Category: IGN

Warning: contains full spoilers for episode 4 of HBO’s The Last of Us.

HBO’s The Last of Us is a mostly faithful adaptation of the hit PlayStation game. But just how close to its source material does it get? We’ve gathered images from the episode and put them next to stills from Naughty Dog’s masterpiece to see just how similar some of it is.

For more on The Last of Us, check out our review of episode 3, or an interview with the show’s creators about Bill and Frank’s new story.

Simon Cardy is reviewing The Last of Us for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, the upcoming Soulslike from Nioh developer Team Ninja, is getting a second demo on February 24 that will allow you to transfer save data to the full game.

Team Ninja announced the news on Twitter, and it confirmed that the demo will be released on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. Furthermore, those who complete the demo will be able to obtain the “Crouching Dragon Helmet” DLC in the full game.

This will give fans another chance to try out Wo Long, which is especially great as Team Ninja took the feedback from the first demo to heart and, in our opinion, already vastly improved the experience.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will be released on the above platforms and Xbox Game Pass on March 3, 2023, and will welcome fans to a darker version of China’s Three Kingdom period. However, don’t expect a warm welcome.

“Wo Long is more massive in scale compared to our previous games set in Japan, which allowed us to show a more severe and dark world,” Producer Fumihiko Yasuda previously told IGN. “The same can be said for the difficulty. There’s no doubt this will be an extremely challenging and demanding game, but we’ve come up with new ways to approach that difficulty.”

In our final preview of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, we said that we came away “realizing that it innovates on the exploration loop in Soulsborne games more than anything else. While the game’s challenging combat is as stellar as you would expect from a Team Ninja game, it is the Morale Rank system that truly feels like it’s shaking things up.”

If you are still on the fence, be sure to check out all of our exclusive IGN First coverage of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, including 10 minutes of gameplay, seven brutal new weapons, a boss battle with a new weapon type, high-level superplay with an epic boss fight, and a look at the game’s opening cutscene.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

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

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok and its composer Stephanie Economou have won the first Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media.

This first award for the video game music category comes at the 65th Grammys, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok and Economou won over Austin Wintory and Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Bear McCreary and Call of Duty: Vanguard, Richard Jacques and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and Christopher Tin and Old World.

If you have yet to hear any of the music from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok or just want to listen again, here is a preview of the main theme from Ubisoft and a link to the full album on Spotify.

A main theme worthy of the All-Father himself. ? @stepheconomou @ubisoftmusic

?Stream the full album now: https://t.co/VtC4u8PbK5 #AssassinsCreed pic.twitter.com/oAPv7AcqkN

— Assassin’s Creed (@assassinscreed) February 5, 2023

“I just want to recognize all of the people who fought tirelessly to bring this category of video game music into existence,” Economou said after she accepted the Grammy. “Thank you for acknowledging and validating the power of game music. This is truly such an honor, thank you.”

While this was the first time the Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media category was included in the Grammys, it isn’t the first time a video game has been nominated or won. In 2011, Christopher Tin’s Baba Yetu was the first song to be nominated and win a Grammy and it did so in the category of Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals.

In 2012, Austin Wintry and Journey were nominated for the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media but lost out to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ work on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

In our review of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok, we said, “A fantastical setting and solid story can’t disguise the fact that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok has us running through the same motions as the main game a year and a half later.”

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

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

In a hilarious fake trailer, Saturday Night Live has cast The Last of Us’ Pedro Pascal in HBO’s Mario Kart and tasks him with taking Princess Peach to Rainbow Road.

The trailer, which you can check out below, is roughly three minutes long and also features appearances by Bowser, Yoshi, Toad, and Luigi.

HBO’s adapting another iconic game pic.twitter.com/YtsIswwSBb

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 5, 2023

In this world, it’s been 10 years since Mushroom Kingdom fell and the only thing left is “hope.” Pascal’s Mario, who introduces himself with the iconic line, “It’s a-me, Mario,” is asked to take Princess Peach to Rainbow Road in an attempt to save humanity, and he’s given a kart to do so.

Instead of Clickers, our heroes have to face off against Goombas, but luckily they have shotguns with red shell ammo to keep them safe. We even see Mario eating a mushroom and, when Princess Peach asks why he’s eating poision, he responds with, “It makes me feel big, okay?! I need to feel big, because Bowser is out there, and he’s the main bad guy.”

The trailer is full of other Easter Eggs, the death of a major character we won’t spoil here, and even more.

One of the funniest bits also notes that this new series is from the “master storytellers behind Mario Kart 1-8.” As everyone knows, we all flock to the Mario Kart franchise because of its riveting tales.

