Category: Video Games

Valve has updated its near 17-year-old competitive first-person shooter Team Fortress 2 to finally add 64-bit support.

The update, which some fans are calling the most significant from Valve itself in years, should result in a performance improvement for most users. Reports indicate Team Fortress 2’s frames-per-second count is increased by around 20%, resulting in a much smoother experience.

While this Team Fortress 2 update is certainly welcome, it has done little to calm the constant stream of requests from the player base for Valve to tackle the game’s most troublesome issue: bots. Team Fortress 2 has had a bot problem for years, and despite a community-wide drive to raise awareness for the issue, there is little sign of improvement.

The team at Rabbit & Bear Studios is continuing with the development of a new Eiyuden Chronicle sequel following the death of series creator Yoshitaka Murayama.

The studio opened up about its future and what’s next for the Eiyuden Chronicle series in a recent Reddit AMA conducted with Studio Head and Character Designer Junko Kawano, Director and System Designer Osamu Komuta, and Art Director and Producer Junichi Murakami. With the release of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes only days away, fans were quick to ask about how the team might continue without Murayama at the helm. Rabbit & Bear acknowledges the unfortunate passing of their former studio head but hopes to carry his legacy into the future.

“We are moving forward with a sequel,” the studio said. “It is very sad that Murayama is not with us anymore, but we have discussed many things with him. I hope we will be able to carry on Murayama’s legacy, and I always want to treasure his last work. I hope many people will support this game.”

How exactly the series may continue depends on many factors, including how Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will sell when it launches next week. Rabbit & Bear says that it discussed some possibilities with Murayama before he passed.

Respecting the Suikoden creator means staying true to some of the design decisions he made during Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes’ development. When one Reddit user suggested Rabbit & Bear implement more options to save their progress, the studio explained how current the design sticks to Murayama’s vision. A limited autosave feature was eventually added in but only because the team felt it could be included without tweaking Murayama’s “concept of play.”

Gamers worldwide have long wondered whether Microsoft’s historic acquisition of Activision Blizzard would lead to structural and organizational changes for the World of Warcraft developer. Now, six months after the acquisition’s finalization, a higher-up at World of Warcraft has revealed that the Xbox maker has “let Blizzard be Blizzard.”

Speaking with Video Games Chronicle, World of Warcraft executive producer and vice president Holly Longdale revealed that developers’ day-to-day operations have remained largely unchanged.

“There’s no one asking us to do anything,” Longdale told VGC. “World of Warcraft is doing very well and they’re very proud of what it’s been able to accomplish, so it’s almost like just let it be, and let it keep being awesome. They’ve been tremendously supportive and it’s like ‘let Blizzard be Blizzard.’ ”

As Manor Lords prepares to finally make its way to the public, developer Slavic Magic has stepped in to make sure fans’ expectations are in check.

The one-person studio has been painstakingly crafting the medieval city builder for the last few years, and the PC community has taken notice. The promise of city-building features, realistic gameplay mechanics, and more have continuously positioned Manor Lords at the top of Steam’s most Wishlisted titles. Now, with its Early Access release just more than a week away, Slavic Magic has published a post to clarify a few things. Most notably, they want soon-to-be leaders to remember that Manor Lords isn’t an RPG or a game that’s meant to go toe-to-toe with Sega’s Total War franchise.

“Manor Lords is not a Total War competitor,” Slavic Magic cautions. “It’s a citybuilder with battles. Yes, battles are there, but not as huge or as frequent as some of you might expect. The majority of gameplay is focused on citybuilding and management.”

Manor Lords isn’t competitive like Starcraft, and it doesn’t let players explore in first-person like Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Yes, you’ll be able to wander around town thanks to a third-person bonus mode, but Slavic Magic calls this feature “experimental.” The core Manor Lords experience is more about letting players know what its like to build and maintain their very own medieval city on a smaller scale than other empire management sim and grand strategy games.

Slavic Magic also reiterates that Manor Lords is launching in Early Access. There will inevitably be some kinks to work out, but they are excited to work through to rough edges with community feedback in mind.

“Yes, [Early Access] must be disappointing, but I think it’s the right choice,” Slavic Magic adds. “It’s my first serious game and not only some stuff is still unfinished, but I bet you guys will ask me to change some things you don’t necessarily like. But I want to pursue an open development strategy of a back and forth between me and you, I think it worked great for the game so far (I’m comparing to times where there wasn’t even a testing group and I was developing in a bubble).”

Lastly, as development on Manor Lords progresses, fans should know that Slavic Magic has no plans to release any sort of content roadmap. The developer is unsure if the testing phase for future patches will remain closed or open to the public, though they are considering hosting a pre-release beta branch for owners.

“I’ve made a mistake once or twice before, of promising and working on a feature only to find out that the testers didn’t care as much as I did and that they actually wanted something else,” they explain. “So even if I have a plan, I want to adopt the philosophy of ‘listen, verify, implement.’”

