Beloved YouTuber Shirley Curry, colloquially known as the Skyrim Grandma, has announced her retirement from making gameplay videos after doing so for nine years.
A YouTube video announcing her retirement aged 88 has an appropriate 8,800 upvotes on Reddit, where fans of her content thanked her for making videos for so many years and crossed their fingers for a return when The Elder Scrolls 6 finally comes out.
Curry said she won’t be making gameplay videos anymore simply because she no longer enjoys it, but isn’t quitting YouTube altogether. She’ll continue posting vlogs once in a while and may occasionally do reading videos of the books in Skyrim or even her own stories.
“I’m just doing it for fun and it isn’t fun anymore,” Curry said. “I’m tired of it. I’m bored with it. I’m bored to death with it. So I am making the decision now, totally, finally. I am not going to be making any more game videos and uploading them.”
With her new free time, Curry is going to make a quilt, read some more, and maybe even write a book. And she’ll make vlogs about all of the above.
Whether or not she returns to making gameplay videos when The Elder Scrolls 6 comes out remains to been, but Curry’s legacy with the franchise is already immortalised. Having amassed more than a million subscribers, she has long since gained recignition from other members of the Skyrim community and even developer Bethesda itself.
Fans petitioned to have Curry immortalised in the next game back in 2018, and Bethesda eventually responded and, as reported by Eurogamer, announced she would get her own NPC character in the highly anticipated game.
These deals just scratch the surface of what’s out there, though. Whether you play on PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PC, you’ll find the very best deals listed below. And if you’ve taken advantage of lots of these deals, see our roundup of game storage ideas.
Best Xbox Game Pass Deals
One of our favorite Xbox Game Pass Ultimate deals has returned at Woot, providing another opportunity for users to stack their membership at a discounted rate. You can get three months of the service for just $36.49, which is a great price on its own, but by using the code ‘ULTIMATE‘ at checkout you can knock off an extra $3 to bring it to $33.49. This price won’t stick around for long, so act fast to secure your membership.
Nintendo Switch Mario Kart 8 Holiday Bundles Are Live
Black Friday has arrived a little early for Nintendo fans. For the past few years, Switch holiday bundles with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have dropped during the holiday sale event. If you’ve been itching to pick up one of these bundles, you thankfully don’t need to wait until November as the Standard and brand new OLED bundle are already live at Best Buy! With these bundles, you’re essentially getting the game for free, which is totally worth it.
Best PC Game Deals
There are plenty of excellent deals for PC players to enjoy right now, including a discount on the biggest single-player game of the year, Black Myth: Wukong, and a discount on the newly released Space Marine 2. You can also score a fantastic deal at Fanatical right now on Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. There’s truly no better time to journey to the Realm of Shadow. You can check out even more of our favorite PC game deals below.
Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 8 RTX 4080 SUPER PC for $1999
Do you prefer to play on a dedicated PC tower? Navigating the options online can be quite the ordeal. Desk space, portability, and price point are often factors in the decision. However, there are some great PC deals that pop up every now and again that are worth jumping on. One of our favorite deals at the moment is on thisLenovo Legion 7i Gen 8 RTX 4080 SUPER PC for $1999 (with code ‘CRAZYLEGION2‘). To see even more PC deals, check out our roundup of the best gaming PC deals.
Our Favorite Micro SD Cards for Switch and Steam Deck Are On Sale
The best Switch SD card should be fast, reliable, and as future-proof as possible. That last one is important, especially with the Switch successor on the horizon. Therefore, you’re going to want to opt for the latest in SD card tech, which is a micro SDXC UHS-I U3 A2 V30 memory card. That’s a lot of random letters, so to save you a bit of time we’ve left our top suggestions and deals just above and below for your convenience (like this excellent deal on a Lexar 1TB PLAY microSDXC Memory Card for $74.99). To see even more SD card deals, make sure to check out our roundup of the best SD card deals.
More Switch Micro SD Card Deals
Perfect PS5 2TB SSD with Heatsink for $139.99
SSD prices have been rising in 2024 but, with significant discounts available, now is the perfect time to buy. This is one of the best deals on a 2TB SSD at the moment: You can score the 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530R PS5 SSD with Heatsink for $139.99 at Amazon and Best Buy. This deal isn’t the only one worth checking out right now, either. You can see even more of our favorite SSD deals below.
Best Power Bank Deals
Looking for a new power bank? This incredible deal on the Anker PowerCore 737 is absolutely worth checking out. Featuring a spacious 24,000mAh capacity and a hefty 140W charging output, it’s a fantastic pick for your Nintendo Switch. We also featured it in our list of the best power banks for 2024, so it’s well worth investing in.
Save on Select Xbox Controllers
There are a few Xbox controller deals that are worth taking advantage of right now. At Amazon, you can save on a variety of different color controllers (including Shock Blue, Robot White, Velocity Green, and Pulse Red), which are down to $44. While not as low as they were during the two-day Prime Day sale event, they’re still worth picking up at these prices. Check those deals out and more at the links below.
The price for the PlayStation 30th Anniversary PS5 Slim bundle as well as the PlayStation 30th Anniversary DualSense controller have reportedly been revealed.
In an article on Dealabs, reliable PlayStation leaker billbil-kun said the limited edition PS5 Slim console bundle will cost $499.99. Billbil-kun estimated that the bundle will cost around €519.99 and £449.99 in Europe.
The DualSense 30th Anniversary controller, meanwhile, costs $79.99, which is the same price as the recently released DualSense Astro Bot controller. Billbil-kun estimates the price of this controller in Europe is €79.99 and £69.99.
Last week, Sony announced new limited editions of the PS5 and the PS5 Pro that in design terms are reminiscent of the very first PlayStation console to launch on December 3, 1994. This limited edition offering utilizes the original PlayStation color design and integrates it into the latest line of PS5 hardware products. Sony warned the PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection will be sold in “highly limited supply.”
The PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle includes the limited edition PS5 Digital Edition console with 1TD SSD and matching limited edition accessories – DualSense wireless controller and a Console Cover for a Disc Drive (the Disc Drive is sold separately). It also includes a Vertical Stand and the following special collector’s items:
Original PlayStation controller-style cable connector housing
Four PlayStation Shapes cable ties
PlayStation sticker
Limited Edition PlayStation Poster (1 of 30 possible designs)
PlayStation Paperclip
Billbil-kun does not have pricing information for the PlayStation 5 Pro Console – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition BundIe, the PlayStation Portal Remote Player – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition, or the DualSense Edge Wireless Controller – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition. They said to expect a final price on September 26, when pre-orders open on PlayStation Direct. Sony has yet to officially announce any pricing.
The PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection will be released on November 21. There will be 12,300 units of the PlayStation 5 Pro Console – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Bundle available, with limited edition numbers etched onto the unit. The number represents the month and date of the first PlayStation console launch.
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.
Speaking exclusively to IGN as part of a sweeping post-launch interview just over two weeks after Space Marine 2’s record-breaking launch, Saber Interactive Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits said the success of the game would even positively affect its future projects.
While neither Saber nor publisher Focus Entertainment have announced a sales figure for Space Marine 2, Focus has confirmed over two million played at launch. In fact, Space Marine 2 is the most-played Warhammer video game of any type ever released on Steam, with 225,690 peak concurrent players on Valve’s platform.
Willits won’t go into hard numbers for Space Marine 2’s success, either in revenue or profit terms, but did tell IGN that the budget for the game was less than half that of Doom Eternal, the last game he was id Software studio director on before leaving to join Saber in 2019. The suggestion here, of course, is that Space Marine 2, which launched priced $59.99 on Steam and $69.99 on console, has already provided a highly profitable endeavor for all involved.
While Space Marine 2 leans on the power of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 brand, its back-to-basics approach to the action genre and eye-catching alien swarm tech that puts hundreds of Tyranid creatures on-screen at once has wowed critics and gamers. Just shy of three weeks from release, Willits is hopeful Space Marine 2 will end up seeing the sort of player numbers Saber’s co-op zombie shooter World War Z has. World War Z, whose zombie swarm tech was used as the basis of Space Marine 2’s Tyranid swarm tech, has seen 25 million players since going on sale in 2019.
“With Space Marine 2, it really does change everything,” Willits said. “During our company party, I gave a little 30-second speech and I told the whole team, this changes everything we do moving forward, from our small games like our third-party publishing games, to A Quiet Place next month. We have Toxic Command coming up with Focus soon. Everything that we do now, this changes.
“And as employees, and I know this firsthand, when you have a big hit and you have that internet kind of popularity, there’s more passion and there’s more responsibility for the quality that you do. And you look at yourself through a different lens. And sometimes that success lens can be a little dangerous because then you get so paranoid about making sure everything is great that you overstress about things, but it’s that success lens that really drives amazing games into the future. So I do believe that through the success lens that we have, we will just make far better products in the future.”
In practical terms, the success of Space Marine 2 means Saber staff can now “dream bigger,” Willits said. Saber will make good on its original post-launch plan, which involves new missions, modes, maps, enemies, and weapons, but it will also make “adjustments” fueled by Space Marine 2’s now confirmed success — once the dust settles.
There is now the possibility of story DLC, Willits confirmed, with ideas floating around for a potential Space Marine 3. Without spoiling the Space Marine 2 campaign, it strongly suggests a continuation (IGN has reported on the probably new enemy faction we’ll see in Space Marine 3), and given the success of the game, this is now a case of when, not if.
“Our game director Dmitry Grigorenko, he has proposed some story ideas that could either be DLC or a sequel,” Willits said. “We’re literally just catching our breath. This is two weeks out. We just need to get the dust to settle. But I can confidently say that we will not disappoint our Warhammer fans in the future. It’s too big of a success! I know that’s an obvious thing to say, but hopefully we’ll be working on Space Marine content for a long time.”
For Space Marine 3, Willits said, Saber would need to work with publisher Focus as well as Games Workshop once again. “We just have to figure it out. I would love to do it, yes,” he continued. “Yes, yes, yes! There’s so many different factions… there are other chapters, too, that are interesting…”
In the shorter term, Saber is working on adding new classes, which will be released for free and, hopefully, will add some variety to Space Marine 2’s gameplay. Willits wouldn’t be drawn on which classes are coming, though fans are hopeful for a Chaplain or an Apothecary. The post-launch plan, though, is informed by the continued success of World War Z, which has retained a loyal player base through the release of new and free classes in the years since launch.
“One of the reasons why we got 25 million people in World War Z is because every time we release a new DLC pack or a free class and we had a sale, people buy it. We literally see a spike,” Willits said. “We put out a video promoting a new character pack, we see a spike in sales. So it just drives attention and drives awareness.
“There’s always one guy that says, ‘guys, come on, there’s new stuff coming up.’ And then, ‘okay,’ so three other people are like, ‘it’s only five bucks, let’s buy it.’ And so you get this kind of group FOMO thing going on that really helps. And we had so much success with that model. That’s what we’ll do.”
We are focused on development. We look forward to sharing more when the time is right. There you go, brother.
Saber is already thinking about its other announced games in development as it continues to shift staff from projects ramping down to projects ramping up. Willits has already mentioned A Quiet Place The Road Ahead, a video game based on the hit horror movie franchise it’s publishing next month, and John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, another co-op focused shooter that makes use of Saber’s swarm tech. With Space Marine 2 out the door, expect to hear more on Toxic Commando soon.
Then, there’s Jurassic Park Survival, a single-player action adventure game set on Isla Nublar the day after the events of the beloved 1993 Jurassic Park film. There’s no release date on that one. And, further ahead, the big one: Saber’s troubled Star Wars The Knights of the Old Republic remake, which the company continues to insist is in development.
When asked if the success of Space Marine 2 had increased the likelihood of KOTOR becoming a reality, Willits, expecting to be asked about the MIA remake, turned to a prepared statement:
“Right now, we are focused on development. We look forward to sharing more when the time is right. There you go, brother.”
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.
PlayStation’s classics are finally getting the love they deserve! @pushsquare dives into how PS Plus Premium is reviving forgotten gems just in time for the brand’s 30th anniversary.
“Like, why would anyone play this?” This flippant, out of context quote from former PlayStation bigwig Jim Ryan followed him everywhere. The executive had been speaking at a Gran Turismo event, where the latest in the series at the time, Gran Turismo Sport on the PS4, was being demoed alongside the PlayStation originals. “The PS1 and PS2 games look ancient,” he exclaimed. “Like, why would anyone play this?”
As frustration among PlayStation fans grew, these off-the-cuff remarks from Ryan took on a life of their own: many assumed Sony, under his leadership, hated its legacy. The executive later clarified in an interview with Axios Gaming that he “wasn’t trying to be disrespectful of our heritage”. He explained: “I guess my big learning from all of this is when [Gran Turismo creator] Kazunori Yamauchi unveils his next game side-by-side with its history, I will keep my mouth shut.”
