Atari has entered an agreement to acquire Night Dive Studios. This agreement would support Atari’s retro-focused growth strategy and provide access to Night Dive’s IP, which includes System Shock, as well as utilize the studio’s proprietary KEX engine and publishing capabilities.
Chairman and CEO of Atari Wade Rosen said in a statement: “Night Dive’s proven expertise and successful track record in commercializing retro IP are well-aligned with Atari’s strategy and I am confident that their combined talent, technology, and IP portfolio will contribute to Atari’s future success.
“Night Dive and Atari have a long history together and we know that Atari shares our passion for retro games and our focus on producing high-quality new and remastered games that do justice to the original IP,” added Stephen Kick and Larry Kuperman of Night Dive. “As we look to grow our business and expand our capabilities, we could think of no better long-term partner than Atari.”
In IGN’s System Shock remake preview, we said: “With the short time I had with System Shock Remake, I could see that Citadel Station feels like a character unto itself, and I’m looking forward to taking a deep dive into and learning the mysteries that lurk within.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
There’s something about the wild, deranged look in Crash Bandicoot’s eyes that tells me he’d be perfect for a chaotic, competitive multiplayer game, and clearly I’m not alone. After sitting down with the people at Toys for Bob to howl and hurl trash talk at one another for an hour as we played their upcoming Crash Team Rumble, it’s clear they’re onto something. The over-the-top world of Crash Bandicoot fits very nicely with the surprisingly nuanced competitive slugfest they’ve created, and I was hooked after the first scream-inducing match.
Crash Team Rumble is a 4v4 brawler where teams compete to be the first to score 2,000 points in the form of Crash’s iconic wumpa fruit. To do so you’ll need to smack crates, slap other players, make use of power ups, and of course, master platforming. That’s all with the goal of gobbling up as many wumpa fruits as possible to stash into your team’s bank before some heartless goon stomps on your head and takes you for all you’re worth.
If you’ve ever played Killer Queen, then you’ll feel right at home with a lot of Crash Team Rumble’s formula, which allows for multiple strategies to put you on the path to victory. You can play it slow and steady by depositing wumpa fruits into your team’s bank until you’ve racked up enough points, or you can multiply your wumpa-depositing potential by capturing the level’s Boost Zones. Or, if you’re like me and just want to grief your opponents, you can camp out on the enemy bank and relentlessly kill opposing players to slow down their own harvest. Unlike Killer Queen, a mix of each strategy will likely be required, rather than achieving victory by pulling off just one. Every match then becomes about prioritizing the right strategies and communicating with your teammates to emerge with a winning formula.
To that end, each of the five characters have lots of options to help you crush the competition, whether it’s double jumping, sliding, spinning, or other unique abilities like Crash’s mid-air dash and extra powerful slide attack, or Doctor Cortex’s ability to turn opponents into harmless little critters for a time. Crash and Tawna are well-rounded Scorers, who excel at grabbing wumpas and depositing them at the bank. Meanwhile Coco and Doctor Cortex are Boosters, experts at controlling Boost Zones that earn you multipliers for any wumpas deposited while they are held. Finally there’s Dingodile, who is the sole Blocker, intended to simply stop the enemy from scoring by being a big, scary DPS machine.
“the sort of glorious mayhem that reminds me of my childhood days yelling at my friends during Mario Kart 64 or Smash Bros.”
As your team scrambles to carry out their strategy, you’ll also have to contend with power ups and modifiers within each level. One level has a giant UFO that rains death upon the opposing team once summoned, while another has beach balls that can be used to increase your team’s mobility and deal extreme damage to anyone in your way. With so much to think about and numerous things that can go very wrong or very right for each team, the result is the sort of glorious mayhem that reminds me of my childhood days yelling at my friends during Mario Kart 64 or Smash Bros. and it’s really hard to put down.
One match I was able to win by simply beating up the enemy team so much they had a hard time depositing anything into their bank, while another I racked up tons of multipliers by capturing Boost Zones so we were able to bank 2,000 wumpas in no time at all. Many matches were extremely close calls, but even when they weren’t the energy in the room was hilarious and infectious.
After a short time with it, I’m confident I’ll be putting some time in with Crash Team Rumble during its beta next month and when it gets its full release in June.
Elden Ring has won Game of the Year at the 23rd annual Game Developer Choice Awards. The awards ceremony took place this evening as part of the 2023 Game Developers Conference (GDC), running throughout this week at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. As a peer-based event, the Game Developer Choice Awards are voted for by developers themselves.
FromSoftware’s hugely-successful fantasy blockbuster also picked up the awards for Best Visual Art and Best Design.
