IGN Video Games

IGN Video Games

Call of Duty Cheaters Will Now Be Unable to See Other Players – But Other Players Can See Them

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 01:14 PM PDT

Get ready to hear from a lot of confused and angry cheaters.

Activision's Team RICOCHET has unveiled several new ways they're working against cheaters in a new blog post, including a rollout for the PC kernel-level anti-cheat driver for Call of Duty: Vanguard. The update will release across both Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone in an effort to curb players who cheat in the popular first-person shooter.

In the past, they have enacted a number of in-game mitigation techniques to help identify cheaters. Not only do these help identify their behaviors by collecting their data but it also employs ways that impede their ability to properly play the game. Today, the newest technique called cloaking has been unveiled, and it heavily affects their gameplay ability.

Cloaking stops cheating players from seeing opposing players in the game world.

"Characters, bullets, even sound from legitimate players will be undetectable to cheaters" the blog post details. On the flip side? Legitimate players can see the cheaters as they succumb to the madness of not being able to see anything going on around them."

Activision has also recognized how cheating may be impacting leaderboards across the globe in Vanguard. Going forward, if a ban is enacted against a player who has weaseled their way onto the leaderboards, their entry on the board will be deleted. This will give more room for players who play fairly.

Be sure to check out the trailer for Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone Season Three Battle Pass to see which two iconic beasts it features.

Casey David Muir-Taylor is a freelance writer at IGN.

MTG: What's in Beadle & Grimm's Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Platinum Edition

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 10:08 AM PDT

Those on Both PS Plus and PS Now Will Get Premium Upgrade Equal to Their Longest Subscription

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 09:44 AM PDT

PlayStation users who currently have both a PS Now and PS Plus membership will be getting upgraded to the new PlayStation Plus Premium Tier when it launches this year. The length of the upgrade will be equal to the longest subscription owned.

As reported by PushSquare, this means if you've got both subscriptions, and you've stacked your PS Plus for a number of years, you're going to end up with a seemingly good deal.

This was confirmed within a new PS Plus FAQ section which states: "If you are subscribed to both services [PS Now, PS Plus] when the new PlayStation Plus launches, you will be migrated into the PlayStation Plus Premium membership plan and you will have a new single payment date based on the longer of your two subscriptions."

So, for example, if you have PS Now subscribed up until August 2022 and an active PS Plus membership until September 2025 - that means you'll be upgraded to PS Plus premium until September 2025 (or vice versa).

It was also previously confirmed that anyone with a PS Now subscription would be upgraded to PS Plus Premium at no extra cost, with a 1:1 conversion ratio on any subscription time you had left.

It wasn't long before PlayStation users quickly began to take advantage of this, stacking PS Now subscriptions for several years in order to get the most out of the conversion. But, this loophole was quickly shut down.

PS Plus Premium is the highest tier in the revamp of the PlayStation subscription service, and aims to have more than 700 games for streaming or download (including streaming on PC). It will launch in the US and Europe in June, with an earlier launch in Asia (excluding Japan) in May.

Game demos are also going to be a big part of PS Plus Premium, with developers now reportedly required to create timed game demos for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers.

Correction: IGN has received a report that Sony has temporarily disabled the ability to redeem PS Plus codes bought from online retailers. While we investigate further, we have removed any affiliate links related to PS Plus. Sony has been contacted for comment.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Disney Dreamlight Valley, a Free-to-Play Disney Life Sim Adventure, Revealed for PC and Consoles

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 09:00 AM PDT

Disney fans, buckle up. Today, Gameloft has unveiled an upcoming new Disney and Pixar gaming project, a life-sim adventure game called Disney Dreamlight Valley. It's coming to PC and consoles in 2023.

Disney Dreamlight Valley takes place in the titular Dreamlight Valley, where a bevvy of Disney and Pixar characters have lost their memories after a mysterious event called The Forgetting that left their village full of strange plants called Night Thorns. Players will customize their own character, build friendships with the townspeople, and help them recover their lost memories.

Alongside interacting with the Disney villagers, players will also get to customize their own homes and towns in a number of Disney-themed locales, and can follow Disney stories and minigames with characters like Goofy, Ariel, Mickey, Simba, Moana, Remy, and more. There's fishing and cooking activities too, and lots of outfits to customize characters with inspired by various Disney properties.

Disney Dreamlight Valley is being developed by Gameloft, and is set for release in 2023 as a free-to-play experience for Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, and PC and Mac via Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store, and the App Store. An early access release is planned this summer and will be made available to those who purchase a Founder's Pack, or any Xbox Game pass members.

We got an early look at Disney Dreamlight Valley, and are already optimistic about the level of customization available, replayability, the fairly non-aggressive monetization, and the future potential for more and more Disney characters and worlds to make their appearance.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Is a Lot More Than Just a Remaster

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 09:00 AM PDT

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe releases today, and while it presents itself largely as a remaster and console port with some new content added in as well, returning players may be surprised to find a lot more than that last point lets on.

First, a great big SPOILER WARNING!

This article is about to dive into the details of exactly what that means. You can read my review for a less spoiler-y look at what Ultra Deluxe offers, but turn back now if you don't want to know the scope of its new content and how it is presented to you.

Still here? Okay, let's get into it.