But actions speak louder than words and many fans have been waiting for Sony to actually do something with its back catalogue that proves it cares about the games from its past. I believe, while far from perfect, PS Plus Premium is quietly amassing a catalogue of deep cuts from PlayStation’s history that fans absolutely should be paying attention to. And as nostalgia builds ahead of the brand’s 30th anniversary – with that sumptuous collection of new PS5 hardware available to pre-order soon – it’s something that both long-time fans and newcomers should be paying attention to.
For example, this week saw the release of Mister Mosquito on PS5 and PS4, a largely forgotten 2001 title from Japanese developer Zoom which encapsulates everything great about PlayStation first-party in the PS2 era. As its name implies, this game sees you buzzing around the unsuspecting Yamada family’s home, drawing blood without arousing suspicion in some of the zaniest gameplay you’re likely to find on any format today. The original was brought overseas by Eidos under license from Sony, but is reproduced with Trophies and various quality of life features here.
While there’s clearly more Sony could be doing here, I really appreciate how many games are being given a new lease of life with the inclusion of Trophies.
Many games are also making their European debuts as part of Sony’s hushed retro push. Earlier in the year, Level-5’s legendary PSP tactics game Jeanne d’Arc launched into PS Plus Premium, marking the first time it’s been officially available outside of Japan and North America; Sony famously passed on publishing the game in Europe, despite its story being loosely inspired by Joan of Arc and the Hundred Years’ War in the 15th Century. Similarly, cult PS2 aerial combat game Sky Gunner was ported to the PS5 and PS4 this week, marking another European debut.
While there’s clearly more Sony could be doing here, with its official emulator in particular lacking the upscaling capabilities of third-party rivals, I really appreciate how many games are being given a new lease of life with the inclusion of Trophies. The fan favourite PS2 TimeSplitters trilogy was updated this week to incorporate Platinums, and for many this is all the incentive needed to revisit old favourites. Iconic PS1 games like G-Police, Jumping Flash!, and Intelligent Qube all come with a list of achievements to unlock as well.
Even lesser known instalments from classic PlayStation properties are getting a second shot in the spotlight; I wouldn’t exactly recommend spin-offs like Secret Agent Clank and Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier over their mainline counterparts, but I like that they exist in an easily accessible form on modern hardware. The real goal for Sony will be to ensure the original trilogies accompany them; you can play all of the Jak & Daxter games with Trophies on the PS5 and PS4, but we’re still awaiting the original Ratchet & Clank releases.
While I suppose I could criticise Sony for dragging its heels, I’d rather it do that than nothing at all. The catalogue of PlayStation classics on PS Plus Premium is growing, with many available a la carte on the PS Store if you don’t want to pay out for the pricey subscription. The emulation could admittedly be better, and the software could be coming quicker – but quietly the Japanese giant is embracing its heritage and making it available for veterans and newcomers alike.
If you’re thinking, “Like, why would anyone play this?”, it’s because, as we approach PlayStation’s all-important 30th anniversary, there’s a lot of love for its back catalogue. And gradually, month by month, Sony is actually beginning to acknowledge that.
Sammy Barker is the Editor of Push Square. He’s been living and breathing the wonderful world of PlayStation for decades now – and has the tattoos to prove it. You can find him on @_get2sammyb.
Comic-style art appears across video games and board games. In the 1980s, my childhood was filled with several of these stylized games that integrated comic characters into their gameplay. While Steve Jackson’s cartoonish dungeon crawler Munchkin wasn’t around back then, it is certainly a game I find myself returning to for nostalgia and silliness here and there.
Munchkin is a cartoon foray into a dungeon featuring a cast of characters from fantasy and reality. The card game is filled with comical art and often witty banter that will have you laughing and probably rolling your eyes at some of the dad jokes.
Munchkin Gameplay
Gameplay for Munchkin is fairly quick and simple. You start as an ordinary human with a few cards in your initial arsenal of goodies. The cards in your hand, along with others you’ll pick up as you play, help you navigate 10 floors of a dungeon by giving you attributes of a specific class and arming you to fight the monsters you’ll encounter. You’ll employ various zany antics and characteristics against formidable foes as you compete against other players, kicking in doors to fight monsters and gaining loot to increase your power throughout the dungeon run. Which player will reign victoriously in the end? The journey is yours to discover in Munchkin.
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Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to battle your way through the dungeon and get to level 10 before your counterparts. Kick in the door and start fighting across plenty of different versions of comical shenanigans.
Munchkin (Core Game)
MSRP: $29.95 USD
3-6 Players (best with 3)
60-120 minutes
Ages 10+
The base card game of Munchkin is a fantasy dungeon crawler that incorporates the types of characters that you might expect to help you along your quest. It also has a few that you might not expect, with fantasy monsters that go beyond dragons to plants and even lawyers.
Munchkin Expansions
While Munchkin has a considerable number of expansions, there are five that pair with any base game.
Munchkin 2 – Unnatural Axe
Contents: 112 more cards, including orc race, new armor, allies, new weapons
MSRP: $19.95 USD
3-6 Players (best with 3)
60-120 minutes
Ages 10+
This expansion can be played with the original base game as well as Munchkin Conan or Munchkin Pathfinder. Unnatural Axe adds the orc race to the game, as well as new armor, new allies, and some zany new weapons.
Munchkin 3 – Clerical Errors
Contents: 112 cards, including bards, gnomes, new monsters, new armor, five comic artist-created expansion exclusive special items
MSRP: $24.95 USD
3-6 Players (best with 3)
60-120 minutes
Ages 10+
Clerical Errors adds gnomes as a playable race. It also adds my personal favorite of an archetype class – bards. There is new armor. There are new monsters. There are also five uniquely designed items, each designed by comic artists.
Munchkin 4 – The Need For Steed
Contents: 112 cards, including 30 new kingdom cards featuring new elements
MSRP: $16.26 USD
3-6 Players (best with 3)
60-120 minutes
What fantasy game would be complete without trusty steeds to bring us to victory or defeat? The Need for Steed expansion adds dragons, tigers, giant mutant gerbils, chickens, and… Big Joe? Yeah, Big Joe might be a steed, or he might be a hireling. Use these steeds to help you to get to level 10 before your friends do.
Munchkin 5 – DeRanged
Contents: 112 cards, including ranger class, new monsters, new armor, and new weapons
MSRP: $19.90 USD
3-6 Players (best with 3)
60-120 minutes
Ages 10+
Ah, rangers. They’re either beloved or the butt of a joke in fantasy games. In Munchkin, they’re a little bit of both. Rangers can tame monsters and ride them to escape new monsters like the treacherous Telemarketer, Poultrygeist, or Undead Clowns.
