Sony PlayStation Plus Lineup For June 2023 Features Dinosaurs, Samurai, and Basketball

The PlayStation Plus Game Lineup for June 2023 has been revealed, with NBA 2K23, Trek to Yomi, and Jurassic World Evolution 2 joining the subscription service early next month.

All three games will be available to download on both PS4 and PS5 consoles from June 6 up until July 3 at no extra charge for individuals with PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra or Premium subscriptions.

NBA 2K23

NBA 2K23’s released back in September 2022, bringing with it a slew of online and single player game modes, including the reintroduction of the Jordan Challenge, which tasks fans with recreating 15 moments from the iconic player’s illustrious career. PlayStation Plus subscribers also get access to "exclusive monthly MyTEAM packs", according to the PlayStation blog post detailing the new additions.

In IGN’s 6/10 review we said that the game’s on-court improvements “ should've led it to an easy layup, but the ever-present nuisance of pay-to-win microtransactions make it much harder to enjoy”.

Trek to Yomi

Trek to Yomi meanwhile follows the story of the young samurai Horoki, as he voyages “beyond life and death” to protect his town, and fulfil the vow made to his dying master. In IGN’s 7/10 review we described Trek to Yomi as “a brief but captivating journey that’s like playing through a monochromatic Japanese movie”.

Jurassic World Evolution 2

Frontier Developments’ Jurassic World Evolution 2 rounds out the the June lineup, allowing players to relive the mistakes of the cult movie franchise as they wrangle dinosaurs and manage guest needs across a series of parks. The second entry in the series features four game modes along with an expanded cast of dinosaurs ranging from the noble triceratops to the ever hungry T. rex.

In IGN’s 7/10 review we celebrated Jurassic World Evolution 2’s “excellent dinosaurs”, and improvements over its predecessor, while lamenting some of the game’s relatively shallow management mechanics.

Meanwhile subscribers still have time to download May’s PlayStation Plus offering - GRID Legends, Chivalry 2, and Descenders - before the games disappear from the service on June 6.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Game Developers Share the Most Mind-Blowing, Inspiring Elements of Tears of the Kingdom

Zach Mumbach's been in the video game industry for a long time. He's worked on AAA franchises like Dead Space and Battlefield, and is now working at his own studio that's already shipped one game and is hard at work on a second. But even the most hardened video game developers are stunned, delighted, and just a little bit envious of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

"Tears of the Kingdom is overwhelmingly impressive," he says. "The bar is set so unbelievably high. Even for me, having worked in AAA for 17 years, I see that game and I'm jealous. Because clearly they got the time that they needed to make it really good."

The games industry is in the middle of a watershed moment thanks to Nintendo's latest masterpiece. Tears of the Kingdom is dominating the conversation on social media, as fans fall in love with its immersive exploration, complex building mechanics, and interconnected systems.

But developers are able to have an even deeper appreciation for the mastery on display in Tears of the Kingdom because of their own personal experiences with game development. While you or I can rightfully celebrate the game for everything we love about it, there's something more powerful about hearing praise from folks who know a little bit about what's actually going on under the hood. For instance, we've seen a handful of devs go nuts for the game's physics engine alone.

The game programming flex of all time. pic.twitter.com/id2K5uE5mz

— William Armstrong (@WillWArmstrong) May 21, 2023

IGN spoke with five game developers — ranging from indie devs working on their first solo projects to devs with decades of AAA experience — about the most mind-blowing parts of Tears of the Kingdom, and if a universally-loved game like this is inspiring, deflating… Or a little bit of both.

Game Developers Share the Most Impressive Parts of Tears of the Kingdom

When trying to pick just one element of Tears of the Kingdom that stands head-and-shoulders above the rest, our interview subjects had a hard time choosing. In fact, we got five different answers from our five different developers.

For Mumbach, it comes down to the open world design. On a five-minute horse ride to his next objective, Mumbach says he's constantly distracted by visual cues Nintendo has planted across every inch of Hyrule's expansive map. But somehow, Mumbach says the sheer amount of content never becomes overwhelming because of the way the developers present it to the player.

"The open world is probably the best-constructed open world ever. I can drop you anywhere in the Tears of the Kingdom map and you can spin your camera around, and if you see a space that looks like something should be there, you will be rewarded for going there. Every single time… And that just isn't a thing I think any other open world game is even close to."

The praise reaches a whole new level when incorporating Tears of the Kingdom's building and physics engine into its meticulously-designed open world. At EA, Mumbach worked as a producer where he was in charge of breaking development processes down, including figuring out how many people and how much time was needed for development to go smoothly. But even with that experience, he says he can't begin to imagine how things work behind Nintendo's tightly-shut doors.

"To make these vehicles that work the way they work with the physics, like the gliders? And the fact that you can put rockets or fans on the back of this glider, but then it's also understanding where I am standing on the glider at all times? And constantly updating the trajectory of the glider based on my little tiny stick deflection movements? That's like a whole game to me. Go make that and you win an award for making that. And that's just a little part of this game."

James from indie studio Natsu Kaze is a solo dev working on Maple Forest, an indie game clearly influenced by top-down Zelda classics like A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. Zelda is one of James' favorite series and main inspirations, and he's similarly impressed by the Ultrahand building mechanics — even though he admits he was initially worried the construction kit was just a gimmick.

"When I first heard Nintendo was adding building to the game, I kind of sweat a little… And then the game came out, and I was blown away," James says. "The building mechanics don't hurt the game at all, they strengthen it! Now that the game has released, it's obvious Nintendo thought carefully about Breath of the Wild's core strengths, its absolute freedom of exploration and it rewarding player curiosity and experimentation, and dove in and built what was surely an extremely time-consuming and expensive physics and building system to make that core shine even brighter. It's crazy, and it's amazing."

In describing their favorite parts of Tears of the Kingdom, many developers found themselves inadvertently rediscovering their love for Breath of the Wild's open world design. Tears of the Kingdom is a meatier, more fully-realized version of its predecessor's core vision, which makes the bones of Breath of the Wild's innovative elements even more impressive.

Another indie developer, Aaron McDevitt of Aero GPX, puts it another way, calling attention to Tears of the Kingdom's deep sandbox, saying Nintendo's open world Zeldas "are basically begging the player to interact with the world and game in whatever way they want in order to progress. No two people will play the game the same way, and that's beautiful. It fosters replayability, a sense of community, and creativity all in one fell swoop… I do think it would be awesome if developers were more open to giving their player characters just enough capability, agency, and sandbox flavor that could result in players finding unique ways of approaching problems and progression through their games."

The player's ability to solve puzzles however they want is another feature that leads to viral moments on social media. Videos of unconventional problem solving spark conversation, from players sharing their own unique solutions, to folks wondering what exactly Nintendo intended.

This puzzle is insane. I think this is the intended way to solve it but 90% of people probably used other methods :D #TearsOfTheKingdom #Zelda pic.twitter.com/qyvFs0hM6N

— Luigi (@looygi) May 25, 2023

Eric Covington — a game designer with former experience at Blizzard and PlayStation — is most impressed with Nintendo having the confidence to let the player do whatever they want.

