Category: IGN

I find the word “cozy” to be dreadfully overused when assigning genres to video games these days, but it’s hard to find another adjective that so perfectly captures what I love about Dragon Quest. Straightforward but rewarding turn-based combat paired with a classic hero’s journey told in a picturesque fantasy world result in a wonderfully traditional RPG experience I’ve always found so comforting. So when I was given the choice at a recent preview event to try out Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake on either PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch, the choice to settle in on the couch in the Switch’s handheld mode was an easy one.

And rest assured, Switch owners, Dragon Quest 3 looked and ran great on the aging Nintendo system. Square Enix’s other HD-2D games like Octopath Traveler and Live A Live were perfect for playing in short bursts before bed, and Dragon Quest 3 is looking to fit that mold as well.

Unlike our first look at Dragon Quest 3’s remake which showed off how faithfully it’s sticking to the roots of the 30-plus-year-old NES RPG, the hour I played Dragon Quest 3 was spent with some of the remake’s brand-new additions. And so far, I’m extremely pleased with the new content that spruces things up without unrecognizably transforming the original experience.

First, I hung out in the revamped Monster Arena, where you can send monsters you’ve defeated and recruited throughout the game to do battle against other teams of creatures. In the original Dragon Quest 3, you could simply bet on the outcome of fights in the Monster Arena, but this remake lets you get in on the action yourself. Monster collecting has been a big part of both the main Dragon Quest games and the Monsters spinoff series for decades, and it’s great to see that legacy continue here.

I entered the arena with a preset team of a Slime, Healslime, and Spiked Hare, but this side mode is clearly set up for me to make my own teams with monsters I recruit across the main game. You don’t directly command your team in the Monster Arena tournament, but rather set how they should act in battle from four distinct options: Show No Mercy, Fight Wisely, Focus on Healing, and Don’t Use MP.

For the first few rounds, I instructed my Healslime to focus on healing its allies while the Slime and Spiked Hare dealt all the damage, but once I realized I had this fight in the bag, I had my whole team go all out. This monster auto battler seems like a fun distraction from the main adventure, and I can see myself swinging by regularly to fine-tune my team and enter them in tournaments.

While watching my team do battle I found myself mesmerized by the enemy character models. I’ve felt that Dragon Quest and the HD-2D art style were a match made in heaven since this remake’s initial reveal, and seeing it in action confirmed how much I love seeing these classic enemies in Square Enix’s enticing art direction. The killerpillar (an evil caterpillar, if you couldn’t guess) I faced in my first fight had a very detailed idle animation where it bounced back and forth, and the way it wriggled its entire body when gearing up for an attack made the whole turn-based fight feel so much more dynamic.

The same can be said of the awesome character models for Robbin’ ‘Ood and his set of Robbin’ ‘oodlums, the boss fight I faced at the top of Skyfell Tower. Ascending the tower was a classic, atmospheric dungeon experience filled with random encounters. Here, I was impressed with how flexible Dragon Quest 3’s combat system is. Remember those four preset orders I could assign to my team in the Monster Arena? In Dragon Quest 3’s core combat, those presets are still available to you, with the added option of “Follow Orders”. This means you can rip through the low-stakes random encounters in a dungeon by telling all four of your party members to Show No Mercy, but when a challenging boss fight begins, you can take control of every decision to ensure you emerge victorious. This, combined with the ability to crank up the battle speed whenever you like, adds to that cozy, relaxing game feel I mentioned earlier. It’s enjoyable to kick back and watch the experience points roll in during the low level fights that only take a few seconds at max speed, but when I reached the top of the tower to face off against Robbin ‘Ood, I wanted to make every choice myself.

And it’s a good thing I did take control of the boss fight, because it was a nail-biter. I had to use my Priest to heal my party several times, while my protagonist and Monster Wrangler – which is a new class introduced to the remake – dealt the heavy blows. I let out a big sigh of relief when Robbin ‘Ood finally fell to the ground, and it just made me want to rush straight to the next dungeon to face off against the next big boss.

I also want to shout out this remake’s new party customization feature. The party members in Dragon Quest 3 are blank slates, but the remake revamps Patty’s Party Planning Place, a tavern where you can design your own party members, choosing their class, name, appearance, hair color, and voice. There aren’t very many customization options, but enough to make a rudimentary version of myself that I inserted into my party. I imagine players will have a ton of fun customizing their party and making changes to it throughout the game.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is out November 14 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, with Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake arriving sometime next year.