Munchkin 6 – Double Dungeons
Contents: 112 cards, including 40 dungeons
MSRP: $19.99 USD
3-6 Players (best with 3)
60-120 minutes
Ages 10+
This expansion brings 40 new dungeons to life and 32 portals to get to and from each one. Each dungeon has different rules and variations to change up the experience. This expansion will open up the possibilities of where you can go and the monsters you will run into immensely. Proceed with caution.
Other Versions of Munchkin
There are 14 other versions of Munchkin to play. Like Fluxx, they are separated by theme. Pick a favorite and go from there. Below are four of my personal picks to consider.
Munchkin Cthulhu
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
MSRP: $29.95 USD
3-6 Players (best with 3)
60-120 minutes
Ages 10+
Lovecraft lore fans will appreciate the Cthulhu spin on the game. There are also three available expansions for it to add to the cartoony horror spin on the Lovecraft Mythos universe. Those expansions are Cthulhu Sanity Check, The Unspeakable Vault, and Crazed Caverns.
Super Munchkin
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
MSRP: $29.95 USD
3-8 Players (best with 3)
60-120 minutes
Ages 10+
Yes, Munchkin has comic art in the game, but this version includes superheroes. Comic book lovers will likely want to see how Munchkins can become superheroes and villains. There’s also one expansion available for this version called The Narrow S Cape.
Munchkin Steampunk
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
MSRP: $24.17 USD
3-6 Players (best with 3)
60-120 minutes
Ages 10+
The Steampunk version of Munchkin was done by a comic artist who did the Steampunk comic called Girl Genius. Each of the classes in this steampunk spin is unique to this version.
Munchkin Zombies
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
MSRP: $27.49 USD
3-6 Players (best with 3)
60-120 minutes
Ages 10+
In most zombie spins of games, it’s you versus the zombies. The fun thing about this version is that you are the zombies in Munchkin Zombies, and your enemies are the human race. Several different expansions can be added to this one. Four of those expansions (Armed and Dangerous, Hideous Hideouts, Spare Parts, and Grave Mistakes) add additional cards. One adds Zombie Dice.
How to Play Munchkin Online
Dire Wolf Digital (makers of Clank!) created the digital version of Munchkin, which is available on Steam for $14.99.
While this version doesn’t come from the same team as the original, it’s a highly enjoyable game at the base level that plays well digitally. You can play against friends who also have a copy of the game or against the AI. Games outside of the tutorial can be played with 3-6 players. A single player can choose to go against two or more AI or combinations of AI and human players on the same machine or online.
One of the key differences between the digital version and the physical version is that you can choose to play without gender-connected items. In the original versions, gendered items (only two different ones in these games, which do not acknowledge the gender spectrum) are a big part of the game.
Currently, the Steam version is the only way to play Munchkin digitally. There was talk about it being a mod on Tabletop Simulator, but comments on the Steam community regarding things allude to potential licensing issues. A 2014 forum post on the Steve Jackson Game website also noted, “Our policy has been consistent and clear: people who want to create digital versions of our games must obtain a license to do so. I’m sorry that you feel this is disrespectful to our fans and customers. We feel exactly as disrespected by people who use our content without our permission.”
That said, I found the digital version to be worth playing. It also has an expansion called Unnatural Axe for an additional $4.99, which requires the base game.
Bottom Line
Munchkin offers some cartoonish art often paired with witty and zany adversaries. In several ways, I’ve found myself enjoying the game. I know several friends who enjoy it for the most part as well. However, as I’ve aged and the years have passed, I’ve found that the game misses the mark in some ways, particularly at the expense of others where it shouldn’t. This seems also to be the case for others on Board Game Geek, as the current rating is only 5.9.
Gendered items and character designs can take away the enjoyment of some players. I liked how the digital version allowed me to step away from that a bit if I wanted. I wish other physical game versions did. The zany objects and fantastically witty text could be much better with more inclusivity.
Jennifer Stavros is a contributing freelancer for IGN, covering everything from comics, games, technology, and nerd culture. Follow her on Twitter or watch her on Twitch under the handle @scandalous.
Rayman’s limbless brand of anarchic puzzle-platforming has been delighting fans since 1995, with five main video games and a number of spin-offs, across multiple systems. But one play Rayman has yet to save from the forces of evil is your tabletop. Now that’s about to change thanks to the upcoming Rayman: The Board Game (see it on Kickstarter), a collaboration between Ubisoft and Flyos games on the one hand, and three designers on the other: Maxime Tardif, creator of critically acclaimed, best-selling title Earth, one of our picks for the best strategy board games, alongside Gary Paitre and Thomas Filippi of Flyos.
What unites the trio is a love for the source material. “We really wanted to see our favorite eggplant hero back in action,” laughs Filippi. “The games are all about having fun, a bit of chaos, and some friendly competition, and we felt that vibe would be perfect for a board game setting.” The resulting board game has been designed to be playable by all ages, and includes solo and cooperative modes and different difficult levels alongside the head-to-head competition you’d expect.
Having a family-friendly vibe was important to the developers, not least because they have children of their own. “When I play with my young daughters, I usually stick to with the rookie and intermediate modes,” Filippi reveals. “But when I face team members, we can play more aggressively.” He also feels that it’s one way in which the game channels the essence of its source material. “Rayman is a positive character, always smiling, making him perfect for younger players,” he continues. “The humor, the smooth action, and those imaginative worlds, all of it adds up to something special.”
With so many different video games to draw on, the team decided to blend the two most contemporary titles to form the basis for their game, but one of them took the fore. “Rayman Legends felt like a natural fit as it’s the most recent game in the series,” explains co-designer Gary Paitre. “And honestly, we wanted to include Barbara! She’s got such a cool vibe. The musical levels, in which you run in rhythm while making quick and sharp decisions, was also a big source of inspiration. However, some elements from Rayman Origins are also included, such as missiles.” These zip around the board, providing dangerous dynamic hazards that the players must avoid.
Rayman Legends felt like a natural fit as it’s the most recent game in the series
Besides Rayman himself, the two other characters featured in the game are Globox and Murfy. Each has a miniature figure to use on the board, but in the basic game they’re mechanically the same, each having an identical deck of action cards that lets them run, jump and glide around the board, slapping enemies, and avoiding obstacles, just like in the computer games. Keeping all the basic decks the same was a deliberate design choice. “In the video game, each hero has the same set of actions,” Paitre points out. “What makes your adventure unique is how you choose to apply those actions.”
As players gain confidence, however, they can make their chosen character more unique by including special ability cards keyed to each personality. “It’s a little light asymmetry, to add some variety,” says Filippi. Paitre fills in the details. “They let you choose which actions you prefer,” he explains. “You can have more initiative, or focus on slapping. They help make every game different, and we’ve tried to ensure that no hero is stronger than another.”