"None of it is 'cheating' or 'going against the designers’ intentions' because it’s all within the realm of what’s intended. The intention was to give the player a plethora of toys and a sandbox in which to play with them. Nintendo doubled down on letting the player win however they wanted to. I could see other studios and games benefitting from letting their grip loosen on the 'intended solution' to the puzzles and challenges they throw at players."

Finally, Retro Studios artist Taylor Rohrig calls out how Tears of the Kingdom benefits greatly from building off another masterpiece, Breath of the Wild. Specifically, returning to the same Hyrule feels like revisiting a real-world place for the first time in years. Rohrig also notes that Nintendo stepped up its game in the character department this time, fleshing out the people Link interacts with on his second trip through this Hyrule.

"I feel like everywhere I go I'm genuinely meeting new people, new NPCs that are making the world feel like, 'Yeah, Hyrule is coming back, what I did in the first game actually matters, people are able to rebuild and live their lives,'" Rohrig says.

What Should the Industry Take Away from Tears of the Kingdom?

In the years following Breath of the Wild, many games have tried to recapture its essence. We've seen more games than ever with stylized grass waving in the wind, ambient piano soundtracks, and paragliders in the wake of Zelda's success. But few games have replicated its true secret recipe: Unparalleled exploration and player freedom. So, I asked these developers what lessons the industry should take from Tears of the Kingdom, and what takeaways big game companies might end up taking instead.

Returning to Rohrig's point about Hyrule feeling more alive in Tears of the Kingdom, Mumbach thinks more games could benefit from building off the worlds established in their predecessors rather than creating brand new worlds with each new entry. We're already starting to see this fairly often — God of War: Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 come to mind as two recent examples, while the Yakuza series successfully returned to the same map for over a decade — but Mumbach thinks even more developers should take note of this practice. Mumbach says he would love another game that takes place in Skyrim, for example, where towns, people, and the environment have all undergone massive shifts.

Developers were torn on whether major studios will incorporate building mechanics into games following Tears of the Kingdom's mainstream success in that department.

"I hope the Tears of the Kingdom-style building is not shoehorned into games where the core design philosophy was originally not created with that in mind," Covington says. "Now, for games that do have creative sandbox building in some form or fashion, I definitely think those creative teams will be taking a hard look at how Zelda has implemented their systems and physics, but I don’t think it will make such a monumental splash on the industry in the way that Breath of the Wild called out all open-world RPG designers."

Mumbach says he "guarantees" executives at big game companies are telling their development teams that their games need building mechanics. But that doesn't mean we'll see building mechanics in all the finished products, as most dev teams will likely push back and say systems like that will take too much time — and too much money — to create.

I hope the Tears of the Kingdom-style building is not shoehorned into games where the core design philosophy was originally not created with that in mind

"I don't think we'll see a bunch of people trying to make this game. I think that they'll be having conversations about it, but I think ultimately it's a unicorn. It's not a thing you can just go out there and emulate."

Tears of the Kingdom was created under extremely rare, near-perfect conditions. For starters, Nintendo built this game with seemingly-unlimited time and budget, as an interview with series producer Eiji Aonuma revealed the game was delayed a year purely for polish. Nintendo Switch's historical sales success also meant there was no rush for Nintendo to deliver Tears of the Kingdom a second before it was ready.

Plus, there's the fact that the Zelda team started development with Tears of the Kingdom's engine, overworld, combat, art direction, and more already in place from Breath of the Wild, giving them a massive head start in creating new content and systems right from the jump. Finally, the Zelda team — led by Aonuma and longtime director Hidemaro Fujibayashi — is filled with experienced, senior developers who have been working on the franchise for many years. All of these elements came together to allow Nintendo to develop a generational game under conditions that will be difficult for anyone — including Nintendo itself — to repeat.

"I don't want to be negative, but even if most developers took the correct lessons from Breath of the Wild and now Tears of the Kingdom, I'm not confident most of them would be able to do anything meaningful with them," James says. "I don't think Zelda's design is something that can be learned or copied without incredible effort — Nintendo is just full of world class talent working in an environment that's letting them realize their full potential. The result is masterpieces like Tears of the Kingdom."

For developers creating games at work while playing Tears of the Kingdom in their free time, it can be daunting to feel like Nintendo has set a bar that's impossibly high to reach. But the devs we spoke to are up to the challenge, understanding that every team making games has something valuable to share with the rest of the industry.

"It is a big inspiration," Rohrig says. "The Legend of Zelda series as a whole is what got me into wanting to be a game developer. So anytime I play anything Zelda it is usually some spark of inspiration, I want to have an impact on someone like Zelda had an impact on me. And if anything I can do in my game development can create a story that can be that for someone else, then I'm going to be happy."

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Tears of the Kingdom Speedrunner Beats the Game in Less Than One Hour

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has officially been completed in less than one hour, setting an all-new speedrunning record for the Breath of the Wild sequel.

As reported by GamesRadar, Zelda speedrunner Zdi6923 shared a YouTube video showing their run from start to finish. The player used a variety of tips and tricks on their journey across the lands of Hyrule and ended up clocking in a time of 59 minutes and 22 seconds.

The skilled speedrunner registered their record-breaking time on speedrun.com and instantly claimed the top spot on the leaderboard, having beaten the previous record holder SlyZorua, who completed the game in 1 hour, 2 minutes and 42 seconds.

Tears of the Kingdom launched on May 12 and sold 10 million copies worldwide in its first three days. Players were eager to return to Hyrule to explore its all-new mysteries and test out various tricks, including those that would save time while moving through the game.

With tons of new tools to mix, match, and combine objects in Tears of the Kingdom, speedrunners were immediately plotting ways to break the game before it launched. One player by the name of gymnast86 even managed to beat the game in 1 hour and 34 minutes on launch day.

However, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma recommends players slow down a little in Tears of the Kingdom to take in everything the new version of Hyrule has to offer and find all the items that are planted across every region like Korok seeds, shrines, and armor.

Don't forget to take a look at our Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough and Guide for more tips and tricks to help you make the most of your adventure through Hyrule. In fact, you can start right here:

• 16 Things to Do First in Tears of the Kingdom
• 14 Things Tears of the Kingdom Doesn't Tell You
• How to Uncover the Full TOTK Map
• How to Expand Your Inventory in TOTK
• PSA: Your Old BOTW Save Unlocks Something Cool in TOTK

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Konami Reportedly Isn't Recording New Voice Acting for Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake

Metal Gear Solid 3: Remake (officially Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater) will reportedly feature the 2004 game's original voice acting.

As reported by The Verge, Konami's head of communications for the Americas Tommy Williams said the remake will feature the original game's dialogue with no changes despite being released close to two decades ago.

The status of the remake's voice acting was up in the air due to unclear wording from Konami, who said alongside the announcement last week that it will "star the original voice characters".

This also means that David Hayter, who voiced Snake in nine different Metal Gear games before being passed over for Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, will sort of make his return to the franchise. This will seemingly only be through his original lines recorded for the game, of course, and not through new voice acting.

Hayter said following his replacement that he doesn't "feel any need to go back" and work with franchise creator Hideo Kojima (though he's not involved in the remake), and appeared fairly hurt by Konami's decision not to have him return.

"That'll be 60 hours of humiliation that I can’t get to," he said of playing Metal Gear Solid 5 at the time. "I haven’t played the latest two iterations because it’s just too painful."