Lenovo is offering $15 off select Xbox controllers, including a few limited edition ones, when you apply coupon code “SAVEACCXTRA“. It stacks with instant discounts as well. The limited edition controllers – Sky Cipher Edition and Nocturnal Vapor Edition – haven’t been discounted, ever, so it’s possible that they are unintentionally eligible. In any case, if you’ve been eyeing one of these controllers, do not hesitate or you’ll probably experience FOMO. They are compatible with Xbox Series X and S consoles as well as your PC (via Bluetooth, USB Type-C, or Xbox wireless dongle).

Xbox Controllers Currently on Sale

You can quickly browse through all of the listed controllers that are currently on sale above. We picked out the best deals or most interesting products worth mentioning below.

Sky Cipher Special Edition

Nocturnal Vapor Special Edition

Blue

Deep Pink

Shock Blue

Electric Volt

The PS5 Pro is now a fast-approaching reality. The $700 mid-generation upgrade arrives on November 7, approximately a year in advance of the game that will likely push the four-years-old base PS5 to its very limits: Grand Theft Auto 6. But how essential will the PS5 Pro be to enjoying GTA 6 at its very best? It’s a question more complicated than it first seems.

“I think there’s good evidence to suggest that the [GTA 6 trailer from last year] was running on either PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X,” says Richard Leadbetter, technology editor at Digital Foundry. As such, the impressive level of graphical detail seen in that trailer should be achievable using the power of the original 2020 model PlayStation 5. It stands to reason, then, that the new PS5 Pro will be more than capable of delivering what we saw in that short glimpse of Vice City.

Frame rates, though, are an entirely different thing. When asked if GTA 6 could realistically run at 60 frames-per-second on the PS5 Pro, Leadbetter is blunt in his analysis: “No. Grand Theft Auto games have always run complex simulations that push the CPU hard, which is why every GTA game has initially launched on their target platforms at 30fps (or lower!).

“The PS5 Pro uses the same CPU as the PS5 and it would be extremely challenging to hit 60fps if the base PS5 version is targeting 30fps,” he explains. “This isn’t a GPU problem, it’s a CPU problem.”

There’s a multitude of simulation work running concurrently and constantly in GTA to keep its open world ticking. Every street is, at the very minimum, a stage for complex traffic and pedestrian simulations – AI routines and physics calculations that bring those roads and sidewalks to life. GTA 6 will very likely feature one of the most realistic depictions of city life we’ve seen in a video game, and so will be significantly taxing on the CPU as it renders all sorts of NPC behaviours. That leaves little bandwidth to boost those frame rates.

Still, thanks to the PS5 Pro’s other enhancements, GTA 6 will undoubtedly look better on the new console. It just likely will not be the 4K 60fps experience many will be expecting following Sony’s boastful presentation. “What you will get will be higher quality visuals, but likely still running at similar frame-rates [to the base console],” says Leadbetter. “If GTA 6 can’t sustain a locked 30fps (GTA 4 and GTA 5 couldn’t on PS3 and Xbox 360), PS5 Pro can run the CPU with a 10 percent bump to clock speeds – so you may get more stable performance.

“Of course, all bets are off if Rockstar is targeting 60fps on the standard PS5 – but we’ve seen no evidence so far to suggest it is.”

While it seems unlikely that the PS5 Pro will run GTA 6 at 4K 60fps, there’s still reason to believe the new console will prove an impressive machine. Right now, though, there’s little evidence of its transformative abilities. “I think the hardware’s certainly capable, but the actual presentation confused me,” says Leadbetter. “Nine minutes just isn’t really enough to describe in depth the features the machine has and the philosophy behind the design.”

Leadbetter also notes that the games showcased during the presentation were already fantastic graphical showcases in their original forms, and so were not ideal demonstrations of the Pro’s machine learning-based upscaling technology. Why was it the already gorgeous Horizon Forbidden West and Spider-Man 2 being shown off when we could have seen how transformative PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution could be for games that have shaky image quality on the standard PS5?

“Combine that with poor presentational techniques and YouTube’s inadequacies as a video delivery platform and you didn’t see much of an improvement,” says Leadbetter.

While Sony has chosen to so far only preview enhancements to games that barely require them in the first place, we can at least be relatively confident that those titles in desperate need of a performance boost will be catered for. The PlayStation Blog states that up to 8,500 games will be improved thanks to the PS5 Pro Game Boost feature.

