Category: Video Games

Uncover new ghostly tales in Ghostwire: Tokyo Spider’s Thread update – out now 

As nearly all of Tokyo’s populace vanished in an instant and beings from another world took their place, players in the role of survivor Akito made an unlikely alliance with the ghost detective KK to save the city from catastrophe. With the free Spider’s Thread update, available for all Ghostwire: Tokyo players on PlayStation 5, Akito & KK face new stories and challenges that require their supernatural expertise. 

Featuring a new rogue-lite “The Spider’s Thread” game mode challenging players to navigate a 30-stage gauntlet putting their ghost-hunting skills to the test, this update also includes added enemies, enhanced combat abilities, extended story cinematics, Photo Mode enhancements and yes, areas to explore with two new side missions to uncover! 

Fear for the Children 

Akito & KK explore the new Middle School location added with the Spider’s Thread update to investigate reports of missing students, only to discover the two aren’t alone as something – or some things – stalk the school’s hallways. Uncover the secrets behind the strange phenomena occurring in the haunted school, including an eerie science mannequin, a paranormal sighting in the bathroom and even the legend of “Hananko-san,” a malevolent spirt that’s been doing some nasty studying-up of her own…

Spirits of the Modern Age 

Our duo uncover a series of 25 strange photographs, each seemingly taken near a source of supernatural evil. Noticing the photos respond with psychic effects and unsettling markings as they near the places they were taken, Akito & KK set out to find on a mission to find and purge these areas using their detective skills. Use landmarks, signage and other key clues in each photograph to find and stop the darkness that’s encroaching.

“Spirits of the Modern Age” also offers an opportunity to use an all-new feature debuting in The Spider’s Thread update: Reduced Psychic Effects. When toggled on, it eliminates certain psychic effects and replaces them with adorable SHIIBUYA♡HACHI stickers, allowing players to sprinkle some cute over their creepy as they explore.


Uncover new ghostly tales in Ghostwire: Tokyo Spider’s Thread update – out now 

Whether you’re starting Ghostwire: Tokyo for the first time or planning a return visit, there’s ton to discover lurking in the alleys of Tango Gameworks’ supernatural vision of Tokyo with the Spider’s Thread update. Check out the Spider’s Thread update for Ghostwire: Tokyo today on PlayStation 5.  

10 Games Like Fortnite Worth Playing Right Now

You would be hard-pressed to find a massive-multiplayer game as accessible as Fortnite. We aren’t just talking about its attention to accessibility features like Visual Sound Effects. Since its original days of Save the World PVE and classic action-building Battle Royale, Fortnite’s game modes like Zero Build and Creative have taken off in a tremendous way. The range of gameplay Fortnite has to offer truly makes it the perfect game for casuals and competitive gamers alike.

Whether you are in the mood to squad up for some chill games or to get your blood pumping with some haywire shooting gameplay, here are ten games a fan of Fortnite like yourself might enjoy.

Roblox

The beauty of Roblox is that it can be literally anything you want it to be. Much like Fortnite Creative, it has its own sandbox game creation system which allows players to craft unique gaming modes of their own. Or even just games on their own as well. People have recreated popular games like Modern Warfare just inside Roblox, so it’s really a game within a game.

Looking for a quirky simulation game? There are tons of tycoon and roleplaying experiences to be had. More interested in trying out a new fast-paced shooter? Roblox has battle royales and survival games aplenty. How about golf? Anything a player could possibly dream up, you can discover somewhere within Roblox.

Realm Royale Reforged

Okay, but what if instead of being downed in a Battle Royale… you turned into a chicken? Realm Royale Reforged is the fantasy Battle Royale you didn’t know you needed. With five fantasy classes to choose between, customizable loadouts, and tons of special skills to loot, this game really shakes up the classic Battle Royale formula.

Explore a vast map of colorful fantasy landscapes, and duke it out with other medieval combatants. Survive as a downed “chicken” long enough, and you might just revive to make a victorious comeback.

Overwatch 2

If cooperative teamplay and breakneck combat is what you enjoy most about Fortnite, then it’s about time you gave Overwatch 2 a fair shot. It’s also got a similar arcadey look and feel that Fortnite players may find familiar.