As for Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, Konami has also had to explain why there's a strange symbol in its name and that it's not just coming to PlayStation 5 but Xbox Series and PC too.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

CD Projekt Red to Lay Off Around 30 Employees as Gwent Development Winds Down

CD Projekt Red will lay off around 30 more employees by the end of 2023 as development on Gwent: The Witcher Card Game winds down.

Revealed in a blog post on Gwent's website, CD Projekt Red confirmed that "about 30 remaining Gwent team members are going to part ways" with the studio.

This contradicts a statement from December when the developer told IGN that a small number of employees would be kept on to keep the game running while the remaining staff would be moved to other projects at CD Projekt Red.

A spokesperson told IGN that four team members will be laid off in June, with CD Projekt Red gradually increasing this number throughout the year until around 30 staff have been laid off in total.

"It’s never easy to say goodbye," the developer said in the blog post. "And even though decisions like this are unavoidable and a natural result of the transition, we’d like to express our sincere thanks for all the contributions these team members have made to Gwent. Just like the community, you helped make the game what it is today."

This announcement from CD Projekt Red follows two other waves of lay-offs. The Molasses Flood, which is owned by CD Projekt Red and currently developing the troubled Project Sirius Witcher game, saw 29 team members laid off earlier in May.

CD Projekt Red also announced the closure of The Witcher: Monster Slayer in December last year, revealing that lay-offs would be made at developer Spokko as a result.

Development on Gwent is currently being switched to a community-focused approached. CD Projekt Red announced the change in December though assured the game will remain online for years to come, with final "official" updates being made from the development team between now and the end of 2023.

Gwent celebrated its five year anniversary of entering open beta in May 2022, but was first released in closed beta back in October 2016. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales was released as a full RPG spin-off in 2018 and a single-player standalone expansion called Gwent: Rogue Mage was released in 2022.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Tears of the Kingdom Players Have Already Found Another Duplication Glitch

Tears of the Kingdom players have unearthed yet another infinite duplication glitch just days after Nintendo dropped a patch which removed a number of existing exploits from the game.

As spotted by Games Radar, videos of new new glitch – including this one from YouTuber Kibbles Gaming – began appearing online earlier this week, giving players a new way to infinitely duplicate fused weapons.

With the weapon equipped, players should open the inventory and save the game, then hold the right bumper to prepare a throw, and without letting go, open the map. After this navigate to your adventure log and watch any memory four times in a row. Finally, press the plus button and load the previous save to find the duplicated item lying on the ground.

“I will never understand how anyone has this much time to figure things out like this…but I could never thank then enough either,” replied one viewer. “Honestly, if Nintendo had just removed the degradation system, then all this duplication nonsense wouldn’t even be necessary,” commented another.

According to Kibbles Gaming, the glitch may exist because viewing a memory advances the game by a single frame each time. So watching four memories progresses the game four frames, thus giving Link the time to throw the weapon while tricking the game into thinking that you haven’t.

However, some exploit enthusiasts were less impressed with the newfound glitch. “I shouldn’t have updated my game. The other glitch was way easier,” commented one viewer, echoing the sentiments of other exploit enthusiasts who lamented the golden days of the pre-patch era. Others complained that they couldn’t get the glitch to work for them altogether, or that it wouldn't work for materials.

Take a look at our Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough and Guide for more tips and tricks to help you make the most of your adventure through Hyrule. In fact, you can start right here:

• 16 Things to Do First in Tears of the Kingdom
• 14 Things Tears of the Kingdom Doesn't Tell You
• How to Uncover the Full TOTK Map
• How to Expand Your Inventory in TOTK
• PSA: Your Old BOTW Save Unlocks Something Cool in TOTK

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Dragon Age Writer Dismisses AI-Generated Storytelling as 'Lackluster' and 'Soulless'

Dragon Age writer David Gaider has shared his thoughts on the "lackluster" and "soulless" nature of procedurally generated AI dialogue, while also predicting failure for developers who can't forsee the technology's current limitations.

“Ah, yes. The dream of procedural content generation,” tweeted Gaider in reference to a new Guardian article discussing the potential applications of AI scriptwriting in future video games. “Even BioWare went through several iterations of this: ‘what if we didn't need every conversation to be bespoke?’ Unlimited playtime with dialogue being procedurally created alongside procedural quests!”

The Guardian article focused in part on a game demo called Smallville, which used an artificial intelligence (AI) called ChatGPT to generate conversations amongst a population of 25 NPCs as the characters went about their simulated lives in a sandbox world.

Joon Sung Park, one of the authors of the research, believes that smaller indie developers could start adopting AI like ChatGPT in their development process in as little as a year and a half, with wider uptake of the tech possible in around five years time. As it stands, integrating AI into a video game in any significant way is a costly prospect, which is fraught with potential problems.

Ah, yes. The dream of procedural content generation. Even BioWare went through several iterations of this: "what if we didn't need every conversation to be bespoke?" Unlimited playtime with dialogue being procedurally created alongside procedural quests! https://t.co/iTLAFgRDUk

— David Gaider (@davidgaider) May 29, 2023

However, during a lengthy Twitter thread, Gaider remained sceptical of the short term application of AI in games. While describing his own experiences of working with the tech, the veteran developer noted that his team at BioWare “collectively believed” multiple times that procedurally generated AI conversation and content could work. However, according to Gaider, each time this was attempted the end results were found to be “lackluster” and “soulless”.

He went on to note that future developers might well come to the conclusion that AI tools can generate decent situation specific content if fed the right input, but it is not a sentiment that he himself shares. “The issue wasn't the lines,” Gaider explained.. “It was that procedural content generation of quests results in something shaped like a quest. It has the beats you need for one, sure, but the end result is no better than your typical ‘bring me 20 beetle heads’ MMO quest.”

Gaider proceeded to say that developers who convince themselves that A.I. is capable of generating deep, bespoke narratives, as opposed to what he describes as “superficial content that covers the bases but goes no further”, are liable to fall short.

The fact these dev teams will fail doesn't mean they won't try

“I say such an A.I. will do exactly as we did: it'll create something *shaped* like a narrative, constructed out of stored pieces it has ready... because that's what it does,” tweeted Gaider. “That is, however, not going to stop a lot of dev teams from thinking it can do more. And they will fail.”

He also believes that the lure of procedurally-generated AI content will be too powerful to resist for teams working on certain genres. “The fact these dev teams will fail doesn't mean they won't TRY,” predicted Gaider. “Expect to see it. It's too enticing for them not to, especially in MMO's and similar where they feel players aren't there for deep narrative anyhow. A lot of effort is going to be wasted on this.”

Some leading figures in the entertainment industry and select game developers have already signaled their interest in utilizing AI, with Disney CEO Bob Iger going so far as to say that the technology's implementation could be "disruptive". Earlier this year Ubisoft introduced a new AI script writing tool called Ghostwriter, ostensibly with the goal of helping human writers create more believable lines — also known as barks — for its NPCs.

However, as noted in the Guardian piece, numerous others have voiced their unwillingness to incorporate AI writing into their games, citing artistic objections and worries over issues like accidental plagiarism, alongside the simple fact that some, like Gaider, simply find the end result to be disappointing.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game Hands-On Preview

The Dead Cells board game isn’t the first tabletop title to be inspired by a video game, nor is it the first to try and mimic the feel of a rogue-like game. There’s even one - Sanctum - which is so clearly indebted to the Diablo franchise that it makes you wonder they weren’t served with a copyright infringement. But it does look to be the first official adaptation of a rogue-like and it’s an interesting choice. The Dead Cells video game won plaudits for its fast, demanding combat which isn’t something a board game can easily replicate. So the designers - including Antoine Bauza of 7 Wonders fame - will have had to look for something else to focus on.

See Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game on Kickstarter.

What’s in the Box

We played a prototype of the Dead Cells board game which wasn’t complete, but it contained everything needed to play through the first two levels and a boss. Each level has its own board and tuckbox of goodies, which includes tiles to place on the board, two decks of monster cards - regular and elite - and smallers decks for treasure and blueprints. The boss has a reference sheet and a deck of cards.

There are also several boards used to track game state. One is for combat, another, the annexe board, for treasure and the third is the interbiome board where players can purchase upgrades between biomes. This is notable for having sleeves actually affixed to the board so it’s easy to store your upgrades between games. There’s a variety of tokens to track things like health and loot such as cells and gold teeth earned during your run.

Each player gets a Beheaded board which features unique upgrade paths for the three game stats, brutality, tactics and survival. They also get a deck of combat cards. Players move as a group so there’s only a single miniature in the game to track their progress on the board, an impressive tableux of Beheaded. It’s worth noting that the player board and cards feature some pretty impressive cartoon-style art of the Beheaded characters in action.

Rules and How it Plays

Again, this being a prototype, the rules are subject to change. But as it stands this is a fast-playing cooperative game where the group has to work together to get through as many biomes as possible. Players make a collaborative decision over where to move the figure through branching paths on the biome board, encountering treasure, monsters, merchants and other features represented by shaped, face-down tiles. Some paths require the group to have access to particular runes before they can be traversed.

Reaching a consensus on group decisions in cooperative games can be awkward and the genre as a whole is plagued by a problem known as quarterbacking, where the group is inclined to let itself be bossed around by the most experienced, or perhaps the loudest, player. To combat this, Dead Cells gives one player the First Player crown and they get to be the final arbiter of all decisions. The crown is rotated at intervals by an icon you can flip on some tiles. The First Player also gets to be the recipient of particular treasures and can be a damage magnet in monster encounters.

Combat features another innovation to keep cooperative play interesting. It takes place over three rounds. Monster cards are placed in different slots around the players and each features three action bars indicating what the monster will do on that round. Mostly this is straight up damage, but they can also do things like shield other monsters or inflict conditions like poison or bleed on players. Player combat cards feature the same, three bars with different actions but in addition to the monster combat icons they can also use equipment or loot, which is the only way to pick up loot promised by the encounter tile. But here’s the kicker: players select their combat cards independently and they can only discuss one of the three actions on the card.

This gives what would otherwise be a rote, mechanical combat round a delicious frisson of uncertainty, as well as preventing a quarterback dominating the situaiton. It’s a pretty neat, clever system on the whole. In addition to the nuance of what icon to discuss when you’re selecting actions, some encounters also need a plan to overcome. Bleed and poison are especially vicious so you’ll want to take down those monsters early, ideally before they rech the round with the unwanted icon, but some attacks are range limited against particular slots, muddying the waters. Using found equipment and abilities gained as your three stats increase also expand the range of tactical options available.

There is however, a bizarre design quirk in combat connected to player count. The players have to play three cards, total. That’s fine if there are three players. It’s also fine playing solitaire where your selection intertwines in interesting ways with random cards from a solo deck representing a sentient sword companion. But with two, one player has to play two combat cards which is simply less interesting because you can cover more bases and the reveal is less of a surprise. And with four, one player doesn’t play at all but rather gets a little gamble to see if they get an ability boost instead. These wrinkles might get smoothed out as the game is revised in the run-up to release, but right now it’s far better with one or three players than two or four.

You’ll note that even when the combat works well with the correct player counts, it’s no substitute for the fast hack and slash of the video game -- although, like the original it does force you to work with what’s available. Instead, Dead Cells wisely opts to perform homage to its parent title in the long form, using the interbiome board. Just like the video game your starting characters simply aren’t powerful enough to make it through many biomes. If any one of the characters dies, you have to discard your equipment, reset your abilities and start over. But before you do, you can spend cells and blueprints you’ve found.

Blueprints are powerful items that get added to the treasure deck for the appropriate biome, giving you a chance to find them on subsequent runs. Cells, meanwhile, can be spent on useful things like permanent mutations which offer ongoing buffs at the start of, or during a run. They can also buy more powerful combat cards to incorporate into your player’s decks or even tossed into a well for a random, not always welcome effect. In this way the group will unlock new abilities over time, making combat more interesting and boosting their chances of making it deeper through the various biomes.

While this is a great way to give a board game a roguelike feel, with slow improvements both in your abilities and your understanding of how to best use them accumulating over repeat runs, it does come with a downside. Setting up each biome board is a little fiddly, a minor annoyance that would be no problem if you only had to do it once. But you may have to do it several times over a single run and then the game wants you to reset and do it all again and it feels quite a lot of work for a relatively lightweight game. The admin overhead is a speed bump that detracts from that addictive feeling of wanting to jump straight in and try again that powers all the hours you can sink into the original.

Where to Back?

• Dead Cells: The Rogue-Lite Board Game on Kickstarter

Dead Cells deserves plaudits for trying something new in terms of video to board adaptations. The concept of pushing players down repeat runs with a slow drip of rewards is novel and it works pretty well: it’s just a shame that the analogue need to reset decks and tiles each time trips it up. It’s take on cooperative play is less innovative but still very welcome, as far too many games seem content to just let a quarterback run the show if they want. As a package it’s very light which aids the sense of speed but also feels repetetive: it relies very hard on the lure of unlocking new baubles for another run to generate a perception of variety. Still, in many ways that’s the essence of the rogue-like experience and Dead Cells conjures it very well.

Lord of the Rings' Most Iconic Characters Showcased in Upcoming Magic: The Gathering Card Set

In an advance showcasing of their upcoming The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth card set, Magic: The Gathering game maker Wizards of the Coast presented an extensive roster of cards featuring characters from the well-known Tolkien setting.

Among the more than 100 cards shown, were numerous depictions of the terrifying Nazgûl, recognizable locations from Middle-earth in the form of land cards, and the corrupting One Ring itself, as well as huge cast of characters beloved by Tolkienites everywhere.

From Aragorn to Frodo, Boromir to Peregrin Took, and even the terrifying Balrog, all the notable characters you'd hope for can be found -- and often more than once, too!

Flip through the gallery below to see for yourself:

Many of the cards revealed make use of "The Ring Tempts You" mechanics, which empowers the player's Ring-bearer the longer you make use of its terrible might. One of those abilities makes your Ring-bearer a legendary and prevents creatures with greater power from blocking their attacks, while another saps all opponents of life when the Ring-bearer deals damage to any player.

WotC also discussed the digital version of their game, Magic: The Gathering Arena, which will be receiving the set in its entirety. For those hoping to bring Middle-Earth to their arena battles, they're offering a Hobbit-themed digital playmat for you to sling cards against your friends.