Sony Santa Monica Studio’s God of War Ragnarok also enjoyed a successful evening with its own trifecta of trophies. God of War Ragnarok was awarded Best Audio, Best Technology, and the Audience Award.
This year’s Game Developer Choice Awards also recognised industry legend John Romero with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The id Software co-founder, who helped create Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II, and Quake, is renowned as a pioneer of the first-person shooter genre and spearheading the concept of the multiplayer deathmatch – a term he is often credited with creating. This year’s Pioneer Award was posthumously given to Mabel Addis, designer and writer of The Sumerian Game in 1964. Addis has been recognised as the first female game designer, and her work on The Sumerian Game’s story has been mooted as the first video game narrative ever.
The full list of awards and winners is below.
Best Debut: Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
Best Visual Art: Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
Best Audio: God of War Ragnarok (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Narrative: Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
Social Impact Award: Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
We all played a ton of the Diablo 4 beta this past weekend, and we were all also lucky enough to play Redfall recently as well. We’ve got a LOT of thoughts about both. Join us!
Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out our interview with Todd Howard, who answered all of our Starfield questions after the big reveal at the Xbox Showcase:
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
Over three years after its initial release, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners remains one of my favorite VR games, holding its ground next to the likes of Half-Life: Alyx and Gran Turismo 7 VR. That’s why it was such a major disappointment when its long-awaited sequel, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution, was released as a Meta Quest 2 exclusive back in December. It came with a slurry of bugs and performance issues that left such a middling taste in my mouth that I genuinely wondered whether it was even intended as a sequel to begin with, especially given the lack of a proper PC VR version at the time. Fast forward three months and we now have a PC re-release, plus a PlayStation VR2 version that visually blows everything about the original Quest 2 release out of the water. It’s still not quite as polished as Chapter 1, and its ideas are safer than I would’ve hoped for a full-blown sequel, but its increased action is far tenser with the horsepower to sustain it.
Assuming you’ve heard absolutely nothing about The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners or its sequel, it’s basically a VR roleplaying game that uses a mishmash of survival horror elements to propel its branching storyline. This formula usually does a good job of adding tension to its action and exploration. In my own playthrough of the 2020 breakout hit, I got involved in complex faction politics between all the looting and surviving, but through my choices, I influenced my own personal stakes in a post-apocalyptic New Orleans. Chapter 2 seems to mostly do away with these kinds of choices across its 12-or-so-hour campaign, disappointingly railroading me into a set path, but featuring way more opportunities for combat to try and make up for it. Moreover, it expected me to know the original’s story pretty well, doing the absolute minimum to bring me up to current events.
Story aside, there’s nothing I love more than darkness in a survival horror VR game, where a swarm of flesh-eating monsters can potentially creep into view and outnumber me at any moment. So it’s great to see that the PlayStation VR2’s HDR OLED panels display dark scenes with such accuracy that playing Chapter 2: Retribution on this headset is – quite literally – a night-and-day difference from playing on a Quest 2. True blacks breathe life into Chapter 2’s biggest new addition over the original: night missions. Crawling around the dilapidated Rampart High School at night was once more annoying than it was spooky, but on the PS VR2, it’s downright terrifying.
It’s such a big difference that I found myself actually enjoying Chapter 2: Retribution’s story, though still not for its lackluster characters like the overly-talkative Pawn King and the single-minded group of ragtag rebels you’re basically expected to team up with. The original worked so well because its sparse interactions with NPC characters blended into a story about a vulnerable lone survivor making their way and defining themselves through their own actions, but there really isn’t the same sort of leeway here for subtlety in Chapter 2. I found myself disappointingly locked into a linear series of events where I absolutely must face retribution for deeds I might not have even chosen to do if I didn’t play the original and that I didn’t even really remember doing when I played it back in 2020. Its momentum can be jarring at times, especially given how little time we’re given to connect with the decently-voiced but boringly one-note characters, but if you prefer action combat over dialogue, there’s plenty here to enjoy.
The PS VR2 displays dark scenes with way more accuracy.
Chapter 2’s hectic new weapons like the Chainsaw and the Sawed-Off Shotgun come in clutch during the aforementioned night missions, where Retribution’s biggest payoffs await. Loot is wildly better at night when I’m brave enough to seek it out, but walkers are more aggressive and far more numerous, leading to unintentionally climactic showdowns between myself and the ravenous horde. These intense walker battles only showed a promising start on the Quest 2 – but thanks to the thicker guts of the PS5, these skirmishes finally came to life in frightening detail on the PlayStation VR2, where a much larger number of enemies could spawn on the same map. I often needed to sneak through, redirect, or fend off entire swarms of walkers, forcing me to make intelligent use of all the tools in my arsenal. Mixed with the haptic feedback of the Sense controllers and the 3D audio in my Pulse headphones, the whole experience was way more coherent on the PS VR2 than I remember it being when I played it just three months ago on the Meta Quest 2.
