It's not been uncommon for players to get disconnected from Diablo 4's servers in the few short weeks since they began exploring Sanctuary, and while only a minor inconvenience to most, it's been a real problem for the game's most hardcore players who play on the aptly named "Hardcore" mode. In this mode, a single character death results in that character's permanent deletion, and Hardcore players have reported losing those characters due to disconnects from the server resulting in their character standing idle until killed.
The panel, which included Franchise General Manager Rod Fergusson and Game Director Joe Shely, talked about the issue and their plans to fix it.
"These can be some of the must frustrating situations for a Hardcore player, because in many cases it's completely outside of your control," Skely explained. "We have already a mechanism in the game that allows players to escape from boss fights that has very strict controls on it, called the Scroll of Escape. Because it has these controls in terms of being consumable and being a rare drop, this is the place where we want to add disconnect protection."
"Basically the way this will work is: if you get disconnected, for any reason, if you have one of these Scrolls of Escape it will trigger even though you weren't there to trigger it, and it will teleport you to town," Shely added.
"We already have a big 'real patch' coming."
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Skely specified that the team wants this mechanic to be limited, so it can't be abused by those who might want to pull the plug on their computer every time they find themselves in a bind, to be consumed only in the rare, emergency situation.
Since Diablo 4 launched, a number of hotfixes (11 to be exact) have been deployed to address balance changes, improve game stability, and more, but Blizzard is already preparing for their first "real patch," which may require server downtime to perform maintenance.
"We already have a big 'real patch' coming," Fergusson announced. "That's something that's gone through certification. It's out there. It's going to address a lot of things, including performance issues."
That patch, according to Blizzard, contains a whopping 13 pages of fixes and improvements that Blizzard didn't delve into on-stream, but said would get a full set of patch notes once deployed. No specific date for the patch was given, but Blizzard shared it plans to deploy it before season one is launched and it may require server downtime.
Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.
]]>Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.
We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.
Xûr's location can be found at The Tower on June 16 through June 20. To reach him, travel to the landing point at The Courtyard and make your way to the Hangar. Hang a left when entering the hangar and you'll come face-to-face with space Amazon.com.
Exotic Engram
Hard Light – Exotic Auto Rifle
Sealed Ahamkara Grasps – Exotic Hunter Gauntlets
Actium War Rig – Exotic Titan Chest Armor
Eye of Another World – Exotic Warlock Helmet
Hunters have quite a nice roll for their gauntlets this week, while Titans have a very high-stat piece that's messed up by a whopping 17 Mobility. Warlocks stand alone with their low-stat, non-spiky roll.
Hawkmoon – Exotic Hand Cannon
Dead Man's Tale – Exotic Scout Rifle
Neither of the rolls for these iconic weapons is all that great this week. Probably best to wait for some better options!
Hollow Words – Fusion Rifle
Sailspy Pitchglass – Linear Fusion Rifle
Piece of Mind – Pule Rifle
Disparity – Pulse Rifle
Night Watch – Scout Rifle
No Reprieve – Shotgun
Last Man Standing – Shotgun
My picks this week would be Disparity and Night Watch, which both have fairly unoriginal, but reliably good rolls. I'd also suggest maybe checking out Last Man Standing to get a look at the recently added Discord trait that I think has quite a bit of potential (at least on paper).
For Warlocks, Xûr is selling the Lost Pacific set which includes:
Lost Pacific Gauntlets
Lost Pacific Chest Armor
Lost Pacific Helmet
Lost Pacific Leg Armor
Lost Pacific Bond
Warlocks got quite a few great picks this week, but none more obvious than the absolutely delicious helmet that's got high Resilience, Discipline, and overall high stat totals with low Mobility — beautiful!
For Titans, Xûr is selling the Lost Pacific set which includes:
Lost Pacific Gauntlets
Lost Pacific Chest Armor
Lost Pacific Helmet
Lost Pacific Leg Armor
Lost Pacific Mark
Titans have pretty good rolls this week with the helmet and the Gauntlets, which have some spiky stats and low enough Mobility to be happy. Not as great distributions as the Warlock got, but hard to complain!
For Hunters, Xûr is selling the Lost Pacific set which includes:
Lost Pacific Gauntlets
Lost Pacific Chest Armor
Lost Pacific Helmet
Lost Pacific Leg Armor
Lost Pacific Cloak
Hunters also got a pretty good haul this week! Their gauntlets and chest piece in particular are something to consider.