Tales from Middle-earth adds to a growing number of MTG crossovers in recent years, which previously included Transformers, Street Fighter, Stranger Things, and Fortnite, though The Lord of the Rings will be the first crossover to receive a full set of cards that includes four commander decks, a starter kit, Jumpstart themes, and more.

For more, check out the Doctor Who crossover that went live for pre-orders a few weeks ago.

Travis Northup is a freelance writer at IGN.

Xbox Games With Gold for June 2023 Revealed

Microsoft has announced its Xbox Games with Gold line-up for June 2023, with Adios and The Vale: Shadow of the Crown up for grabs next month.

As detailed on Xbox Wire, the two Games with Gold offerings for June will be available to anyone with Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, with Adios coming up first from June 1 to June 30 and The Vale: Shadow of the Crown following between June 16 to July 15.

Adios is a cinematic first-person game about sticking to a complicated moral decision. Players take on the role of a pig farmer who has decided that he no longer wants to dispose of bodies for the mob. What follows is a discussion between him and his would-be killer.

After that difficult conversation, you might want to close your eyes and embark on an audio-based adventure with The Vale: Shadow of the Crown. Players control a blind adventurer who has just been made warden of a small castle on the outskirts of a kingdom.

New games approaching also means that May's Games with Gold will soon leave the service, so be sure to download Star Wars Episode I: Racer and Hoa before time runs out.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

How to Play the Street Fighter Games in Chronological Order

It might not have created the genre, but fighting games wouldn’t be as important and popular as they are today without Street Fighter. This is a series that introduced the idea of combos, a six-button layout, and motion inputs for special moves. It also helped build a competitive scene for fighting games, it made the arcade scene rise in the 90s, and it revitalized the genre in the era of online play.

With each main entry, Street Fighter tried to create something new or focus in a new direction that would make other iconic fighting game franchises, such as Mortal Kombat or The King of Fighters, pay attention. However, the series surpassed its walls and became a cultural phenomenon, with its well-known roster appearing in different types of media and even games outside of the fights, like Fortnite.

In this article, you’ll find a chronology of the series if you’re interested in playing each entry from the start and following its intricate story.

Jump to:

• How to play chronologically
• How to play by release date

How Many Street Fighter Games Are There?

Since the original Street Fighter was released in 1987, Capcom has launched five main entries in the series, with their respective sequels and special versions and rereleases on multiple platforms and arcade systems. Most of the time, each version came with new characters, modes, balances in the whole roster, and other unique features.

While the original Street Fighter only has two versions (the original arcade one and the one ported to consoles), Street Fighter II spawned seven different versions since its debut in 1991, the most recent one being the Switch-exclusive Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers (2017). The following main entry has three releases: Street Fighter III: New Generation, 2nd Impact, and Third Strike. 2008’s Street Fighter IV has appeared in the market three more times with Super Street Fighter IV, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, and Ultra Street Fighter IV. Lastly, Street Fighter V also received a couple of big updates after its initial launch in 2016: Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition.

Apart from the main series, the Alpha subseries was pretty popular in its time. Three games were released under this title: Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dream, Street Fighter Alpha 2, and Street Fighter Alpha 3. A second subseries, called Street Fighter EX, was co-developed by Capcom and Arika. It features another trilogy of games, for the first time in 3D.

If we include the crossovers, spin-offs, and characters’ special appearances in other series, the list keeps getting bigger. There’s the film tie-in called Street Fighter: The Movie, the puzzle game Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, its fighting game spin-off Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (also called Pocket Fighters), and the most recent mobile entry, Street Fighter: Duel, available on Android.

The Vs. series has seen numerous entries in its history. From the well-received X-Men Vs. Street Fighter in 1997 to the inclusion of multiple characters of the franchise in every of the “Vs. Capcom” series, with Marvel Vs. Capcom being the most popular one. Ryu and the World Warriors also faced Tekken’s characters in Street Fighter X Tekken, and there’s an interesting platformer spin-off that was originally fanmade, called Street Fighter X Mega Man.

Before going in with the list of main titles, it’s worth mentioning that the timeline of the canon Street Fighter titles is not very consistent. There are incoherences in some individual character stories between entries, restarting plots or characters being death and then alive, among other things. However, the following is the most accepted timeline in the series.

Street Fighter Games in Chronological Order

Beware of spoilers for the stories, characters, and relevant events of each game in the list below.

1. Street Fighter (1987)

The game that started it all, Street Fighter doesn’t go deep in terms of presenting a story. You can only play as the iconic characters Ryu and Ken, looking to battle fighters in five different countries: Japan, England, the United States, China, and Thailand. The latter is where the final challengers are, Adon and Sagat.

Sagat, a master of Muay Thai, fights Ryu to see who’s the best fighter in the world in a tournament. Our protagonist Ryu wins the battle, leaving Sagat with a prominent scar on his chest, furious, and searching for revenge in the future.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC (Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection) | IGN’s Fighting Street Review

2. Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior’s Dreams (1995)

In the first entry in the Alpha subseries, Warrior’s Dreams, Sagat is back and ready to take revenge on the man who defeated him. However, Alpha presents many more relevant characters than the original Street Fighter, including the iconic antagonist M. Bison.

M. Bison is creating an evil organization, Shadaloo, while other characters from different backgrounds, such as Chun-Li, Charlie (Guile’s mate), and Rose try to stop him. Adon, Sagat’s former apprentice, is looking to beat his master, and the new character Dan Hibiki also wants a piece, since Sagat killed his father. Meanwhile, Ryu is looking for Akuma, a devilish warrior that murdered Gouken, Ryu’s and Ken’s mentor.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC (Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection) | IGN’s Street Fighter Alpha Review

3. Street Fighter Alpha 2 (1996)

Alpha 2 is mostly a reimagination of the previous one. Akuma and M. Bison continue to be the antagonist, fighting Ryu until death and establishing the criminal syndicate Shadaloo, respectively. These stories are more fleshed-out though, as Ryu’s encounter against Akuma involves a battle on Akuma’s island, which is destroyed by its owner by the power of a single fist. On his side, M. Bison keeps recruiting people for his organization, with the aim of obtaining Ryu’s body.

New characters like Dhalsim, Zangief, and Sakura get introduced. Raised in India, Dhalsim becomes the Yoga Master, a being capable of stretching his limbs in absurd ways, while raising money for his poor village. The Red Cyclone Zangief is a well-known figure in his land, Russia, thanks to his endeavors in showing the power of his country. Sakura is Ryu’s number one fan, and she drops out of school to start a journey and meet her idol.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC (Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection) | IGN’s Street Fighter Alpha 2 Review

4. Street Fighter Alpha 3 (1998)

Some of the storylines presented in this subseries end in Street Fighter Alpha 3. M. Bison gains control of Ryu, who is in another state of mind with the evil force Satsui no Hado, while he also has the Psycho Drive, a machine capable of erasing complete towns.

Sagat confronts Ryu one more time, Guile, Chun-Li, and Charlie want to finish M. Bison, and other characters like Dan Hibiki gets their time to shine.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC (Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection) | IGN’s Street Fighter Alpha 3 Review

5. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991)

Arguably the most popular game in the series, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (and its multiple versions) revolve around the same setting: M. Bison is back, and he is hosting a world tournament that welcomes the best fighters from different parts of the globe.

