Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Mickey Mouse-Inspired Horror Game 'Infestation 88' Announced

Update: Since the initial announcement, Nightmare Forge Game has denied claims that the game's title is a Neo-Nazi reference, among other accusations. They have also renamed the game to Infestation: Origins. The original story continues below.

Nightmare Forge games has announced Infestation: Origins, a new 1-4 player survival horror co-op game that aims to infuse nostalgia with terror (in the vein of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey) by twisting the now-in-the-public-domain Steamboat Willie into something much scarier. It's in development for PC.

The developers describe it as such: "In the year 1988, what was thought to be an outbreak of rodents in various locations morphed into something far more sinister." Sometimes you'll need to fight, sometimes you'll need to run, and sometimes you'll need to hide in a locker. You can set traps and utilize CCTV cameras to try and stay one step ahead of the infestation, and item layouts are randomized in order to help keep matches fresh. Check out the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.

Nightmare Forge promises private and public lobbies, character customization, scaling enemy behavior, and DLSS support. If you're interested, you can Infestation: Origins on Steam.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

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Xbox Game Pass Early January 2024 Games Announced

Microsoft has announced the games coming to Xbox Game Pass in January 2024, with Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Resident Evil 2 headlining this month's offerings.

Revealed on Xbox Wire, the mysterious adventure game Close to the Sun is available today, January 3. Set in the 1890s, players must board a mysterious ship complex created by Nikola Tesla in an alternative version of history. In our 7/10 review, IGN said: "Close to the Sun is a harrowing and thoughtfully designed first-person exploration adventure that shows a twisted world in which Nikola Tesla’s ideas came to life."

Xbox Game Pass Early January 2024 Games

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the 2020 entry in the long running and popular franchise in which players take on the role of Eivor, a Viking raider who does as much screaming and smashing as they do sneaking and stealth. Following on from the role-playing game style gameplay of Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey, Valhalla features England as its main map but also lets players visit the likes of Norway and North America.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: "Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a massive, beautiful open world fuelled by brutal living and the dirty work of conquerors. It's a lot buggier than it should be but also impressive on multiple levels."

Resident Evil 2 is the other heavy hitter of early January, with the 2019 game completely recreating the beloved survival horror entry for a modern audience. Players take on the role of Leon S. Kennedy as he starts his first day as a police officer in Raccoon City in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, or Jill Valentine who goes searching for her missing brother. These intertwining storylines see both characters forced to overcome one horrifying challenge after the other.

In our 9/10 review, IGN said: "Now this is how you remake a classic. Resident Evil 2 expertly reanimates the horrifying atmosphere and moments of extreme tension that made the original so revered."

Sticking to the spooky atmosphere, We Happy Few is another horror title joining Xbox Game Pass in January. It sees a group of slightly terrible people try to escape from a prescribed cheerful lifestyle, having to force their way through some horrifying citizens to do so. In our 7/10 review, IGN said: "There's a great story lurking in We Happy Few, but you'll have to escape some repetitive levels to find it."

Games Leaving Xbox Game Pass in January 2024

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

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Mecha BREAK Is Like a Multiplayer Mecha Anime Brought To Life

Mecha BREAK, at first glance, has all the flash of a mecha anime brought to life. I’m talking massive, colorful robot suits, each with their own movesets, roles, and specialties strafing across arena shooter-style maps in bouts of neon-lit glory. What you might not have been able to glean from its energetic reveal trailer at The Game Awards, though, is that it’s actually a multiplayer-only experience. And with Titanfall on ice and Armored Core 6 burying its PvP behind a few chapters of its campaign, it’s cool to see a mech game on this scale fully commit to multiplayer.

Despite their hulking size, mechs in Mecha BREAK don’t feel like lumbering bots of mass destruction. Instead, they move with speed and grace. Strafing to dodge enemy fire just to get in close to hit them with a few melee attacks before parrying their counterattack with your shield and then finishing the job, feels much tighter than you’d expect. Hits land with the appropriate oomph, and each attack lights up the screen with bright colors. It’s clear Mecha BREAK understands that mechs are inherently cool and that a good mech game needs to transmit that coolness through the controller.