Overwatch 2 is a team-based action brawler made up of fast-paced PVP game modes like Escort, Control, or even Capture the Flag. Between the Tank, Damage, and Support classes there are dozens of playable characters to choose between. Each Overwatch Hero has their own set of unique abilities to master, and forming teams of different Hero combinations is only half the fun.

Read our review of Overwatch 2.

Super Animal Royale

Imagine a safari park, but if you gave all the exhibit animals heavy ammunition. The animals have overtaken humankind in Super Animal Royale, a colorful, top-down shooter. Now you will have to fight to claim your spot on top of the animal kingdom.

What’s fun about Super Animal Royale is that while it might be top-down, it uses a restrictive field-of-view. Duck behind pillars or walls to take shelter in the shadows, outside of the enemy player’s line-of-sight. When you are never sure who might be just around a corner, strategy becomes key.

Rogue Company

In this team-based, third-person shooter, it’s all about peeking corners and looking attractive while you do so. Plus, Rogue Company has music from Run The Jewels to back up all of your cool trickshots while you play!

Join the Rogues, a band of incredibly pleasant-looking operatives with a passion for gunplay and getting paid. Choose between over twenty-five Rogues to play as, with incredible skill sets that range from explosive knives, briefcases of infinite ammo, or literal napalm launchers.

Read our review of Rogue Company.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt

A vampire battle royale, sprawling through the grimdark streets of Prague. What more could you want? The Bloodhunt is on, and it’s time to fight not only to be the last immortal standing, but to win back the city for your faction.

When you are an eternal, blood-sucking creature, there are dozens of ways to kill or be killed. Feed on the unsuspecting humans of Prague to grow your supernatural powers, so you can outdo your enemies not only with precise aim but by executing brutal feats.

PUBG: Battlegrounds

You cannot go wrong with the Battle Royale classic, PUBG: Battlegrounds. Drop into vast war torn landscapes with one hundred other enemy players, and prepare to loot-and-shoot your way to victory.

Well-known to have kicked off the Battle Royale genre in a major way, if you enjoy the strategic team-based combat of games like Call of Duty Warzone 2.0, this might be the Battle Royale for you.

Read our review of PUBG: Battlegrounds.

Totally Accurate Battlegrounds

You know what you have been missing from your Battle Royale games? Goofy, physics-based parkour. In Totally Accurate Battlegrounds, you can skydive face-first into a bright, blocky map with sixty other little stick men and wobble your way to victory.

If your parkour skills are not quite up to snuff, luckily for you, this game gives you a second lease on life. Downed players are launched into “Limbo”, a vast liminal space filled with rapidly dropping debris. Dodge all three levels of quick-moving obstacles as you soar through Limbo to not only re-enter the Battle Royale, but to potentially return to the battleground with a “blessing”.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

Life is tough out there for a little jelly bean. Stumble, dodge, and leap your way through this high-stakes, fast-paced platformer and race against up to sixty other players. Survive through every round of mini-games, and be the first bean to cross the finish line to score your very own Crown.

What makes Fall Guys stand apart from other games in its genre is that in this Battle Royale, you aren’t trying to outrun a rapidly shrinking “ring”. Instead, the danger comes from increasingly more difficult mini-games and their obstacles. Not to mention your savage jelly bean competition, looking for the perfect opportunity to sabotage you.

Read our review of Fall Guys.

Apex Legends

With so many Legends to choose between, Apex Legends is hands-down one of the most versatile action-shooter gameplay experiences out there. This is the perfect Battle Royale for anyone who loves the looting and high-octane pace of Fortnite, but might be longing to fill a more distinct role in your squad.

Do you enjoy drawing enemy player’s aggression and diving into the fray? Maybe you prefer to stay on the fringes, scouting for enemies or preparing your defenses? Or perhaps you just want to prove useful to your teammates, providing loot, health, or protection. With over twenty Legends already in this ever-growing roster, each with their own unique skill set, chances are there is at least one Legend you are bound to click with.

Read our review of Apex Legends.

Looking to improve your skills in Fortnite? Check out our guide to Fornite Batle Royale Tips and Strategies.