There isn’t too much new content here, given that only a handful of the 12 zones are new at all. Most of the time you’ll just be wandering around in the original world to scavenge for loot and complete quests. But thanks to performance improvements, human AI is once again as vicious and tactical as I remember it being in the original, leading to unexpected scenarios between myself, hostile humans, and prowling walkers. And with the added difficulty comes a reason to approach situations with more nuance. For instance, I can focus my fire on a single human, killing them in a way that allows them to turn – creating a distraction behind enemy lines as I close the gap between myself and my opponents. These dynamic situations are way more interesting than the forced setup with axe-wielding secondary antagonist Gerrick, who notably looks a bit creepier with increased details that finally indicate what that weird red stuff hanging around his neck in the Quest 2 version was. Spoiler alert: it’s walker entrails. It was always walker entrails.
It’s even more satisfying to return to my home camp with a fresh load of loot after a day’s adventure, and this time around, I’m not worried about breaking anything if I choose to decorate my abode with loose items. Collecting items and dropping them into your recycling bin allows you to level up your crafting stations, making you more powerful and better equipped to head back out the next day, and despite the addition of two new crafting stations that introduce interesting new items like the Sap Gloves, Laser Sights, and the SMG, this loop is pretty much unchanged from the original. That said, the story itself still isn’t quite as intricate, often sending me on fetch quests where I fight the same type of enemies over and over again. You’ll spin those wheels as things heat up between you and the main antagonist, who’s loomed over your time in New Orleans since the first chapter.
Framerates are at least way more consistent now, allowing the action to run smoothly at what appears to be 90hz with no reprojections. Unfortunately, there are still a frustrating number of glitches that likely stem from this aging corpse of a game engine. To be clear: I ran into several experience-ruining bugs on the PS VR2 which likely had nothing to do with the hardware itself, and the two biggest offenders were significantly worse than many of the problems I ran into when I reviewed the Quest 2 version last year. About five hours into my PS VR2 playthrough, a quest completely stopped updating with new progress, forcing me to scrap my save altogether and start anew. Later on, during my new playthrough, I ended up in a situation where I was hindered from finishing a quest because a group of enemy humans cheap-shotted me and camped out by my corpse, seeing and shooting me through walls and floorboards and rendering me unable to retrieve to my weapons, which I couldn’t survive without.
Minecraft is a phenomenon that continues to take the world by storm even 12 years after its full release. Selling over 238,000,000 copies worldwide, the game is just as captivating an experience now as it was upon its debut..
If you are among those that have yet to jump into the blocky digital world of one of the best-selling video games of all time, you may be surprised to hear there are multiple ways for you to play Minecraft (and its various spinoffs) for free!
Minecraft Free Trial
For those wanting to get a taste of the endless hours of entertainment that Minecraft can provide, but are yet unwilling to pay the entry fee, there is in fact a free trial of both Bedrock and Java versions of the game. Via Minecraft’s official website, you can access links that will lead to the download pages for the Bedrock Edition, available on Windows, Android, PS3/4/5, and PS Vita.
In terms of the Java Edition, which is available exclusively to Windows, Mac, and Linux, an additional set of links are available lower down on the same page, with specific instructions on how to download and install each respective version.
The free trial (regardless of the Edition or your platform) is the full game as paying customers would experience it; there is no barred content that will be inaccessible. To ensure this isn’t exploited, you have a time limit imposed once you begin the trial. The time limit varies from platform to platform, but always averages out at around 90-100 minutes, equating to around 5 in-game days.
Whilst the restriction can be frustrating, this is more than enough time to try out the various mechanics in the game, and familiarise yourself with the gameplay loop if you’re uncertain as to whether you’ll enjoy it. If you’re considering buying Minecraft on your preferred platform, this is the optimum way to experience the game a little and know for sure before you spend your money.
Play Minecraft Classic for Free
As part of the 10 year anniversary for Minecraft back in 2019, Mojang released a completely free, browser-based version of the original build of Minecraft creative mode for you to enjoy. As this version is a replica of the OG mode, there are only 32 blocks available to use, it contains all the original bugs that were part of that version. Also, because it’s browser-based, you are unable to save your builds should you close the browser.
