Category: Video Games

All of that time away has taken its toll on the Croft Manor, and now the iconic Tomb Raider locale needs a scrub down. To restore Lara Croft’s lavish dwellings, PowerWash Simulator will crossover with Tomb Raider later this month in a free DLC for all players.

On January 31, the bizarre crossover from Square Enix Collective and FuturLab brings a free Tomb Raider Special Pack to PowerWash Simulator owners on consoles and PC. The trailer shows off a few familiar places around Lara’s home, including an outdoors obstacle course reminiscent of her earliest PlayStation adventures.

Grapple with grime at Lara Croft’s stately Manor home in the PowerWash Simulator Tomb Raider Special Pack DLC.

Launches Jan 31, same day the game hits PS5 and PS4: https://t.co/MR8XEjrVFA pic.twitter.com/xOSzowE78a

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) January 18, 2023

It looks like the inside has plenty to tidy, too. The PowerWash Simulator footage teases a few clean-up jobs around the Croft Manor, where layers of grime and dirt cover everything from the walls to ancient artifacts.

It’s not her most thrilling gig, but it at least looks satisfying. In a press release for the special Tomb Raider DLC, FuturLab lead designer Dan Chequer added, “We can’t wait for players to get up close and personal with Croft Manor and explore its many secrets!”

As for what those secrets are, we’ll have to wait and see, but it’s the most recent adventure Lara Croft has been on in a while. The studio behind Tomb Raider and several others were recently acquired by Embracer Group, while Amazon Studios signed a deal to help publish Lara’s next big game.

PowerWash Simulator is available now on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. Alongside the Tomb Raider Special Pack, it will launch on January 31 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.

Andrea Shearon is a freelance contributor for IGN covering games and entertainment. She’s worn several hats over her seven-year career in the games industry, with bylines over at Fanbyte, USA Today’s FTW, TheGamer, VG247, and RPG Site. Find her on Twitter (@Maajora) or the Materia Possessions podcast chatting about FFXIV, RPGs, and any series involving giant robots.

After today’s announcement that Microsoft will lay off 10,000 people, details on how internal restructuring will hit its gaming divisions continue to emerge, with Halo Infinite’s 343 Industries among the studios impacted.

According to Bloomberg, Joseph Staten, a Halo veteran who began his career with Bungie in 1998, will transition from his Halo Infinite creative director role and rejoin Xbox’s publishing division. Staten joined the team at 343 Industries in 2020 as the campaign project lead on Halo Infinite and later saw a title change to Head of Creative.

Bloomberg’s report includes an email from 343 Industries head Pierre Hintze, who explained the studio “made the difficult decision to restructure” and that support for Halo Infinite’s live service features will continue. Details on Staten’s new role and the exact degree of impact at 343 Industries remain unclear for now.

Staten’s credits include a long history with the Halo series, starting with his role as the cinematic director on Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3. His work on the Halo universe includes authoring some of its novelizations, and the studio lead also served as lead writer on Bungie’s sci-fi shooter, Destiny. He departed his role on the MMO and later rejoined Microsoft in 2014.

The Halo studio is among many impacted by Microsoft’s layoffs, including Gears of War studio, The Coalition, and the more recently acquired Bethesda. Microsoft’s blog notes that cuts impact 5% of its workforce. That’s in addition to the 1,000 employees let go in October 2022.

As cuts and restructuring extend into its game studios, Microsoft is still moving forward with acquisitions. A year ago today, the company announced it would buy Activision Blizzard for a record-breaking $68.7 billion. That deal later came under fire by regulatory bodies, like the US Federal Trade Commission, with investigations ongoing.

Andrea Shearon is a freelance contributor for IGN covering games and entertainment. She’s worn several hats over her seven-year career in the games industry, with bylines over at Fanbyte, USA Today’s FTW, TheGamer, VG247, and RPG Site. Find her on Twitter (@Maajora) or the Materia Possessions podcast chatting about FFXIV, RPGs, and any series involving giant robots.

While there are clearly many millions of players who have secured their own current-gen console, lots are still looking. Whether you are trying to figure out which outlets have them available, which console and accessories you should actually buy, and what the pros and cons for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are, we’ve got you covered. Read on to find all that and more.

Where to Buy a PS5

Walmart has PlayStations available right now, while Amazon is still requiring you to apply for an invitation. However, the turnaround for those invitations is getting faster and faster.

Where to Buy Xbox Series X

Should I Buy a PS5 or an Xbox?

That’s a complicated question that has a lot of answers. First, what types of games do you like? If you like single-player games with more serious tones, PlayStation arguably has the lead (at least right now), although some feel that there is a degree of “same-ness” to them, which is something to keep an eye on.

Xbox currently has what some consider to be less compelling single-player exclusives, but Xbox is arguably better for those who love multiplayer games, with better chat integration, cross-platform functionality with PC, and several exclusive games that feature multiplayer prominently. PlayStation 5 has some of the most celebrated and popular exclusive franchises, like Last of Us and God of War, while Xbox has heavy hitters like Halo, Forza and Flight Simulator, to name a few.

