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Titanfall 2 Was Abandoned By EA, And Then Things Got Weird

Posted: 17 Sep 2021 09:00 AM PDT

The 32nd page of an exhaustive PDF document called "Operation Red Tape'' is christened with the headline, "Discussing throwing 'leads' about Jeanue to an IGN journalist." It was uploaded by the team behind the website SaveTitanfall.com on August 6 as the definitive conclusion on one of the strangest stories in video games. Who was killing Titanfall? Who is Jeanue? Why hasn't Respawn done anything to stop it? I had been trying to answer those questions for months. Now, it appeared that all of my work had been capsized.

"Should throw him the original leads about jean," read the screenshot of a Discord transcript, just below that brutal headline. I felt a twinge in the bottom of my stomach. The "him" here apparently referred to me. Had I really been hoodwinked this badly? Was I trusting the wrong people?

"Would be nice at the very least to get the people who still think that's his real identity to shut up kek," reads the screenshot.

I closed my laptop, delirious, confused, and wounded. The story had been blown to smithereens, and if the report was to be believed, multiple sources were taking me for a ride. All that was left was a slew of exasperating unknowables, but after spending my summer in the strange waters of Titanfall fandom, none of that was a surprise.

Let's wind the timeline back to the very beginning. Titanfall 2 was released in 2016 to glowing reviews. The game never quite crested the heights of other multiplayer shooters, but it established itself as something of an underground classic; frequently endorsed by both FPS scholars, and a devout, fervent fanbase. But hopes that Respawn would continue to cultivate the Titanfall franchise started to wane with the insurgent success of Apex Legends in 2018, and today, the game receives limited, skeletal support from the developer. This is often a recipe for disaster — Team Fortress 2 has been infamously overrun by bots as Valve has stepped away from active development — and unfortunately, the same fate came for Titanfall.

So, in early 2021, reports started to proliferate about a hacker, or a team of hackers, who had made it their mission to sabotage Titanfall 2. The game's small, dedicated streaming community suffered from frequent DDOS attacks, usually from the moment they loaded into a match. The alleged culprit? A figure known only as "Jeanue."

Much is unknown about Jeanue, but there are a few things that most everyone agreed upon. Jeanue had managed to secure unprecedented control over the Titanfall multiplayer apparatus — utilizing something the community refers to as the "Blacklist." When Jeanue added your name to the "Blacklist," you would be automatically disconnected from any Titanfall 2 match you attempted to join, rendering the game effectively unplayable. Oftentimes Jeanue would appear in the Twitch chat of his targets, bragging about another successful hack with a smattering of awful, toxic language. The motivations were ambiguous. Was Jeanue looking for internet stardom? Did they get off on the power? Did they carry some bizarre vendetta against Titanfall as a brand? These are the questions that the community has continued to ask itself, hoping for an answer.

"I've had a bunch of conversations with this person through Twitch messages. We ask like, 'Why are you doing this?' and they say a bunch of racist and homophobic things that I'm not going to repeat," says MoDen31, a Titanfall streamer who's had repeated contact with Jeanue. "I don't know if it's infamy or notoriety. I genuinely wonder if they just hate the game. It feels like I'm talking to someone from the movie Split. They're just very strange conversations. None of it is coherent."

The hacking tools that Jeanue used seem to have profound, mind-boggling reach, able to DDOS players with impunity. Streamers would attempt to circumvent the Blacklist by switching accounts, or running their games through a VPN, all to no avail. Mechanically speaking, every attack seemed to unfold the same way: Players would queue up for a Titanfall 2 match, the countdown on screen would reach zero, and the combatants would burst through the spawn point. Suddenly, the screen would hitch up; titans and pilots alike would be stuck in stasis. An error message would pop up reading, "ReadPacketEntries: Failed," and the denizens of the match would be kicked back out to the lobby. Whatever Jeanue was doing, they could manipulate the very fabric of Titanfall 2's matchmaking infrastructure. That's why the indiscretions were so disconcerting. This seemed to be more than a routine breach.

