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Every Final Fantasy 14 Expansion Ranked

Final Fantasy 14 is over 10 years old and players are finishing up its newest expansion, Dawntrail. With six expansions, including A Realm Rebron, Final Fantasy 14 is one of gaming’s greatest comeback stories. From a critically-panned launch to becoming one of the biggest games of all time for Square Enix, all of it was thanks to the consistently excellent work from the developers.

But which expansion reigns supreme? With so many to choose from, and each expansion with its own unique characteristics, it’s hard to choose. But we’ve gotten together to rank every Final Fantasy 14 expansion to find out which one we loved most.

So hit the jump to see our favorite expansions in Final fantasy 14 below.

Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn

The story of Final Fantasy 14’s rise from the ashes is well-documented. Following a disastrous launch, producer Naoki Yoshida took reins on the project and rebooted the game with A Realm Reborn, which literally destroyed the world of the launch game, and built on top of it the beloved MMORPG we know and love today.

A Realm Reborn was a two-fold project that fixed the frustrating gameplay and RPG systems of the launch version while telling a story that literally incorporates the destruction of the launch version into the wider narrative. And while A Realm Reborn quite literally saved FF14, the need to reboot an entire MMO and reintroduce players to the game is its greatest weakness. Compared to later expansions, A Realm Reborn feels downright glacial when it comes to pacing, and the need to revamp the world means its story is far more bloated than it needs to be in later expansions. While A Realm Reborn will always be cherished for saving Square Enix’s MMORPG, you’ll be hard-pressed to say the later expansions aren’t better. – Matt Kim

Final Fantasy 14: Stormblood

Stormblood is often looked at as one of the lesser-liked expansions, which, to me, speaks to how strong the rest of them are. That’s because Stormblood is still a crucial piece to Final Fantasy 14 that worked to conclude long-standing conflicts and show you just how evil and destructive the Garlean Empire was. I vividly remember the feeling of taking back Ala Mhigo after all these years of them being under Garlean rule, and taking back Doma Castle after seeing how Domans had suffered from the occupation. There are moments in which Stormblood undercuts its own messaging and perhaps didn’t fully find the nuance necessary to elegantly tell a politically charged story. However, it gets the larger picture right, and the liberation of the peoples across the different regions was invigorating nonetheless.

Stormblood’s zones might not be the most exciting of the bunch, but there’s a tranquility I still feel when flying across the Ruby Sea, over the plains of Azim Steppe, and past the rice patties in Yangxia. I often reflect on the stories of oppression and rebellion in those moments because of the smaller stories told throughout the expansion. I also remember Yotsuyu as one of the most complex villains of FF14 – her heartbreaking story represents how sadistic and corrupting living under oppression can be, which culminated in one of the best boss fights to this day. Stormblood may not have been the best expansion, but it had peaks that make FF14 what it is today. – Michael Higham

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail

With Dawntrail fresh in my memory, it’s a bit hard to gauge its place in the Final Fantasy 14 pantheon, but even with all its implications yet to be explored, it still stands as a worthy addition to the MMO’s long history. The land of Tural opens FF14 to so many different themes and cultural influences it wasn’t able to incorporate in the past, and although it does come with some mixed results, the vibrant foundation it lays leaves even more room for growth. Newcomer Wuk Lamat is a large focus and although she’s not the strongest character in FF14, she has the heart necessary to carry out Dawntrail’s message of finding peace through mutual respect and embracing our differences.

Dawntrail’s lasting legacy is in the second half of its story where things turn in unpredictable directions. Its fusion of references to ancient civilizations, its Latin American roots, and the old-timey American West somehow make sense when they clash with the cyberpunk-tinged sci-fi elements that eventually come to the forefront. It’s able to touch on classic Final Fantasy narrative themes from a fresh perspective. We explored the depths of the pain we feel from losing the things we love most during Shadowbringers and Endwalker, but the way Dawntrail contextualizes mortality is powerfully intimate. In its best moments, Dawntrail can be as impactful as anything else found in FF14, and for that alone, this expansion deserves its flowers. – MH

Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker

Endwalker is the culmination of a 10-year long story arc for Final Fantasy 14. From the days of A Realm Reborn, players became embroiled in a celestial battle between the gods Hydaelin and Zodiark. Beset in the real-world by a global pandemic that delayed the expansion by a year, Endwalker was a reward for players who stuck with the MMORPG from its earliest days who can now see the conclusion to a long-running storyline.

