Guild Wars 2 is over ten years old now, and last year it brought its long-running storyline to a close with its third expansion. Now its developers say they want to release smaller and cheaper expansions more regularly, with quarterly updates filling the gaps in between.
Minecraft‘s 1.20 update, including two of the things pictured above: the new Sniffer mob, which won a public vote to be included in the game; and the less expected new cherry blossom biome. Both seem adorable.
Zelink might be one of the biggest ships out there, and it’s hardly controversial to want Zelda and Link, the two owners of the Triforce that aren’t evil, to end up together. They’re entwined in destiny, fated to keep meeting, and falling into the princess/hero dichotomy that keeps them separate once more. And yet, they’ve never really had a romantic relationship. It’s wild!
We’re big Zelink shippers here at NL, of course, so we’ve created the ultimate list of the best Zelda/Link relationships as represented in the Legend of Zelda games. We’ve skipped a few of the games — notably spin-offs like Hyrule Warriors and Four Swords — but all the mainline games are here.
The Negro League Baseball Museum is the world’s only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African-American baseball.
Leroy “Satchel” Paige, Jackie Robinson, Andrew “Rube” Foster, Hilton Smith, Hank Thompson, John Donaldson, Martin Dihigo, and John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil will be the players featured in Storylines: Season 1.
MLB The Show 23 is now available for digital pre-order on the Xbox Store in a variety of versions, including Standard, Digital Deluxe, and will be available to play day one with Xbox Game Pass on March 28, 2023.
As a tremendous fan of baseball, I was thrilled to see the news that MLB The Show 23 is bringing a new feature to the upcoming game known as “Storylines: The Negro Leagues.” For this first season, many of the league’s greatest stars will be profiled in a new interactive mode in partnership with the Negro League Baseball Museum and their President Bob Kendrick, a national institution dedicated to preserving the rich history of Black baseball and its impact on America.
Because of racist segregation laws at the time, Black Americans were not allowed to play alongside white players or participate in Major League Baseball. To counter that, Rube Foster — an amazing player in his own right and founder of the Chicago American Giants — lead the formation with other Black club owners to create the Negro National League in 1920, giving an avenue for Black people to play organized baseball. The result gave us some of the greatest legends to ever play the game, many of which we as gamers will learn more about in this new Storylines feature for MLB The Show 23.
We had a chance to catch up with Communications and Brand Strategist at San Diego Studio, Ramone Russell and talked about how MLB The Show 23 plans to use an interactive medium to tell this powerful piece of American history, the ways in which it fits within the framework of the game, and what future iterations of this mode may look like in following seasons.
“The Negro Leagues are an important part of baseball and American history, whose iconic figures are not nearly as well-known as other baseball players of the era,” explains Russell. “We plan to use MLB The Show and the interactive medium which is gaming as a gateway; a gateway to expose new generations of baseball fans to these historic figures and their stories of triumph over adversity.”
“Storylines is a new game experience in MLB The Show 23,” continues Russell. “It will lead gamers through a sequential narrative focusing on a single player, watching short informational videos about the player. After which they will play as them in Moments to reflect on important events in that player’s career.”
Obviously, part of what makes this such an incredible journey for these players are the social hardships they endured, overcoming significant adversity in their professional and personal lives. It was refreshing to hear that this ‘gateway’ to the past aims to be very honest in its telling of these players’ history.
“We don’t gloss over the adversity they faced or the ugliness of American segregation during that time,” says Russell. “But MLB The Show is an E-rated game and 100% of the storytelling is done by our narrator, Negro League Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick.”
Founded in 1990, the Negro League Baseball Museum, as described on its official site, is “the world’s only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African-American baseball and its profound impact on the social advancement of America.” Bob Kendrick, who first began working with the NLBM as a volunteer in the early ‘90s and was later named President in 2011, has been responsible for many of the museum’s educational programs, events, and more.
