Latest UK Random Deals: My Top Picks Right Now

It’s a roll of the dice. These are my absolute favourite deals that are available right now, but don’t necessarily fit anywhere else, making them a little bit more random compared to everything else in Daily Deals.

Check Out These PS5 and PlayStation Spring Sale Deals

PlayStation’s Spring Sale has brought with it a number of excellent deals on PS5 consoles and bundles, alongside some wonderful physical and digital PS5 video game deals. This includes the likes of The Last of Us Part 2 for £8.74, Dead Space for £44.99, Hogwarts Legacy for £44.99, Ratchet and Clank for £29.99, and plenty alongside. You can also save even more on digital purchases if you invest in some discounted PlayStation gift cards from ShopTo.

PS5 and PS4 Digital Spring Sale Deals

Save Big on Digital Purchases with These Discounted Gift Cards

If you’re buying anything in the PlayStation Digital sale, then here’s how you can save a little extra money along the way. UK online retailer ShopTo has currently got a brilliant selection of PlayStation Gift Cards at discounted prices; for example a £50 card for £42.85 instead. Not only do these make great gifts, but they’re also perfect for topping up your own PSN account as well.

The only catch with these is that the best value comes from spending £50 or above, so only do this if you’re planning on make lots of digital purchases, or a couple of big ones. For example, if you buy two £50 cards, gaining £100 in total, you’re only paying £85.70, which is a £14.30 saving right out the gate. There’s more gift cards available, so I’ve left some handy links just below. And don’t worry, ShopTo is a trusted seller, and we feature deals from them all the time so you’re absolutely in safe hands when purchasing.

PS5 and PS4 Physical Video Game Sale

Best PS5 and Xbox Series X Console Deals in the UK

This is the first big PS5 bundle deal we’re getting in the UK, with £40 off the original list price of £540. With PS5 consoles costing £479.99 right now, this essentially means you’re getting God of War Ragnarok for £20. It’s a great deal, but there are a few others to check out below as well.

Best Blanket Hoodie Deals in The UK Right Now

You love these, we love these. And to be fair, a blanket that you can wear, what’s not to love about that? These usually end up confined to the random deals section but we want to give you a nice selection today. Spring time in the UK means endless rain, get comfy and chill out in front of the telly.

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

Monster Hunter Now Is the Next Game from Pokemon GO Developer Niantic

Pokemon Go developer Niantic and Capcom have announced Monster Hunter Now, a real-world action RPG mobile game that is set to be released in September 2023 on iOS and Android devices that will allow you and your friends to take down iconic monsters like the Rathalos and Great Jagras on your next walk around the neighborhood.

IGN and other members of the press were able to attend a hands-off presentation of Monster Hunter Now and the team made it very clear that they want to keep the best parts of Monster Hunter intact during the transition to the mobile space. Additionally, Monster Hunter Now is meant to be accessible to newcomers and veterans of the franchise alike.

Some of these veterans and newcomers will be able to test that promise for themselves as Monster Hunter Now’s closed beta will begin on April 25. Players can register for the beta on MonsterHunterNow.com and the team confirmed that those accepted will be able to battle monsters with the Sword and Shield, Great Sword, and Light Bowgun. Now, on to the game itself.

Much like Pokemon GO, Monster Hunter Now will have players encountering monsters as they walk around the real world. However, it differs from Pokemon GO when the battles take place as it becomes an action RPG that is reminiscent of its console counterpart, if a bit simplified. Via taps and flicks, players will be able to use their favorite weapons to take down massive monsters in a stylish and powerful way. Niantic also teased that there will be a story of sorts in Monster Hunter Now and that new and familiar faces will show up along the way.

Players can adventure alone or with up to four friends, and there will be an option to team up with other hunters that are near you that are also playing Monster Hunter Now. Niantic wasn’t ready to get into all the details about how you can play with friends, especially those who may not live near you, but the multiplayer experience is a huge priority for the game.

As for the battles themselves, they will last up to 75 seconds and are aiming to be as fun and chaotic as a traditional Monster Hunter battle is. Parts will be flying off the monsters as you attack them, and the weapons and combat look similar to what fans are used to. Players will also have the choice to battle in vertical or landscape modes.

With the Paintball mechanic, you can tag a monster and then finish that battle once you get home or whenever it is more convenient for you.

Rewards from those battles will be resources and monster parts that, in traditional Monster Hunter fashion, will let players create and upgrade gear that they can then take with them to battle to become more powerful and repeat that loop again.

Two other integral parts of Monster Hunter Now are your Palico companion and the Paintball mechanic. The Palico, which fans of the franchise will recognize as the wonderful cat-like creatures, will accompany each player on their adventures and will also be able to utilize the aforementioned Paintball mechanic.