"The issues they've exploited are deeply baked into the game," adds MoDen31. "It's not like a DDOS in Halo 2 where you get some lag."

I started to dig around this story in the spring, and secured an invitation to a Discord channel populated exclusively by Titanfall content creators who were doggedly gathering evidence about the hacks. The amount of details they had collected was awe-inspiring. There was a database that documented all of the sobriquets that Jeanue had used on Twitch, another for their names on EA Origin. There was a landing page called "Latest Reports," where the contingent shared screenshots of their Twitch logs whenever Jeanue appeared in them. Grimmest of all was a section dedicated to official missives from Respawn, who hadn't been able to root out the hacker running roughshod over what was once their most popular game. On April 5, 2021, Respawn tweeted that the company "is aware of DDOS attacks afflicting" Titanfall 2, and that "help is on the way." That help failed to manifest, and Jeanue kept up the assault.

It was on that server where I first met a Polish Titanfall fan who plays under the name p0358, or more colloquially, "p0." He seemed young, maybe about 21 or 22, and he introduced himself to me as a white-hat hacker — someone who was working tirelessly to uncover the precise amalgam of exploits Jeanue was using to disrupt the game. All of that blood, sweat and tears made him a minor celebrity within the community. I've seen p0 consecrated in memes before, and he penned an in-depth Medium post about Titanfall server exploits that went briefly viral.

So, on June 15, p0 pulled me into a group call alongside a handful of his comrades, where he presented a wild origin story about Jeanue's radicalization. Supposedly, claimed p0, Jeanue was active in the Titanfall scene for years and wasn't very good. This led to them experimenting with some minor cheat bots — speed boosts, aim-assists, things of that nature — but Jeanue still couldn't succeed in the deathmatches. "They were getting owned by the good players despite cheating, and that was pretty funny to watch," said p0. "Then they slowly started to discover more vulnerabilities."

Yes, that was the alleged modus operandi, the Jokerfication, of Jeanue — nothing more than an intense dislike of the Titanfall franchise, which caused them to push deeper and deeper into murky exploits until they were mighty enough to operate a Blacklist under Respawn's noses. One of the users in the call dropped in a few videos from 2018 of a Titan zooming around a multiplayer map. This was allegedly Jeanue in their nascent form, well before they had grown truly infamous.

I had my misgivings about all this. The idea that someone made it their life's mission to grief Titanfall players solely because they didn't like their K/D ratio was difficult to imagine, and I had no reason to believe that the videos I was shown actually featured Jeanue. (I mean, there are plenty of people out there who can download a speedhack, right?) Mostly though, I was struck by how strident p0 was in his belief that he could fix the exploits in an instant — if only the powers that be at Respawn would seek out his expertise.

"Respawn is incompetent. They removed a lot of the protections from the software engine. Most of this stuff is really easy to fix and incredibly easy to exploit," he told me. Later he added, "I made a Twitter reply to Respawn saying that I knew a lot about this stuff, and they could contact me and I could help. Many people gave likes and retweets. Someone from Respawn reached out to me, I told them that I knew the game really well, and they left me on read." This attitude is also present in his Medium treatise, which contains the headline, "How to fix Titanfall. A guide for Respawn."

But there was a more convincing piece of evidence I received from p0's camp – a dense, deeply reported dossier, all of which painted a believable narrative about Jeanue's identity. The information in that document remains unconfirmed, so I will not be revealing its specifics here but, through some intensive internet spelunking, the members of that group call were left to believe that "Jeanue" was a man operating by himself in the southern United States — avouched by a series of uncanny matches in metadata.