That's a wrap on Xûr for this week, Guardians! What do you think of the Season of the Deep so far? Have you been to the Guardian fishing hole? Let us know in the comments! For more on Destiny, check out our review of Destiny 2: Lightfall and read about how Sony's purchase of Bungie fits into its larger plans.
Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.
]]>Many Diablo 4 players have discovered that endgame looting requires numerous visits back to town to sell and store one's goods, due to a high level of clutter. Chief among the list of things that quickly fill up a player's limited inventory space is gems.
"There are many colors of Gems, there are many qualities of Gems, and this can have the effect of taking up lots of inventory space," explained Game Director Joe Shely.
Thankfully, Blizzard has plans to address this issue in a future patch, which would remove those upgrade materials from your inventory altogether.
"The idea is to change the way you acquire Gems so they are a shelve in your materials or currency tab, rather than your inventory."
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"The idea is to change the way you acquire Gems so they are a shelf in your materials or currency tab, rather than your inventory. The way that would work is you go to craft your Gem in the same way you do today and you just use a certain amount of that material," said Shely.
While this would go a long way to alleviating some of the irritation that comes alongside multiple teleports back to town when completing a single dungeon, players should not expect that relief in the near future. True to their messaging prior to launch, Blizzard remains focused on fixing only the most crucial issues and creating new content, with quality of life improvements being added to later updates.
"We're looking to get it in around season two," Shely said.
In the meantime, there are plenty of updates, including a major patch before season one, for players to look forward to.
]]>Last season’s sweeping regulation changes ushered in a field full of brand-new F1 cars, and with their bigger wheels and tyres they were the best-looking cars the sport had seen in some time. However, they were also the heaviest cars in the championship’s history. In F1 22 this translated to a model that made manhandling that additional bulk quite tricky. Relearning the limits of these new cars was admittedly an absorbing challenge, but it wasn’t always a fun one; there was definitely a fickleness to the way the cars had a tendency to both understeer coming into corners and oversteer while trying to throttle out of them.
Driveability has improved dramatically.
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In F1 23, driveability has improved dramatically. There’s still a sensation of bulk here in the hefty new-era cars, but they feel considerably more cooperative; grippier and more stable, especially clipping kerbs. Better still, for those of you without a wheel there’s a truly excellent intuitiveness to the game pad controls this year. This was most evident to me while navigating slow corners in narrow street circuits and snapping out of early slides when getting on the throttle a little too hard. I don’t know if I’ve ever really been able to catch oversteer so effectively on a humble analogue stick in any F1 game, ever. F1 23 is easily the best the F1 series has ever felt on a traditional controller. The cars feel lively and dangerous, but they respect your commands. It’s like walking an obedient Dobermann through a butcher’s shop.
Braking Point 2 is the continuation of the story Codemasters kicked off in F1 2021 and, despite the fact its 17 chapters ultimately only lasted me a few sessions over a couple of days, it’s definitely my favourite part of F1 23.
For the purposes of a good yarn, Braking Point 2 adds a fictional eleventh team called Konnersport to the grid (much like we’ve been doing ourselves in My Team mode since F1 2020). The upshot here is that it seems to have resulted in a story with a bit more substance this time around. Emotion and conflict both run a little higher than I would suspect might have been possible within the bubble of an existing team with real-world sponsors. Also, while Braking Point 2 may move to a predictable enough conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised to be caught unawares by at least a couple of unexpected developments.
While Braking Point 2 may move to a predictable enough conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised to be caught unawares by at least a couple of unexpected developments.
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While the original Braking Point concentrated on the chalk-and-cheese driving pair of rookie Aiden Jackson and retiring Dutch journeyman Casper Akkerman, Braking Point 2 broadens its lens. The focus here is really the whole Konnersport team, from the drivers (Jackson and his long-time nemesis Devon Butler) to likeable team principal Andreo Konner. Also in the frame is Davidoff Butler, Devon’s father and the CEO of Konnersport’s primary sponsor – plus up-and-coming F2 driver Callie Mayer, who’s being managed by Akkerman.