As part of his role with the museum, Kendrick has been a tremendous advocate for telling the history of the Negro Leagues and sharing stories about many of its legendary players, many of which will be featured in the Season 1 Storylines roster that will include Leroy “Satchel” Paige, Jackie Robinson, Andrew “Rube” Foster, Hilton Smith, Hank Thompson, John Donaldson, Martín Dihigo, and John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil. Having someone like Kendrick front and center will lend a degree of authenticity to this feature that fans of baseball are sure to appreciate.
In addition, as part of this historic partnership with the NLBM, MLB The Show and San Diego Studio are donating $1 to the museum for every MLB The Show 23 Digital Deluxe Edition or The Captain Edition sold in the United States through December 31, 2023.
In talking more about how this partnership came to be, Russell indicated that this has been something the San Diego Studio, which has been developing MLB The Show for nearly two decades, has wanted to do for a very long time — it was just a matter of finding the right partner to tell the story the team envisioned and to do it the right way.
“The Negro Leagues are not only an important part of baseball history; more importantly they are crucial part of American history,” explains Russell. “The inspiration to introduce the Negro Leagues into MLB The Show has always been there, however we never had a good grasp on how to do it and that’s always been the conundrum. The stars aligned and we finally figured out a way to do it the right way.”
Best of all, this is just the beginning of this new Storylines feature for MLB The Show. Next year’s release will feature a new group of Negro League Legends and will profile their unique stories of grit, grace, and triumph in the face of adversity.
“The Storylines feature is a vehicle we created to tell meaningful stories in the baseball universe with a controller in your hand,” says Russell. “The possibilities are endless; however, our focus right now is on the Negro Leagues. It’s going to take us years to properly tell their stories with the respect, dignity, admiration, and appreciation they deserve.
In asking what he hopes people will take away from this new gameplay feature, Russell summed it up succinctly.
“We hope everyone who plays Storylines walks away feeling inspired, educated, and enlightened by these stories,” he says. “Anything past that is a bonus.”
MLB The Show 23 is available for pre-order today for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and will be available day one with Xbox Game Pass on March 28, 2023. We’ll have more exciting news to share soon about MLB The Show 23 here on Xbox Wire, so stay tuned!
MLB® The Show™ 23 Digital Deluxe Edition – Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
Pre-order to get the Gold Choice pack and four days’ early access to start playing MLB® The Show™ 23 from March 24 2023
This edition includes:
• Four Days Early Access.
• Full game for Xbox Series X|S.
• Full game for Xbox One.
• One Captain’s Choice Pack.
• One TBA Choice Pack.
• One TBA Uniform Choice Pack.
• Five Gold Choice packs.
• 20 The Show packs.
• One Ballplayer pack.
• Double daily login rewards.
• 30K Stubs™.
MLB® The Show™ 23 gets you closer than ever to living your Baseball dreams on the diamond. Shock The Game and Own The Show with your favorite players, your favorite rivalries, and all your favorite MLB moments.
Get the next-generation MLB The Show 23 experience when you play on Xbox Series X|S, including the return of Stadium Creator mode, and face your friends with cross-platform play* or continue your progress on other platforms with cross progression**.
This edition includes:
• Full game for Xbox Series X|S
• Full game for Xbox One
• Five The Show Packs.
• 10K Stubs™.
MLB® The Show™ 23 gets you closer than ever to living your Baseball dreams on the diamond. Shock The Game and Own The Show with your favorite players, your favorite rivalries, and all your favorite MLB moments.
Get the next-generation MLB The Show 23 experience when you play on Xbox Series X|S, including the return of Stadium Creator mode, and face your friends with cross-platform play* or continue your progress on other platforms with cross progression**.
MLB® The Show™ 23 gets you closer than ever to living your Baseball dreams on the diamond. Shock The Game and Own The Show with your favorite players, your favorite rivalries, and all your favorite MLB moments.
Buy the MLB® The Show™ 23 digital version for Xbox One and when ready, upgrade to the MLB® The Show™ 23 digital version for Xbox Series X|S for an additional cost.
