Category: Video Games

Latest Baldur’s Gate 3 update adds colour-blind settings, hireling customisation and best of all, sponge baths

Larian have released a new Baldur’s Gate 3 update, Patch 4, which applies 1000 fixes and changes to the indecently expansive fantasy RPG – far too many to list on Steam. The most significant additions are accessibility settings for colour-blind people, the ability to visually customise hirelings upon recruitment, and the ability to clean up party members using sponges and soap, rather than lobbing bottles of water at them. No more rocking up to cutscenes looking like Sweeney Todd on his lunchbreak! Well, unless that’s your vibe.

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Random: Animator’s Stunning New Teaser Reimagines Zelda’s Castle Town As A Ghibli Film

The Tale of Princess Zelda.

If the thought of a Zelda film made by Illumination has got you feeling down, this gorgeous new teaser for a project that is reimagining The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time‘s Castle Town as a Studio Ghibli film is a surefire way to showcase what a Hyrule-set movie has the potential to be.

We have covered the work of YouTube channel RwanLink on Nintendo Life before (you might remember the 3D animator’s gorgeous renditions of Zora’s Domain and Lake Hylia in Unreal Engine 5), but this latest project might just take the biscuit for things that we really, really want to see Nintendo make a reality — as unlikely as that is.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Alan Wake 2 08 Update Makes Over 200 Improvements and Fixes to the Game

Remedy has released an update for recently launched Alan Wake 2 that makes over 200 individual improvements and fixes to the game.

Update 08, which brings Alan Wake 2 on PlayStation 5 up to version 1.000.008, on Xbox Series X and S to version 1.0.0.8, and on PC to version 1.0.8, tackles everything from graphical issues to mission specific bugs. Of note: the patch makes various audio-related improvements.

Players had encountered audio problems, especially on Xbox, so hopefully this update sorts those out. Remedy apologised for one bug in particular, which caused the Oceanview Hotel Lobby Echo in Room 665 not to align correctly (“this one was really annoying; we apologize”).

Here are the Alan Wake 2 08 update patch notes in full:

Global

  • Various localization fixes, such as improved subtitle timings for all languages
  • Improved localized audio for live-action cinematics
  • Various audio-related improvements and additional polish
  • Improved lip sync in some instances
  • Fixed various graphical issues in the environments
  • Fixed various minor issues in cinematics
  • Minor improvements to image aliasing in Performance mode and Xbox Series S
  • Improved lighting
  • Fixed lighting bugs in multiple locations
  • Various UI-related fixes and additional polish
  • Various gameplay fixes and improvements
  • Minor gameplay finetuning
  • Improved auto-aim for specific circumstances
  • Fixed rare player character animation issues
  • Fixed various issues in the Case Board
  • Fixed various map issues
  • Several conversations failing to trigger and thus blocking progress later have been fixed
  • Fixed Rose’s dialogue choices, sometimes not being selectable, blocking progress
  • Fixed a rare issue with Saga’s lines not playing when going to the Sheriff’s Station, blocking progress
  • Resolved a potential problem in the player getting stuck in a Case Board Tutorial
  • Fixed exploration rewards for Lighthouse

Mission specific

INVITATION:

  • Fixed a bug where Saga could get stuck in the environment (“Crazy forest”)

CASEY:

  • Fixed potential issue with players able to get stuck when falling from ladders
  • Fixed potential issues with Dark Presence (it remains a threat)
  • Fixed a rare crash

ZANE’S FILM:

  • Fixed a bug where Alan could fall through the environment

SCRATCH:

  • Fixed a bug where Saga could fall through the world
  • Fixed a bug in where a gate could get locked after reloading a save game, causing the player to get blocked from progressing
  • Fixed an issue where, in rare circumstances, the player could end up outside of the game world when opening the map
  • Fixed an issue where, in rare cases, the Lighthouse key could not be picked up

WE SING:

  • Fixed a bug where Alan could get stuck in the environment

ROOM 665:

  • Fixed an issue that caused the Oceanview Hotel Lobby Echo not to align correctly (this one was really annoying; we apologize)

MASKS:

  • Fixed an issue where if the player performed specific tasks in an unpredictable order, the mission progress could get blocked

DEERFEST:

  • Fixed an issue (much to Rose’s chagrin) with physics-related props that could block the player in and halt progress

COME HOME:

  • Fixed an issue where the player, in rare instances, could not exit the radio, TV, or manuscript interact modules.

PC specific

  • Fixed a bug that could cause graphics settings to reset when launching the game
  • Improvements to PC Window handling logic
  • Fixed mouse cursor sometimes not appearing in menus

Alan Wake 2 is a smash hit with critics. In our 9/10 review, IGN said: “Alan Wake 2 is a superb survival horror sequel that makes the cult-classic original seem like little more than a rough first draft by comparison.”

This week, Remedy said it was too early to say whether Alan Wake 2 had been a commercial success, although its critical acclaim gives the game “a strong basis for good long-term sales”. Remedy boss CEO Tero Virtala said all four of the studio’s other projects (Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes, Control 2, Condor, and Codename Vanguard) will benefit from staff moving on from Alan Wake 2. Two expansions are due for release next year.