Ultra Deluxe opens by asking if you've played the original already, the entirety of which is still available within this game. However, there's also pretty much enough new content to rival the size of the base game all its own, including a long section where the narrator details the theoretical features of The Stanley Parable 2 – a bit that eventually results in them deciding to fold that sequel into the original, making the title screen and menus of Ultra Deluxe now say "The Stanley Parable 2" for seemingly the rest of the time you play.

That means this is sort of a hidden sequel, though the bulk of the new content still seems to be remixes or alterations to the original paths and endings of The Stanley Parable. There are lots of entirely new sections too, but Ultra Deluxe hasn't necessarily been built to be a standalone game in the way its transformation into "The Stanley Parable 2" might imply.

To go any deeper would sort of be ruining the joke itself. Much of the new content satirizes sequels, DLC, and game updates, and it pokes fun directly at itself and the act of trying to follow up a critical success like The Stanley Parable. There's no point in trying to define exactly what that makes Ultra Deluxe, but it's certainly far larger in scope than that title might imply to many.

Tom Marks Is the Deputy Reviews Editor for IGN.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Review

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 09:00 AM PDT

Plenty has already been said about why 2013's The Stanley Parable is so phenomenal – so much, in fact, that one section of 2022's The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is a literal shrine to all of the praise and accolades that have been deservedly heaped upon it. To prattle on further about how it cleverly messes with your own video game expectations or how it dissects the choices games often give us would only belabor long-since made points (not to mention risk my own words showing up in the inevitable 2031 re-rerelease). But then again, there I go doing exactly that, because despite those points having already been well made both about and by The Stanley Parable, they still ring as true as ever – and Ultra Deluxe's new content proves it has plenty more worth saying, at a scale that goes far beyond a simple remaster.

Before we get too deep, a quick spoiler warning: The Stanley Parable is a hard game to talk about because so much of its charm and delight comes from discovering its surprises for yourself. I am going to do my best not to ruin that experience while I tell you why it's one worth having, but I will be talking about some of what already made the base game stand out, as well as the general scope and structure of how Ultra Deluxe builds upon it. So while I'll avoid ruining the specifics of any jokes or endings, my real recommendation is that you should stop reading here, play it totally fresh, and then come back and see how your own thoughts compare to mine. But if you need a little more to go on before making that leap, read on.

The Stanley Parable is a surreal adventure game at its heart. You play Stanley, wandering the halls of his office as a narrator (brilliantly voiced by Kevan Brighting) instructs you on where to go. Of course, the now thoroughly interrogated gag here is that you don't have to listen to him at all. The office is a labyrinth of paths to choose from or stumble upon, each choice sending you further down its branching tree of hilarious stories and toward one of its countless endings. Every journey is full of jokes that had me genuinely laughing out loud (even years after the first time I saw them) framed within a constantly winking satire of the way games are traditionally supposed to behave – be that mundane things like getting to ignore the "correct" path, or more elaborate examples like a reset not always setting the metaphorical sliders back to zero.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe may bill itself as a long-awaited console port with some nicely improved lighting and a bit of new content, but that last part is, shall we say, severely understated. When you first start it up, Ultra Deluxe asks if you've played the original before, and developer Crows Crows Crows stressed to me that it's important to answer this question honestly. Ultra Deluxe contains the entirety of The Stanley Parable, and if you haven't played that then it's one of the easiest recommendations I'll ever make – but if you have, this rerelease offers far more than a literal trip into The Memory Zone.

Ultra Deluxe's new content feels comparable to the original in size and scope.

Given how many secret paths and hidden endings The Stanley Parable contains, it's hard to tell exactly how big the new content in Ultra Deluxe really is, but I feel confident saying it's comparable to the original with four to six hours of stuff to see at the very least. There is essentially an entirely new game to play through here, and the idea that it's being presented as anything less is probably one of its best gags. Some of Ultra Deluxe's content takes place in brand-new areas that pretty much feel like a straight up sequel, while other additions play out as remixed or altered versions of Stanley's usual paths through the office. (I don't know for sure, but I assume the question about whether you've played before determines how early this new content will pop up, as things start off entirely unassuming.)

While The Stanley Parable pokes fun at games as a whole, it seems only right that Ultra Deluxe shifts its gaze toward the concept of sequels, expansions, and DLC – as well as some pointed self reflection about both the original game and its wider reception. I don't want to get into the specifics, but the new writing is no less clever, insightful, or funny than the old, and the way it all meshes together is a pretty brilliant take on an extremely difficult task. Framing everything this way, as new content for an existing game rather than the standalone thing it likely could have been if Crows Crows Crows really wanted to, allows Ultra Deluxe to make many points about the relationship between modern games and their updates more effectively, which was a real treat.

At the same time, Ultra Deluxe's new stuff didn't always land quite as well for me. It's all extremely entertaining, but one of the drawbacks of housing this pseudo-sequel within the original is the feeling that we've seen many of these magic tricks before. It's not that they don't hold up or aren't still impressive, and it's not that there aren't plenty of new ones which delighted me all their own – but even if the well hasn't run dry, it's hard to shake the feeling that we are ultimately revisiting it (something Ultra Deluxe even enjoyably teases itself for). Because of that, some of the new and remixed paths alike initially felt like slightly more passive experiences than the base game's – but upon reflection I'm not sure if that's actually true or if their impact was just blunted slightly by the fact that I better knew what to expect nine years later.