Armed with a name and location, I tried to call the suspect on his phone a number of times to no avail. If I could just get him to talk, I thought, maybe we could finally arrive at some closure for this very, very strange saga. With no help from the alleged hacker, I went to the hackee – I reached out to EA directly, and the company passed along a list of questions to Respawn that I hoped would clarify exactly what was going on with Titanfall. Those answers never materialized, and I found myself quickly running out of leads.

Armed with a name and location, I tried to call the suspect on his phone a number of times to no avail. If I could just get him to talk, I thought, maybe we could finally arrive at some closure for this very, very strange saga.

That brings us up to August, where I was laying in bed, reading Operation Red Tape, which contended that p0358 and his accomplices were much more involved in the Titanfall sabotage than they were letting on. In fact, the document claimed that his camp was misleading everyone, and I too had been caught in their snare.

Operation Red Tape

The narrative presented in Operation Red Tape is immense and arcane; if you want an in-depth summary of the findings, I recommend watching Upper Echelon Gamers' coverage on YouTube, who has been chasing down this story from the start. But I'll sum up its thesis the best I can. On July 4, Apex Legends — Respawn's new marquee shooter — was hacked. Players couldn't get into a match, and were instead greeted by a message that included a link to the URL, "SaveTitanfall.com," a website that advocates for better custodial management around its namesake game. It appeared to be an odd bit of wildcat activism.

The owners of SaveTitanfall denied responsibility for the breach, as did a Discord administrator named RedShield, who operates a popular Titanfall-centric server called the TF Remnant Fleet alongside p0. Given Apex Legends' popularity, the hack caused an uproar, and suddenly the debilitated state of old, forgotten Titanfall 2 was international news across the gaming press.

Still with me? Great. Operation Red Tape appeared to blow the lid off those denials. It contained screenshots that seem to show that RedShield was lying about his involvement. He, and a small cabal of hackers, were apparently preparing the Apex Legends security breach for months. Here's the money quote in the document, from February 6: "Perhaps we don't hold Titanfall 2/Apex ransom, instead we do it as a publicity stunt," wrote RedShield. "We lockdown the servers for 48 hours to raise awareness of the issue."

On July 3, a day before the attack, one of RedShield's alleged associates wrote, "Are you ready for operation SaveTitanfall.com?"

This is important because within the Operation Red Tape archive, there is evidence that an associate of RedShield launched a DDOS attack against a Titanfall 2 streamer in a way that looks consistent with Jeanue's manner of working. We'd spent months trying to identify a hacker who seemed to wield outsized power over Respawn servers. Maybe the call was coming from inside the house?

RedShield was interviewed about these attacks by a wide variety of publications — including IGN — and he used the platform he received from the controversy to petition EA to hand over the original Titanfall's source code so it could be cultivated by the community's own hand. Why? Well, the report claims that RedShield, along with p0 and others, have been attempting to revive a whole other game – the cancelled, little-known free-to-play Titanfall Online – for their own means. This brought me back to my first conversation with p0, where he mentioned that he had an upcoming project involving Titanfall Online that was "secret for now."

The narrative presented by Red Tape metastasized across the gaming press. Had we finally answered the Jeanue mystery? Could we lay everything at the feet of a group of hackers launching a fabulously successful false flag campaign to… drive players into an ancient version of Titanfall 1? There was no true smoking gun in the files, but the circumstances were certainly conspicuous and couldn't be ignored. What was I to make of that Jeanue dossier, which originated from these same implicated characters? I kept reading one screenshot aloud, the one I mentioned at the top of the story about "throwing leads about jean" to an IGN journalist: "Would be nice at the very least to get the people who still think that's his real identity to shut up kek."

Someone owed me an explanation and, luckily, p0 picked up on the first ring.

His voice was wavering from the second he started talking. I almost felt bad for him. Here was a talented hacker who was always so cocksure about his abilities — who was openly promoting himself for a job at Respawn — now firmly on the defensive. From the moment we first encountered each other, I always suspected p0 was likely just some kid who'd bitten off way more than he could chew. Now, that reality seemed perfectly clear.