Since acquiring Codemasters in 2021, EA is once again in the business of publishing F1 games. Here are all the F1 games EA and Codemasters have brought us over the years.See All
As with the original Braking Point, the events in Braking Point 2 are a mix of scenarios with specific challenges to achieve as Jackson, Mayer, and even Devon Butler himself. Some events are full races but most are mid-race situations where you may find yourself asked to finish ahead of specific drivers or teams, salvage or defend your position after dealing with some bad luck, or capitalise on some smart strategy. Overachieving this time around can earn you bonus objectives, and doing so ranks you up within the story mode to unlock new responses to press questions and internal staff queries, but it doesn’t change the overall story – just minor side stories and conversations along the way. That said, I really like the structure; I appreciate the variety and I enjoy having goals. Make up so many spots. Don’t finish behind so-and-so. Maybe I just like being bossed around.
Perhaps surprisingly considering his role in F1 2021, Jackson takes a bit of a backseat in Braking Point 2. This actually may be for the best as I found him even harder to warm to this time around, although some of that may be to do with the fact he’s still probably the least fleshed-out character. We learned very little about Jackson in the first Braking Point and we learn even less here. The spotlight instead has shifted to the ambitious Mayer and the smarmy Devon Butler. Intriguingly, while his stint as Braking Point’s heel continues, Devon easily emerges from Braking Point 2 as its most interesting and layered character.
Braking Point 2’s cutscenes are a big improvement over the original and the facial performance capture in particular is far stronger. The interview sequences make for some clever script segues but I do wonder whether it would’ve benefited from a more documentary-style, fly-on-the-wall approach to the dramatic scenes also. The inability to prod the mode with the team you actually chose in the original is a minor miss, but it seems like it would’ve been an easy win for immersion’s sake. As it stands, the Braking Point 1 recap has Jackson and Akkerman wearing Alfa Romeo gear – in my game two years ago they drove for Haas.
The other big new addition in F1 23 is F1 World, which is a standalone mode that appears to be built on the bones of the naff, lifestyle and apparel focused F1 Life mode from F1 22. You could probably describe F1 World as a secondary career mode where, instead of taking on traditional championship seasons, you complete a range of daily, weekly, and seasonal goals and races to earn rewards and upgrade your F1 World car.
I don’t really know what to make of F1 World, but I do know I keep bouncing off it. I can certainly appreciate the appeal of a mode more suited to dipping in and out for short bursts of F1 action than the more time-consuming full race weekends in the normal career mode, but I’m just not attracted to the upgrade loop that comes alongside it.
Upgrades in F1 World come in the form of miscellaneous and eccentric parts and performance boosters, like brakes that will make my tyres last a tiny bit longer – but only on North and South American racetracks. Or a bloke called Robert who will make my engine more powerful for 60 seconds after I make a pitstop, like some kind of motorsport warlock.
There’s an elegance in having what’s essentially an evolving quick play mode all housed under a single umbrella that rewards you for time spent, but there’s a mobile game tone here that I’m just not sure I have the constitution for. If you’re in the same boat, the traditional career and My Team modes remain present. Just know they’re essentially the same as last year, only with some extra tracks: Lusail and Las Vegas. It’s hard to say what kind of race the Vegas Strip street course will make for in real life this November but it’s a cracking-looking track in F1 23, daubed in a busy neon background and brimming with verticality just beyond the track boundaries. It’s extremely eye-catching.
F1 23 is a far heartier package than F1 22, with 26 tracks, the enjoyable next chapter of the Braking Point story mode that began in F1 2021, and – for players who love to recline back into the couch and race – the best gamepad handling in the series, ever. The racing-focused secondary career mode F1 World is also likely to be a step in the right direction after last year’s F1 Life for some, although it’s equally probable its arcade-inspired, loot-based upgrade system will be divisive amongst traditionalists.
]]>Spotted by RPG Site, the banner with the logo was found on Square Enix’s official support site, but it has since been taken down. The link that leads to the logo now shows a box with the words “no image".
Star Ocean: The Second Story is the second game in developer Tri-Ace’s Star Ocean series, which is published by Square Enix. The game was released for the original PlayStation in 1998. An enhanced version of the game, Star Ocean: Second Evolution, was released in 2008 for PlayStation Portable.
Square Enix support website features a logo for a Star Ocean 2 remake: https://t.co/NKxOSX7POF pic.twitter.com/tXwUesPU4m
— RPG Site (@RPGSite) June 15, 2023
In 2008, Square Enix remastered the first game in the series for PlayStation Portable, called Star Ocean: First Departure. In 2019, the game was re-released for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as Star Ocean: First Departure R.