Disney Dreamlight Valley Is a Life-Simulator that Puts You in the Disney and Pixar Universe

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 09:00 AM PDT

For Disney fans who've always wondered what it would be like to live in a Disney or Pixar movie, Disney Dreamlight Valley might be the closest real-life version of that experience. Dreamlight Valley is a free-to-play game that lets you play as yourself and live in a fully customizable Disney…uh, World! The main story campaign will allow you to bring in characters from Disney and Pixar movies and have them live in your town, which will enhance the life-simulation aspect of the game.

Disney Dreamlight Valley's Game Manager Manea Castet gave me a tour of the gameplay as well as the customization menus the game has to offer. What I witnessed was a very personal life-simulator/adventure hybrid game magically unfold before my very eyes. (*Cue "When You Wish Upon a Star"*)

What's the adventure in Dreamlight Valley?

Disney Dreamlight Valley might seem like a cute life-sim on the surface, but the start of the game is actually a mysterious adventure that has you rescue the valley from darkness – which later becomes the beautiful life-simulator you see in the trailer. In the beginning you meet up with Merlin from The Sword in the Stone, and he's hoping you can help him recover his memories and figure out what happened to Dreamlight Valley. You're quickly introduced to your Quest Log and learn a few basic moves to get to the main hub of the game, the Dream Castle. Everything is dripping with Disney references, including the name of your first mission to find a Royal Tool: "The Pickaxe in the Stone."

The Dream Castle is the center of the valley and acts as a gateway to all the Disney realms that we know and love from the movies. After the valley fell to darkness, Disney and Pixar characters escaped to their own realms, and it's up to you to bring them back home. The quests keep you immersed in the world by describing the Disney characters in the context of their universe and not just their movie titles. For example, once Merlin shows you how to unlock the first door to a realm, he asks if you want to visit "a desolated planet with a shy robot" or "the ocean with a demigod." Players unfamiliar with these Disney movies will be curious about the worlds that await them, but if you're a Disney fan you'll already be excited to know you're about to visit the worlds of Wall-E and Moana, respectively.

There will be a total of four realms to play when Disney Dreamlight Valley launches in Early Access this summer, with many more to follow after. Castet ran around the Dream Castle and showed me several locked doors that will soon become entrances to a different Disney or Pixar movie world. Gameloft confirmed Wall-E and Moana as two of the four early available realms, with the other two remaining a mystery for now.

Once you enter a realm, you'll get to watch an intro cutscene featuring your customized avatar (more on this later) interacting with the Disney character of the realm you chose. In my demo, we visited Wall-E and found him on his trash-infested planet from the movie. Wall-E was terrified of us, but we were able to chat with him (with several dialogue options!) and we figured out that one of his wheels is broken and needs to be repaired. I didn't get to see much of the Wall-E realm, but the gameplay seemed similar to the missions outside of the castle in terms of using the tools you've acquired. For example, using your newly acquired pickaxe to destroy some debris to try to find clues and save Wall-E.

Speaking of beloved characters, I was excited to find out there will be voice acting, with a mix of original Disney voice actors as well as soundalikes. It won't have full dialogue voice lines, but when you're in the valley hanging out with all your friends, Mickey Mouse might walk by and say "Good Morning!" out loud. In the demo we spent some time with Goofy, for whom Bill Farmer does in fact reprise his role in this game. The characters and their houses also have their own unique soundtracks associated with the character to add to the immersion.

What do you do in a Disney Life-Simulator Game?

Let's pause on the adventure portion and talk about the relaxing life-simulator part of the game. You can own and decorate your very own home in Dreamlight Valley! Castet gave me a tour of his and he had a Monsters, Inc.-inspired living room, complete with a Mike & Sully couch pillow set and a coffee table with a monster eye on it. All of these items can be purchased in your valley's store, which looks and functions like Nook's Cranny from Animal Crossing. We visited the shop and saw Donald Duck and Remy walking around the shop… (Side note: I wonder if the critic from Ratatouille, Anton Ego, has thoughts on a rat shopping in a store?) It's important to note that items in the shop can only be purchased with in-game currency and not real money.

Disney Dreamlight Valley's in-game clock functions in real time. If it's nighttime where you are in the world, it's nighttime in the game. The good news is that the shop and restaurant are open 24/7, which should make it easier for people who can't play at certain times to do everything they want to do. However, Castet did mention that certain characters like to visit the restaurant at specific times, so there will still be an incentive to check in to the game at certain times at various locations.

The map of Dreamlight Valley is composed of multiple biomes including the main Plaza, Peaceful Meadows, Dazzle Beach, Forest of Valor, Glade of Trust, Sunlit Plateau, Frosted Heights, and the Forgotten Lands. The main storyline of Disney Dreamlight Valley is said to contain about 40-60 hours of gameplay, but once you fill out the valley with all the characters you've rescued, you'll have so much more to do post-game. Every character has their own unique questline and story arc, and can be leveled up to give you their own rewards. I watched Castet ping Goofy's icon on the map to reveal a magical trail leading you to where Goofy currently is in the valley. Goofy needs help finding his fishing rod, and once you find it (of course it was just lying there at the lake, classic Goofy), he gives you a better fishing rod which unlocks a whole new world of gameplay.