"The SaveTitanfall team betrayed us. They stabbed us in our back. They're saying that I'm Jeanue, that I attacked Titanfall. It's false," says p0, digging his heels in from the second we connected on a Discord call. "And it hurts that they did this because I've done the most to fix the game. All they did was whine on social media. I was reverse engineering this game trying to find solutions."

He defended himself on all fronts. That "jean" mentioned in the screenshot? That's not in reference to Jeanue, says p0, that's about a "Jean Onion" who was apparently active on some Titanfall Facebook group. The image that seems to show a streamer getting knocked offline by a RedShield associate? That was probably a test to figure out how Jeanue uses their exploits — nothing malicious, you must know thy enemy.

I wasn't sure what to believe. It seemed pretty likely that RedShield, and quite possibly p0, were involved in the Apex Legends hack (though he categorically denies it), but I wasn't convinced that they were the ones tormenting Titanfall 2 streamers for months. Jeanue possessed a single-mindedness that couldn't be easily replicated, and I frankly didn't trust a handful of ambitious kids to construct a misdirection crusade that was so disciplined and robust. I mulled over the facts, more confused than ever. Naturally, like clockwork, another twist in the narrative surfaced a few days later, as the veracity of Operation Red Tape was thrown into question.

Not even a week after the document was posted on SaveTitanfall.com, Upper Echelon Gamers obtained Discord transcripts that appear to show one of the perpetrators of the Apex Legends hack, named Dogecore, in collaborative communication with an author of the document, named Wanty. In the transcript, Dogecore appears to ask Wanty if he'd like him to change the message left on the Apex servers by the hackers to something more specific. These messages were sent on July 4, the same day as the breach, and a month before Red Tape was made public.

"Pointing to SaveTitanfall is a good thing though," replies Wanty, again referring to the calling card left by those who broke into Apex Legends. "We get all the attention in one place."

This disclosure totally disrupted the narrative. If the voices behind Red Tape, a document which aims to lay the tumult in the Titanfall community at the feet of a handful of duplicitous hackers, are also in active partnership with those same hackers then, well… then nobody knows what to believe anymore. Maybe p0 is right. Maybe he did get railroaded.

Whatever the case, the servers went quiet for a few weeks after all of this uproar. Titanfall 2 was miraculously playable again. The Blacklist was down; Jeanue was nowhere to be seen. Everything was back to normal. For one shining moment, it really didn't matter who was behind the attacks, because all of that laid in the past. But of course it couldn't last.

As of press time, players are again reporting sporadic DDOS attacks, although "Jeanue" — whatever that name actually means — hasn't shown up in any Twitch channels to gloat. After all of the twists and turns, the double-crossings and triple-crossings, we are somehow back at square one. It's honestly anticlimactic. All anyone wants is to play Titanfall 2 in peace. Why can't it be that simple?

Unfortunately, this is the inevitability when video game communities are left to their own devices, without active management, support, or curation from a caring group of developers. The servers quickly deteriorate into this bizarre wild west, full of very different kinds of black hats and white hats, and where only the hackers wield true power. In another timeline, where Titanfall 2 remained a top priority for EA and Respawn, all of these bad actors would've likely been ousted from the jump. But unfortunately that is not the video game industry we have. The servers of ancient multiplayer servers wither and rot with each passing year, providing cover for a nation of grifters, scammers, and malcontents. Everyone else is caught in the crossfire.

Luke Winkie is a contributing writer to IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @luke_winkie.

Sonic Co-Creator Has Gone Indie After Balan Wonderworld

Posted: 17 Sep 2021 07:29 AM PDT

Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka has taken a move towards the realm of indie games following this year's disappointing release of Balan Wonderworld.

As translated by VGC, Naka, who turns 56 today (September 17), tweeted thanking fans for their birthday wishes before going on to announce that he's working on a small indie mobile game developed using Unity.