With all the attention paid to tying in the board game to its source material, fans might be surprised to discover that Rayman The Board Game is a race game. This seems rather different from the standard platforming levels in Rayman Legends, but there’s a good reason. “It’s inspired by the time-trial runs from the video games,” says Filippi. “We wanted that same feeling of intensity and quick thinking in the board game. It’s not just about getting from point A to B fast; it’s about making smart moves, keeping an eye on what everyone else is doing, and maybe throwing a wrench in their plans. We wanted each playthrough to have that unpredictable, ‘anything can happen’ feel that makes Rayman games so fun.” There are still Teensies, Rayman’s magical friends, to save along the way, and you’ll need to have rescued three of them to take the win.
During each turn, players secretly select a pair of action cards for that round, which are added together to give a total value of in-game moves like jumping and slapping. These tie into the features on the racetrack, so you’ll need to jump to gain access to platforms, slap enemies in your path and glide over gaps and there are multiple paths around each board that you’ll need to assess strategically to gain an edge. The cards you chose are discarded and, to get them back, you need to take a “bubble” action, skipping a turn and falling behind in the race in exchange for temporary immunity and the chance to pick up and re-use your discards.
Fans might be surprised to discover that Rayman The Board Game is a race game.
Getting this right is a surprisingly cerebral and challenging task: almost every card selection will see you wasting actions or falling short in some way of what you actually want to do. The tactics are in optimizing your available cards to the track before you. Doing so can cause players a bit of analysis paralysis as they work through the options, which gives the game plenty of depth but isn’t necessarily a close fit for the frenetic pace of parts of the original video games, something that’s true of a lot of video-to-board game adaptations.
Filippi acknowledges that this was a challenge for the team. “We wanted to keep that feeling of intensity but also add some depth that you can only get in a tabletop setting,” he says. But he feels they got the balance right. “You still have those moments of quick action, but mixed with the need to think ahead, which is just like navigating a tricky platform level. You have to plan your moves, and figure out when to go all out or when to hold back.” And he thinks there’s a payoff for introducing more analytical elements, too. “It offers that same sense of accomplishment when you pull off a great move or outsmart your friends.”
Bringing in third designer Maxime Tardiff to work on the game was, in part, an attempt to meet that challenge. “At first, Gary and I wanted to make that game ourselves,” Filippi continues. “But we decided to bring an experienced designer to the table. He was a perfect match, passionate, smart and accessible. His input was crucial for refining the action decks, the level structures and the solo and cooperative mode. He pushed us to elevate and balance the gameplay even further, like integrating the asymmetric elements.”
Flyos have worked on a race game before, 2017’s Kiwetin in which the players chase each other through a fantasy forest. It has similarities to Rayman: The Board Game, with players collecting action tiles to speed them on their way, but they’re largely superficial. Movement in Kiwetin is dice-based, for example, whereas in Rayman it’s totally down to the player’s decisions. Nevertheless, they learned a lot of lessons from developing and producing it that they were able to apply to their latest project. “It was our first crack at both board games and crowdfunding, and it taught us a lot about balance and keeping things replayable,” Patire explains”
There were, however, lots of other board games the team did draw on in their quest to bring Rayman to the tabletop. One was popular, family-friend car-racing game Heat. “It gave us a great feel for how to make a fast-paced racing game exciting with its immediate reveal phase,” Paitre explains. Their other major influence was a little more unexpected: dungeon-crawling campaign behemoth Gloomhaven. “That helped us think about depth in cooperative gameplay,” he continues. “Playing two cards at once from your hand and improvising a new plan last second is a feature, not a bug,” he laughs. “But we didn’t just copy those games, it’s about mixing the best elements of what we love to create something that feels like Rayman.”
While the game is currently in a fully playable state, Filippi admits that, like a lot of crowd-funded games, there’s still a bit of work to do to fully realize its potential. “The balancing isn’t fully finalized yet but, so far, the winning player is never too far ahead of the last, which keeps the excitement high until the end,” he says. Talking to them both, it’s a delight to see how committed they are to the source material, and how proud they are of the opportunity to bring it to the table. “Seeing it come to life is truly a dream come true,” Filippi beams. Rayman fans all over the world will soon be able to judge for themselves how well that dream has been translated into reality.
Last week, Bloomberg reported that 25 people comprising the entire staff of Annapurna Interactive walked out the door in a group resignation. But while some of the circumstances around their departure emerged in the reporting, one pressing question was left unanswered: why?
Having spoken to multiple individuals close to the situation who requested anonymity due to fear of reprisal, as well as an Annapurna spokesperson, IGN has pieced together a somewhat complex answer. Disagreements over the direction of the Interactive division, chaotic departures, communication breakdowns, and a perceived lack of leadership transparency at Annapurna Interactive led to a staff walk-out that has left 25 individuals jobless, Annapurna leaders scrambling, and numerous developers concerned about their contracts with the publisher.
A Company Divided
Though the collapse of Annapurna Interactive as we once knew it started earlier this year, its roots lie in the company’s historical leadership structure. Annapurna Interactive was initially conceived as the gaming division of Annapurna Pictures, which was founded by film producer and billionaire Megan Ellison in 2011. Annapurna Interactive itself was spun up in 2016, tapping a staff of industry veterans including including former Sony creative director Nathan Gary, former Capybara Games president Nathan Vella, former Sony executive producer Deborah Mars, and former Sony producer Hector Sanchez for leadership roles. Sanchez left the company in 2019.
The film side of Annapurna’s business has undergone well-publicized struggles. In 2018, it was bleeding enough money to prompt Ellison’s father, multi-billionaire Larry Ellison, to step in. By 2019, Annapurna Pictures was reportedly teetering on bankruptcy, and in the ensuing years its film and TV output slowed significantly. Variety reports that Ellison disappeared from public life in 2019 almost entirely, leaving her business to largely run itself during the height of the pandemic. She reemerged in 2021, only to name Gary president over all of Annapurna, with Mars and Vella stepping into co-head roles at the Interactive division.
In the ensuing years, Annapurna Interactive continued to grow, releasing financial and critical successes such as Stray, Outer Wilds, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Cocoon. While the company claims the Annapurna Pictures side of the business hasn’t struggled in recent years, saying that film and TV were more profitable than Annapurna Interactive in 2023, a spokesperson alleged to IGN that Gary was a less-than-ideal steward of Annapurna Pictures. Under his guidance, they claim, resources were pulled away from film and TV, key executives were pushed out, and the company was largely refocused on gaming. Annapurna tells IGN that Gary also elevated co-founder James Masi to chief administrative officer, a role the spokesperson suggested was unnnecessary at a company of Annapurna’s size. Notably, Annapurna did launch an animation division under Gary’s tenure that released the critically-acclaimed film Nimona just last year. IGN has reached out to Gary, but he declined to comment.