Upon generation of a world, you can copy the link it creates and share it with up to nine friends, letting you all play together! Whether you’re wanting a nostalgia trip to where it all began or fancy dipping your toe in for the first time, you can access this free version of Minecraft at https://classic.minecraft.net/.
Play Minecraft on Game Pass
An obvious inclusion for those in the know, Xbox and PC Players who have an Xbox Game Pass subscription can access Minecraft for “free” as part of their subscription, though you’ll need to continue paying the subscription to keep your access to the game. To play Minecraft: Java & Bedrock Edition with Game Pass on PC, you’ll just need to install the Java & Bedrock Edition from the Microsoft Store page or from the Xbox app for PC. You can then install and play each separate version from within the Minecraft launcher!
For Xbox players, you can install Minecraft on your Xbox if you have an active Game Pass Ultimate or Game Pass for Console subscription.
Other Minecraft Games and Spinoffs
Minecraft Dungeons, the hack and slash dungeon crawler released in 2020, is similarly available on Game Pass for subscribers. For PlayStation players, Minecraft Dungeons was included as a PlayStation Plus monthly free game for March 2023. If you didn’t redeem the title during its availability however, you’ll need to purchase the game should you wish to play it.
Similarly for PlayStation players, the full version of Minecraft’s base game is not available to download and play via PlayStation Plus. If you wish to play the game beyond the free trial, you’ll need to purchase it via the PlayStation Store.
For those that are looking for a more narrative-focused Minecraft tale, there was Minecraft: Story Mode, an episodic point-and-click adventure from Telltale Games. Minecraft: Story Mode is however unavailable on any/all platforms after being discontinued due to the closure of Telltale Games in 2018. This means that unless you already have the game downloaded and installed on your platform of choice, you will be unable to play this game.
One final game to mention is Minecraft Legends, an action-strategy spinoff set for release on April 18th, 2023. The price for the game will vary depending upon your chosen platform, though if you have a Game Pass subscription, the game will be available for free day of release.
As we inch closer to the release date of Arkane Studios’ first-person shooter Redfall, it has been confirmed that it will not be using Unreal Engine 5.
Harvey Smith said in a WccfTech interview that the game will be running on Unreal Engine 4. He noted that while they were developing the game, “Halfway through the project, Epic came up with Unreal Engine 5, but the game is based on Unreal Engine 4.26. If we had more time, we would have probably gone with UE5, but it was a lot of work just upgrading to 4.26.”
It is worth mentioning that Arkane has said in the past that they wouldn’t be using Unreal Engine 5. Over on the Redfall FAQ page, you’ll find a question asking, “What game engine is Redfall utilizing?” with the answer being Unreal Engine 4.
Redfall is the most recent title to come out of Arkane Studios. The game is projected to come out on May 2, 2023, for PC and Xbox Series X|S. There was originally going to be a PlayStation 5 version of the game, but Microsoft scrapped it when it acquired Bethesda, Smith revealed in a recent interview with IGN France.
Luis Joshua Gutierrez is a freelance writer who loves games. You can reach him at @ImLuisGutierrez on Twitter.
A representative with the Orange Country District Attorney, which originally filed the charges, told IGN that they were dropped today as “we did not have sufficient evidence to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt,” in addition to “additional information that came to light during the investigation.”
“I commend the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for conducting a thorough review of the facts and deciding to dismiss the case against Justin,” Roiland’s attorney, T. Edward Welbourn, told IGN in a statement. “I’m thankful justice has prevailed.”
Roiland also broke his silence today, speaking publicly on Twitter for the first time since the allegations became public.
“I have always known that these claims were false – and I never had any doubt this day would come,” Roiland tweeted.
“I’m thankful that this case has been dismissed but, at the same time, I’m still deeply shaken by the horrible lies that were reported about me during this process.”
“Most of all,” he continued, “I’m disappointed that so many people were so quick to judge without knowing the facts, based solely on the word of an embittered ex trying to bypass due process and have me ‘canceled.’ That it may have succeeded, even partially, is shameful. However, now that the legal case has ended, I’m determined to move forward and focus both on my creative projects and restoring my good name.”
The domestic violence charges, which were filed in May of 2020 over an alleged incident in January of that year, first became public early this year. At the time, Roiland had been charged with one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury, and one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud, and/or deceit against an anonymous Jane Doe that he had been dating at the time.
Over a dozen hearings had already been held over the charges, and Roiland was next due back in court on April 27.
After the charges came to light, a number of companies cut ties with Roiland, including Adult Swim, where Roiland was co-creator, executive producer, and voice actor on Rick & Morty.
Additionally, Squanch Games, which released Roiland’s High on Life late last year, also revealed in a statement that Roiland had resigned from the company, and Hulu announced that it would no longer work with him on their comedies Solar Opposites and Koala Man.