Pascal’s appearance on Saturday Night Live arrives in the middle of The Last of Us’ first season. We gave the latest episode a rare 10/10, saying, “A masterfully told love story set in a world designed to leave them unwritten, episode 3 of HBO’s The Last of Us is a sensational hour of television.”

For more, check out our breakdown of the real version of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, why we said this third episode is adaptation at its finest, and the latest on Pascal’s return as Din Djarin alongside Grogu in Season 3 of The Mandalorian.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

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

Activision Blizzard has been charged $35 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for “failing to maintain disclosure controls related to complaints of workplace misconduct and violating whistleblower protection rule.”

The SEC shared the news in a press release, stating Activision Blizzard agreed to pay the $35 million to settle its violations, and the charges stemmed from issues dating back to 2016.

“According to the SEC’s order, between 2018 and 2021, Activision Blizzard was aware that its ability to attract, retain, and motivate employees was a particularly important risk in its business, but it lacked controls and procedures among its separate business units to collect and analyze employee complaints of workplace misconduct,” The SEC wrote.

Between 2016 and 2021, the SEC stated Activision Blizzard also “executed separation agreements in the ordinary course of its business that violated a Commission whistleblower protection rule by requiring former employees to provide notice to the company if they received a request for information from the Commission’s staff.”

As a result, Activison Blizzard was said to have violated Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(a) and 21F-17(a). The company did not admit or deny the SEC’s finding, instead it just “agreed to a cease-and-desist order and to pay a $35 million penalty.”

“The SEC’s order finds that Activision Blizzard failed to implement necessary controls to collect and review employee complaints about workplace misconduct, which left it without the means to determine whether larger issues existed that needed to be disclosed to investors,” said Jason Burt, Director of the SEC’s Denver Regional Office. “Moreover, taking action to impede former employees from communicating directly with the Commission staff about a possible securities law violation is not only bad corporate governance, it is illegal.”

The SEC confirmed it was investigating how Activision Blizzard handled allegations of sexual misconduct and workplace discrimination in September of 2021. The SEC’s search followed the two-year investigation by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing that led to a lawsuit against the company for fostering a “frat boy” culture in which female employees were allegedly subjected to unequal pay and sexual harassment.

This settlment also comes at a time when there is extra scrutiny regarding the $68.7 billion deal that would merge Xbox and Activision Blizzard. Most recently, the merger spurred a formal antitrust warning from the European Union.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

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

Sons of the Forest developer Endnight Games has announced it will be changing the game’s February 23 release date to an early access release date to prevent further delays and to allow fans to jump in and help the studio reach the finish line.

Endnight Games revealed its plan for the Sons of the Forest’s release and development going forward via a post on Steam, and shared it very much wants the community’s help as it did for the original game.

“It’s been a long journey since we first started ‘Sons of The Forest’ development and it’s grown into the biggest most complex game we have ever made,” the post reads. “There is still so much more we want to add; items, new mechanics, gameplay balance and more. We didn’t want to delay again so have instead decided to involve the community in the continued development of this project and keep our February 23rd release date but instead release in Early Access.

“‘The Forest’ turned out to be a massive success, due mostly to the awesome community and the suggestions, feedback, and bug reports the players shared with us,” the post continues. “We are really excited and hope that players want to come on this new journey with us to make this the ultimate survival horror simulator.”

After its initial announcement in 2019, Sons of the Forest, which is a follow-up to 2014’s The Forest, was delayed twice in 2022 to accommodate for the game’s large scope.

We previewed Sons of the Forest in January 2023 and praised its vast improvements to its predecessor’s gameplay, which include sophisticated AI enemies and an impressively responsive ecosystem.

“Sons of the Forest appears to evolve and build on every aspect of its predecessor with a focused goal of realism and developing a flexible ecosystem, and it feels like the building blocks are there to create something truly special,” IGN’s Dale Driver wrote. “But its killer feature is the addition of impressively sophisticated and smarter AI enemies and companions that could not only provide a huge leap forward for the series, but the survival game genre as a whole.”

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

The regular person with no unique or weird features, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week’s reset. If you’re looking to get your some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.

Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he’s got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.

We’ve rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.

Where Is Xûr Located Today?

Xûr’s location can be found at Winding Cove in the EDZ on February 3 through February 4. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Winding Cove. When you arrive, make for the rock cliffs at the far end of the cove and look for a cave winding up to a platform next to some Fallen. There you’ll find the retail monster who inspires us all.