IGN understands that opinions of Ellison within Annapurna Interactive prior to 2024 varied from indifference to latent mistrust given previous reports on her behavior toward employees. Anonymous sources I spoke to all cited a strong fear of reprisal from Ellison in particular, given her resources, history, and reach. A few people referenced creative or compensation disagreements during their time at Annapurna that contributed to a general feeling Ellison would not keep promises. Multiple sources we spoke to described Ellison as a largely hands-off leader and rarely present in the gaming division, an attitude that for years suited many of Annapurna Interactive’s employees just fine.
Ad-Verset effects
This was the state of things at the start of 2024 according to our sources. Prior to March of this year, work at Annapurna Interactive was business-as-usual, they say, until employees were suddenly informed mid-month that James Masi had been unexpectedly let go. An Annapurna spokesperson confirmed Masi was made redundant, saying that Ellison had chosen to step back in at the company and oversee the Annapurna Pictures side again in an effort to re-invest in the film and TV side of the business. As a part of this, Annapurna claims that Ellison reinstalled Gary as head of Interactive, and deemed Masi’s role unnnecessary.
However, at this time, Gary also left the company. Annapurna claims he left of his own accord in response to Masi’s firing and his change in role. But sources say employees were told in the following days by leadership within Annapurna Interactive that Gary had been fired along with Masi. The belief that two of their leaders had been fired seemingly out of the blue sparked confusion and fury, and a handful of individuals quit in protest, including at least one other Interactive leader.
The sudden resignation of multiple key individuals came as a shock to the company, and IGN understands that Ellison held a video call with Annapurna employees to discuss what had happened and find a way to move forward. On the call, Ellison allegedly expressed a desire to keep the entire group, including those who had been fired or resigned, together. In the following days, all the departed staff returned, including Gary and Masi, and discussions began for a potential spin-off of the company that would allow Gary and Ellison to achieve their respective visions with minimal disruptions to partner developers.
Roughly, the plan was for Gary and the Annapurna Interactive staff to become a new company called Verset, with ownership split between Annapurna and Verset’s leaders. Verset would oversee all currently existing signed Annapurna Interactive projects, with revenue split between itself and Annapurna proper in Annapurna’s favor. It would also be free to sign its own, independent deals. Developers IGN spoke to report being made aware the spin-off was happening in the following months, and were reassured their contracts would be fulfilled.
While employees understood such a venture would take time to get off the ground, in the ensuing months a number of events occurred that made some skeptical of Ellison’s commitment to parting with Annapurna Interactive. In early summer, sources tell us that employees discovered Hector Sanchez had been quietly rehired back at Annapurna by Ellison and was working on gaming projects without the knowledge of the rest of the Interactive staff. The news wasn’t made official until August that Sanchez had been appointed president of interactive and new media at Annapurna — a title that seemed to some as potentially at odds with Vella and Mars’ roles at Interactive.
Annapurna, for its part, claims that talks between Ellison and Sanchez began as far back as February for Ellison to fund a new venture Sanchez was planning after departing Epic Games. As talks continued, Annapurna says Sanchez began negotiating with Remedy Entertainment for a deal related to film and TV spin-offs of its properties. However, when spin-off negotiations began to crystalize at Annapurna Interactive, Ellison offered Sanchez a position at Annapurna. The intent, per the spokesperson, was for Verset to become the company’s indie arm, and for Sanchez to lead efforts in the AAA and AA-gaming space, including transmedia properties.
Which is how, months later, Annapurna announced it was partnering with Remedy Entertainment on film, TV, and other projects including funding support for Control 2. The press release, which IGN received, referenced both Sanchez and Ellison. But it doesn’t reference Annapurna Interactive at all, and IGN understands Annapurna Interactive employees were only informed the deal was happening that morning. Employees, unaware of Ellison’s plans or the status of the spin-off, were confused, concerned, and frustrated about the direction of the company and the future of its Interactive division, Verset or no Verset.
While all this was going on, sources say that discussions with Ellison regarding the spin-off appeared to have stalled out, and in August Annapurna officially terminated discussion. Annapurna claims this was due to Gary’s lack of response to requests for feedback on legal drafts. Meanwhile, multiple people told IGN that in those final months, they began to see signs of Ellison exercising greater involvement over Annapurna Interactive’s deals, projects, and budgets in a way that began to make them further uncomfortable with the direction the company was taking overall.
All of this came to a head at the end of August when all 25 Annapurna Interactive employees including Gary, Vella, Masi, and Mars signed a joint resignation letter. The group gave two weeks notice and departed the company together on September 6 leaving Ellison, Sanchez, and newly-hired chief strategy officer Paul Doyle working on a semblance of Annapurna’s gaming efforts. Sources tell IGN that up to the letter being sent and after, the group asked Ellison to work with them on other possible solutions such as the aforementioned spin-off, but did not receive any interest.
IGN also understands that despite the two-week notice, partner developers did not learn about the sudden exodus of all their Annapurna contacts until a day or two before it occurred. Annapurna claims they didn’t have enough time to collect developer contact information to alert them sooner, while Annapurna Interactive sources say they received no guidance from the company during that period as to who should tell developers, when, and how.
Annapurna Aftermath
While IGN couldn’t glean any details on the future of the 25 departed employees, there are some indications that the group is collectively working on some new venture together. A website for Verset appears to be online at the time of publication with a PR alias, which IGN reached out to for comment. IGN was also unable to find any posts or other discussions from the departed members indicating they were looking for employment elsewhere. Whatever their future plans, IGN understands that the group did not have a ready-made venture waiting when they left, as some have speculated. Whatever they build, if anything, it will be largely from scratch.
Meanwhile, at Annapurna itself, efforts are underway to right the ship. Multiple developers I spoke to expressed a mixture of frustration and confusion at the sudden departure, but several told me they felt confident in Sanchez’s ability to honor existing obligations. Several individuals with projects at different stages of development told me about meetings they’d had with Sanchez in the wake of the event that they reported had reassured them. Sanchez has previously stated his intention both to backfill roles as well as work with outside agencies to fulfill Annapurna’s contractual obligations, and IGN has confirmed this process is ongoing. Earlier this week, Annapurna also posted an open role for a QA Manager overseeing “multiple external QA teams.”