You should also keep in mind how important multiplayer games are to you on a friend level. Do your friends all have PS4/PS5, and you will play games with them regularly? You should probably get a PS5 and stick together. Same goes for Xbox. If your Destiny clan or Call of Duty friend group is all on Xbox, you should probably stick together. If that isn’t important to you, look at the games that have come out, and the ones that are announced, and see which platform has more you are interested in.

Finally, a big factor is controller comfort. Personally, I’ve been a PlayStation guy for a long time, but I find the DualSense very uncomfortable, so I find myself playing much more often on PC or Xbox using the (for me) vastly superior Xbox Series X/S controller. There are workarounds for this if you want to stick with a particular platform (like a Brooks converter), but those can introduce input latency, so keep that in mind as you weigh your options. But again, it mostly comes down to personal preference. The DualSense has some pretty cool haptic feedback, which has to be experienced to be truly appreciated, but it comes at the expense of battery life.

Services are another huge contributing factor to which platform is superior. Personally, I’m squarely in the Xbox Game Pass camp. With every first-party Xbox game included, the ability to get a higher tier to play those games on PC too (with most save games moving back and forth with you), and an incredible swath of awesome AAA and indie games, it’s a value proposition that simply can’t be beaten. Xbox backward compatibility also reaches all the way back to the original console in some cases.

However, the success of Game Pass caused Sony to take notice, and it introduced new tiers to its PlayStation Plus service that introduce the first steps toward a “Game Pass-like” service on PlayStation. The PS5 features backward compatibility with basically every PS4 game, and signing up for PS Plus at the Premium tier gets you access to streaming PS3 games. It’s not as robust, or as simple, as Xbox Game Pass, but the newly revamped service is still in its early stages.

Exclusive games VS services. PlayStation’s popularity VS Xbox’s budget-friendly nature. There is a lot to consider, and you honestly can’t make a bad decision, regardless of which you choose.

What’s the Best 4K TV for Gaming?

There are tons of great gaming TVs, and right now the best is the LG C2 OLED Evo, but whether you want to spend a chunk of change and grab the best TV you can, or just get something you can use for less cash, we have tons of great recommendations.

Generally, you want to go for a TV that has a low input latency, a screen big enough for your play space, compatibility for high refresh rates and resolutions, and HDMI 2.1. If the screen has all of those, and the number and type of ports you need, you’re golden.

What PS5 Accessories Should I Get?

There are tons of great PS5 accessories that will help you make the most of your new console. From extra controllers to gaming headsets, high capacity internal NVMe drives, and more, we’ve got you covered.

What Xbox Accessories Should I Get?

There are tons of great Xbox Series X/S accessories, but here are some of the best. Whether you need a great chat headset for when you hop online with friends, new expansion cards to hold all your favorite games, racing or fighting game controllers, or controller charging stands, we’ve got everything you need to make your awesome Xbox experience even better.

Is the PS5 Shortage Over?

Essentially, yes. While PlayStation 5 has been tricky to acquire, there have been several avenues for those who have been keeping their head on a swivel.

Sony has also confirmed that it has sold over 30 million PS5 consoles, and Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan said, “Everyone who wants a PS5 should have a much easier time finding one at retailers globally, starting from this point forward.”

Brian Barnett writes reviews, guides, features, & more for IGN & GameSpot. You can get your fix of his antics on Twitter (@Ribnax) and Twitch (Ribnax) or check out his fantastic video game talk show, The Platformers, on Twitch & Apple Podcasts.

Ubisoft is facing turbulent times financially and in-house, and CEO Yves Guillemot was forced to reckon with recent comments he made shifting the blame to the staff.

After cancelling three unannounced games and delaying the release date of Skull and Bones for a sixth time, Guillemot told employees “the ball is in your court” to help get the $3 billion company back on track.

The changes at Ubisoft were scrapped up to “major challenges” in the industry, the underperformance of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023, and an upcoming “restructuring” for the publisher. On Wednesday, a new report from Kotaku revealed that Ubisoft had a company-wide Q&A to address the news of the restructuring. There, the CEO apologized for his previous comments.

“I heard your feedback and I’m sorry this was perceived that way,” Guillemot said, according to sources present. “When saying ‘the ball is in your court’ to deliver our lineup on time and at the expected level of quality, I wanted to convey the idea that more than ever I need your talent and energy to make it happen. This is a collective journey that starts of course with myself and with the leadership team to create the conditions for all of us to succeed together.”

Guillemot also remained vague about the potential for layoffs. “It’s not about doing more with less, but finding ways to do things differently across the company,” Guillemot said.

According to Kotaku’s report, some developers within the company still feel that management is out of touch with the lower-level staff. The Q&A, which lasted an hour, also did not address the recent call for strike at the company’s Paris studio. Solidaires Informatique, Ubisoft Paris’ tech union, asked the employees to go on strike in response to Guillemot’s previous comments. The strike will reportedly last a half-day on January 27.

Ubisoft’s particularly poor 2022 included no marquee blockbuster releases. Several projects were delayed, trapped in development hell or simply failed to find a substantial audience.

Carson Burton is a freelance news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @carsonsburton.