The stakes were high but Endwalker is FF14’s most emotional expansion to date, reinforcing Final Fantasy 14’s core themes of how friendship and courage can overcome even the greatest challenges. And with so much of Final Fantasy 14 now playable in single-player, a new player could play from A Realm Reborn through Endwalker and feel that they’ve finished one of the best Final Fantasy games of all time.

But thankfully, Endwalker is not the end of FF14, and the newest expansion, Dawntrail, is setting the stage for the next 10 years of Square Enix’s beloved MMORPG. – MK

Final Fantasy 14: Heavensward

What a difference an expansion makes. Free from the need to fix an entire MMORPG, Final Fantasy 14’s next expansion after A Realm Reborn, Heavensward, is able to jump right into the action. With the Warriors of Light on the run, they escape to the frozen, holy land of Ishgard which has been too busy embroiled in a war against dragons to do much in Eorzea.

What’s immediately apparent in Heavensward is that it quickly establishes the themes and storytelling the FF14 team seems to revel in: dramatic, high fantasy that harkens back to the old pixel games like Final Fantasy 6. Heavensward is such a throwback to the classic sword and sorcery fantasy of early Final Fantasy games, while also introducing the dark courtly politics that would make George R.R. Martin grin. If A Realm Reborn took a lot of time to get going, Heavensward is action-packed almost from the jump and from there sets the bar for all later FF14 expansions.

To quote FromSoftware, the real Final Fantasy 14 begins with Heavensward. – MK

Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers

Final Fantasy 14 truly found its voice in Shadowbringers. Lead writer Natsuko Ishikawa stepped into the role and her poetic storytelling style gave the expansion its identity, focusing on its characters with a level of depth and emotional sincerity never before seen in FF14. From the moment you step into The First, there’s an immediate sense of urgency that sets the tone for how dire the flood of light has been on the entire realm, flipping the script on typical light versus dark stories. And in horrifying ways, leaned on showing rather than telling.

Shadowbringers captured its grand moments with a weight and excitement that few RPGs are able to pull off. It earns those moments by building characters like the Crystal Exarch, Ardbert, and Emet Selch in a complex web of heroes and villains to carry its heavier themes, and contextualize despair and tragedy in a world separate from anything we’d known in Eorzea. FF14 began to ask the big questions about loss, grief, and the lengths people will go to preserve the things that matter most to them, and did so with nuance.

And if we want to count the post-launch content, Patch 5.3 capped off what was already one of the best stories in the series with another incredible conclusion, reaching a height that I don’t think FF14 will ever be able to top. My precious crystal cat boy gave his all to save a realm, and all of my Scion friends were there to witness his greatness as he immortalized his life’s work at the Seat of Sacrifice. From its writing and narrative themes to its music and visual storytelling, Shadowbringers not only proved itself as peak FF14, it’s arguably peak Final Fantasy. – MH

These are our rankings for our favorite Final Fantasy 14 expansions. Let us know below in the comments which expansions are your favorites.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Building a New Star Wars Moon for Outlaws – IGN First

At the very heart of Star Wars Outlaws is the fantasy that all sci-fi fans dream of: the ability to adventure across the stars. Five different moons and planets await you, from Rise of Skywalker’s chilly Kijimi to the classic deserts of Tatooine. But while fans will recognise many of Outlaws’ locations, there’s one that they definitely won’t: Toshara.

A brand new moon crafted especially for Star Wars Outlaws by the development team at Massive Entertainment, Toshara is inspired by the East African savannah. But while it has uniquely beautiful landscapes, it is – aptly for a game called ‘Star Wars Outlaws’ – a criminal hive.

“It’s run by a corrupt imperial governor,” says Navid Khavari, Outlaws’ narrative director. “And while the Empire is in charge, this is also a hub of scum and villainy, and you have all the sorts of major syndicates trying to vie for a stake of Toshara.”

To ensure Toshara is as immersive and authentic as possible, Massive approached the moon from all angles. “We had to work out the demographics of the planet,” Khavari explains. “We had to work out what the major hubs are. We had to work out fauna, flora, all of these sections that needed to come together and also be weaved by narratives.”