How Classified Pentagon Documents Spread Through a Minecraft Discord Server

The United States military is facing a massive information crisis after top secret U.S. documents regarding the war in Ukraine were leaked through multiple Discord servers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the documents reportedly contain details about the war in Ukraine, U.S. allies, American penetration of Russian military plans, and more. Dozens of documents have surfaced so far with many bearing “Top Secret” or “Secret” labels, according to the report.

What’s even more surprising is the path the information took across the internet. The documents apparently first appeared in a small Discord server with mostly American users. The information eventually passed through a Minecraft Discord server, with screenshots obtained by BBC dating the posts to early March. The classified information continued to spread, making its way through 4chan, Twitter, and Russian social network Telegram, before U.S. officials launched an investigation last week.

According to investigative news site Bellingcat, the leak may have started on a Discord server called WowMao, which is run by the YouTuber of the same name. A member of the server posted over 30 documents across March 1 and March 2, predating their appearance in the Minecraft server by a couple of days. It wasn’t until April 7 that the documents were removed from the Discord server.

However, Bellingcat’s report notes that the leak also may have originated as early as January in a now-deleted Discord server known as Thug Shaker Central. However, the report noted that it’s impossible to verify the authenticity of these claims given that the server no longer exists.

The Minecraft server in question is called Minecraft Earth Map. On March 4, two users were apparently arguing over Minecraft maps and the war in Ukraine, prompting one user to write, “here, have some leaked documents” while posting 10 documents about Ukraine. It seems the documents sat in this server unnoticed by government officials for over a month.

WSJ’s report says the U.S. is assessing the damage of the leak, calling it “one of the most significant leaks of highly classified U.S. documents in recent history”. Defense officials have said some of the documents appear authentic, but others may have been altered. The original source of the leak is currently unknown.

Now, Discord is working with law enforcement to investigate the leaks. In a statement to Kotaku, a Discord spokesperson said in part, “It is Discord’s highest priority to ensure a safe experience for our users. When we are made aware of content that violates our policies, our Safety team investigates and takes the appropriate action, including banning users, shutting down servers, and engaging with law enforcement.”

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Forget Dance Pads, This Breath of the Wild Player Beat Calamity Ganon With an Ocarina

In recent years, the trend of beating challenging video games using objects as controllers that are not normally controllers has only grown. We’ve seen people beating games with dance pads, the bongo drums from Donkey Konga, literal bananas, Rock Band guitars, and more. Well, add “ocarinas” to the list, because someone just beat The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild by playing one.

Streamer gv_mimi, who goes by Mimi, is a variety streamer with a focus on Breath of the Wild challenges, speedruns, other Zelda games, and more. Since the beginning of March, they’ve been attempting to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild by mapping notes to an ocarina and playing it, note by note, to make Link move around and fight enemies. Needless to say, not an easy feat:

But over the last month, Mimi has gotten pretty dang good at controlling Link with that thing, despite being limited by how fast they can breathe into the ocarina and the general clumsiness of making Link move in a 3D space with it. While at first they struggled to even fight regular enemies, Mimi slowly improved their skills, eventually tackling Breath of the Wild’s dungeons and bosses and finally, yesterday, defeating Ganon himself.

Mimi tried to take a victory lap today by going through the Master Sword trials “upside down”, but in a tweet a few hours ago had to ditch the idea because “everything else broke.” They’ve also polled their readers asking which instrument and game viewers wanted to see from them next, offering up not just the ocarina, but a melodica, a piano, a clarinet, a recorder, a trombone, and an otamatone. We’re rooting for Wind Waker with a trombone.

IGN previously inteviewed streamer MissMikkaa, who beat Elden Ring’s Malenia not just with a dance pad, but later on two copies of the game simultaneously with a dance pad and a controller. And we’re all sure to see even more creative ways to beat Zelda games when Tears of the Kingdom comes out on May 12.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

State of Play presents a special look at Final Fantasy XVI

From the moment Final Fantasy XVI debuted in our 2020 PlayStation 5 Showcase, fans around the world have eagerly awaited details on the game’s dark fantasy setting, the powerful Eikons and the Dominants who house them, and the flashy battle system teased in those early trailers.