Now that you can fish, you can catch a rainbow trout, cook it with other ingredients (you can plant and grow crops, for example), and then create full meal items and unlock recipes. Every character has their own favorite meal, and it's a great way to increase your friendship level with everyone in the valley. Castet showed me that you can then assign tasks to people (he made Goofy go fishing on his own, classic Goofy) so that living and growing the Dreamlight Valley is a true collaborative experience.

You can cook new recipes in your home, in Goofy's home, on a grill outside, or even cook with Remy himself! Disney Dreamlight Valley doesn't limit you on where you can perform tasks, and in addition to cooking, you can also craft items. Yes, you can buy furniture items at the store with in-game currency, but there's an entirely separate pool of items that can only be crafted. I watched Castet pickaxe a boulder that was in the way of a path, and then a pop-up appeared that said "New Recipe Unlocked - Brick Road." It was really cool to see everything have a purpose, and when you unlock one thing, it gives you so many more things to do.

Who do you play as in Disney Dreamlight Valley?

You are an avatar that you can customize to your wildest dreams. You are your own Disney character living in this world, even to the point where you can feed and tame little rabbits and squirrels so they follow you around like you're a Disney Princess. The customization menus were extensive, including choosing a body type, body shape, and skin color; they even had options for skin color with vitiligo. The wardrobe menu included your basic tops, pants, shorts, and shoes, but it also included options for hats, masks, glasses, jewelry, gloves, socks, and even full costumes. And before you ask, yes, you can wear Mickey Ears and the famous Spirit Jersey from Disneyland! In the demo, Castet tried on a "White Space Jacket" which was a Buzz Lightyear-inspired top, and we paired it with a Monsters, Inc.-inspired Decontamination Pack backpack.

If none of the clothing options strike your fancy, you can even create your own wardrobe from scratch. Castet showed this to me by picking a plain white shirt, choosing a seafoam green solid color, and then selecting from a large library of images that included shapes, symbols, characters, food, animals, and more. He created his own custom Buzz Lightyear shirt by placing a solid white circle shape in the center of the shirt and then overlaying a Star Command logo on top. Once he confirmed the design, he put on the shirt and then layered it with the fancy White Space Jacket for a truly unique look.

What's the replayability of Disney Dreamlight Valley?

One of the first questions I asked Castet was if you could replay realms in the Dream Castle. To my surprise the answer was both yes and no. The "no" was for realms where it affects the main campaign. For example, we needed to rescue Wall-E from being stranded on his planet and bring him back home, so there's really no need to go back into the door for Wall-E's realm once he's in Dreamlight Valley. However Castet mentioned being able to jump back into the realm for Moana, because that's the easiest way to obtain coconuts to use back in the valley. Just don't mess with Maui when he's on the breakaway.

The main replayability comes through making your valley exactly how you want it to be, much like any life-simulator game. I was blown away by how easy it is to organize the valley to your specific desires. Castet had his house in the grassy area of Peaceful Meadows, but he showed me how simple it was to instantly drag-and-drop your house and move it to the sandy shores of Dazzle Beach, with no downtime whatsoever. You can place furniture items inside and outside the house, and truly make the space your own.

Free-to-play and monetization

So how will this free-to-play game make money? There won't be many opportunities to spend real money in the beginning, aside from purchasing the Early Access Founder's Pack (you will also be able to access the game if you have Xbox Game Pass). I was happy to learn you can't spend real money to speed up processes like growing crops, and all the items that you would buy in Scrooge McDuck's shop can only be purchased with in-game currency. Gameloft did tell me that while the realm experiences will be free, they do plan to sell expansion packs and even more options for cosmetics in the future.

What's the future of Disney Dreamlight Valley?

Gameloft says that they have plans to add many more Disney and Pixar characters from popular, classic, and even obscure movies down the line. I told them one of my personal favorite Disney movies is Treasure Planet and I asked if we could ever see that be added to the game (because who wouldn't want to ride a Solar Surfer?!), and while Castet couldn't confirm or deny, he definitely had a hopeful tone in his voice of what is possible in Disney Dreamlight Valley.

Early Access will be a solo outing, but Gameloft plans to add multiplayer options in the future. I can already imagine the incredible valleys that people will create and I really want to visit those valleys for inspiration because I am not creative at all when it comes to design (please no one look at my Animal Crossing island).

Disney Dreamlight Valley is coming to almost every platform including Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, and PC and Mac via Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store, and the App Store. I'm also happy to report the game will support cross-play for most devices, with the goal to eventually have full cross-play support on every platform. I haven't stopped thinking about this game since I experienced my hands-off demo, and I can't wait to play it and try my hand in creating a personalized Dreamlight Valley. If I'm not happy with my house, I'll try to crash at Wall-E's, which is just his trash compactor. Hakuna Matata!

Jeffrey Vega is a Social Host/Producer at IGN and is probably feeding his neopets right now. You can follow him on Twitter @jeffreyvega, Instagram, and IGN's TikTok.

Final Fantasy 14 Producer Asks Fans Not to Troll in PvP: 'Participants Must Bring Their Best to the Fight'

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 08:41 AM PDT

Final Fantasy XIV's producer has asked players to stop trolling each other in the game's new Crystalline Conflict PvP mode, and said some could even be suspended or banned for it.