You can relive one of the most iconic moments in Assassin’s Creed history, thanks to our latest listing over at the IGN Store. This Assassin’s Creed Revelations diorama recreats the moment that Ezio Auditore comes face-to-face with the remains of Altair, the protaganist of the original Assassin’s Creed. You can check out the epic statue at the IGN Store now.
The statue costs $499.99, and is set to ship in early 2024. It stands at 12 inches tall, 14.5 inches wide, and 9 inches deep, making it an awesome, huge centerpiece for any gaming collection or display. It also has an LED-lit Memory Seal, along with the iconic Assassin’s Creed logo at the base of the statue. You can see the images of the statue in high detail below:
Assassin’s Creed Revelations originally launched in 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. The game brought together the franchise’s two lead characters up to that point, Altair from the original Assassin’s Creed and Ezio from Assassin’s Creed II and Brotherhood. In our review of the game, we said, “If you’ve been following the lives of Altair and Ezio this long, you owe it to yourself to see their last adventure.”
Blanc looks like it’s going to be a lot lighter than games like Endling: Extinction is Forever and the notoriously upsetting Shelter series at first glance, but I’ve learned to never let my guard down around these kinds of games. Those cute art styles are almost always a front for a brutal sneak attack on your emotions.
Blanc is very much aiming for your heartstrings with its adorable animal duo and picturesque snowy landscapes. The first half teases massive potential for a cutesy story with fun puzzle antics, but the game is majorly let down by a repetitive and often frustrating second half and lacklustre ending. After the promise of a warm, cosy adventure, I watched the end credits roll and couldn’t help feeling like I’d been left out in the cold.
The notion of two disparate species of animals coming together to help one another is not particularly new in the world of storytelling. The trope goes all the way back to the likes of Peter Rabbit, in which our intrepid titular hero enlists the assistance of Squirrel Nutkin to help fend off the dastardly fox, Mr. Tod. It’s a concept that just works and is immediately endearing to both children and adults; so it’s no wonder, then, that Blanc resonated with so many upon its initial reveal. But does the actual gameplay hold up? Mostly, but with some important caveats.
Blanc stars two playable characters – a wolf cub and a fawn – both of whom have been inadvertently cut off from their respective families during a sudden snowstorm. As the two try to get their bearings, they run into each other over two sides of a frozen river, and ultimately decide to help each other return to their parents and siblings. Considering there’s absolutely no dialogue in Blanc, developer Casus Ludi has done a remarkable job in communicating exactly what’s going on with the two main characters in question, despite the admittedly simplistic plot.
Season rewards: This season’s rewards include three new Premium tanks for World War II and Cold War gameplay.
Classic game elements: We’re honoring the legacy of our long time tank commanders with features like the Classic HUD and a Garage Swap option.
New content throughout the season: Get ready for new 3D Commanders, vintage-style Pin-Up Skins for player-favorite tanks, revamped maps, and challenges to commemorate historic events.
Courage. Grit. Heroism. If you have these qualities, then you belong on the World of Tanks battlefield. And if you’ve got those qualities in spades, then our latest season, Valiant, is just the opportunity for you to prove it!
The Valiant season starts on February 14 and runs through April 10. It gives you eight weeks to take on challenges, earn points, conquer 100 levels, and claim reward after reward as you go.
Like our previous seasons, Valiant lets you choose one of three paths you can follow to earn your rewards:
The Free Rewards path gives you rewards every few levels and is automatically open to every player.
The Season Pass gives you all the Free Rewards plus additional rewards at every level.
The Ultimate Season Pass gives you everything from the Free Rewards path and the regular Season Pass, plus 25 levels already completed and bonus content that you receive as soon as you purchase it.
You’ll start out on the Free Rewards path, but you can upgrade to a Season Pass or Ultimate Season Pass at any time and get all the rewards you’ve earned up to that point, no matter when you get it. And we think the temptation to upgrade will be hard to ignore!