But before all that, Massive had to pitch Toshara to the custodians of Star Wars: Lucasfilm. Because Toshara isn’t just a location for a video game; anything in Star Wars Outlaws is canon, and so whatever Massive made would need to be fully approved by the people behind the films, shows, and Star Wars universe at large.

“It’s like they’re giving us a box of toys, we take the toys out, play with them, but then we also create our new toys and put them back for somebody else to play,” says Benedikt Podlesnigg, art and world director on Star Wars Outlaws.

While the Empire is in charge, this is also a hub of scum and villainy.

A major player in such a process is Steve Blank, director of franchise content and strategy at Lucasfilm. “Massive came to us with the idea of a savannah planet,” he recalls. “Once we sort of knew the high level intention behind the story and where we wanted to go, we let them ruminate on what does that mean? What would you like to see? What do you feel like you haven’t seen before?”

The result of those conversations was a collection of unusual and familiar ideas. Massive wanted Toshara to be a world where the Star Wars mythology’s pirate-inspired elements could live – think Jabba’s barge and Luke being forced to walk the plank over a sarlacc pit. This had to be a place of high risk, high reward treasure hunting. And so was born the so-called gem of the underworld; a moon ruled by a corrupt division of the Empire and largely controlled by the galaxy’s crime syndicates. But it wasn’t enough to develop lore. The team had to start with the look and feel of the very ground itself.

“We approached Toshara in terms of the general Star Wars design tenets, where it has to be familiar but with a twist,” explains Julian Gerighty, creative director of Outlaws. The familiar is the landscapes of Tanzania, which Podlesnigg says would be the shooting location for Tosharan scenes if Outlaws were a movie. Layered on top of this is the twist: “huge mountain outcrops that have been carved so that a city can take place within those rock walls,” describes Gerighty. And then, within that rock, is Toshara’s most distinct characteristic: amberine.

Amberine is an orange, crystal-like material that runs through the crust of Toshara and juts out through its surface. Inspired by an old Austrian fortune-telling tradition in which molten lead is poured into cold water to create shapes that reveal what’s to come, the Amberine forms into a variety of striking forms. It is Blank’s favourite part of Massive’s new world.

“You find [amberine structures] sort of wherever you’re going,” he says. “They’re inside caves, they form plateaus […] and they also react beautifully to the sun over Toshara, so you get these gorgeous reflections in the lighting.”

Unusually for Star Wars, amberine isn’t a precious resource like spice or Beskar Steel, and so Toshara’s population has left it untouched and intact. That’s not to say the crystal is useless, though. The moon’s climate is incredibly windy, and those winds erode away rocks, cliff faces, even mountains – a process that gradually reveals the incredibly resilient amberine within. It made sense, then, that Toshara’s main metropolis, the city of Mirogana, would be built within an amberine structure to protect it from the winds.

Basking within the orange glow cast by sunlight filtering through that amberine shield is the Pyke Syndicate, the most dominant of Mirogana’s criminal organisations. But don’t let them put you off visiting; the city’s busy streets are full of opportunities for both a galactic scoundrel scouting for gigs, and a player looking to diversify their experience.

The first thing that you should do as a scoundrel is go to the cantina.

“Every single location we had to choose had to be a den of scum and villainy, right? And in Mirogana you can do a lot of things,” says Gerighty. “There’s the first thing that you should do as a scoundrel, as an outlaw, is go to the cantina. And in the cantina you’ll find lots of shady characters that’ll offer you jobs. Or you can just relax, eavesdrop, pick up some intel, play a couple of games of sabacc, bet on the Fathier races, play some arcade games…”

Beyond the cantina you’ll find a city split into several regions, each with their own flavour. The gambling district is constructed using different architecture and signage to the central market, while the Imperial checkpoint is built out of the Empire’s instantly recognisable flat panels and grid vents. No matter where you find an Imperial base on Toshara, it’ll stick out like a sore thumb.

“They come in, they don’t care about their environment, they just stamp down their base wherever they need,” says Podlesnigg. He paints a picture of a time when the Tosharan landscape featured a colossal amberine archway, but when the Empire arrived they simply demolished the arch to make way for the base. In the game, you’ll be able to see that very base flanked by two amberine pillars – all that remains of that historic arch. “It creates a really interesting visual that’s seen from far away that you can really use as a landmark.”