Naoki Yoshida said in a blog post that he and the team are receiving "an unprecedented number of reports" of uncooperative, abusive, and lethargic behaviour from players in PvP. Yoshida added that, "Participants must bring their best to the fight."

Players have been spamming chat options such as "Nice job!", repeatedly emoting or setting off fireworks on top of a downed enemy, and using the Tell command to directly insult opponents, but these are all prohibited as per Final Fantasy XIV's rules. Yoshida said some players have even found their opponents on social media to harass and criticise them.

"I'd like to warn against such behaviours," Yoshida said, later going on to say that guilty players could be subject to suspensions of up to 20 days with repeat or "exceptionally heinous" offenders being permanently banned.

He added: "All PvP content, including Crystalline Conflict, is intended to be a battle/contest of skill between players. Participants must bring their best to the fight, and for this reason uncooperative or lethargic behaviour is prohibited.

"Let's strive to do our best even in situations where defeat is imminent, regardless of whether or not you're interested in the rewards."

Any reports of this behaviour, when done with genuine malice and not accidentally, will be investigated by the development team and then dealt with accordingly, perhaps even via temporary or permanent banning.

This isn't the first time Yoshida has pleaded for fans to be nicer, but in January it was developers he was forced to defend. "Verbal abuses are something we wish could stop," he said.

Crystalline Conflict was added in the 6.1 update that also brought class changes, new story quests, and more, expanding upon the Endwalker expansion that arrived in December.

Patch 6.1 also saw the addition of Adventurer Plates, which are basically mini player profiles similar to Call of Duty's calling cards, and players are already having fun with these in some crazy ways.

In IGN's 9/10 review, we said: "Final Fantasy XIV's Endwalker expansion brings its longest story arc to a satisfying close and cements its place as one of the best Final Fantasy stories ever told."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

eFootball 2022 Update 1.0 Review

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 07:47 AM PDT

Over six months since a dismal launch that was barely more than a bug-infested demo, eFootball 2022 has taken steps in the right direction, albeit tiny ones, with its long-awaited 1.0 update. Most noticeably, the bugs have all but disappeared, but what remains is still a hollow shell of a football game that lacks depth, modes, and any real reason to play it consistently. In truth, it's still hard to recommend playing eFootball, even if it is completely free to do so.

It's all a bit sad really. What was once a series considered the pinnacle of its genre in the glory days of Pro Evolution Soccer has devolved into this soulless impersonation. It's reminiscent of those awful pandemic months when football took place in empty stadiums. Yes, technically football was being played but it was nowhere near the same spectacle without fans, a similar fate eFootball may suffer from sooner rather than later if big changes aren't made soon.

Overall, the presentation on the pitch looks pretty good – player models are largely accurate and the stadiums, while limited in number, look authentic. It's a vast improvement over the hilarious and sometimes frankly frightening faces being pulled in the early access version. The same can't quite be said for the atmosphere inside the stadiums, which often falls flat, not aided by some lifeless commentary. On top of that are menus and UI, which, although more colourful than we're used to from Konami's football games, are still awkward and unintuitive to navigate.

There does seem to be a freer flow to general play.

Having had to play a lot of eFootball's earlier versions, it may just be Stockholm syndrome at this point, but there does seem to be a freer flow to general play as players feel a lot less stiff to manoeuvre. They are also more reactive, no longer ignoring balls outside of their immediate radius, although controlling them neatly can often be a bridge too far. There is an increased sense of control in attack and defence, too – eFootball no longer feels like it's simply happening to you.

Defence is by no means fully refined, but improved shoulder charges and manual tackles definitely help you deal with opponent attackers with greater ease. AI defenders do appear to wander off out of position on their accord though, allowing for long through balls leading to goals happening way too often. It's unclear if this is down to a bug or not, but something that clearly needs addressing either way.

The ability to now press as a team and put pressure on the ball brings an edge of modern tactical play to eFootball that it desperately needs. Calling teammates for extra pressure and stealing the ball high up the pitch has led to goalscoring opportunities more often than not. It's obvious that this, as well as a couple of other gameplay additions, were meant to be in eFootball from the start, but instead it was released in a completely unfinished form. These new additions don't completely solve the problems that initial release had, though.

These new additions don't completely solve the problems that initial release had, though.

"Stunning kicks" are a new quirk that allow you to hold down the right trigger and apply extra power to passes and shots. Although these do occasionally result in a spectacular goal, you are far more likely to get the ball pinched from your toes as your player takes half a century to wind his leg up. If you do get a shot away, though, there's a decent chance of it going in as goalkeepers seem more balanced now, no longer reacting like Daredevil hearing a brick smash through a window.

From time to time there are flowing moves to marvel at, but they happen all too rarely, with satisfying passing coming at a premium. Some passes will be laser-focused and threaded through the eye of a needle, while others slowly roll along the floor begrudgingly towards a teammate – without feeling clear about what caused the difference. In fact, the only real consistency with eFootball's gameplay is its inconsistency. One moment you'll be jinking past a defender and curling one in the top corner, the next you'll be trying to dribble only to find your player has a turning circle more at home in Euro Truck Simulator.