Manor Lords launches in Early Access for PC via the Epic Games Store, Steam, and GOG, as well as PC Game Pass on April 26. A release on consoles and Xbox Game Pass is set to arrive at a later date. While we count down those last remaining days, hours, and minutes, be sure to check out more upcoming Game Pass titles. After that, don’t forget to look into more of April’s biggest releases.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

It may come as a surprise to hear that there is actually a solid slate of Potter themed board games. While there are certainly more than a few soulless licensed products, such as Harry Potter Monopoly, there are several legitimate titles that offer deep and varied gameplay. These aren’t just reskins of traditional games, but wholly original experiences with engaging systems.

For my money, these eight titles are the best of the bunch. There are options for kids, as well as casual board gamers and dedicated hobbyists. So put down the broomstick and trade out the quidditch pitch for the tabletop.

TL;DR: The Best Harry Potter Board Games

• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
• Talisman: Harry Potter
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle – Defence Against the Dark Arts
• Harry Potter: House Cup Competition
• Harry Potter Strike Dice Game
• Harry Potter: Mischief in Diagon Alley
• Harry Potter: Unmask the Death Eaters
• Harry Potter: Memory Master

Don’t have time to read blurbs? Click the games above to go straight to the Amazon listings.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

• Ages: 11+
• Players: 2-4
• Play Time: 30-60 min

This cooperative deckbuilding game has players defending Hogwarts castle from the forces of evil. Each player takes on the role of a student – including Harry, Hermione, Ron, or Neville – and wields a personal deck of cards they use to combat foes. Through gaining influence, additional cards can be attained that represent spells, items, and familiar characters. The game-controlled adversaries will attempt to thwart players with attacks and hindering effects. Scenarios progress across all seven movies, featuring key locations and events that are familiar and inspiring. This is a relatively comprehensive and engaging experience that builds across multiple sessions.

Talisman: Harry Potter

• Ages: 13+
• Players: 2-6
• Play Time: 90-120 min

Talisman is a 40-year-old fantasy adventure game that has endured across many editions and spinoffs. This Harry Potter-themed Talisman is a recent release that takes this well-worn engine and iterates upon the core nicely. It infuses a sense of wonder by having players pursue a meeting with Lord Voldemort at the center of the board. A key twist on the Talisman formula is the affiliation system, aligning players with either the Order of the Phoenix or the Death Eaters. As players race through encounters and gain experience, they will either greet Lord Voldemort and present him with one of the Deathly Hallows, or confront him with courage and might. This is a relatively simple game of rolling dice, moving about a linear board, and having colorful random encounters with various locations and people of the Potterverse. With these few pieces it constructs a wild adventure that is memorable and amusing.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle – Defence Against the Dark Arts

• Ages: 11+
• Players: 2
• Play Time: 30-60 min

This spinoff of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle (see above) is more inspired by that previous game than merely revising it. Instead of a fully cooperative board game, this one is a competitive head-to-head bout where two players spend turns adding new cards to their deck, launching attacks, and pulling off various tricks. New cards are acquired from a central rotating market making for a variable game state with dynamic options. As new options are added to each player’s deck, gameplay opens up and new combinations of abilities emerge. It’s a quicker and tighter overall affair than the original Hogwarts Battle, and its fundamentally different tone due to the competitive structure.

Harry Potter: House Cup Competition

• Ages: 11+
• Players: 2-4
• Play Time: 75 min

The yearly house cup competition is underway as players compete in challenges of wizardry to achieve success. This colorful experience is known as a worker placement style game where players send characters such Harry, Cedric, Cho, and Draco out on the game board to improve their skills and grow in strength. Ultimately, the goal is for players to earn the most points through feats of magic in order for their house to be declared house cup champion. The game is adorned with wonderful components, including fancy test tubes and gems. This helps to elevate play and adds a touch of beauty to the proceedings.

Harry Potter Strike Dice Game

• Ages: 8+
• Players: 2-5
• Play Time: 15 min

Strike is a relatively unheralded dice game of modest distinction. Players take on the roles of gladiators, rolling dice into a central bowl that represents the arena. Any dice that show an “X” are removed from play, but if multiple dice match, they’re instead claimed by the rolling player. This Potter version of Strike uses the same core concept, but adds in the notion of triggering spells with specific results. Just like its predecessor, it’s a surprisingly joyful game that can elicit large moments of drama with the right crowd. It requires a bit of playfulness as it wants rowdy players that can muster enthusiasm. With this mindset, it offers an experience that is much larger than its meager set of pieces.