Beyond the city’s borders, the aforementioned winds have eroded away the moon’s rock surface to reveal even more unusual amberine formations. A resourceful outlaw with a speeder bike could use such formations to hit even greater speeds during hot pursuits.

“It’s very orange glowing, so it stands out very naturally in the environment,” says Podlesnigg. “So we could make ramps where you can jump off [while riding the speeder bike]. We made the wind tunnels where you can see [how they have been] carved out by the winds. I think one of the references was surfing underneath waves.”

In the process of planning out Toshara’s geography, Massive went as far as establishing that the moon’s wind currents all run north to south. This dictated the map’s population density, road networks, audio design, and – importantly – the formation of the speed-boosting wind tunnels. And so while the amberine ramps and tunnels may be a gameplay-first element, it’s all created hand-in-hand with world-building.

“For every location, no matter how small, we want to think about what happened here, what is happening now, and what is the location in general? What [do] people do here?” explains Podlesnigg. “So we have a very clear idea of the history of the place and what the place is.”

For every location, no matter how small, we want to think about what happened here, what is happening now?

A skilled outlaw can harness the moon’s winds for their benefit, but not everyone is prepared to tackle such a climate. Echoing the derelict Star Destroyer on Jakku in The Force Awakens, Toshara is littered with crashed starships. They’re the remnants of those who tried to fight the winds and lost. It’s a smart bit of environmental storytelling, but the tale doesn’t end there. Those shipwrecks have become part of Toshara’s history and economy; with nothing but rock and amberine available to the moon’s population, the crashed ships were harvested for metal which was then used to construct many of the buildings you’ll see and explore.

With so much of Toshara’s environment being made up of harsh rock, crashed spaceships, and strange amberine structures, the finishing touch had to be something much more alive and endearing. While the crime syndicates may be the planet’s apex predators, there are plenty of other creatures in the wilds to discover and befriend. Podlesnigg describes a magpie-like flying creature that’s “attracted by everything that sparkles, and they steal everything.” It’s an amusing trait, but one that folds directly into gameplay: “When you see them circling somewhere, maybe you can go there and find something of value.”

A cuter friend can be found in Toshara’s weasel-like creatures, small pettable animals that will follow you around in groups. We can only hope that we’ll be able to round up a dozen and cause chaos in a cantina…

Toshara has yet more secrets to be discovered, but we won’t know this new moon’s best treasures until we explore it ourselves when Star Wars Outlaws arrives on August 30. Until then, you can always read more about how Massive Entertainment has tackled building the first ever true Star Wars open world game.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.

The Witcher 3 Mod Adds Full Morality and Reputation System

CD Projekt Red scrapped a reputation system during development of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt but one fan has modded it back in.

Nexus Mods user FreakVIp created the Reputation System mod for The Witcher 3, which “restores the reputation concept that was cut by CDPR from the game.” While the game is already full of hard choices and butterfly effect consequences, this mod will see NPCs respond to Geralt in different regions depending on his behavior.

Completing witcher contracts, winning horse races, clearing monsters from abandoned villages, and more will all reward Geralt with Reputation Points, while stealing and attacking guards will see Geralt lose points. Actions in quests also affect reputation.

Five ranks of reputation exist: Respected, Liked, Neutral, Disliked, and Hated. These “will have many influences to all kinds of activities” throughout The Witcher 3, including its economy. If Geralt is respected in Skellige, he can get better deals in shops, more gold for selling items, and so on while there. If he’s hated in Temeria, he’ll be charged more for items, see less return on bets, and more.

This mod comes after the release of REDkit: an official modding tool for The Witcher 3 released by CD Projekt in May 2024. The developer announced REDkit in November 2023, saying “it will allow you to create your own experiences in the game by making something completely new or editing existing quests and content.”

REDkit has so far been used to create some wild and wacky mods for The Witcher 3, including one that lets Geralt ride an enormous fiend instead of Roach and another that recreates the original game in The Witcher 3’s engine ahead of an official remake. The most exciting addition so far perhaps comes through the discovery of a scrapped ending sequence, which was revived using the toolkit.

Mods will be the only new content coming to The Witcher 3 going forward, of course, as while the game received a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S update in December 2022, it otherwise won’t get any more official content as CD Projekt focuses on its wealth of other incoming projects.