Further proving this point are the referees, who were tragic in the initial release. While they now seem to be able to differentiate between a foul and clean tackle, they do still enjoy giving out both yellow and red cards for the most trivial of offences. Maybe I'm being rude, but overall the AI just seems pretty dense – both for officials and opposition players – meaning playing against the computer is largely dull, no matter what difficulty setting you choose. They play in predescribed patterns that are very easy to work out, and at a pace that I'd be able to keep up with in real life – and I haven't played an 11-a-side match in over a decade. That predictability has resulted in me scoring carbon copies of the same goal three times in a row from kick off on more than one occasion.

For a 1.0 release there's still a baffling lack of ways to play available.

Playing online adds to the excitement, providing welcome spontaneity to proceedings. Your options in where to do this are limited, though, as are most of eFootball's modes. For a 1.0 release there's still a baffling lack of ways to play available, with a long list of omissions that you'd expect as minimum:

  • There are still no online lobbies in which you can choose to play against a friend.
  • You can play against a friend offline, but are limited to only nine licensed teams to pick from.
  • There's no online co-op.
  • There's no edit mode where you can change players and teams (a staple option in past eFootball/Pro Evolution Soccers).
  • And crucially, no Master League. That's a PES fan-favourite career mode where many (including me) have historically found their enjoyment – and it would've been welcome here even if that would mean playing the anaemic AI endlessly.

It really is disappointing that none of this is available, especially when considering it's been six months since release, and over two years since development began on eFootball 2022.

One mode that has entered the fray with Update 1.0 is Dream Team, eFootball's take on FIFA Ultimate Team in which you use both currency earned in-game and real money to build your ultimate squad of players and climb the online rankings. This is done within Seasons, two-month-long events that challenge you to get promoted as high as you can through 10 online divisions, earning greater rewards the higher you climb along the way. Season 1 – the snappily titled: New Gameplay Approach, Team Building and Licenses – is currently live, alongside special players available in loot boxes, such as Pep Guardiola or Guti.

Yes, at least eFootball does now have a fully-fledged mode to take it past the point of being a demo, but it's still lacking so much more than you'd expect from a 1.0 version of a game. Instead, it feels like one that is still very much not ready to have been released.

Retro Elder Scrolls Games are Now Available for Free on Steam

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 07:41 AM PDT

The original two Elder Scrolls games are available on Steam for the first time ever – and they're free.

1994's The Elder Scrolls: Arena and 1996's The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall have arrived on Steam ahead of Bethesda's own games launcher being retired next month.

As reported by Kotaku, five games have been moved to Steam so far including these two, plus Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (which is also available for free) and two Elder Scrolls spin-offs from the late 90s: An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire and The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard.

The latter two are a little more expensive at $6 each, but fans probably needn't panic in trying to grab the freebies before the price goes up - Arena has been free since 2004 and Daggerfall since 2009, to celebrate the tenth and 15th anniversaries of The Elder Scrolls respectively.

While they're very different experiences from the most recent Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which itself is now more than a decade old, the first two games boil down to similar RPG fundamentals.

In Arena, the player is tasked with uncovering a conspiracy against King Uriel Septim VII, traversing across all of Tamriel and fighting through procedurally generated wilderness to complete various main and side quests.

Daggerfall follows a similar model but instead takes place in just two regions of Tamriel: Hammerfell and High Rock. The ghost of King Lysandus is trapped on earth and it's the player's job to free him, again taking part in quests picked up from towns and cities across the game.

Those who've already bought the games and other Bethesda titles from its launcher can migrate them over to Steam starting today, April 27, alongside any unspent wallet funds ahead of the launcher shutting down for good on May 11.

The mainline Elder Scrolls series has been somewhat dormant since Skyrim was released in 2011. While Bethesda Game Studios has worked on a number of games including those in the Fallout franchise, it chose to prioritise its new space-based IP Starfield over anything else.

This means that, though the Elder Scrolls VI is definitely in development, it was pushed back in order to focus on Starfield. The game is still in the design phase and therefore years away, though we do know it's likely to be an Xbox exclusive following Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda in 2020.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Elden Ring's First VR Mod Will Launch This Week

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 06:12 AM PDT

Elden Ring is unofficially getting VR support on PC this week, thanks to a work-in-progress fan mod.

Luke Ross, who's previously added virtual reality to Grand Theft Auto V and Cyberpunk 2077, said in a Patreon post (spotted by Road to VR) that a playable version of Elden Ring in VR would be available this week.

The project "will likely be a work-in-progress for quite some time", Ross said, but a YouTube video of the first two minutes of the game shows a fairly put-together experience as Ross walks through the opening Chapel of Anticipation area. Suffice it to say, the Grafted Scion boss in the area is going to be even more gross from this perspective.

With a VR headset on, Ross is able to walk around in first person, look up at the caved-in ceiling, down to pick up items, and peer around corners as the colossal Erdtree comes into view for the first time. Ross does appear to use a sword and shield in the demo, but they don't appear to tied to motion controllers at this point.

Unlike some VR games that stagger movement to make the experience less nauseating, the mod gives players complete freedom to move around as they do in Elden Ring, and Ross warns players to get their VR legs in shape. "They're really going to be put to the test", he said in the post.

As swinging swords and rolling around are also commonplace in Elden Ring, Ross told PC Gamer this will be another challenge for VR, stressing that his mods are intended for veteran virtual reality users.