The latest game in the series is Star Ocean: The Divine Force, which is the sixth mainline title. In IGN’s Star Ocean: The Divine Force review, we said: “Star Ocean: The Divine Force isn’t the best in the series, but a revamped battle system and a charming cast of characters at least make it feel like a return to form.”
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
]]>Announced on the PlayStation Blog, a total of 27 games are joining the library: 24 in the Games Catalogue available to Extra and Premium members and three in the Classic Games Catalogue only available to Premium members. A new game trial for WWE 2K23 on PS4 will also be made available to Premium members.
Sony strangely didn't specify when these games will be available but release dates for Rogue Legacy 2 and the WWE 2K23 trial suggest it will be June 20.
This means that Rogue Legacy 2 will arrive in the Games Catalogue on its PlayStation launch day, letting players jump back into the beloved roguelite gameplay that made the original game such a hit.
In our 9/10 review, IGN said: "Rogue Legacy 2 honours its own legacy as the premiere roguelite thanks to its outstanding assortment of classes, diverse areas, and rewarding combat, putting it shoulder to shoulder among the very best of the genre."
Far Cry 6 brings more of the tried and true open world gameplay to the Games Catalogue, this time thrusting players into the fictional Caribbean island nation of Yara, largely inspired by Cuba. Joining the ranks of legendary Far Cry villains is Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito, who plays the dictator Antón Castillo.
In our 8/10 review, IGN said: "Far Cry 6 smooths over a lot of the bumps that have cropped up in the past few games and even though it misses some steps, especially with its new inventory system, it's the best the series has been in years."
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
]]>As reported by Kotaku, Rockstar removed at least 189 cars and bikes from GTA Online and, making matters worse, put some of them behind its $6-a-month GTA+ subscription, which is currently only available to PS5 and Xbox Series players.
Though the developer warned "many lesser-used vehicles" would be removed from the game ahead of the expansion launching, many players assumed just a handful of old cars would be pulled. Instead, Rockstar removed nearly 200 vehicles, including some previously free to acquire, and put some of them behind a paywall.
"If there's one thing I have never heard anyone say since 2013 is there are too many cars available to buy."
“
"They said lesser vehicles and removed f**king everything," commented one frustrated Reddit user on a post outlining every removed vehicle. "They really ruined this update already with that stupid s**t," said another.
Rockstar said it removed the vehicles to "streamline the shopping experience" but one user, who claimed to have been playing GTA 5 since it launched in 2013, said this was never an issue in the game.
"If there's one thing I have never heard anyone say since 2013 is there are too many cars available to buy," they said. "I've never once heard that. Not once."
The list of frustrated users goes on. "This is f**king robbery," said another. "Holy s**t, the lesser used term was a gigantic lie. Everyone thought it was gonna be the NPC vehicle or really, really old ones. This is disgusting trying to create fake rarity like that."
Rockstar is yet to address the fan outcry but IGN has reached out to the developer for comment.
The removal of so many cars seems a little ironic given one of GTA Online's previous major updates finally added the long-requested 50 car garage. Rockstar continues to update the game regularly despite it being available for 10 years already, though Grand Theft Auto 6 (which could launch as early as next year) may change that.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
]]>Dead Cells: The Animated Series will comprise of 10 "roughly seven-minute long" episodes and will be released in France first before getting a wider release worldwide. The teaser trailer's YouTube description mentions that the series is set on "a cursed island that a strange plague has racked".
Alongside a teaser trailer, the developer confirmed that the series is being co-produced by animation studio Bobbypills and anime streaming service Animation Digital Network. Bobbypill previously worked with Motion Twin as the studio created animated trailers for Dead Cells.
Dead Cells originally launched in early access on PC in May 2017 and reached critical and commercial acclaim, selling five million copies as of March 2021. In our review of Dead Cells, which we scored a 9.5/10, we noted that "Dead Cells fuses breakneck motion with an emphasis on risk-and-reward for an incredibly engaging action-platformer".
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
]]>Out September 14The Crew Motorfest $69.99
PS5
PS4
Xbox Series X / Xbox One
Xbox One
PC
The gold edition comes with the game, plus the following:
The ultimate edition comes with the game itself, plus the following extras:
Preorder the game from anywhere, and you’ll get the Toyota GR Supra 2021 LBWK Edition.