The highly anticipated next mainline Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, is currently in development but won’t arrive until 2025 at the absolute earliest, and probably later. There are two other Witcher games on the horizon too, including the aforementioned remake of the original The Witcher and a multiplayer spin-off.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Surfpunk, a Ska-Infused Co-Op Extraction Action-RPG, Announced for PC

Would you like a bit of ska vibe in your co-op extraction action-RPG? If so then Surfpunk might be your vibe. You’ll cruise through a flooded, anime-styled paradise world hunting for loot in ancient ruins with your friends before you need to escape. Surfpunk is being developed for PC by Double Stallion.

You and up to three friends play as Raiders who roam a flooded world in search of Evress, a coveted energy source vital to the surviving Fallen World. Battle the Sumi as they try to stop you from extracting back to your Beastship with all of your loot intact. There’s also an in-game crafting system good for creating tools that can help your run, like ladders for getting to hard-to-reach places. Watch the first trailer above and check out the first screenshots in the gallery below.

Procedurally generated islands ensure that each time you get on your surfboard, it’s a different experience. If you’re interested, you can wishlist Surfpunk on Steam.

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.

Xbox Fans Really Want Microsoft to Sell That Deadpool Ass Controller, Not Lock It Behind a Twitter Competition

Xbox fans are well used to Microsoft locking cool custom Xbox controllers and consoles behind social media competitions, making them available only as near impossible to get prizes instead of selling them to the general public. But it seems Microsoft’s latest effort — an Xbox controller shaped like Deadpool’s ass — is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Microsoft revealed its new Xbox Wireless Controller modeled after “Deadpool’s much-discussed, perfectly rounded tush” to coincide with the upcoming Marvel movie Deadpool & Wolverine. It calls this new Xbox pad the “Cheeky Controller” and said it “channels Deadpool’s buns of steel in its firm (yet surprisingly comfortable) grip.”

Frustrating many, Microsoft has made this Deadpool ass Xbox controller available only to one competition winner, as it’s done repeatedly with previous eye-catching accessories. Fans aged 18+ worldwide can enter for a chance to win it by following Xbox on X/Twitter and retweeting the official Xbox sweepstakes tweet.

The tweet in question currently has 225,000 retweets, and the competition doesn’t end until 8pm Pacific / 11pm Eastern on Sunday, August 11, 2024.

According to Microsoft’s page on the competition, the single grand prize includes:

  • A custom Xbox Series X Console inspired by Marvel’s Deadpool and Wolverine. Approximate Retail Value (ARV) $440.00 USD.
  • Two (2) custom Xbox Wireless Controllers inspired by Marvel’s Deadpool and Wolverine. Approximate Retail Value (ARV) $319.98 USD.
  • A custom Xbox Series X Console Stand inspired by Marvel’s Deadpool and. Approximate Retail Value (ARV) $100.00 USD.
  • The total Approximate Retail Value (ARV) of all prizes: $859.98 USD.

So, to be clear, only one person can win, and they’ll get two of these controllers. Ominously, Microsoft adds: “the odds of winning are based on the number of eligible entries received.”

“It’s like companies don’t like money sometimes,” redditor ImNotaM00SE complained in a sprawling thread on the controller. “This f***er would sell like crazy.”

“I would honestly buy this in a heartbeat,” RandoDude124 added. “I hardly even use my Series X but I’d have bought it for the novelty,” said Rektw. “Lightly use it for some PC games or something.” StuffedThings commented: “I don’t even own an Xbox but I would buy the s**t out of this.”

It’s a similar sentiment across social media, where fans are complaining that they can’t throw money at the screen and have Deadpool’s ass in the form of an Xbox pad end up on their doorstep.

Given Microsoft’s clear fondness for making cool Xbox accessories exclusive to sweepstakes, and the no-doubt enormous amount of social media engagement this Deadpool controller competition will end up driving to Xbox, it seems unlikely the company will change course any time soon.

As a result, this Deadpool ass Xbox controller will probably end up selling for an eye-watering figure on eBay.

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.

Team Fortress 2’s Summer Update Makes ‘Security and Stability Improvements’ — and Fans Are Hoping the Bots Are Gone for Good

Valve has released Team Fortress 2’s big Summer 2024 update, leaving fans hopeful that it builds upon recent efforts to combat the game’s bot problem.

The Team Fortress 2 community came together in June in an attempt to brute-force Valve into fixing a bot problem that had plagued the game for years.