"When rolling or performing other scripted animations like the combat moves, the camera follows the character's head (so its position changes) but it remains oriented correctly according to what your head is doing in real life," he said. "So the horizon will stay level and the world will always look stable."

Regardless, completing Elden Ring solely in VR will likely be the next crazy way players choose to tackle the game. Someone has already beaten a boss using the Nintendo Switch Ring Fit controller, while others completed the game without taking damage or dealing damage.

In our 10/10 review, IGN said: "Elden Ring is a massive iteration on what FromSoftware began with the Souls series, bringing its relentlessly challenging combat to an incredible open world that gives us the freedom to choose our own path."

To make those choices with the best available information, check out our guide that features everything you could ever hope to know about Elden Ring, including collectible locations, boss strategies, and more.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Nintendo Switch Sports Review

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 06:00 AM PDT

Remember when everyone and their grandma was caught up in the Wii Sports craze more than 15 years ago? Nintendo Switch Sports tries to recapture that lightning-in-a-bottle moment with a tighter but all too familiar experience, refining the same concept of simple, family-friendly motion-controlled games and applying it to new and old sports alike. Just like Wii Sports before it, Nintendo Switch Sports is best played as a fun but shallow party game that you can break out for friends and family in a pinch, though this time it's not quite the novelty it was back in 2006.

You can play any of Switch Sports' six games (volleyball, badminton, bowling, soccer, chambara/sword fighting, and tennis) alone or with friends, both locally and online. They're all generally high quality, but pale in comparison to Wii Sports Resort's 12 (admittedly less consistent) games when taken as a full package. My first day I spent time playing each sport alone to get a feel for them, and while putting spin on a backhand return in tennis to the tune of its excellent music tracks gave me a dose of nostalgia, it wasn't until I decided to play a few rounds with my parents that the magic of Wii Sports came back in force. There's fun to be had in playing a quick tennis match against some NPCs or bowling a few frames alone, but Switch Sports is undeniably at its best when you're playing in the same room with other people, waving your arms and legs around like maniacs.

Although I stood relatively still when playing a match of badminton against my mom, making the bare-minimum motions with the Joy-Con necessary to trigger on-screen movements, my mom would lunge across the room to return a shot, throw her shoulder into each smash, and ultimately ended up winded because she wasn't playing Switch Sports like a video game: she was playing it like the real thing. Similarly, when bowling, both my parents tended to walk up to the screen every time they threw the ball because the simplicity of it made those movements feel all the more natural to them – like they were bowling a round in real life. The special sauce that Wii Sports always had to bring in frequent gamers and the uninitiated alike is absolutely still here, and it's the simplicity of the motion controls that makes it work.

But to really test out Switch Sports in its natural environment, you need a party. So I got together with a group of 12 friends and let them have at it. Beyond some of the routine headaches with connecting all the Joy-Con correctly, getting my friends up and at it was a breeze. Every single game in the collection is immediately more fun in this setting – chambara becomes a series of wild flails while onlookers cheer on, badminton emerges as an intense back and forth with neither player willing to accept defeat, and soccer turns into a mad sprint to the ball to try and get some last-second diving headers in before the clock hits zero.

Some games fare better than others when it comes to intuitive controls.

Some of the individual games fare better than others when it comes to the intuitiveness of the controls – specifically, volleyball is the most difficult sport to simply pick up and play. During any given match you'll be automatically shuffled through all the different positions, from server to setter to blocker. Your success is almost entirely based on cooperation with your teammate, because well-timed sets, jumps, and spikes compound into stronger, harder-to-return shots. Once everyone gets the hang of these motions it's a lot of fun and made us feel like we were working as a team, but getting to that point wasn't nearly as instinctive as the other games.

Badminton is easily my favorite sport of the bunch. It offers the most control, rewarding underhand returns, smashes, birdie placement, and more fine-tuned executions. You can even hold the trigger to initiate a drop shot, forcing your opponent to rush the net so you can then satisfyingly smash the birdie to the opposite corner of the court. It's limited to two players at a time, but the often-heated returns feel much more intense for it. Badminton is also the only sport in the collection that made me notice the Joy-Con's HD Rumble – precise haptic feedback that I could feel in my hand whenever the racquet connected with the birdie to make a satisfying *ting* sensation.

Bowling also gives you a high degree of control over the ball, and I was quickly bowling 150-point games without breaking a sweat. But the real challenge is in the Special mode, which throws increasingly difficult obstacles in the path of your strike and will give even the best Wii bowlers a run for their money. It also gives you and up to three friends the option to play simultaneously, so everyone doesn't have to sit around and wait for each person to finish a frame – the result is chaotic and fittingly fun. Unfortunately, the 100-pin bowling mode from Wii Sports Resort is nowhere to be found.

Soccer is the most disappointing.

Soccer is the most disappointing: it plays like a slower, less flashy version of Rocket League. The ball is larger than the players, and you spend most of the time in a match slowly running across the field. 1-on-1 was generally more enjoyable simply by virtue of the field being smaller, while 4-on-4 takes forever with the ball constantly trading possession. Soccer also bafflingly only allows for up to two human players at a time, preventing it from being redeemed as a fun party game.