Players can also check out IGN’s Alan Wake 2 Guide and essential tips and tricks to get the most out of playing the long-awaited survival horror sequel.

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.

Super Mario RPG’s Switch Release Gets A Five-Minute Overview Trailer

The SNES hit returns later this month.

WarioWare: Move It! might be out this week, but Nintendo is already turning its attention to the next Switch release.

In case you somehow missed it, Super Mario RPG returns later this month on 17th November. It will include updated graphics and cinematics as well as some newly-arranged music. Now, to build up some excitement, Nintendo has released a five-minute overview trailer.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Sonic’s New 3D Game Will Reportedly Remain “Exclusive To Apple Arcade”

Sorry, Sonic fans.

Sega has revealed the Blue Blur is getting a brand new 3D action-platformer called Sonic Dream Team, the only catch is, that it’s an Apple Arcade exclusive.

According to Sonic Stadium, Dream Team is likely to remain an exclusive as well. A source that apparently was “involved in the game’s production”, told the site Apple was involved in production, which suggests it could have some sort of financial investment.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Starfield Patch Adding Native DLSS Support and Other Improvements Is Coming Soon

Starfield is about to receive a cosmic boost thanks to an upcoming patch entering Steam Beta next week, which will finally include the long-awaited official support for Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) tech.

In a new post on X/Twitter, Bethesda Game Studios confirmed that the studio has been hard at work on post-launch updates for Starfield. The next one will launch as a beta, available exclusively to Steam users before it launches more widely to all PC players, in addition to Xbox Series X/S users.

Bethesda confirmed that this next update will finally roll out official support for Nvidia DLSS in addition to HDR controls, along with some other optimizations and improvements. The biggest feature rolling out into this update, of course, is the inclusion of DLSS. In a separate post, Bethesda also revealed that it will add support for FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 in a future update.

While Bethesda was cagey about whether or not Starfield would support DLSS at launch after it was revealed that AMD was the “exclusive PC partner for Starfield.” The rumors and speculation later turned out to be true as Starfield only supported two upscaling options: FSR 2 and FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS).

DLSS has been one of Starfield’s most requested features

DLSS quickly became one of, if not the most requested feature on PC. Although modders were quick to add DLSS into Starfield, one modder received backlash after it was revealed they paywalled a more advanced Starfield DLSS 3 mod accessible to those that paid $5 a month to their Patreon.

Shortly after Starfield’s release, Bethesda announced that it would officially add DLSS support, though the studio has yet to specify whether or not it will add DLSS 2 or DLSS 3 into Starfield. If it’s the latter, it will be rather limiting as DLSS 3 is exclusively available to the GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards.

Despite the lack of official DLSS support, Starfield has been a major success for Bethesda, hitting 10 million players in just three weeks to become the biggest launch in Bethesda Game Studios’ history. Starfield likely played a big role in Microsoft’s Q1 2024 earnings as it was revealed last week that Xbox content and services saw a revenue increase of 13% over the previous quarter.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

What’s better: ghosts walking through walls, or soulslike bloodstains?

Last time, you decided that blink teleports are better than summoning spectral animals. I’m wholly unsurprised but I am glad that the fleeting beasties still earned a respectable share of science votes. This Halloween week, with eggs drying on your house and Snickers-sweet vomit running in the gutters, let’s consider death. What’s better: ghosts walking through walls, or soulslike bloodstains?

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Fan-Made Bloodborne Kart Gets Official Release Date With 12 Racers, Boss Fights, and More

Bloodborne fans finally have something to look forward to, though it might not be what they expect. Lilith Walker, or PSX Bunlith (@b0tster) on X/Twitter, one of the developers behind the PSX-style Bloodborne de-make, has been teasing Bloodborne Kart, another fan project set in Yarnham with graphics inspired by the original PlayStation, for some time now.

It finally has a release date: Jan. 31, 2024. Originally revealed in early 2022, Bloodborne Kart started as a meme within the Bloodborne and Soulsborne fan communities around 2017 and caught fire as fans enamored with the idea of making a kart racer for a FromSoft game went as far as making art and mods on the subject. And now, they’re close to racing through Yarnham in a go-kart themselves.

The announcement, made in a post on X/Twitter, details some of what players can expect, including 12 racers, 16 maps, boss fights, a campaign, a battle mode, and split-screen multiplayer. It also features a gameplay trailer showing off some of these modes.

Bloodborne is eight years old now and despite mass outcry from the community, PlayStation Studios have yet to release any upgraded ports or new versions on the PlayStation 5 or PC, as they have for other first-party titles such as The Last Of Us Part 1 and God of War (2018).

There’s no indication that FromSoft’s collaboration with PlayStation will ever see another official release, but soulsborne fans can rest easy. Our friends over at IGN Japan reported that the studio behind Elden Ring and Armored Core VI is currently recruiting “large-scale development staff.”

For more on FromSoftware, check out our review of Armored Core VI. Or, if you’re interested in learning more about the Bloodborne PSX de-make, we’ve uploaded 13 minutes of gameplay from the start of the game.