Disgruntled players of the near 17-year-old hero shooter, which remains one of the most-played games on Steam, caused Team Fortress 2’s Steam user review rating to plummet to ‘mostly negative,’ with pretty much all the comments about bots.

Valve released a banwave that appeared to stamp out Team Fortress 2’s bot problem, and published a no-nonsense FAQ outlining its tough stance on the matter. Recent Steam reviews recovered to ‘mixed’, and players praised Valve for taking action.

Now, Valve has released Team Fortress 2’s summer update, and while it includes expected content such as community-made maps, cosmetics, and effects, there’s also an vague line in the patch notes that’s left fans hopeful that the troublesome bots are gone for good: “Security and stability improvements.”

While Valve failed to detail exactly what these improvements involved, the hope is the developer has built upon the good work done last month to keep Team Fortress 2’s bots at bay.

Valve continues to operate the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, and Left 4 Dead 2. Meanwhile, gameplay leaks have revealed Valve’s alleged next game, Deadlock.

Valve’s last developed game to release was competitive first-person shooter Counter-Strike 2, which effectively replaced Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Before that, in 2020, Valve released Half-Life: Alyx exclusively for virtual reality headsets. Valve has also released a Dota-themed digital card game called Artifact and a Dota auto chess game called Dota Underlords, although both failed to find as big of an audience as the company’s previous titles.

All the while, the wait for Half-Life 3 continues. Back in 2020, a making-of for Half-Life: Alyx revealed a swathe of games developed and shelved by Valve between the release of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Valve’s latest VR game. That list included details on a version of Half-Life 3 that was in development for around a year, and an open-world Left 4 Dead 3.

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.

Mortal Kombat Mobile Game to Shut Down a Year After Launch as Developer NetherRealm Suffers Layoffs

Mortal Kombat developer NetherRealm has suffered a significant round of layoffs and has signaled the closure of one of its high-profile mobile games.

As spotted by users on ResetEra, NetherRealm developers took to LinkedIn to announce they had been laid off as part of what looks like the gutting of the company’s mobile team.

One affected member of staff said NetherRealm’s entire mobile team was shut down. This team operated live services on multiple titles, including Mortal Kombat Mobile, Injustice 2, and Mortal Kombat Onslaught.

The X/Twitter page for Mortal Kombat: Onslaught announced plans to shut the game down in October 2024, just a year after launch. “It has been an honor creating this game for our Kommunity, and we appreciate the enthusiasm from our fans,” the statement read. “In the coming weeks we will share specific timing of the close of the game.”

At the time of this article’s publication, there is no shutdown announcement on either the Mortal Kombat Mobile or Injustice 2 Mobile X/Twitter pages. Both games received updates in recent days; indeed these layoffs occured just a day after Mortal Kombat Mobile received a significant update that added guest character Spawn to the game. Spawn is meant to be the first of three new characters coming to Mortal Kombat Mobile as part of its summer update, with Onslaught Jax and MK1 Kenshi next.

NetherRealm and Mortal Kombat franchise owner Warner Bros. Games billed Mortal Kombat: Onslaught as a mobile-exclusive collection role-playing game set in the Mortal Kombat universe. The free-to-download app features party-based combat that plays out automatically, with the player tapping to trigger special abilities and combos. There’s a fleshed out Story Mode that revolves around Shinnok’s bid for destruction. Mortal Kombat veterans Liu Kang, Kung Lao, and Sub-Zero go up against familiar villains such as Shang Tsung, Kano, and Shao Kahn in their Mortal Kombat 11 visual style.

The layoffs hit NetherRealm as it prepares to reveal plans for Mortal Kombat 1’s second year of updates and DLC characters during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con. NetherRealm development chief Ed Boon is yet to tweet about the layoffs or the game closure.

The cuts to NetherRealm come amid one of the toughest periods for the video game industry in recent memory. Thousands have lost their jobs over the last two years as publishers and developers struggle in an increasingly difficult market. Microsoft announced 1,900 jobs would be lost from its gaming business this year, Sony has announced 900 layoffs, and many other AAA publishers have suffered cuts of their own.

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.

Outsmart Your Opponents on the Way to Legendary Loot in Fantasy Extraction RPG Dungeonborne

After multiple successful playtests and becoming the Most Played Game at February’s Steam Next Fest, extraction RPG Dungeonborne is out now for Early Access on PC, available to all players looking for a punishing but rewarding RPG.