"I've recently started learning how to program again, and I'm working on a simple game for smartphones with Unity," said Naka. "I'm making it by myself, so it's not much, but I'm enjoying programming it. I hope you'll be able to play with the app when it's available."

In April this year, Naka left his position at Square Enix shortly after the studio's dissatisfying release of Balan Wonderworld. The game, which Naka himself worked as the director on, received an overwhelmingly negative response from critics and fans. Naka had previously told IGN that the game was his "one chance" to make a platformer for the publisher.

Upon the title's release, IGN reviewed Balan Wonderworld upon its release and granted it a lowly 4/10. In our verdict for the game, we said that its "half-baked platforming and ill-advised one-button design" unfortunately led to it "being a complete bore".

In June, Naka told fans that he couldn't currently talk about the reasons behind his departure from Square Enix despite also adding that he one day hopes to be able to. The famed Sonic producer also noted at the time that at 55 years of age, he was considering retirement. It remains unclear if Naka's departure was his decision or Square Enix's.

While little else is known about the Unity-based mobile project that Naka is currently working on, fans will be hoping that it provides the programmer with an opportunity to put Square Enix's release of Balan Wonderworld behind him.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

IGN UK Podcast #610: Deathloops and Toffee Hoops

Posted: 17 Sep 2021 07:16 AM PDT

Cardy, Matt and Emma are here to talk about the delight that is Deathloop. We also have impressions of the Call of Duty Vanguard beta which Emma has been playing, a lovely photo puzzle game called TOEM which Cardy enjoyed, and Matt's journey through the psychedelic rock coming of age tale, The Artful Escape.

Want to submit your own Endless Search, food opinion, or a bit of other nonsense? Feel free to get in touch with the podcast at: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast #610: Deathloops and Toffee Hoops

Splitgate Devs Say Their Game Will Have Forge Mode Before Halo Infinite

Posted: 17 Sep 2021 04:57 AM PDT

1047 Games says that its popular first-person portal-based shooter Splitgate will incorporate a take on Forge mode before Halo Infinite.

In response to a tweet from @KFCGaming asking its community to "trigger an entire gaming fanbase with one sentence," the official Splitgate account responded by announcing, "Splitgate will have a forge mode before Halo Infinite."

Originally released in Halo 3, Forge is a mode designed by Bungie that allows players to edit, customize and share maps within the Halo community. Due to its popularity, Forge has become a regular addition to Halo games with the mode being added to subsequent releases within the franchise in Halo Reach, Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians, and 343 Industries' upcoming installment: Halo Infinite.

Last month, 343 announced that it was delaying the launch of campaign co-op and Forge within Halo Infinite until after launch as it continued to focus on getting the single-player campaign and multiplayer done in time for its launch date. Forge is currently expected to release in Halo Infinite during its third season. With each season set to ship in three-month windows, 1047 Games' own announcement would likely mean that a mode for Splitgate would debut sometime before mid-2022.

In a subsequent tweet in the thread, 1047 Games explained that a its own mode for Splitgate likely wouldn't use the name Forge, but would still allow players to edit maps within the shooter. The developer explained how this might look in Splitgate by saying, "Imagine placing portal pads anywhere you wanted on Olympus."

In other Splitgate news, 1047 Games recently shared more information about its long-term goals following a funding campaign for the studio that raised over $100 million. The company said that while it is still focusing on Splitgate at the moment and for the immediate future, it will look to offer new takes on game genres it believes have become stale in the future.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN who would very much enjoy toying around with a Splitgate map editor. You can follow him on Twitter.

GameCube Turns 20 and Bluetooth Comes to Switch - NVC 578

Posted: 16 Sep 2021 03:30 PM PDT

Welcoooome to Nintendo Voice Chat! This week, Super Ninfriendo Seth Macy takes a spin in the hosting chair, and he's joined by Brian Altano, Rebekah Valentine, and Kat Bailey to chat all things Nintendo. After four and a half long years, Bluetooth support is finally on Switch. But is it any good? Plus, the GameCube just turned 20 years old, and the panel discusses their favorite memories with Nintendo's little purple box.