Monster Hunter Now encourages players to get out and walk around their hometowns, by their work, on their travels, and much more. However, things may pop up that will prevent you from finishing a battle or encountering a particular monster. With the Paintball mechanic, you can tag a monster and then finish that battle once you get home or whenever it is more convenient for you.

Furthermore, Palicos will hunt monsters even when you aren’t playing the game and will tag them with Paintballs so you can challenge them when you are home, at work, etc. Alongside this being a very useful feature for not missing monsters, it will also give friends and family more chances to fight together when the time is right.

As for how you find the monsters to fight, there will be Wayspots/landmarks around the game world that will offer players resources when they are found. Monsters will spawn around these, but they will also appear randomly in the wild, which will be helpful for those who live in rural areas or places without a ton of landmarks.

There will also be an option use AR to see these monsters come to life in your town. In a short video shown during the presentation, we saw a player running up to meet his friends in a city and, when the camera panned up, we caught a glimpse of a massive Rathalos hovering above them with the skyline in the background.

As previously mentioned, Monster Hunter Now will be released on iOS and Android devices in September 2023 and will be a free-to-play game with items to purchase at an additional cost. The team wasn’t willing to go into too much detail about the monetization strategy, but it was promised that there will be a “good balance” between the free experience and the one “enhanced” by the purchasing of items.

We also want to remind those interested that the Monster Hunter Now closed beta will begin on April 25 and registration is now open at MonsterHunterNow.com.

Monster Hunter Now has been in the works for about four years and it’s a project that garnered a ton of excitement right from the start. In fact, Ryozo Tsujimoto, a director and executive corporate officer at Capcom and the Monster Hunter series producer, said he can “still remember the first meeting. I immediately replied, ‘Let’s do it!” without a second thought.”

For more, check out all the details and our review of the Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak expansion, which will finally arrive on more platforms on April 28, 2023.

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

Obsidian Director Recalls ‘Dysfunction’ Around Sega’s Shelved Aliens RPG

Alien has a long history with shooters, but not so much with RPGs. Obsidian tried to change that in the 2000s with Aliens: Crucible, an early Onyx engine game published by Sega described as “Mass Effect but more terrifying.” It was ultimately shelved with little explanation and subsequently forgotten until this past weekend, when Pentiment director Josh Sawyer talked about some of what he described as the “dysfunction” around the project.

“I got to work on an Aliens RPG for SEGA from 2006-2009. Obsidian didn’t have directors at that time, just leads who were all considered peers. It resulted in a lot of dysfunction when the leads didn’t agree on how to do something,” he explained.

In the thread that followed, Sawyer said that progress on Crucible was “slow,” and that Obsidian had “a lot of cool ideas in the works, but you don’t ship ideas.” One of those purported ideas, which has been described elsewhere, is that squadmates could get impregnated, whereupon you would have to decide whether to mercy kill them, put them in a sleep chamber and use them sparingly, or simply let them pop.

Ultimately, Sawyer’s biggest takeaway was that if you don’t have playable levels “you don’t have much of a game.” Thus, Obsidian moved on to Alpha Protocol, its secret agent RPG that retains a small but fervent fanbase to this day.

If you want to see some of Obsidian’s ideas in action, though, Sawyer does say there’s an alternative.

“I was happy to play Aliens: Fireteam Elite because the overall setup was similar: small team, 3rd person, with an emphasis on deployables and support actions. The similarities ended there, but it was nice to see the idea could actually be fun in practice. RIP, squad,” Sawyer wrote.

Sawyer also opened up about Aliens: Crucible in an interview for IGN Unfiltered back in 2018, where he talked more about his ideas behind the game while admitting that it was “too little, too late.”

As for Obsidian, the studio is now owned by Xbox, where it’s currently in the midst of developing Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2. Sawyer himself is coming off the success of Pentiment, which won Best Narrative at the 2023 Game Developer Choice Awards.

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.

Longtime Halo Developer Frank O’Connor’s Departure Confirmed by Microsoft

Frank O’Connor is the latest longtime Halo developer to depart the series, with Xbox confirming to Axios in a statement that the longtime franchise director has departed after two decades with the series.

“We thank Frank for his numerous contributions to the Halo franchise and wish him well going forward,” Microsoft said in a statement.

Rumors of O’Connor’s departure began when fans noted a Linkedin update showing that he was no longer with the company. He began as a content manager for Bungie in late 2003, where he wrote the Bungie Weekly Update. He joined Microsoft Studios in 2008, which allowed him to stay with the franchise even after Bungie split.

He was a familiar figure among Halo fans, appearing in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn as Beamish the Janitor and co-authoring Halo: Evolutions – Essential Tales of the Halo Universe. He subsequently rose to the role of development director on Halo 5 and Halo Infinite, frequently serving as a spokeperson for the franchise.

His departure follows on the heels of Joseph Staten, who joined Halo Infinite in 2020 in an effort to get the troubled project ready for launch. Staten announced today that he is joining Netflix Games to lead the development of a AAA game.