Preorder at Best Buy, and you’ll get a free poster.
A closed beta is happening July 21-23 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. You can register to participate here.
It’s an open-world racing game, along the lines of Forza Horizon, that takes place during an all-year-round festival in O’ahu, Hawaii. That gives you environments like volcanoes, rainforests, cities, and beaches to drive through.
It features over 600 cars from the past, present, and future, giving you plenty of options for what to drive. You can play solo or with friends. The playlist feature lets you pick a series of missions that delve into various aspects of car culture, like vintage classics, electric supercars, and more.
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN's board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed or on Mastodon @chrislreed.
]]>Mohammad Alavi, who became narrative lead designer on Titanfall 3 before it was cut, told The Burnettwork that much work on the sequel had been done.
“Titanfall 2 came out, did what it did, and we were like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna make Titanfall 3,’ and we worked on Titanfall 3 for about ten months, right? In earnest, right?
"We had new tech for it, we had multiple missions going, we had a first playable, which was on par to be just as good if not better than whatever we had before, right? But I’ll make this clear: incrementally better, it wasn’t revolutionary. And that’s the key thing, right?
“And we were feeling pretty decent about it, but not the same feeling as Titanfall 2 where we were making something revolutionary, y’know what I mean?”
So, what happened? According to Alavi, it was a combination of the multiplayer team having issues making an experience that didn’t burn players out quickly, and the explosion of the Battle Royale genre with the release of PUBG in 2017.
“The multiplayer team was having a hell of a time trying to fix the multiplayer, because a lot of people love the multiplayer. People love Titanfall 2 multiplayer,” Alavi said.
“But the people who love Titanfall 2 multiplayer is a very small number of people. And most people play Titanfall 2 multiplayer and think it’s really good, but it’s just too much. It’s cranked up to 11, and they burn out a bit fast. And they’re like, ‘That was a great multiplayer, that’s not something I continually play a year, two years,’ right?
“So we were trying to fix that. We were trying to fix that from Titanfall 1 to 2, trying to fix it from Titanfall 2 to 3, the multiplayer team was just dying.
“And then PUBG came out.”
Respawn developers were seemingly more interested in playing a Battle Royale map with Titanfall 3 classes the team had put together, than any of the standard Titanfall multiplayer modes they were working on. This prompted a realisation: ditch Titanfall 3, which may or may not have ended up a better game than its predecessor, to create a Battle Royale that was wonderful.
“And at the time, I had just literally become [the] narrative lead designer on Titanfall 3. I had just pitched the story, the whole game, that me and Manny [Hagopian] had come up with. We made this big presentation and then we went off at break, and came back from break, and we talked about it and we were like, ‘Yeah, we need to pivot. And we need to go make this game.’
“We literally canceled Titanfall 3 ourselves ’cause we were like, ‘We can make this game, and it’s going to be Titanfall 2 plus a little bit better, or we can make this thing, which is clearly amazing.’
“And don’t get me wrong, I will always miss having another Titanfall. I love that game. Titanfall 2 is my most crowning achievement, but it was the right call. That is a crazy cut. Such a crazy cut that EA didn’t even know about it for another six months until we had a prototype up and running that we could show them!”
I will always miss having another Titanfall… but it was the right call.
“
Titanfall fans have called for a third game in the series ever since Titanfall 2 launched in 2016, but it has so far failed to materialise.
Respawn CEO Vince Zampella said he would love to make another Titanfall game in April but confirmed there aren't any plans for the studio to make it at the moment.
"It has to be the right thing," Zampella said. "It's such a beloved franchise for the fans and also for us. If it is not the right moment in time, the right idea, then it just doesn't make sense."
This reiteration came nearly three months after EA reportedly cancelled a secret single-player Titanfall game codenamed Titanfall Legends, which was set in the same universe as Titanfall and Apex Legends. This cancellation came after the mobile versions of Apex Legends and Battlefield were shut down.
In September 2021, Titanfall's community coordinator Jason Garza said it was unlikely Respawn would develop Titanfall 3, as it was focusing on improving Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends, the latter of which had quickly grown in popularity ever since it shadow-dropped two years prior. Titanfall 2 fell short of its projected sales but still managed to gain a cult following.
Respawn also shifted its focus to Star Wars following the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, with its sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, launching on April 28. Director Stig Asmussen has said he wants to make Cal Kestis's story a trilogy.
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.
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