“I think [the improvements will] be quite cool actually, assuming the extra 45 percent of GPU power is fully available to existing games,” enthuses Leadbetter. “Many titles have dynamic resolution scaling. You should see clear image quality improvements there. Similarly, a lot of games have frame-rate issues in their 60fps performance modes – I’d expect those to be cleaned up. We might even finally get Elden Ring locked to 60 frames per second.”

One thing Leadbetter thinks is less likely to make an impact is the Pro’s 8K capabilities. While he foresees a very small number of tech-focused developers, like Gran Turismo 7 creator Polyphony Digital, making 8K resolution options available for PS5 Pro, he doubts other studios will work on such modes “because the audience out there is vanishingly small.”

“I had an 8K screen for four years, but even as an RTX 4090 owner, I have little interest in 8K gaming when high frame-rates at max 4K are so much more desirable,” he says.

Talking of Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards, PC gaming has been the much-debated topic following Sony’s reveal of the PS5 Pro’s eye-watering $699.99 price tag. I’ve seen several suggestions across social media that it’s better value to just save up a ‘little extra’ money and buy a PC that will prove more powerful than the PS5 Pro. It’s an argument I personally think is flawed – a strong 4K, high frame-rate PC will set you back notably more money than the cost of the new console. And, when it’s built, it simply won’t be capable of doing the thing many prospective PS5 Pro owners want: playing GTA 6 at launch with the best possible graphics. (GTA 6 will ship on console first, remember.)

Leadbetter has a similar outlook. “You will struggle to get that kind of visual quality on a similarly priced PC,” he says. “The closest GPU on the market now with that kind of feature set and performance is the RTX 4070 – which is a fair bit better, I’d say. But your base cost there is $540/£480. And then you need to factor in CPU, motherboard, memory, storage, power supply and case.

“You could offset the extra cost against the fact that you don’t need extra subscription costs over time, I suppose, but I think you’re missing the fundamental point of what PS5 Pro is and who is going to buy it.

“It’s a console, not a PC – and there are still key differences there, not least in a viable living room experience. I’d also say the Pro is designed to appeal to core PlayStation users with a library built up over many years. That library will not transition over to PC so those users are effectively starting from scratch.”

Of course, that’s not to say that the PS5 Pro is a ‘good deal’. “That user base likely has a physical game library, too – so the notion you don’t even get a disc drive for your £699/$699 is nuts,” Leadbetter concludes.

There may be other people looking at the PS5 Pro and failing to see a good value proposition, too, although for entirely other reasons. “I think Phil Spencer watched the presentation and felt vindicated in the decision not to make a ‘pro’ console for this generation,” Leadbetter theories. “Xbox players already have a great way to play high-end Xbox games – and that’s on PC, where the enthusiast has more freedom to pick and choose the kind of hardware they want.”

It’s true: Microsoft has been running three different platforms from the very start of the generation, offering a solution for players of all tastes and budgets. It is arguably Xbox’s biggest advantage over PlayStation. Who needs a Series X-X when you can play Starfield at 4K60 on a PC? Avowed’s 30fps lock simply isn’t a problem if you’ve already shelled out for an RTX 40-series graphics card.

But, as we’ve already said, the PS5 Pro is not a PC. It’s a different beast entirely. Is it the console the PlayStation hardcore needs, though? Let’s see how fast it flies off the shelves this November.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. Additional reporting by Alex Simmons.

Space Marine 2 has its first patch following its record-breaking launch, but don’t expect big changes — those are coming in a larger update due later in September.

Publisher Focus Interactive announced that a small hotfix (hotfix 2.1) is out now for the Saber Interactive-developed Warhammer 40,000 action game across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S (check out the patch notes below).

It focuses on crashes and bug fixes, with a PC-only optimization for behavior on high-end CPUs thrown in. The big, hotly anticipated patch that Focus has already confirmed adds the much-needed ultrawide support and private PvE lobbies is due out later this month.

We’ve got plenty more Space Marine 2 coverage, including details on its post-launch roadmap, the upcoming addition of class matching for co-op after players found themselves locked in a class standoff ahead of Operations mode missions, and a report on those creepy flying babies you keep seeing on the Battle Barge.