Get the Season Pass, and you’ll be on your way to earning not one but two new Premium tanks that are making their debut this season: the perfectly named Valiant medium tank for World War II, and the CATTB “Thumper” tank destroyer for Cold War. No matter which game mode you prefer, the Season Pass gives you options.
Want more? Then don’t miss the Ultimate Season Pass, which comes loaded with the newest British bastion, the FV4003 Centurion Mk. 5 AVRE medium tank. This is a powerhouse top-tier (Tier X) vehicle that makes the Ultimate Season Pass an unbelievable deal!
If all this wasn’t enough, Valiant also marks the beginning of Resolutions, a bold, year-long event that rewards our most dedicated tankers for each season they complete throughout 2023. Keep an eye out for more information – this is the year to pursue your tanking legacy.
Valiant was designed to satisfy your hunger for new thrills in your console battles. However, we can’t ignore this game’s history. After all, World of Tanks is celebrating nine years on Xbox this February! To commemorate the occasion, the Valiant season also arrives packed with features that are a salute to our longtime players.
The Garage Swap option lets you choose the look of your garage from several styles that have existed in the game over the past nine years. Whether you prefer the classic hangar or a rugged outdoors scene, the choice is yours as to how you display the powerful tanks under your command.
Similarly, the return of the Classic HUD brings back player-requested features like repositioned enemy target info and a clearly visible base capture status bar to make you more informed and more effective in every match you play.
As you explore these and other updates, keep an eye out for events this season that put you at the center of the game’s own history as well as its historical connections. In store for you are a community event that leads to the return of the classic Swamp map, an in-game Challenge that commemorates the historic Battle of Kasserine Pass, the Mary the Mechanic 3D Commander, vehicle skins inspired by vintage pin-up posters, and so much more.
The legacy of World of Tanks was always rich; we’re just giving you new ways to explore it!
They say that fortune favors the bold. We say that victory favors the valiant. Gear up, Commander: The Valiant season is waiting for you starting February 14!
Act boldly and charge toward victory with the FREE Valiant Starter Pack! This DLC bundle is packed with Boosters and Premium Time to increase your earnings as you prove your mettle in the latest season of World of Tanks. Fight with honor—good fortune awaits!
Bundle includes:
• 3 Days of Premium Time
• (5) x2 Silver Boosters
• (5) x3 Vehicle XP Boosters
• (5) x4 Commander XP Boosters
World of Tanks is a global online multiplayer free-to-play game dedicated to tank warfare in the mid-20th century. Custom built for Xbox, World of Tanks features realistic vehicles and environments, enabling players to command history’s most powerful tanks and experience combat on Xbox like never before.
Features:
• Strategic, fast-paced 15 vs 15 online action.
• Over 700 authentic tanks to choose from among 12 nations.
• Battle across a variety of environments with varying terrain and weather effects
• Built-in support for Xbox One X pushing the boundaries of graphic fidelity.
• Regular updates offer new content and frequent special events.
Huge, possibly day-altering news: It’s nearly time for the 4th Annual Impy Awards! The Impys is our yearly event where we celebrate the very best things made in Dreams over the past year, as well as the lovely coMmunity in and around it. Back in November, we opened up nominations – and loads of you submitted your favorite creations, creators and coMmunity members for awards consideration across a whopping 23 categories. Cheers for doing that!
We’re currently in the middle of putting together a fabulously over-the-top awards show on Sunday March 26 at 9am PT / 5pm GMTto announce the winners of this year’s Impy Awards – some judged by us with the help of friends from across the creative industries, with others voted on by the CoMmunity. (More on how to vote in a bit!)
How fabulously over-the-top, you ask? Well, we couldn’t seem to find the perfect venue for our awards show this year, as some places have very strict safety rules around fire and giant flesh-monsters (honestly, you can’t have any fun these days). So we simply created our own in Dreams! A whole archipelago, in fact. Here’s a cheeky little peak at some of the virtual sets we’ll be livestreaming from:
‘Peak’? Eh? Because of the mountain? …Wow, tough crowd. Fine, here are some more:
We thought we’d take advantage of all this extra space by turning this year’s Impys season into a multi-day festival – and combining our real-world selves with the virtual world. In the lead-up to the main awards show on March 26, we’ll be hosting several livestreams from the beautiful Nomi Nations on our Twitch channel. We’ve got all sorts of events on the schedule, from behind-the-scenes interviews with our developers and coMmunity artists, to musical performances, highlights reels from the past year and much more.