Remedy Entertainment and Smilegate announced that they will be shutting down CrossfireX on May 18, 2023. This announcement comes right before the game’s one-year anniversary as it was released on Xbox Series and Xbox One back on February 10, 2022.

“Since the launch of the game, we have worked tirelessly to bring it to a point where we can all be proud, and throughout it all we have had the honor and pleasure of supporting our players,” CrossfireX’s development team said in a statement.

It continued: “Coming to this decision was not easy, however, we can proudly say that our players have been amazingly active, passionate, and enthusiastic in working with us to create a game that would be fun and enjoyable by all. We want to thank each and every one of our players for playing CrossfireX and being a part of this journey with us.

It is with deepest regret that we must inform you of our decision to terminate our service for CrossfireX. We want to thank each and every one of our players for playing and being a part of this journey with us. For full details, please visit: https://t.co/Kx03nYOmLA pic.twitter.com/Gl790Tn38T

— CrossfireX (@PlayCrossfireX) February 3, 2023

Sales for the game on the Xbox Store have already been disabled, and there will be no new content added to the game, including maps, modes, and camos. Additionally, purchases made within the last 14 days as of February 3, 2023, are eligible for a refund.

In the meantime, players can continue to enjoy the game until its shutdown in May. The in-game store will continue to be open, but the option to purchase premium currency will be disabled. Players can still spend their remaining currency.

CrossfireX is the latest live-service game to announce shutdowns this week—Rumbleverse and Knockout City, Crimesight, and Apex Legends Mobile are going offline later this year too.

In IGN’s CrossfireX single-player and multiplayer reviews, we said, “CrossfireX’s pair of single-player shooter campaigns are sloppy, soulless, and mercifully brief,” as well as “CrossfireX’s multiplayer modes aren’t worth the price you’ll pay…and it’s free-to-play.”

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

Update: 02/03/2022: It Takes Two has now sold more than ten million copies, doubling its five million record set this time last year.

Announced on developer Hazelight Studios’ Twitter (below), the team said “our minds are officially blown” as they celebrated the impressive number.

“Potentially twice as many players have enjoyed our game,” it added. “We never dared to dream of so many fans. Thank you for all the love.”

Our minds are officially blown.#ItTakesTwo has sold over 10 (TEN!) MILLION ??

Potentially twice as many players have enjoyed our game – we never dared to dream of so many fans!
Thank you for all the love. ? pic.twitter.com/GzF1UL7ZUn

— Hazelight Studios (@HazelightGames) February 3, 2023

Original Story: 02/07/2022: It Takes Two has sold five million copies, including two million since October, developer Hazelight Studios has announced.

The developer tweeted (below) that “our team is absolutely stunned just thinking about how many players have now enjoyed our game.”

Hazelight previously announced on October 13 that the award-winning co-op game had passed three million units sold, showing that It Takes Two had a strong holiday period performance with at least two million sales.

5… that’s FIVE million copies of #ItTakesTwo sold! ???

Our team is absolutely stunned just thinking about how many players have now enjoyed our game! ?

— Hazelight Studios (@HazelightGames) February 4, 2022

It Takes Two won several categories at The Game Awards 2021 including overall game of the year, best multiplayer game, and best family game. It was among the nominees for IGN’s game of the year but in the end fell to Forza Horizon 5.

We called the game “amazing”, saying “It Takes Two is a spectacular co-op adventure that lays down a path of great gameplay ideas and uses it to play a giddy game of hopscotch.”

Several famous faces from the gaming industry have also praised the game. Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki said it was a standout of 2021 alongside executives at Naughty Dog who also said it was their game of the year.

It Takes Two’s success has led it beyond the gaming sphere, as Hazelight Studios has partnered with dj2 Entertainment to create adaptations for film and television.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

Cardy, Dale, and Mat dream up what they think should be the next big video game TV show following The Last of Us as they pick the game, director, cast, and much more for their big-budget projects. Before that, though, there’s time for a little Dead Space catch-up, impressions of Knock at the Cabin, Knockout City sadness, and the bizarre thing that is Infinite Seinfeld.

Got a game for us to play or just want to tell us the weirdest thing you’ve eaten for breakfast? Why not email us: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast 682: Creating the Next Best Video Game TV Show

• IGN UK Podcast 681: Shadow Drop It Like It’s Hot
• IGN UK Podcast #680: Dead Space and Other Games We Want Remade
• IGN UK Podcast 679: The Last of Us is Very Good
• IGN UK Podcast #678: Wot We Did Over Christmas
• IGN UK Podcast 677: The Big 2023 Preview