Still, Roiland had very little creative impact on all the above shows, as reported in a THR article and confirmed by IGN sources. Rick & Morty is still on production on its upcoming seventh season.
Thumbnail credit: Leon Bennett/WireImage
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Redfall was also in development for PlayStation 5 before Microsoft acquired Bethesda, according to the game’s director. This version was ultimately canceled and the game became exclusive to Microsoft platforms.
In an interview with IGN France, Arkane’s Harvey Smith explained, “We got bought by Microsoft and that was a huge sea change. They said, ‘no PlayStation 5. Now we’re gonna do Game Pass, Xbox, and PC.’”
Originally, Redfall was meant to release on all platforms. Smith said that the studio didn’t mind that decision, however. He continued, “Support from Game Pass and have to worry about one less platform, one less complexity. And Game Pass has a ton of people that can play. It could be our biggest game ever because of the 30 million Game Pass [members] or whatever that number is.”
Since Microsoft acquired Bethesda, both Starfield and Redfall were confirmed to be Microsoft exclusives while Microsoft still honored Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo’s timed console exclusivity periods on PlayStation 5. Redfall’s now-canceled PlayStation 5 version is also an interesting revelation considering Microsoft’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Still, Microsoft has reiterated that it will keep franchises such as Call of Duty on multiple platforms in order to reach as many players as possible. Microsoft has even signed 10-year deals with Nintendo and other cloud gaming service companies.
In IGN’s Redfall preview, we said, “If Arkane Austin can bring its own version of the kind of innovation [Far Cry 2 and STALKER] did back in the late 2000s, then Redfall could well inject a static genre with some long-overdue excitement.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
At GDC 2023, Epic Games held a State of Unreal event, where the company unveiled the latest updates for Unreal Engine. We got a fresh look at some new tools coming soon to creators, as well as how some of these tools are being used in upcoming games like Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
If you missed the livestream, here’s a quick roundup of everything announced during the 2023 State of Unreal event.
Unreal Editor For Fortnite allows players to develop their own games inside the popular Battle Royale
Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) is a new add-on available for the PC version of Fortnite. As Epic Games notes, the application works side-by-side with Fortnite’s existing creative toolset and is to be used for “designing, developing, and publishing games and experiences directly into Fortnite.” UEFN also includes a new scripting language called “Verse,” which Epic notes is a “powerful customization capabilities such as manipulating or chaining together devices and the ability to easily create new game logic.”
The Unreal Editor for Fortnite is available now on the Epic Games Store as a public beta.
Ninja Theory is Using MetaHuman Animator to push the “boundaries of realtime facial animation”
We already knew that Ninja Theory is hard at work on Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. And during today’s State of Unreal presentation, we got to see a sneak peek at how the developer is taking advantage of the new tools provided by Unreal Engine, and how it is using MetaHuman Animator to provide realistic facial animations on the its characters.
MetaHuman Animator will allow creators to use an iPhone or a stereo helmet-mounted camera to “reproduce any facial performance as high-fidelity animation” on MetaHuman characters. Epic touts that this new feature will allow creators to “capture the individuality, realism, and fidelity of your actor’s performance, and transfer every detail and nuance onto any MetaHuman to bring them to life in Unreal Engine.”
Epic Demos and Details New Features Coming to Unreal Engine 5.2
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney and Unreal Engine head Nick Penwarden shared new information on Unreal Engine 5.2. The company teamed up with EV manufacturer Rivian to create the stunning Electric Dreams demo to demonstrate some new things developers can do.
Unreal Engine 5.2 will roll out new features, most notably, Substrate, a new method that will offer those using Unreal Engine 5 “more control over the look and feel of objects used in real-time applications,” including games.
More interestingly, Epic notes that Unreal Engine 5.2 will introduce the Procedural Content Generation Framework (PCG) during the State of Unreal Presentation. Epic claims that these new in-editor and run-time PCG tools will allow artists to “define rules and parameters to quickly populate expansive, highly detailed spaces” faster and more efficiently.
Everything Else from State of Unreal 2023
Epic announced it was consolidating its digital asset stores into one huge marketplace that will launch later this year. Called Fab, this new store will provide available assets in the Unreal Engine Marketplace, Quixel Bridge, Artstation Marketplace, and Sketchfab.
The company also announced “Creator Economy 2.0,” which is launching alongside UEFN to allow those that use the Fortnire Island creators to receive more money based on how much engagement their published content receives. Additionally, Epic pledged that 40 percent of the game’s net revenues would be put back into a pool for creators.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