Of the three modes planned for Mecha BREAK’s launch, only two — a 3v3 and a 6v6 mode — were available in the closed alpha I played. Both focus on recognizable PvP structures that you might find in any standard multiplayer shooter with a handful of objectives to capture or play towards, and there’s a solid mix of different things happening here. That said, I hope developer-publisher Amazing Seasun makes them a bigger focus in the final version. Plopping objectives on maps about the size of a scaled-up Halo level makes for good chokepoints to encourage skirmishes, but these objectives don’t feel balanced. Momentum gets to be just a bit too intense here; a few of the matches I played ended far too quickly because my team captured and held every objective right at the beginning of the game which gave us the starting boost we needed to achieve an almost complete blowout.

Beyond the pacing of any individual match, these multiplayer bouts reminded me a lot of Halo.

Beyond the pacing of any individual match, these multiplayer bouts reminded me a lot of Halo. From the time to kill to the types and placements of the objectives to its tense melee showdowns and ranged standoffs – and even down to its map layouts – there’s an unmistakable Halo-like sensibility to the ebb and flow of these matches, and I mean that in the best way possible. I found myself fervently mashing the respawn button through the respawn timer just so I could get back into the action one frame sooner like I was 13 again.

I would like to note, however, that my experience with Mecha BREAK was pretty limited. While I can see the difference in playstyles between various mechs and have cycled through some of the unlockable options, I can’t exactly speak to their diversity in movesets or playstyles beyond their descriptions and their roles like “Attacker,” “Tank,” or “Brawler.” Progression here seems to be pretty well-designed around rewarding regular players through a battle pass-like system, though what I saw is certainly subject to change.

Developer Amazing Seasun hasn’t discussed this mysterious third mode too much, beyond describing it as a PvPvE experience that’s similar to a battle royale.

In addition to the hands-on time I had with Mecha BREAK, I also had the opportunity to talk with some of the developers at Amazing Seasun about their approach to designing a multiplayer game, their inspirations, and a handful of other features appearing in Mecha BREAK including its third mode, which wasn’t playable during the closed alpha period. Amazing Seasun hasn’t discussed this mysterious third mode too much, beyond describing it as a PvPvE experience that’s similar to a battle royale. They weren’t able to share much about this mode, spare some very vague details about fighting NPC mecha and enemy players to progress, but if you watch the game’s reveal trailer, you’ll see players fighting a giant boss-like mech.

I came away from the closed alpha and the interview for Mecha BREAK wanting more thanks to the fun, dazzling mech action at its core, but I also came away excited and curious to learn more about its third large-scale multiplayer mode. Here’s hoping we won’t have to wait long to see what it’s all about.

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CD Projekt Is Not Interested in Being Acquired

Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red is not interested in being acquired despite the likes of Xbox and PlayStation actively seeking out studios to purchase.

Adam Kiciński, chief strategy officer of parent company CD Projekt S.A., told Polish outlet Parkiet that the company is happy and healthy as an independent being.

"We are not interested in integrating ourselves into any larger entity," Kiciński said. "Throughout our entire lives we have worked towards the position we currently hold. We believe that in a few years, we will be even bigger and stronger."

CD Projekt Red is certainly getting bigger as an expansion into North America is currently underway. The aptly titled CD Projekt Red North America will include teams at an already established Vancouver studio plus a new Boston-based studio currently being built. These teams will work adjacent to the CD Projekt Red developers in Poland but will focus on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, codenamed Orion, instead of the next mainline Witcher game, codenamed Polaris.

Another studio owned by CD Projekt, perhaps indicating its desire to be an acquirer instead of an acquiree, is The Molasses Flood, which remains independent under the main company as it works on a multiplayer Witcher game codenamed Sirius.

The video game industry has seen somewhat of an acquisitions race take place between titans Xbox and PlayStation, though the former perhaps claimed a win for good when it completed its purchase of Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard in 2023.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

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Tuesday, January 2, 2024

GTA 5 Is Leaving Xbox Game Pass Soon

Just six months after its much-hyped return to Xbox Game Pass, Grand Theft Auto V is set to once again drive off into the sunset.

As spotted on Twitter and elsewhere, GTA 5 is among the games that will be leaving the subscription service soon. Other notable departures include Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable. Here's the full list of impending removals on console.

  • Grand Theft Auto V [Xbox Series X|S]
  • Grand Theft Auto V [Xbox One]
  • Persona 3 Portable
  • Persona 4 Golden
  • Garden Story
  • MotoGP 22

The games listed will be available until January 15, after which they'll be available for up to 20 percent off. Xbox will also be rotating in a new selection of games for subscribers.