Dungeonborne is a first-person dungeon crawler in which players band together with up to two friends or play solo to seek treasure and glory among the ruins of a gritty, gothic setting that is overrun by monsters and other adventurers. Blending extraction gameplay with iconic fantasy class design, Dungeonborne offers strategic gameplay full of powerful loot and high stakes combat as you rush to extract before a blade finds your back.

Eight Playable Classes, Eight Distinct Ways to Play

Dungeonborne draws on traditional RPG classes, giving you a chance to embrace your role as a Fighter, Priest, Rogue, Druid, or Pyromancer while also offering more unique choices like Swordmaster, Cryomancer, or Death Knight.

Thanks to the first-person point of view, combat feels visceral and every spell or weapon swing has weight behind it. Each of Dungeonborne’s classes brings something unique to the table, too — while Death Knights are masters of manipulation, capable of pulling enemies toward them and draining their life force, Druids can attack from any range and shapeshift into animal form to rip and tear.

Caster classes dispense destruction from afar. You can wield fire as the Pyromancer and scorch and burn all who oppose you, or encase your foes in ice and slow their advance as the Cryomancer. For players looking to take on more of a support role, the Priest will fit like a glove ⁠– heal your teammates and support them from afar, bolstering their defence and keeping them alive.

Protect your allies from the frontline as a Fighter, capable of holding the line against your foes while your allied Rogue sneaks behind enemy lines to unleash devastating critical strikes. Defend as a Swordmaster and keep your enemies’ attention on you as you conjure powerful psionic blades capable of sowing quick death among the unsuspecting.

With over 10 unique weapon pairings, every duel in Dungeonborne becomes a dance of death that brings a fluid, back-and-forth action combat experience. Parries, blocks, and ripostes dictate the flow of battle, and it’s split-second, in-the-moment decision making that determines the winner.

Strategize, Prepare, and Execute — You’ll Have to Fight Tooth and Nail to Claim What Is Yours

While simply jumping in and swinging your weapon around might work at first, you will quickly realise that spamming light attacks and pressing the loot button won’t be enough. Dungeonborne rewards and encourages tactical planning and strategy — terrain, trap locations, enemy positions, and time are all factors that you need to take into account if you wish to triumph over the opposing team that’s looking to claim your treasure as their own. Utilise terrain verticality to set up an ambush or lure enemies into the traps you find for easy kills.

As you slay your opponents and plunder their riches, you will find equipment with over 80 item affixes that synergize with your playstyle or completely change the way you play. If you don’t need an item or simply have a better one, you can put it up for sale at the in-game auction house, then hunt for dozens of legendary and unique items designed to help you sculpt the ultimate build. In Dungeonborne, the thrill of finding rare loot is accessible to all, not just the most dedicated players.

You Can Play Dungeonborne Right Now, and Devs are Listening to Your Feedback

Throughout Dungeonborne’s journey, Mithril Interactive has been working to address player feedback and tweak gameplay so that it feels rewarding, satisfying and fair. Based on community feedback, the team has implemented a range of balancing and quality-of-life updates, and introduced new server regions. Mithril is also planning to introduce new active and passive skills for each individual class to expand gameplay options.

Dungeonborne is now available to download for free in Early Access on Steam. A ‘Mithril Edition’ DLC upgrade is available for players who want to support the game and development team for 9.99USD/7.99GBP (subject to regional pricing) that will grant players two cosmetic items to carry on their adventures as well as Bandages, Healing Potions and Throwable Flasks. If you’re keen on joining the community and finding like-minded players to group up with, you can check out the game’s official Discord channel, and follow their X (Twitter) page for new updates as the team continues developing the game during Early Access.

AI Limit Hands-On Preview: Can A Wicked Cool Art Style Set This Soulslike Apart?

The thing that immediately stands out when roaming derelict buildings and creepy aqueducts in AI Limit is just how stylish and crisp everything looks, and as it turns out, that killer presentation goes quite a long way. Sure, it’s yet another soulslike with the same old bonfire checkpointing system, punishing combat encounters, and super gross bosses that really need to take a chill pill, but I’ve gotta admit, the anime-inspired, sleek and cartoonish art style really won me over, and I could see this becoming my next sweaty fascination – y’know, maybe as a nice chaser in between Shadow of the Erdtree sessions.