His plan is still the same: to raise Shadaloo and recruit the best fighters for his side. While every character has a different reason to participate in the tournament and take out M. Bison, Akuma is the one that actually confronts this evil force.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC (Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection) | IGN’s Street Fighter II: The World Warrior Review

6. Street Fighter IV (2008)

It turns out that M. Bison is still alive after his death battle with Akuma. However, he is not the main antagonist in Street Fighter IV. Instead, that’s the role of Seth, one of the many beings created by M. Bison, and also an important part of Shadaloo.

Seth wants to become the ultimate warrior and to do so, he hosts a new world tournament for only the strongest beings. He wants to copy their power, as this is one of his special abilities.

Outside of the tournament, it is discovered that Gouken, Ken’s and Ryu’s master, is alive, and he’s ready for a final fight with Akuma.

Available on: PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One (Ultra Street Fighter IV), PC | IGN’s Street Fighter IV Review | Super Street Fighter IV Review | Ultra Street Fighter IV Review

7. Street Fighter V (2016)

In Street Fighter V, Shadaloo is far from over. The criminal organization is about to proceed with a plan called Operation C.H.A.I.N.S, which consists of seven artificial satellites (Black Moons) that are capable of launching an EMP on Earth. This time, the newly introduced F.A.N.G is one of the main minds behind Shadaloo, alongside the returning M. Bison.

Different teams of returning characters from the series as Karin (Alpha 3), Birdie (SF II), Rainbow Mika (Alpha 3), and others create an alliance to stop Shadaloo one more time. New fighters like Rashid are also allies, and Charlie returns from the dead.

Meanwhile, Necalli is a mythic figure that feeds on the soul of fighters, and he encounters Ryu on his way.

Available on: PS4, PC | IGN’s Street Fighter V | Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition Review

8. Street Fighter III: New Generation (1997)

Street Fighter III: New Generation and its two sequels are a fresh start in the series. The seemingly unstoppable Shadaloo is done for good, but this doesn’t mean there isn’t a new organization ready to take its place. The Illuminati, led by the new antagonist Gill, also has plans for the whole world.

How does Gill plan to achieve his goals? You guessed it: by hosting a new world tournament and looking out for the best warriors from different backgrounds. With much of the main roster gone, the SF III series features Alex as its main protagonist and lots of fresh faces, such as Ibuki, Yun, Yang, Oro, Dudley, Sean, and Elena. Of the legendary characters, only Ryu and Ken make their return in New Generation.

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC (Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection) | IGN’s Street Fighter III: Third Strike Review

How to Play the Street Fighter Games By Release Date

• Street Fighter
• Street Fighter II
• Street Fighter Alpha
• Street Fighter Alpha 2
• Street Fighter III: New Generation
• Street Fighter III: Second Impact
• Street Fighter Alpha 3
• Street Fighter III: Third Strike
• Street Fighter IV
• Street Fighter V

What’s Next for Street Fighter?

The series is more alive now than ever with the upcoming launch of Street Fighter 6 on June 2, 2023. The sixth main entry in the franchise takes place after the events of the Street Fighter III series, meaning it will be the most recent entry in terms of the timeline. After the game launches, it’s expected to be supported for years to come, with the first season pass, Year 1 Character Pass, already announced.

Apart from video games, Legendary Entertainment has already announced a live-action film is in the work, co-produced with Capcom. A TV series might also be a possibility since the studio acquired the TV rights to the series, too.

Also see the Street Fighter merch including awesome pixel frame art you can buy from IGN Store:

Axel Bosso is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything related to video games.

Tears of the Kingdom Players Are Cleverly Cheating Korok Rock Puzzles With Fuse

The Tears of the Kingdom community has discovered a new time saving trick that allows players to solve select Korok puzzles in a matter of seconds using Link’s weapon fuse ability.

Pointed out by Twitter user aquatic_ambi (below), the Korok puzzles that have Link find a missing rock to complete a pattern on the ground can be completed using a rock-fused weapon. By performing a jump attack at the location of the missing pebble using said weapon, or by otherwise positioning the rock end in the gap, the puzzle will be considered complete.

“You have done us all a great service today. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to recover from my mind getting blow by this,” said one of the many Twitter users responding to the video highlighting the trick.

so happy i never have to lift a dumb rock ever again #TearsOfTheKingdom pic.twitter.com/WqspvGq1fa

— 💙ambi☁️ (@aquatic_ambi) May 29, 2023

“Excuse me what? I swear this game just has way too many things that I haven’t discovered yet,” commented another excited player. "It counts?!," digitally shrieked another, "What the heck have I been doing”.

Regardless, it's a timesaver in a game packed with exciting things to do, and represents yet another way that players are making use of Link’s new abilities to get one over on and generally torment the woodland folk.

Take a look at our Tears of the Kingdom Walkthrough and Guide for more tips and tricks to help you make the most of your adventure through Hyrule. In fact, you can start right here:

• 16 Things to Do First in Tears of the Kingdom
• 14 Things Tears of the Kingdom Doesn't Tell You
• How to Uncover the Full TOTK Map
• How to Expand Your Inventory in TOTK
• PSA: Your Old BOTW Save Unlocks Something Cool in TOTK

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Street Fighter 6 Review

Remember when Street Fighter 5 came out and a lot of people were disappointed by its distinct lack of meat on its bones? Street Fighter 6 is the polar opposite. Complete with an excellent 18-character roster of both new and returning fighters rendered in a killer new art style, an incredibly ambitious online Battle Hub that puts all other online fighting game lobby systems to shame, and just about everything you could ever ask for when it comes to training tools and systems to help you get better at fighting games, it’s a spectacularly feature-rich fighting game. Street Fighter 6 takes many swings in many different directions, and though not every blow connects, the ones that do are absolute knockouts.

The gameplay of every Street Fighter game since Street Fighter 2 can generally be defined by a unique mechanic. Street Fighter 3 had parries, 4 had focus attacks, 5 had the V-System, and now Street Fighter 6 has the Drive System. And for my money, it’s the best the series has ever seen.

Every character gains access to five powerful abilities that are all governed by their Drive Gauge: Overdrive special moves, Drive Rush, Drive Parry, Drive Reversals, and Drive Impact. Overdrives are essentially the new EX Special Moves and cost two bars, Drive Rush allows you to quickly close the distance between you and your opponent at the cost of one bar (or cancel out of specific normal attacks at the cost of three bars), Drive Reversals allow you to get an opponent off of you while you’re blocking their attack at the cost of two bars, and Drive Impacts… well we’ll get into those in a bit.

I love this system for a lot of reasons, but chief among them is that it opens up so many options, and at the start of every round you have a full meter and have access to all of them. There’s no building this meter up, or worrying about the amount you’ll have left over for the next round. I could start aggressively by using a Drive Rush right out of the gate to put on pressure; I could save my meter for Overdrive special moves to increase the damage of my combos; or I could fish for a crouching medium kick and then Drive Rush cancel it to convert big damage off of a single hit. Those are just a few of the options, and managing them makes the already extremely cerebral fighting of Street Fighter 6 even more enjoyable.

Managing your Drive Meter makes the already cerebral fighting even more enjoyable.

The way it’s handled when you run out of Drive Meter is also excellent: your character enters a Burnout state where you’re completely unable to use any Drive Meter-related techniques; your opponent’s attacks become more advantageous on both block and hit; you take chip damage, and Drive Impacts are even scarier than before (I swear, we’ll get to Drive Impacts in just a bit).