The unusual situation appears to have impacted a few specific projects in unique ways. On August 30, iam8bit shared an announcement that an upcoming PlayStation 5 physical edition of Outer Wilds: Archaeologist Edition had suffered from a manufacturing error, and did not include the Echoes of the Eye expansion as expected. Annapurna Interactive at the time said it would “continue to investigate”, while iam8bit offered either a digital DLC voucher to impacted customers, or a replacement corrected physical copy. Both Annapurna and Interactive sources have told IGN that this issue is unrelated to the resignations, and Annapurna reassured that it will not be impacted by the upheaval at the company.
Then there’s Blade Runner. Last summer, Annapurna Interactive announced it would be developing its first in-house game, based on the Blade Runner franchise, titled Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth. However, game director Chelsea Hash appears to be one of the 25 individuals who resigned, per LinkedIn, and IGN understands that all other full-time members of the development team joined her. Annapurna has told IGN that development on Blade Runner 2033 will continue despite the departure of its entire team.
An Annapurna spokesperson also shared the following statement when asked for further comment:
“The whole situation is a baffler, but now we’re focused on moving forward. We’ve had really great conversations with an overwhelming majority of our existing development teams and are grateful for their partnership. If our inbox is any indication, a ton of developers continue to want to be a part of what we’re building, and we look forward to seeing their pitches. We’ve also had an influx of quality job applicants and are excited to build a team passionate about our mission to tell original stories that aren’t being told elsewhere. P.S. We’re hiring.”
The whole situation is a baffler.
Annapurna has splintered into two groups, both of which are now working to pick up the pieces. The remains of Annapurna Interactive, (or perhaps a future Verset), consist of 25 individuals who felt strongly enough about perceived mismanagement, poor communication, apparent spontaneous layoffs of leaders, and one another that they were willing to give up paychecks and stability at a time of overwhelming industry job and funding uncertainty. When IGN approached its sources close to this group about Annapurna’s version of events (specifically, the conflicting information around Masi and Gary’s alleged resignation/firing and the collapse of spin-off discussions), they reacted with skepticism, but did not feel they could safely provide more specific details.
Meanwhile, at Annapurna, a tiny leadership team is struggling to ensure that around 40 projects have the support we need, while the company’s partners have been left at various stages of development and uncertainty as to what comes next.
Annapurna Interactive as we once knew it — a beloved publisher of critically-acclaimed, unique, beloved indie games — is no more. What, if anything, will rise to take its place?
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Note: These impressions are based on my early experiences with EA Sports FC 25. So far, the focus has been on core gameplay in Career and Rush modes, but I’ll explore how the changes impact Ultimate Team and other online modes after spending more time with them.
Every year, I start with the same overly optimistic questions: What has actually changed in FIFA—sorry, EA Sports FC—this time around? Is it really new, or just the same old experience with a fresh coat of paint? There’s always a laundry list of flashy new marketing terms designed to grab attention: Hypermotion V, FC IQ, BallTouch, Rush, etc (okay one of those is made up). Yet, even with all the buzzwords, there’s often a lingering feeling that these changes are merely surface-level, just enough to warrant a new bullet point on the box without truly changing up the gameplay in an innovative way.
Well, so far the changes made to FC 25 make it feel like the latter scenario: a series of incremental improvements and adjustments that do add to the fun through their novelty if nothing else, but they’re hardly enough to usher in a sweeping revolution of any kind.
Career Mode: Finally a Welcome Refresh
As someone who prefers the depth of Career Mode (I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing out multiple season-long campaigns over the years) over the microtransaction-driven Ultimate Team, I was pleased to see that FC 25 finally gives it the attention it deserves and brings some meaningful updates. One of the biggest improvements this year is simply in the ways you can customize the experience. There’s more flexibility in how you set up your career—board expectations, for instance, can now be set to lenient, sparing you the frustration of being sacked for not spending every penny of your transfer budget. The ability to customize training plans and match tactics to a greater degree, deciding how hard your players train and which roles suit them best, is a welcome step towards giving us more control over our players’ development, particularly when it comes to managing youth talent and squad rotation.
Then there’s also the addition of weather effects like wind and rain, which surprisingly aren’t just cosmetic—they’re modifiers that genuinely affect how matches play out. In smaller stadiums, for example, a strong gust can make the ball swerve unpredictably. It’s a satisfying touch and adds a new level of realism for offline modes like Career that feels long overdue. That said, it’s a shame this isn’t available in online modes due to balancing reasons. I understand how it could frustrate those who don’t enjoy forces outside of their control becoming a deciding factor, but I’d love to see it as an optional setting for casual Ultimate Team matchups to spice things up just that bit more for those of us who like to live dangerously.
FC 25 finally gives Career Mode the attention it deserves.
Beyond the weather, another interesting feature is the integration of a social media feed featuring none other than the seemingly omnipresent transfer guru Fabrizio Romano. His trademark “Here We Go” catchphrase now pops up during in-game transfer announcements. It’s a fun, slightly gimmicky, if borderline cringeworthy addition—but I’m still waiting for a “There We Land” before I’m truly impressed.
FC 25’s welcoming of several major women’s leagues is long overdue and much appreciated, and the ability to seamlessly drift between the men’s and women’s leagues and teams within one career mode save is particularly neat. Plus, you can now start a save as one of FC’s many icons, allowing me to finally live out my dream of Andrea Pirlo running the show at the base of Gillingham’s midfield.
There are new ways to play within Career Mode as well. Rush is a new 5v5 mode found throughout FC 25 (essentially replacing Volta) and it’s used through the introduction of youth tournaments, giving you a chance to test your wunderkinds in high-pressure scenarios throughout the season. It’s a cool, fast-paced break from the standard matches and some much-needed variety to the often-repetitive nature of Career Mode seasons.
This new, futsal-inspired mode brings a fresh twist with a set of unique rules that introduce a fun dose of chaos to the gameplay. Kick-offs are revamped, in that players race toward the center of the pitch as the ball is launched into play, much like Rocket League. The offside rule only kicks in within the final third, a departure from the usual halfway-line restriction. Red cards are swapped out for blue cards, sending players to a one-minute sin bin for serious fouls, though their time is cut by 15 seconds for every goal the opposition scores during that period. Penalties also get a shakeup, taken from the “final third line” in a one-on-one duel with the goalkeeper, similar to hockey shootouts.