We’re happy to announce this week’s State of Play will dive into all this and more, so tune in live on Twitch or YouTube April 13 at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST, then get ready for Final Fantasy XVI’s PS5 launch on June 22. 

Regarding Co-streaming and Video-On-Demand (VOD)

Please note that this web broadcast may include copyrighted content (e.g. licensed music) that PlayStation does not control. We welcome and celebrate our amazing co-streamers and creators, but licensing agreements outside our control could possibly interfere with co-streams or VOD archives of this stream. 

If you’re planning to save this broadcast as a VOD to create recap videos, or to repost clips or segments from the show, we advise omitting any copyrighted music.

This Dell laptop will run your Minecraft server for £220

Cheap laptops are great. They can run Minecraft servers, download stuff while you’re away, let you practice programming, let your younger sibling play with or against you in retro or indie games. You might already have one lying around, in which case have a think about the possibilities – but if you’d like one and don’t have one in a cupboard somewhere, you can grab a cheap Dell Latitude 7390 off Ebay for £219.99 in ‘good’ and ‘refurbished’ condition. For the money, you get an 8th-gen Core i5 processor with integrated graphics, a compact 13-inch design, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. All in all, it’s a pretty sweet spec for the asking price!

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While Dark and Darker Languishes in Legal Limbo, One Fan Is Trying to Make it in Fortnite

It’s unclear if Dark and Darker will ever see the light of day, but one fan is taking matters into their own hands by trying to recreate the upcoming game in Fortnite.

Reddit user fermelon recently revealed that they are attempting to recreate Ironmace’s game using Fortnite’s creation tool, posting a short clip of a work-in-progress version of the map. The gameplay shows a Fortnite character working their way through a very dark castle with nothing but a torch to light the way.

Commenters pointed out that the minimap displayed in the corner is a recreation of Dark and Darker’s minimap. No enemies appear in the gameplay clip, but it’s still an impressive recreation of Dark and Darker’s setting. Fermelon said they’re planning to share the island code as soon as Epic approves their creator application, so other Dark and Darker fans can check out the recreation for themselves.

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, for what its worth, is unlikely to be a fan of the recreation, as he recently told IGN that he wants players to make their own creations.

“Works of nostalgia are cool, but most of the time they’re going to be other people’s work and they’re likely not going to give permission,” Sweeney said. “And we really urge everybody to think about what can we really do to create news genres or games and really very original things.”

As for Dark and Darker itself, it’s currently caught in a legal battle between developer Ironmace and video game publishing company Nexon. Nexon has accused Ironmace of using stolen assets and code in the development of the dungeon-crawling PvPvE game, which has led to delays for public playtests, content removals from the game’s Steam page, and drama surrounding a Dark and Darker GoFundMe campaign.

Creations like this are possible in Fortnite’s recently-revamped Creative Mode. The Unreal Editor for Fortnite — also known as Fortnite Creative 2.0 — runs on Unreal Engine 5 and introduces expanded modeling, textures, VFX, and more. Immediately after the creator tool was unleashed last month, multiple teams started hustling to release recreations of Fortnite’s original island.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

The 2TB Samsung 990 Pro is down to £152.99 at Ebuyer in the UK

The Samsung 990 Pro is a blazing-fast PCIe 4.0 SSD, offering incredible speeds of up to 7450MB/s reads and 6900MB/s writes – right up against the limits of the PCIe 4.0 standard.

Normally this drive retails for about £200 in its massive 2TB incarnation, but now you can pick up this drive for just £152.99 at Ebuyer in the UK – a great deal on a drive that we’ve named as the very fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD for shorter loading times.

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Guide: Nintendo Live 2023: Dates, Everything You Need To Know

Get the lowdown on Nintendo’s upcoming event.

In-person gaming events have gone through a bit of a rough patch over the last few years. E3 is seemingly dead and buried, and although Geoff Keighley is making hay with Summer Game Fest, some publishers are increasingly forgoing physical events for more focused, curated digital showcases.

Nintendo in particular has been especially fixated on its Direct presentations, and it doesn’t look as though that’s about to change anytime soon. What the company has started, however, is a new in-person event called ‘Nintendo Live’.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com