Being in Burnout is a terrible position, but it is far from an unwinnable situation. You still move at the same speed, your attacks do the same damage, you still have access to all of your super moves, and while your opponent’s Drive Impacts are a huge threat, you know that they’ll be looking to do them, which can lead to some interesting mind games on both sides. Some of the most tense and fun matches I’ve had in Street Fighter 6 have been when I managed to pull out a victory even while in Burnout.

Now let’s talk about Drive Impact, because I have a feeling that for a lot of people, whether or not they enjoy Street Fighter 6 is largely going to come down to their feelings on this one move. Drive Impact only costs one bar of drive meter to use, it has super armor that can absorb up to two hits, and if it hits while your opponent is in the middle of their own attack they will be knocked into a crumpled state, giving you a full combo. And that’s not at all! Even if they block it they get blown back and lose half a bar of Drive Meter, and if they get backed into the corner you get to follow it up with a combo. That’s not all either! Remember how I said that they’re even more scary when you’re in Burnout? Well, if you block a Drive Impact and you’re close to the wall you get stunned and you’ll eat a full combo in the corner, even though you blocked their attack. It’s one of the most powerful universal mechanics I’ve ever seen in a fighting game, and if you don’t respect it, you will get crushed by it.

And yet, I love Drive Impacts, because they’re tuned so that they’re just reactable enough to be defended against if you’re looking out for them, but also still fast enough to catch you by surprise if you’re not. All you have to do is Drive Impact them right back: you’ll absorb their attack, hit with yours, and now the roles have reversed so that you get the opportunity for a full combo. Countering Drive Impacts is just so incredibly satisfying, especially when it’s the key to you turning the tables and winning a tight round.

The New World Warriors

Street Fighter 6’s roster of 18 characters is mostly familiar, with 12 returning characters and six being entirely new, but even the returning characters feel fresh thanks to new quirks added to their move sets. Ken’s command run, for example, now changes up the properties of several of his special moves when he uses them out of it, giving them EX-like properties without having to spend Drive Meter on them; Cammy can now charge her special moves and give them V-Trigger like qualities; and Dee Jay has a ton of new feints that make him an extremely tricky character to use and play against.

The new blood, meanwhile, are some of the best additions Street Fighter has seen. Kimberly is a clear standout, with a ninja-inspired moveset that has her closing the distance with quick teleports, piledriving you into the ground with Izuna drop-like air throws, and mixing you up with tricky leaps from half a screen away. Jamie, meanwhile, is a drunken melee powerhouse who is able to buff himself by taking swigs of his flask, and once he takes four drinks pretty much all of his moves become extremely dangerous with multi-hitting attacks that left me totally clueless on when it was actually my turn to try and fight back until I labbed against him in training mode.

Pretty much every Street Fighter character archetype has representation here. You’ve got your grapplers in Zangief and Manon; your rushdown fighters in Ken, Jamie, and Cammy; your zoners with Guile, Dhalsim, and JP; and your powerhouse bruisers in Marissa and Honda. It’s everything I want out of a roster.

Gonna Take You For a Ride

World Tour is an ambitious single-player mode, and while it is a big step up from Street Fighter 5’s attempt at a cinematic story mode (and anything else Street Fighter has done before) it’s certainly the weakest part of Street Fighter 6. It’s at least a great idea: It’s a surprisingly enormous RPG that allows you to take a created character into the world of Street Fighter, interacting with the playable roster by becoming their disciple and learning their moves, and then building them up from scratch by leveling up, equipping various types of stat-altering gear, and selecting powerful skills. It also does a good job of teaching new players the fundamentals of Street Fighter 6 by including lessons as sidequests, with steadily increasing difficulty over the course of about 20 hours.

However, RPGs live and die by their stories, and the story of World Tour is unbelievably dull. With paper-thin characters, predictable plot twists, and a mute protagonist whose main purpose is just to be an errand boy for various gangs and factions, there’s nothing to get excited about. It feels like it was written with the primary purpose of having your character jump around to various countries to meet the roster characters, and yet it never really bothers to justify those trips. In one chapter, a random gangster all of sudden tells me that I need to get her bag back that my buddy stole. And so without any objection, the most reasonable solution is for me to make a global trip to Rome in order to fashion a counterfeit bag that I can hopefully use to fool the gangster into thinking I got her bag back. In another chapter I had to go to Jamaica and Brazil because my original mentor, Luke, wanted souvenirs from those places and doesn’t know how to shop online I guess?

At least the tone is goofy and fun, which is a great fit for Street Fighter. You can fight just about anyone on the street, regardless of whether they deserve a Rising Uppercut to the face or not; it’s fun to use ridiculous-looking moves like the Spinning Bird Kick to cross gaps like you’re a human helicopter, and there’s a surprising amount of enemy variety, many of which do an admirable job of teaching newer players how to deal with specific situations that will come up outside of story mode. Some enemies will favor blocking high, making them vulnerable to low attacks; others will stay permanently in the air and must be brought down by anti-air techniques; and others still will try to hang back and pepper you with projectiles, forcing you to fight them like you would a zoner-type character. And then you can also fight refrigerators… And Roombas. It’s weird, but in a very amusing, Yakuza-esque kind of way.

There’s also a variety of fun minigames that do a great job of “gamifying” techniques that you actually would use in a typical fight. In one of them you have to chop bottles by holding back for a second and then quickly moving the stick in the opposite direction and pressing a button, which is how you’d perform charge-type special moves on a character like Guile or Blanka; another has you making pizza by quickly performing special move inputs as they appear on screen; and another still has you using your combos to quickly destroy a big rig in a nod to the original car-busting minigame from Street Fighter 2.

The best thing about World Tour is outfitting your character with moves from every fighter.

The best thing about World Tour, though, and the thing that really serves as the carrot at the end of the stick, is the promise of being able to outfit your character with moves from every other fighter. By the end of the campaign I could use Dhalsim’s teleport to instantly appear behind an opponent, hit them with Zangief’s Spinning Piledriver, and then use Ken’s Dragonlash Kick to get right back up in their face. Being able to customize my character in ways that would make them absolutely broken in the real game is a lot of fun.

The issue is that it takes forever to level up a character’s style to the point where you learn new moves from them. You do this simply by using them, but even though I only used Luke’s and Ken’s throughout the entire mode, I still didn’t max out either of them. Those who love a good grind may enjoy having plenty left over to unlock after the 20 or so hours it takes to complete World Tour, but I would've liked the drip feed of new unlocks to be substantially faster considering the sheer amount of rewards there are to unlock by maxing out the ranks of each character.

I have many more issues with World Tour, but even despite them, I still had a fun time with it in the end. It’s a mode that’s more directly aimed toward people without a lot of fighting game experience, and I think those people will get a ton more out of it than I did. The character customization elements are great, the way it incentivizes fundamental lessons of how to play Street Fighter 6 by dressing them up as side missions and minigames is extremely well done, and there’s just an overwhelming amount of content to discover with two very large open worlds to explore (both of which have day and nighttime versions that each have their own set of side-missions to discover).

I Got Next

Another reason why you might want to go through World Tour mode is that you’re able to take your character and all the gear they’ve earned into the online Battle Hub, which is an online social space where you queue into both ranked and unranked matchmaking, or pull up on a cabinet much like you would in a local arcade and await challengers.