NVC is available on your preferred platforms!

You can also Download NVC 578 Directly Here

You can listen to NVC on your preferred platform every Thursday at 3pm PT/6pm ET. Have a question for Question Block? Write to us at nvc@ign.com and we may pick your question! Also, make sure to join the Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast Forums on Facebook. We're all pretty active there and often pull Question Block questions and comments straight from the community.

Logan Plant is the Production Assistant for NVC. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

Tales of Arise Has Already Hit An Impressive Sales Milestone

Posted: 16 Sep 2021 03:16 PM PDT

Tales of Arise has already hit an impressive sales milestone less than a week after release. Bandai Namco announced today that in just "a few days after release," the latest release in the long-running Tales series, Tales of Arise, surpassed 1 million units sold worldwide. This makes it the fastest-selling title in the franchise.

Tales of Arise's 1 million units sold brings the total series' units sold up to a very respectable 25 million.

"We are very proud and humbled to see fans and newcomers reception playing Tales of Arise," producer Yusuke Tomizawa said. "Our goal with this title was to open the franchise to as many players as possible while maintaining the Tales of DNA and uniqueness that has allowed the franchise to stay strong for more than 25 years. We would like to thank players for their support."

Opening up the franchise to as many players as possible came by way of essentially a Tales reboot. In an interview with IGN, Tomizawa said Tales of Arise is "both a reboot in a sense that we want former Tales fans to come back to this game, as well as attract new players with these stunning new graphics, visuals, the aesthetics, and all that good stuff."

If you haven't yet picked up Tales of Arise and are planning to, check out IGN's guide for what comes in each edition of the game. If you're unsure of whether or not you're going to pick it up, read our thoughts on the game to find out why we gave it a 9 out of 10 in IGN's Tales of Arise review.

Watch this Tales of Arise trailer for another look at the game after that.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

The Last Campfire, From the Creators of No Man's Sky, Has a Steam Release Date

Posted: 16 Sep 2021 02:41 PM PDT

Hello Games, the creators of No Man's Sky, has revealed that The Last Campfire is coming to Steam next month.

More specifically, the cozy puzzle game will hit Steam on October 7. If you're unsure if The Last Campfire is for you, Hello Games is releasing a playable demo for the game on October 1 as part of the Steam Next Fest.

"The Last Campfire was a labour of love for a small team at the studio," a press release about the announcement reads. "We've been lucky to have really lovely reviews across the board, and a bunch of awards and nominations. It seems to have struck an emotional chord with people as well. Now, we're finally bringing it to Steam."

The Last Campfire is already available on Switch, Apple Arcade, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Epic Games Store and it's been available on those platforms since last year. With it having been released on the Epic Games Store last year, this Steam release isn't the first time PC players will get a chance to play the game.

It is the first chance for those who prefer to use Steam when playing PC games, however. The Last Campfire is better than it's ever been, too, thanks to a new update in April that brought a ton of new things with it. For starters, it added 20% more puzzles to the game as well as the ability to replay any puzzle at any time.

It also brought a host of performance improvements, a higher framerate cap, several quality-of-life improvements, and controller and Mac support.

The Last Campfire was developed by a three-person team within Hello Games, which makes sense considering the studio's No Man's Sky is still regularly receiving updates. It's a puzzle game about a lost ember trapped in an unknown place working to find a way home.

We reviewed The Last Campfire earlier this year, giving it a 9 out of 10, and you can read our full thoughts on the game in IGN's The Last Campfire review. Check out this story about how Hello Games is working on a "huge, ambitious" new game after that.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary Edition Review

Posted: 16 Sep 2021 01:44 PM PDT

The original Ticket to Ride famously helped usher in the board game renaissance of the early 2000s -- a glorious and fruitful period that's still going strong. (Trust me, kids, there was a time when board game options were limited to ancient standbys like Monopoly and Life; those years were boring).