IGN’s Space Marine 2 review returned an 8/10. We said: “Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 may not break the third-person shooter mold, but it looks amazing, makes good use of its Warhammer lore, and has brutal combat that just feels great.”

Space Marine 2 hotfix 2.1 patch notes:

Crashes and bug fixes

• Fixed some rare possible crashes when starting the game
• Fixed a rare possible crash that occured during the first cutscene
• Fixed several other rare crashes
• Fixed several rare bugs that were causing soft locks in the story mode

PC Only

• Optimized CPU behavior on high end CPUs

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.

The Pokémon TCG Halloween Trick or Trade BOOster Bundle is back, bringing a spooky twist to your collection on All Hallows Eve. With 35 mini boosters in each bundle, you’ll have plenty of chances to pull some of your favorite Pokémon, all with a cute Pikachu Halloween stamp.

It’s a brilliant product for collectors, kids, or anyone looking to hand out something cooler than sweets this year. Plus, the whole set of 30 cards can be completed with just one bundle, which is perfect for those who like a challenge but don’t want to break the bank.

If you’re after a fun, seasonal Pokémon product that’s easy to collect, the Trick or Trade BOOster Bundle 2024 is it. It’s only $15 for 35 mini boosters (see here), and this year’s is one of the best ever, with cards like Okidogi, Munkidori, and Gengar making appearances, it’s a great mix of reprints and new faces. Check out our full preview of the 2024 set right here.

Space Marine 2 has broken free from the shackles of its Warhammer 40,000 setting and made inroads into the gaming mainstream, and that means there are plenty of players new to its grim dark far future.

For them Space Marine 2 is a somewhat bewildering experience, as it leans on much of the lore that Warhammer 40,000 owner Games Workshop has built over decades, with hundreds of novels, rule books, and magazine articles fleshing out the background fans know intimately.

Warhammer 40,000 fans have enjoyed seeing newcomers react in shock at just how grim and dark Space Marine 2 is. And it’s not just the extreme gore, mass death, and terrifying alien enemies that appear in the game either. Perhaps the most disturbing element of Space Marine 2 that newcomers are seeing for the first time are lobotomized babies.

In Space Marine 2, I really respect how cherubs are one of the first sights to see when on the barge. It’s a good tone setter for those who don’t really know what they’re in for pic.twitter.com/D3ZHWUiEQY

— Iggy (@IgnacioVitalis) September 8, 2024

A tweet from Forbes writer Paul Tassi, below, sums up the reaction to Space Marine 2’s winged babies, who seemingly fly about the Battle Barge, the spaceship on which the Space Marines live and plan their missions, performing monotonous busywork.

uhhh what pic.twitter.com/j7BvzzcHv3

— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) September 9, 2024

On the face of it, the apparent “good guys” of Space Marine 2’s story have lobotomized babies cleaning up their mess. Sound messed up? Welcome to Warhammer 40,000’s Imperium of Man, a fascist regime always on the brink of extinction and an extreme vision of the far future in which pretty much anything goes.

Warhammer 40,000 is intended to be grim and dark, and so stuff like this is par for the course (lobotomized babies aren’t close to being the most disturbing thing in the setting, if you fancy some light reading, check out what the Drukhari get up to in their spare time). Space Marine 2’s far future is a truly miserable place to be, a place in which countless humans die every day from all manner of horrors, be those alien, demon, or humans themselves. Humanity, bogged down by excruciating bureaucracy and religious fanaticism, has collapsed. There is no respite, no joy, only inevitable death.

With that in mind, Warhammer 40,000 fans are used to things like a “lobotomized church menial cyborg flying baby,” as X/Twitter user ChronoTheHarlequin pointed out. The thing is, with this one in particular, it gets even weirder.

Seeing tweets like these kinda make me realize how numb I’ve gotten to the weird shit in 40k.

“Lobotomized church menial cyborg flying baby” isn’t something I’d even flinch at now https://t.co/YcLQdGCQlC

— ChronoTheHarlequin (@ChronoHarlequin) September 10, 2024

As the unofficial Warhammer podcast Adeptus Ridiculous clarified, most of these things aren’t actually lobotomized babies. Most are built from the ground(?) up as flesh automatons with computers for brains (A.I is banned in the 40th millennium because of… reasons). Why do they look like babies? Apart from Warhammer 40,000 being all heavy metal and gothic, according to the lore, it’s for “ceremonial purposes.”