Harry Potter: Mischief in Diagon Alley

• Ages: 6+
• Players: 3-5
• Play Time: 15 min

The second dice game on this list, Mischief in Diagon Alley is a fast paced game of simultaneous play. As first year Hogwarts students, you’re rushing to Diagon Alley with shopping lists, but the magical items have been cursed and have been scattered among all of the alley’s shoppes. Everyone quickly rolls dice at the same time in order to cast aside useless clutter such as books and broomsticks. It’s a chaotic game that’s in constant motion, but this is also the draw as it’s a delightful flurry of action. There is a real level of excitement that supersedes the basic strategy to produce something memorable.

Harry Potter: Unmask the Death Eaters

• Ages: 11+
• Players: 4-8
• Play Time: 60-90 min

Unmask the Death Eaters is a team-based hidden identity game. Each participant will take on the role of a member of the Order of the Phoenix during the second wizarding war. A portion of the players, however, are actually villainous Death Eaters loyal to Lord Voldemort. As the group works together to battle creatures such as giants, dementors, and inferi, the Death Eaters will attempt to sabotage their efforts while remaining hidden so they may operate in the shadows. Members of the Order will need to deduce who is working against them and out their foes in the game’s dramatic climax. This is a reworking of The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, a surprisingly successful board game adaptation of the hit John Carpenter film. The Harry Potter setting fits seamlessly over the strong foundation, utilizing these systems expertly to craft a tense outing.

Harry Potter: Memory Master

• Ages: 6+
• Players: 4
• Play Time: 30 min

This family friendly game hinges on memory to produce a hilarious tabletop card game that can be enjoyed by a wide range of players. Each player receives five cards to study and (hopefully) memorize. Then they’re paired with another player, and each switches cards. After studying their new set of cards, each player selects a card that they believe will match the card their partner plays. In practice, it’s about identifying the most obvious match from each set, leaning on intuition and memory to facilitate your selection. It touches on a similar vibe to popular card games Hanabi and The Mind, producing magical moments where you mentally align with another human being. There’s some surprising nuance here and it’s quite a fulfilling game for how few components there are.

Warhorse Studios has officially announced Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, the sequel to its popular RPG set in medieval Bohemia. Warhorse Studios fully unveiled the sequel at a private event last week, confirming among other things that it will be twice as large as the original, touting it as a “behemoth” of a game.

“What we are making now is what it was supposed to be in the beginning, but we weren’t able to do it because we didn’t have enough resources and experiences and all that stuff,” creative director Daniel Vavra said in a presentation. “We’ve proven the concept works, so now we can take it to another level, which is what we always wanted.”

To that end, Kingdom Come will be “much bigger in scope,” with “five hours of cutscenes instead of three” and a story that’s “much more epic.” It will pick up the story where the original left off with the game’s protagonist, Henry, and his traveling companion, Sir Hans Capon, but where the previous game was about “small nobility,” Kingdom Come II will be about the “problems of kings.”

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will seek to build on the success of the original game, which drew attention for the way that it mixed Elder Scrolls-like first-person exploration with a granular focus on historical detail. While it received mixed reviews from critics, who among other issues criticized its technical performance, it managed to sell around 6 million units by February 2024. Warhorse Studios has grown considerably since then, rising to around 250 employees from a team that numbered just 11 a little more than a decade ago, and is currently one of the studios under Plaion – a subsidiary of the Embracer Group.

Like other recent RPG success stories, most notably Baldur’s Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will seek to craft a highly-reactive world in which players can develop Henry in any way they see fit.

“Henry is a young guy, so he’s not so deeply entrenched in his already, you know, set character traits,” lead designer Prokop Jirsa explains, “so you can build your Henry in different ways.”

Among other details revealed by Warhorse, Kingdom Come II will include a reputation system in which NPCs will call out Henry if he develops a reputation for drinking or thieving, and he can respond in kind. At a higher level, Henry will be able to “save the world” or “punish it for its sins,” implying a multitude of different paths for the young knight.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will once again utilize the CryEngine, which studio spokesperson Tobias Stolz-Zwilling attributed to familiarity and established pipelines, and will feature a variety of environments, including lush forests and other areas. Players will be encouraged to explore the countryside, which Warhorse Studios hints will be “serene and full of secrets.” It will also be dangerous, of course, and the initial trailer shows plenty of period accurate medieval combat, but Warhorse didn’t delve into too many details on that front. That said, players can expect new missile weapons like crossbows – which were sorely missed in the original game – as well as early firearms.

Kuttenberg may change Kingdom Come in more ways than one

Beyond the countryside, Kingdom Come II’s story is mainly set in Kuttenberg, also known as Kutná Hora in Czech – a real-life silver mining city mentioned multiple times in the original game but never shown. It figures to be one of the game’s stars as a large, explorable medieval urban center.

“Kuttenberg is a huge step forward for us and I will say it was the biggest challenge in the game,” art director Viktor Höschl said.

Vavra added, “It’s really big, it’s even too big in my opinion.”