Our first stream on the road to this year’s Impys kicks off today. Join us at 9am PT / 5pm GMT over on Twitch, where we’ll be celebrating Dreams’ 3rd birthday with a look back at the year just past – and a very special coMmunity quiz.
Meanwhile, if you’d like to secure some coveted real estate of the Nomi Nations for yourself, why not get involved in our latest coMmunity challenge in Dreams by customizing your very own floating island? Imagine what you could build on your very own piece of paradise. A frog pond filled with lemonade! Seventeen cars! Another identical, but much smaller, island! The possibilities are truly endless. Head to the front page of DreamShaping in game to get started with one of our handy island templates. We’ll be featuring your creations in–game and, of course, checking them out on our Impys livestreams.
Time to bring you out of the clouds and back down to Earth, though. Let’s reveal which amazing Dreams creations and creators made the final shortlists for the 4th Annual Impy Awards.
Before we get into it, a reminder: the following categories are coMmunity–voted, meaning the winner is decided by all you arbiters of good taste out there.
Community Collaboration
Most Helpful Dreamer
Breakthrough Dreamer
Curation Star
Contribution Beyond Dreams
Evolving Experience
Innovation in Create
Community Star
Don’t forget to vote for your winners via this survey by 23:59 GMT on Tuesday February 21 for your vote to be counted!
R.I.F.7 (Spot the difference) – KabarudonphaN18, xMorpheuus
TricoBiddy Bus Company – Tricobalt, blackcat_tracks
We saw an incredible number of submissions from Dreams coMmunity members this year, played a lot of quality creations during the shortlisting process – and read so many heartfelt messages from people explaining why particular creations and creators were the highlights of their year. Regardless of whether you made it to the final shortlist or not, a huge congratulations to everyone who received a nomination: You really made an impact on your fellow dreamers this year.
Right – back to the Nomi Nations we go. Fortunately, the phone signal up there is quite good: why not get in touch via our social channels? We’ll be checking out the hashtag #ImpyAwards, so pop that on your Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok posts if you’ve got any questions/comments/loud noises about the upcoming livestreams.
Warning: The below article has spoilers for 2018’s God of War and God of War Ragnarok.
In an early draft of God of War Ragnarok, Kratos was originally going to die at Thor’s hand. According to narrative director Matt Sophos, Thor would kill Kratos during their fight at the beginning of the game.
“It wasn’t a permanent death. He would get pulled out of Hel, essentially, by Atreus. But it’s now been 20 years have passed,” Sophos explained in an interview with MinnMax. However, this outline didn’t stay around for long as it didn’t feel right to the development team. Kratos has come back from death plenty of times in previous games.
Sophos continued, “As we were developing the story, we knew that we wanted the story to be one about letting go and changing…nothing is written that can’t be unwritten. As long as you’re willing to change, then you’re not bound to fate.” In God of War (2018), Kratos was prophesized to die. So if he had indeed perished, then that would’ve undermined the message of the game.
In IGN’s God of War Ragnarok review, we said, “An enthralling spectacle to behold and an even more exciting one to take the reins of, God of War Ragnarok melds action and adventure together to create a new, unforgettable Norse saga.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
Guild Wars 2 is over ten years old now, and last year it brought its long-running storyline to a close with its third expansion. Now its developers say they want to release smaller and cheaper expansions more regularly, with quarterly updates filling the gaps in between.
Minecraft‘s 1.20 update, including two of the things pictured above: the new Sniffer mob, which won a public vote to be included in the game; and the less expected new cherry blossom biome. Both seem adorable.
Blanc looks like it’s going to be a lot lighter than games like 