As for O’Connor, his next destination is currently unclear. O’Connor’s last tweet was in January, and he offered no hints of leaving Microsoft.

Wherever he ends up, it seems that much of the old guard has left Halo, and with Halo Infinite struggling to meet its high expectations, it’s unclear where the series will go next.

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.

Former Star Wars Battlefront 3 Dev Claims It Was ’99 Percent’ Done, but the History Is Complicated

“I feel like it’s been long enough now to come out and say Star Wars Battlefront III was gonnae [sic] be legit incredible and the fact it got cancelled 2 yards from the finish line is an absolute crime,” former Star Wars Battlefront 3 developer Michael Barclay tweeted over the weekend.

Barclay was referring to Free Radical’s Star Wars Battlefront 3, which was in development until it was canceled in 2008. His statement came in response to a simple question posed at developers: “Alright #gamedev folks, what’s your ‘one that got away?’ It can be an IP you wanted to work on, a studio you wanted to work for, anything of the sort.”

Barclay, who now works as a lead designer at Naughty Dog, shared his own story and added, “Gamers don’t know what they were robbed of.”

Battlefront III’s complicated history.

Barclay’s claim isn’t a new one. Way back in 2012, Free Radical cofounder Steve Ellis also claimed that Star Wars Battlefront 3 was “99 percent done.” This prompted a former LucasArts employee to lash out at the studio, which has since undergone multiple iterations before reopening under Deep Silver in 2021.

“This 99 percent complete stuff is just bullsh*t,” the former employee claimed to GameSpot at the time. “A generous estimate would be 75 percent of a mediocre game.”

They went on to claim that Free Radical continually missed milestones and that the game didn’t work in 2007, but that LucasArts was “desperate” for what was then a next-gen follow-up to Battlefront on Xbox 360 and PS3, not the least because Star Wars Battlefront and its sequel sold extremely well on PS2 and Xbox.

The claims led to a war of words in the press, with Ellis posting a lengthy statement claiming that Battlefront 3 being “75 percent of a mediocre game” was “false” while pointing to leaked footage that he said backed him up. He went on to say that “LucasArts was a company with problems in 2008.” Shortly after Ellis’ comments, LucasArts was shuttered by Disney, which had acquired Star Wars the year before.

IGN reached out to Barclay to see if he had additional context to add, but did not receive a response.

Gamers don’t know what they were robbed of.

Plenty of footage and even a playable build would emerge in the years that followed, allowing fans to decide for themselves what they were missing. Much of that footage would ultimately be pulled, with Battlefront III ultimately being lost to history.

EA would later reboot the series, though with notable differences from the original LucasArts games, such as how it handled space battles. The original Battlefront games remain beloved fan-favorites for the way that they combined the prequel and original trilogy eras, pitting players against each in large-scale space battles where they could board and attack enemy capital ships. It included an extensive single-player game, which EA’s games would not get until the sequel.

You can still play the original Star Wars Battlefront 2, though it requires some setup to work properly. It was voted the fifth best Star Wars game ever by IGN readers, with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic coming in at number one.

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.

Diablo 4: ‘No Plans’ for Map Overlay at Launch as Blizzard’s RPG Goes Gold

Diablo 4 has gone gold, but there are currently no plans for a quality-of-life feature that’s been a series staple. On Twitter, the official Diablo account confirmed that the game has gone gold ahead of its June 6 release date.

However, it seems the launch of Diablo 4 won’t include a fan-favorite feature that makes exploring more convenient: An overlay map. When asked on Twitter if a TAB overlay map will eventually get added to Diablo 4, Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson simply replied, “No plans at the moment.”

Overlay maps allow players to look at the map while still maintaining control of their character. They’re perfect for a top-down multiplayer game like Diablo where you’ll likely want to examine your surroundings without pausing the game entirely.

It seems that the developers at Blizzard want players to instead focus on the world they’ve created, rather than just constantly following icons on a map. With the absence of an overlay map, Diablo 4 players will have to adjust to using the minimap or pausing to view the entire map.

Fan reactions from Fergusson’s announcement have been mixed, with one Twitter user saying the overlay map, “used to be the default ideal way to play and brought a decent amount of clutter as a result. No harm in trying new things!”

But many fans are resistant to the change, with one reply saying, “This should definitely be an option. A minimap in the corner isn’t sufficient and opening your map constantly while moving is a hassle.”

It’s entirely possible Blizzard could eventually implement an overlay map If the demand for the feature is strong enough. Blizzard has already made a ton of changes to Diablo 4 based on fan feedback from the game’s betas. We also know Blizzard will be working on this game for quite some time, as the developer recently detailed its battle pass plans.

For more on Diablo 4, check out our Diablo 4 review in progress that includes our updated beta impressions. And, check out seven things we’d like to see return in Diablo 4.

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