Rush mode is also available in Kick Off, Ultimate Team, and Clubs, making it perfect for players who don’t always have a full squad but still want to jump into the action with a few friends. Outside of Career, matches take place in the custom-designed Rush Stadium, developed in partnership with Nike, featuring a futuristic flair, vibrant drone shows that enhance the atmosphere, and unique commentators specific to the mode. With online modes kicking off in early access, Rush already shows plenty of potential to evolve into something truly unique. Whether that potential will be fully realized, or discarded like The Journey and Volta, remains to be seen.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Graphically, EA Sports FC is once again a hot pot of good and bad, shining on the pitch while appearing neglected off it. During matches, the presentation is particularly sharp—especially in Premier League games, where the new scoreboards, broadcast-style overlays, and team-specific on-screen graphics packages really stand out. A nice surprise is the option to re-enable team walkouts in the pre-match build-up, after the feature was suddenly removed in FC 24.
Unfortunately, the user interface is a different story. What’s most infuriating is how the menus feel like they were designed for a touchscreen—soft edges, clunky, and far from intuitive with a controller. Worse, they seem to provide less information than ever before. Despite the ever-increasing bloat of the menu items directly in front of you, key information is buried behind layers of tabs that disappear if you scroll too far, leaving you hunting for crucial menus.
For a game that actively encourages you to slow down, tweak tactics, and customise player roles, the new menu system that plagues every game mode feels like it’s chugging two steps behind every input, making what should be an enjoyable experience feel like a chore. This was especially notable in menu-heavy modes like Career which, while it has had several cool additions, is now aggravating to try and navigate through.
There’s also the new ‘Cranium’ system, which aims to make players without facial scans appear more natural alongside top-tier talent from leagues like the Premier League, La Liga, and beyond. It’s great to see a greater range of “generic” faces now, and even unscanned players look a little like their real-life counterparts. Likewise, it’s neat that there’s a greater level of customization in the personal player or manager models as well. However, the results are inconsistent: Under ideal conditions and lighting, some players look significantly better than in previous entries, but these conditions are rare, and more often than not everyone in FC 25 looks like they’ve been pulled from a waxy, uncanny valley hell.
Speaking of jank, expect some of the typical weirdness in FC 25.
Speaking of jank, expect some of the typical weirdness in FC 25. Commentary is still often disconnected from the action on the pitch, cutscenes glitch out in bizarre ways, and there are moments where the world briefly collapses into a pinky-purgatory void. For those of us who’ve been around the FIFA/FC block, these graphical quirks are nothing new, but that doesn’t make them any less annoying.
Unfortunately, it’s a similar story across many annual sports titles. In Madden, bizarre animation bugs still see players warping or phasing through each other, while NBA 2K has its own share of uncanny character models and awkward animations. It feels like these issues are simply glossed over with each new installment. In fact, they’re becoming increasingly indefensible as the same problems resurface year after year.
Gameplay: Tweaks That Matter (And Many That Don’t)
When it comes to gameplay, FC 25 delivers some fun, if incremental, improvements – just like clockwork. One of the standout new features is FC IQ, which effectively replaces the old system of work rates, where players’ movement was dictated by set verbal descriptions of their effort in attack and defense. Instead, player movement is now determined by their “role” and the “focus” assigned to them within that role. Each position offers a choice of three to five roles. For example, a central attacking midfielder (CAM) can be assigned roles like shadow striker, playmaker, and others, altering how forward-thinking you want them to be throughout a game.
There’s a new level of automation that comes hand-in-hand with this change and actually feels significant. For example, attackers feel a bit more useful while on the break, and no longer having to constantly manually trigger players’ runs in behind or down the wing with button presses is great. Players will make smarter runs based on their roles, too. However, the level of control still pales in comparison to the more tactical-heavy sims found in Football Manager, and the initial impressiveness of the change wears off fast. It’s certainly an improvement, but the desired depth isn’t quite there yet.
In terms of how the on-pitch action feels with the controller in your hand, passing is a touch snappier than last year, especially when pinging long balls across the pitch. Shooting also has a nice weight to it—smooth, responsive, and satisfying. When the weather effects are in play in offline modes, even the physics in wet conditions adds a layer of unpredictability, with the ball sometimes skidding to a halt as the rain pours down. It’s these moments when you’re battling the elements that are a great example of the enjoyment found in the imperfections of the beautiful game.
But then there’s the defense, which still feels frustratingly loose. A tale as old as time, pacy players can turn and breeze past a defense with ease, and defenders are often a step behind, even slower than they should be. Even near-track-athlete-level speedsters like Mickey Van de Ven sometimes find themselves unable to catch up with the less-than-zippy attackers. If the opponent gets in behind your defense, you might as well start planning your next kickoff because there’s little you can do to stop them.
Defensive issues are compounded by the new FC IQ tactical options, which are supposed to give you more control over how your team plays, not quite extending to defenders how I’d like. For example, there are no longer instructions to tell players to press heavily after losing the ball. Defending is half of football, yet it currently feels like an afterthought that needed a lot more time in the oven. No matter if you’re playing a low, medium, or high-aggression style, it just feels the same: slow, boring, and lacking tight control. At times, it felt like someone was holding onto my players’ heels, keeping them back; When they finally did accelerate, it was rigid and unnatural, like they were moving along a predetermined path.
More of the Same… Again?
After my first day with EA Sports FC 25, it feels like the game is in a tough spot. For Career Mode fans like myself, there are some positives—the expanded customization options, enhanced tactics, dynamic weather effects, and added depth create a much richer experience than in previous years. However, despite the improvements to offline modes like Career and the clear potential of Rush, there’s still an underlying sense of frustration. As a long-time fan, I can’t help but feel disappointed by how long issues like defensive slipperiness, choppy menus, and graphical inconsistencies have remained unaddressed.
After more than 20 years of EA Sports football games (yes, it’s been that long), the cracks aren’t just beginning to show, they are upsetting the very foundations. The ever-growing focus on increasingly expensive microtransactions in Ultimate Team has left the other modes still feeling left behind, no matter the smattering of custom gameplay tweaks, new menus, or weather effects added in.
The improvements, while welcome, are largely incremental, and the gameplay remains frustratingly familiar in all the wrong ways. For the leading football simulator, EA Sports FC continues to lack the fluidity, polish, and excitement it seems like it could and should deliver. While it’s still early days, first impression-wise, FC 25 currently feels like a small but reasonable step forward for Career Mode enthusiasts, but it’s still hard to see the appeal of all of this as a whole. There’s fun to be had, but it’s tempered by lingering disheartenment and a sense that EA is, as always, playing it safe.
I’ll be back soon with some more developed thoughts on EA Sports FC 25 next week, once I’ve spent time more time with Rush, Ultimate Team and how the online experience is shaping up over its early days.
What are the seemingly dead PlayStation series that need to make a comeback? Cardy, Matt, and Mat pick three each that they’d love to see new games from. Before that, though, there are some very early impressions of The Plucky Squire, as well as far too much talk about Lidl and giant crisps.
Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you’re enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