Don’t worry, most of them are not actually lobotomized babies, most are built from scratch as flesh automatons with computers for brains and just made to look like babies for ceremonial purposes.

Most of them. https://t.co/F0hTIhOvHz

— Adeptus Ridiculous (@AdRidiculous) September 11, 2024

I’m loving Space Marine 2 and its attention to detail. The developers at Saber clearly love Warhammer 40,000 and made the effort to capture its oppressive, soul destroying atmosphere. I’ve particularly enjoyed the flavor dialogue you hear from the humans who are charged with keeping the Battle Barge afloat. Some bemoan a lack of sleep because of how hard they’re forced to work. Others express concern at the prospect of making even a single mistake. Given the truly miserable galaxy in which they live, these chaps are the lucky ones. And don’t get me started on the servitors.

We’ve got plenty more Space Marine 2 coverage, including details of its first patch, its post-launch roadmap, and the upcoming addition of class matching for co-op, after players found themselves locked in a class standoff ahead of Operations mode missions.

Image credit: Games Workshop.

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.

The summer sale events may be winding down, but there are still quite a few discounts lingering around for PlayStation fans. And with the brand new PS5 Pro just announced with a hefty price tag, there’s really no better time to take advantage of PS5 deals. We’ve gathered up some of our favorite offers below, including some excellent discounts on games such as Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for $24.99, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol.1 for $19.99, and God of War Ragnarök for $39.99. These deals only scratch the surface of what’s available now, though. Below, you can also find other deals on everything from consoles to SSDs and even information on where to buy a PS5 now.

Navigate to:

• Best PS5 Video Game Deals
• Best PS5 SSD Deals
• PlayStation Portal Back in Stock
• Best PS5 Headset Deals

What to Buy Ahead of the PS5 Pro’s Release

The PS5 Pro has finally, officially been announced with a monumental price tag of $699.99. Preorders aren’t live yet, though you can keep your calendar marked for September 26 on PS Direct (October 10 for other retailers), and the console will officially release on November 7. It was also revealed during the 9-minute presentation that the new console does not come with a disc drive or the vertical stand. So, before preorders go live, we thought it best to point you in the direction of these items so you can purchase them now in the event they sell out. The PS5 Disc Drive will cost you $79.99 and the vertical stand will set you back $29.94.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is set for an update for all platforms in addition to the recently confirmed PS5 Pro Enhanced patch.

Last night, Sony announced the $700 PS5 Pro alongside a list of first and third-party games that will have what are called PS5 Pro Enhanced updates when the console comes out on November 7, 2024. Sony has indicated up to 50 PS5 Pro Enhanced games will be available for launch.

Capcom’s action RPG Dragon’s Dogma 2 is among them. Like Sony’s announcement of the PS5 Pro, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s PS5 Pro Enhanced patch is light on details. All Capcom has said so far is that it will offer “a gaming experience that takes advantage of PS5 Pro’s features.”

The hope is that Dragon’s Dogma 2 will run at 60 frames per second and 4K resolution on PS5 Pro flawlessly. Dragon’s Dogma 2 launched in March on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S with a number of performance problems that subsequent updates have sought to tackle. Frame-rate is a particular problem especially in areas with lots of NPC. Now, Capcom has indicated that more updates are to come.

“We will soon be releasing an update for all platforms that will further improve CPU load, reduce crashes and bring additional adjustments,” Capcom said. “Further details will be announced as soon as they are ready.”

Dragon’s Dogma 2 arrived more than a decade after its predecessor and proved a monster hit for publisher Capcom despite controversy, selling 2.5 million units in 11 days amid microtransaction and the performance complaints.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: “More of a redo than a sequel, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a strange and wonderful action-RPG that bolsters the original’s strengths without addressing its weaknesses.”

Meanwhile, we’ve got plenty of PS5 Pro coverage, including a list of all the PS5 Pro Enhanced games confirmed so far.

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.

Konami has confirmed that Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 is in the works, but getting it on store shelves will be easier said than done.

Metal Gear series promotions director Jiro Oishi and production producer Noriaki Okamura touched on plans for its tactical espionage action franchise in a recent Production Hotline episode posted by Konami. During a Q&A segment, Okamura acknowledged the fans eagerly waiting to learn which games will be included in Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2. However, bringing some of the newer titles to modern audiences comes with a unique set of issues, including a desire to dodge the problems Vol. 1 faced at launch.