Online lobbies are not a new thing in the world of fighting games, and truthfully, I’ve never been the biggest fan of them, but Street Fighter 6’s implementation of the Battle Hub has won me over. For one, it’s super cool to look at because Street Fighter 6’s character creator is absolutely wild, and gives you the freedom to make beautiful creations with finely tuned features or unspeakable monsters with out of this world bodily proportions, and it’s fun to just wander around the hub and see what people have come up with.

There’s also a lot of things to do beyond just parking at a cabinet playing with either friends or random players. There’s a section of the hub where you can play a rotating selection of classic Capcom games like Final Fight and Street Fighter 2; another section where you can play Extreme Battles with party-like rule sets and gimmicks; a store where you can purchase more customizable clothes for your avatar with in-game currency; and you can even pit your created character against others in Avatar Battles.

But the most important thing about Battle Hub is that it’s all optional. If you don’t want to deal with it, you don’t have to. You can simply queue up for ranked or casual matches via a menu, go into training mode while you wait, or create a custom room for multiple friends without ever having to go through the Battle Hub – which is exactly how it should be.

The Little Things

What really pushes Street Fighter 6 over the edge is how it completely nails virtually everything outside of its main modes that you could ask for in a fighting game. Based on my experience playing pre-launch and in all three betas, including the open beta, its netcode is excellent; it’s got the best training mode I’ve ever seen in a fighting game, complete with frame data and cancel window data; it’s got extremely helpful character guides that make it very easy to learn a new character from scratch; combo trials that teach you practical combos for a variety of situations; load times are extremely quick and rematches are nearly instantaneous; you can search for replays with a ton of different filters to help you learn matchups; there’s crossplay across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC; you can create and join clubs; and so on. Many fighting games also have these features, but very few have all of them, and especially not right out of the gate.

Street Fighter 6 also deserves credit for really making an effort to welcome newcomers in innovative ways. On top of the World Tour mode, there’s also a new Modern control scheme that allows you to play without having to worry about character-specific command inputs or combo routes. Special moves are mapped to a button and a direction, much like Smash Brothers – there’s one button each for light, medium, and heavy attacks, you can execute combos by holding down an assist button and mashing one of the three attack buttons, and you can use super moves just by pressing two buttons at the same time.

The playing field is kept even by the fact that those using Modern Controls don’t have access to a character’s full repertoire of normal moves, but being able to perform special moves with just the press of a button is a tradeoff that makes the Modern Control style appealing even for those who aren’t beginners.

And for those who just want to hold forward and mash on one button to execute special moves and combos, there’s a new Dynamic control scheme that’s only usable offline and essentially lets the AI choose the attacks for you. Capcom’s really covered all the bases here.

Final Fantasy 16 Endgame Activities Include New Game+ and Its Most Difficult Challenges

Square Enix has begun detailing the endgame activities that Final Fantasy 16 players will be able to look forward to after they finish the main story, and they include New Game+ and the game's most difficult challenges.

As reported by Game Informer, one of the biggest draws of New Game+ is the addition of a new harder difficulty setting called Final Fantasy Mode. Alongside allowing you to bring over all of your abilities and gear from your first playthrough like most New Game+ modes, this new difficulty setting will also change monster placement and will see them showing up in different parts of the game to keep you on your toes.

“The main design philosophy is that the first playthrough is about learning Clive, learning the controls, and then enjoying the story,” Final Fantasy 16 combat director Ryota Suzuki says. “The second playthrough, we want to shift that focus – because the story hasn’t changed – to the action. For example, in Story Mode, while players may encounter waves of enemies, a lot of times, enemies don’t attack at once to allow players to be able to handle everything. In the harder modes of the game, we have removed these limitations so that you have multiple enemies all attacking Clive at the same time.

“Basically, what we’ve done with [Final Fantasy] Mode is give players controlling Clive the sense that they’re always in danger, that death is around the corner, and that you’ll need to really, really pay attention to be able to clear the content.”

The Most Difficult Challenges in Final Fantasy 16 Wait for Players in the Chronolith Trials and Ultimaniac Mode

Final Fantasy Mode will also let players upgrade their weapons beyond what was possible in the first run through the story, will let them upgrade accessories for the first time, and will let them try out the Final Chronolith Trials.

As for what these Chronolith Trials are, they are the "most difficult challenge in FFXVI," according to Final Fantasy 16 creative director Hiroshi Takai. Players will need to make it through multiple stages that feature four waves of enemies that will each be harder than the last. The final round will pit a terrifying boss against the player.

If that wasn't enough, these trials are timed and will see players attempting to earn more time by performing certain moves and combos and completing objectives. Oh, and there is no healing in these trials besides the healing that comes with activating a Limit Break.

Continuing with the big focus that Final Fantasy 16 places on Eikons, these Chronolith Trials will each be based on one. Game Informer got to see Phoenix's Trial by Fire, and it only gave players access to Phoenix's Eikonic abilities. This obviously makes things more tricky as normal battles let you mix and match abilities from all those you've gained from the Eikons you've encountered.

Arcade Mode will also get a difficulty bump in New Game+'s Final Fantasy Mode. For those unfamiliar, Arcade Mode allows for previous stages to be replayed with an on-screen score calculator and combat grader. If Final Fantasy Mode's challenge isn't enough for you, there will also be an Ultimaniac Mode that is even tougher.

Arcade Mode's global leaderboard will only be active in either Final Fantasy Mode or Ultimaniac Mode, and the global leaderboard for the Chronolith Trials will only be active in Final Fantasy Mode.

If a harder difficulty isn't your cup noodles, you'll be happy to know you can simply play Final Fantasy 16's New Game+ in the standard Story or Action modes for a less stressful experience.

Final Fantasy 16 will be released on PlayStation 5 on June 22, 2023. For more, check out our most recent hands-on preview, our breakdown of the Final Fantasy 16 Showcase, and how Final Fantasy could potentially get rid of numbers from its titles.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The Witcher 3 Sales Officially Cross 50 Million

CD Projekt Red has revealed that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has sold over 50 million copies worldwide.

Furthermore, CD Projekt Red also confirmed that the series as a whole has surpassed 75 million copies sold. This includes 2007's The Witcher, 2011's The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and 2015's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The School of the Wolf is growing! 🐺 Over 50 million people joined Geralt of Rivia on his Path of finding Ciri and defeating the Wild Hunt!

Thank you for your enormous support over the years! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/lhMHmgF34z

— The Witcher (@witchergame) May 29, 2023

CD Projekt Red is currently working on several games in The Witcher series, including Project Polaris, which is presumably The Witcher 4. It likely won’t be released until 2025 at the earliest as it only entered pre-production in March 2022. The studio is also working on a remake of the first Witcher game and has confirmed that it will feature an open world.

The Flame in the Flood developer Molasses Flood is also working on a separate game in the franchise called Project Sirius. However, its development was recently reset and has a new multiplayer framework.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was first released in 2015 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions recently launched in December 2022.

In IGN’s The Witcher 3 review, we said, “Even if the plot isn’t terribly interesting, the many characters who play a part in it are, and along with the excellent combat and RPG gameplay, they elevate The Witcher 3 to a plane few other RPGs inhabit.”

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