Like countless genre peers, AI Limit makes no apologies about its inspiration; this is a soulslike through and through. You’ll gather materials from fallen enemies to spend on stat upgrades, find weapons and equipment in every monster-filled corridor to customize your fighting style and abilities, and, of course, die a whole heck of a lot when some tanky boss with serious anger management issues uses your face as a doormat. Classic soulslike stuff!

And at least in the hour-long demo I played, AI Limit seems content to follow that blueprint to a tee, offering pretty much no novel tweaks on the formula or reasons to play this one over the piles of games like it. With one notable exception, that is: the endlessly impressive and hard to look away from art style.

That might not sound like enough of a differentiator to keep one’s interest, and yet I found it to be the primary reason I was so eager to claw my way through each deadly zone to see what awesome-looking thing awaited me in the next area. In the same way the Persona series follows the traditional JRPG playbook very closely but sets itself apart by oozing style and unrivaled swagger, AI Limit really did stand out to me in many of those same ways. Whether it was the sleek and interesting UI or combat animations that made me feel like I was the main character in an action-packed anime as I cut down the enemy with ease, I found myself nodding my head in appreciation even when every other aspect was fairly by the numbers.

I’m definitely intrigued by its fantastic presentation enough to add it to my list of soulslikes I’m excited to play.

I will say though, it’s a bit surprising that, despite all the style AI Limit has going for it, the protagonist, at least in the demo, is woefully inexpressive. With no dialogue and a deadpan look on her face at all times, there’s not much beyond some neat looking outfits and sweet combat animations for me to go on. She doesn’t even make any kind of noise when she takes damage or dies, which just feels odd. I mean, I get that this lady’s supposed to be a robot, but why even give her a human appearance if you aren’t going to give her any humanity? Here’s hoping these details merely didn’t make it into this early build of the game.

The demo confined me to an early area that seemed pretty clearly intended as an introductory tutorial zone, but even so I managed to find some new weapons to try out and outfits to try on, and fooled around with one of AI Limit’s precious few unique mechanics, the Sync Rate meter, which is charged up by attacking things and loses power when you take hits or use special abilities that consume it, like firing an electric railgun I found lying around. Most importantly, the Sync Rate meter also determines how much damage your weapons do, rewarding you for keeping the meter full, and punishing you for depleting it, which made for a pretty interesting tradeoff.

AI Limit might not be immediately groundbreaking at first blush, but I’m definitely intrigued by its fantastic presentation enough to add it to my list of soulslikes I’m excited to play. With a release date planned for later this year, it seems I won’t have to wait too much longer.

EA Releases College Football 25 Team Builder Along With Full Details on How to Get Custom Teams in Your Game

With College Football 25 set for wide release on Friday, EA has released its promised Team Builder feature that will allow players to create their own custom teams.

EA detailed the new feature in a lengthy post, including how it incorporates alternates, stadiums, and more. The Team Builder tools are accessible via browser, with custom teams available to be downloaded in-game. If you’re not feeling particularly creative, you can also download creations made by your friends or other creators.

Custom teams are compatible with College Football 25’s Dynasty Mode, meaning you can create your own school and build them into a collegiate superpower like Michigan or Georgia. Up to 16 custom teams can be imported per dynasty, where they will replace an existing team of the commissioner’s choice.

Team Builder was a heavily-requested feature by fans, who remembered it fondly from previous iterations of the NCAA franchise. EA responded by going as far as to hire one of its original architects, senior engineer Chris Markuck, who returned to help lead development on College Football 25’s version of Team Builder.

Elsewhere, College Football 25 is off to a very strong start, ranking at #3 for US daily active users on Xbox and #4 on PS5. EA servers were slammed by as many as 700,000 fans, with more to come once it leaves early access. Fan feedback has been mostly positive, though our current review-in-progress is currently a bit more mixed on the experience.

“Right now, EA College Football 25 feels like a college quarterback who left school for the NFL too soon, got drafted way higher than he should have because a team was desperate, started under intense scrutiny from a fanbase and an owner who are tired of losing all the time, and then flamed out of the league because he just wasn’t ready for prime time,” we wrote.

Stay tuned for our full review, and make sure to check our complete guide to College Football 25.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.