GTA V has been in and out of Xbox Game Pass since its initial debut back in 2020. Its most recent stint came in July 2023, shortly before the service's price hike. Now a decade old, GTA V remains quite popular, with numerous content updates continuing to be released on all platforms.

In the meantime, work continues apace on GTA VI, which was officially revealed in a (leaked) trailer in late 2023. It's currently slated to release sometime in 2025.

Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

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Nintendo Legend Shigeru Miyamoto Isn't Retiring Anytime Soon

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto revealed he's not quite ready to call it a career at Nintendo just yet.

"More so than retiring, I’m thinking about the day I fall over,” Miyamoto told The Guardian. "In this day and age you have to think about things in a five-year timespan, so I do think about who I can pass things on to, in case something does happen."

"I’m really thankful that there is so much energy around things that I have worked on,'" he continued. "These are things that have already gone out into the world … they’ve been cultivated by others, other people have been raising them, helping them grow, so in that sense I don’t feel too much ownership over them any more.”

This has been a common refrain from Miyamoto, who previously said he wasn't ready to retire when we interviewed him on the occasion of Super Nintendo World opening in the U.S.

Although Miyamoto has been an integral figure at Nintendo since joining the company 45 years ago and creating mega-popular game series like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong, he's recently stepped back from his involvement in video game development. Instead, Miyamoto has set his sights on expanding Nintendo into different mediums like the Super Nintendo World theme park at Universal Studios or adapting its intellectual properties onto the silver screen with films like the Super Mario Bros. Movie and the upcoming Legend of Zelda live-action film.

"I don’t think of myself as a game designer. I’m about finding unique opportunities for Nintendo. The way things work here is that, more so than having a plan and following it, we come across certain things and from there, we try to find our own new path. The movies, the amusement parks, I’m excited to see what kind of organic things result from those," Miyamoto said.

I don’t think of myself as a game designer. I’m about finding unique opportunities for Nintendo.

"I’m still very new to [the movie] industry and I’m still learning, but I’m trying to read a lot of scripts these days and learn about how they are developed, to see how we can create uniquely Nintendo films."

Toward the end of the interview, Miyamoto jokingly said when he does retire from Nintendo, he hopes his illustrious resume won't be forgotten.

"There is a scene in Iron Man where the president goes to his own company and the guard man doesn’t let him in, and he points at the portrait and says: ‘That’s me!’” Miyamoto said. “But I really hope that the teams I work with, at least, remember me as the creator of these things!”

Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.

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The Sinking City Developer Frogwares Now Sole Publisher After Long Legal Battle

Frogwares has announced that it is the sole publisher of The Sinking City on all platforms. This comes after Frogwares’ lengthy legal battle with the game’s original PC publisher, Nacon.

The PC version will be updated on Steam, Epic Games, GOG, and Gamesplanet in the coming weeks. “This latest version will come with all the previous bug fixes and optimizations, as well as a few things to keep in mind for the existing owners of the game on Steam and Epic Games Store,” Frogwares explained.

Old saves won’t be compatible with the latest PC version of the game, although Steam users will have the option to continue playing the old version if they want to finish it. However, the old version will only stay around until February 28. Frogwares will also release new saves for players to download and use.

The Sinking City was pulled from some platforms back in 2020 due to disputes between Frogwares and Nacon. Frogwares alleged that Nacon breached its contract and withheld at least €1 million in royalties, falsely implying ownership of the IP, and more.

In 2021, the game reappeared on Steam. However, Frogwares urged players not to purchase it, alleging that it was a pirated version. Nacon responded that the allegations were unjustified and that Frogwares was sabotaging its own investments. Now it seems like the dispute is over, and Frogwares owns the game’s publishing rights.

In IGN’s The Sinking City review, we said, “While occasionally frustrating, The Sinking City's compelling stories, exciting environments, and memorable characters make for one of the better Cthulhu lore games around.”

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

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Nexon's Medieval Fantasy Brawler Warhaven Shutting Down 6 Months After Launching in Early Access

Nexon's medieval fantasy brawler Warhaven is shutting down on April 5, 2024, just six months after it launched on Steam in Early Access...