Ticket to Ride: Europe was an early followup that shifted the setting overseas and introduced a few smart tweaks to the gameplay. Now that this standalone offshoot is turning 15 years old, publisher Days of Wonder has released Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary Edition, a complete, oversized, and utterly gorgeous new version of the game. And you know what? Turns out this strategy game is still as fun and satisfying as it ever was.

While there's nothing new here in terms of content, Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary Edition represents the definitive version of this game. It includes everything that came with the original, plus all of the expansions. But each physical piece -- the board, cards, train pieces, etc. -- has gotten a thoughtful, high-quality upgrade. This edition is a sight to behold.

The board itself is huge -- it's basically the size of a bath towel. It measures 38 by 25.5 inches, and it takes up the lion's share of my kitchen table. It looks phenomenal. While the routes remain the same as the original version, the art is all new, with vibrant colors and much more topographical detail. The board itself is made of thick, high-quality material. I have no worries about accidentally ripping as I fold or unfold it.

This edition is a sight to behold.

Great as that is, though, such titanic dimensions come with a few downsides. The board so big you can't easily (or at all) reach items on the far side of it. During my play sessions, everyone was constantly asking each other to place train pieces for them or draw cards. This wasn't a big problem, but it's worth taking into consideration, particularly if your tabletop gaming space is limited.

The board isn't the only upgraded piece of hardware in Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary Edition. The destination cards are also more colorful, and all of the cards sport more detailed art. Also, the train pieces and train stations are significantly more intricate. Each train color is fully distinct now, illustrating what type of cargo it carries. Brown trains haul logs, for instance, while blue trains carry those newfangled things called automobiles. Each train set is housed in its own great-looking tin.

As for the game itself, it remains unchanged. The board is a map of Europe at the dawn of the 20th century. All of the cities -- bearing names from their native era and languages, which isn't ideal as it can make them hard to find -- are connected by various train routes. Your primary job is to claim these routes as your own, based on the destination ticket cards you draw.

This might not sound like a blast, but it really is, in practice. The rules don't take long to learn, and you'll discover new strategies as you play. It's an extremely well balanced game that rewards smart, strategic play. If you've played any version of Ticket to Ride, you'll know basically what to expect.

Basically, if you're looking for the premier version of Ticket to Ride: Europe, this is it. Each piece looks and feels phenomenal in its own right. When you're playing, everything comes together nicely. If you have the space and can afford the premium price, this edition is an easy recommendation.

Where to Buy It

Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary Edition retails for $99.99, but can often be found for less at various retailers.

New PS5 Has No Performance Difference With Launch Model

Posted: 16 Sep 2021 01:38 PM PDT

There's a new model of the PlayStation 5 in production, but reports say the revised model doesn't have better performance than the launch version.

According to Digital Foundry, who has had a chance to test the machine, the new CFI-1100 model has no meaningful differences with the CFI-1000, which was the launch edition.

Sony made some changes to the cooling system in the new PS5, which had some people concerned that the new system might overheat. But in Digital Foundry's tests, the new system leads to cooler temperatures in some cases, and hotter in others, but it's always only a few degrees different. And, in all of the tests running software on the two versions of the PS5, the systems performed basically identically.

From a hardware perspective, the system is about 300 grams lighter than the launch model, with the same dimensions. It also makes a small improvement to the stand, making it easier to attach by hand without the need for a screwdriver or coin to screw it in.

So, in the most basic of terms, if you're worried the new PS5 has already made your launch model obsolete, or you're concerned the changes to the heatsink make the new PS5 worse, there appears to be no need to worry. The biggest concern with PS5 hardware is still managing to get your hands on it at all.

Elsewhere, the PS5 just got a major software update, allowing users to finally expand their console's internal storage.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
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