Chambara's sword fighting produces the most intense bouts of the lineup. Both fighters enter a sort of stilted dance, where one blocks while the other attempts to pull off parallel slashes to cut through their defenses. If you've chosen to use the Charge Sword, more successful blocks result in a powerful and satisfying return strike, while Twin Sword wielders can swing their weapons in unison to execute a Zelda-like spin attack that makes their generally more awkward handling worth it. Though the motion controls don't always feel perfectly accurate, the matches can result in memorable come-from-behind moments where you go from being on the defensive to moving in for the "kill," so to speak. The loser just comically falls into a pool of water – this is Nintendo, after all.

The loser just comically falls into a pool of water – this is Nintendo, after all.

Switch Sports' version of tennis is almost exactly like it was in Wii Sports, and you can only play doubles (with other players or against NPCs), which differentiates it from the 1v1 matches of badminton. It feels far more timing-oriented than badminton too, but it does give you the ability to slice and lob based on how you hit the ball. Those differences make it better for bigger parties, but it feels shallow by comparison.

Switch Sports includes online play, which allows you to unlock additional cosmetic options for your characters, but we weren't able to test it out during our review period. However, I primarily consider Switch Sports to be an in-person party game, and could not care less about how my character looks, so even if online play doesn't work at all for some reason, I wouldn't be terribly broken up about it – the lack of depth to these games means that if I'm not playing it in a living room with friends, I might as well be playing against an NPC.

It's unlikely to take you more than an hour or two with some friends to play through everything Switch Sports has to offer. While simplicity is what makes it work so well as a party starter, its selection of six sports feels meager in comparison to Wii Sports Resort's 12 games. The lack of golf at launch is also sorely missed, but it's an exciting prospect to hit the links again when the DLC is released this fall.

Nintendo Switch Sports: Here's What Comes in Each Edition

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 05:49 AM PDT

Good news, sports fans: Nintendo Switch Sports is set to release April 29 exclusively for (you guessed it) Nintendo Switch. The latest installment in the Wii Sports series, it brings a collection of motion-controlled mini-games to a new generation. We're talking games like tennis, bowling, and chambara (which is basically sword fighting).

The game is already up for preorder, in both physical and digital versions (see it at Amazon). Read on to find out what comes in each version, how much it costs, and where it's available. And if you're wondering if it's any good, check out our Nintendo Switch Sports review.

Nintendo Switch Sports

Physical copies of Nintendo Switch Sports cost $10 more than digital copies, but they come with a leg strap. The strap has a little Joy-Con pouch so the Switch can detect your leg movements, which are used as controls in the game (see the "leg strap" section below for details, as the leg input is pretty limited at launch).

This is the same leg strap that comes with Ring Fit Adventure, so if you have that game and don't need a leg strap, you can grab a digital copy of Nintendo Switch Sports and save a bit of cash.

Nintendo Switch Sports - Digital

If you already have a leg strap from purchasing Ring Fit Adventure (or you're just not interested in controlling the game with your leg) you can skip the physical copy and save $10 by buying digital.

Nintendo Switch Sports Trailers

What is Nintendo Switch Sports?

Nintendo Switch Sports is the latest installment of the Wii Sports series. The original 2006 game was incredibly popular in part because it came included with the Wii console. It also used intuitive motion controls, making it a go-to game to play with parents, grandparents, and people who didn't generally play video games. Check out our Nintendo Switch Sports hands-on preview for more details.

Nintendo Switch Sports carries on the motion-controlled tradition via the Joy-Con controllers. It includes local multiplayer, plus online multiplayer for all of the sports. What sports are we talking, exactly?

Mini-Games Included in Nintendo Switch Sports

Here's every game included in Nintendo Switch Sports at launch:

  • Tennis
  • Bowling
  • Chambara
  • Soccer
  • Badminton
  • Volleyball

As noted below, golf will be added in a free update planned for fall 2022.

Nintendo Switch Sports Leg Strap Accessory

When the game launches on April 29, only one mini-game will take advantage of the leg strap included in physical copies of the game. You'll be able to use the leg strap to play "shootout mode" in soccer. However, more leg strap functionality is coming later in the year.

Nintendo Switch Sports Planned Updates

In the game's announcement, Nintendo offered a look ahead at two updates that will be coming to the game this year. The first update, scheduled for this summer, will allow you to use the leg strap accessory to control regular games of soccer.

A second free update planned for this fall will add a new golf game to Nintendo Switch Sports.

Other Preorder Guides

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

Save on Nintendo Switch Sports Preorders Right Now in the UK

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 05:45 AM PDT

Nintendo Switch Sports preorders are currently available for just £30.59 in the UK when buying from Currys. All you need to do is use code SWITCHSPORTS at checkout to receive the discount and get a free Switch Sports wristband alongside as well. The game will release on April 29, so if you preorder now, you're guaranteed to get in on launch day.

Digital versions of the game are available for £30.99 but the Leg Strap Accessory is sold separately and costs £8.99. But, with this bundle deal, you can both together for less than the RRP of the digital game. Otherwise, you can also get the same bundle deal for just £35 from Amazon as well.

Save on Nintendo Switch Sports Preorders in the UK Right Now

Both of these deals are a good choice in my opinion. The Amazon deal is great for those who have collected some extra Amazon vouchers recently and need something to spend it on.

While the Currys deal is the cheapest you can find the bundle deal in the UK, just use code SWITCHSPORTS at checkout and you'll get the game on release day, April 29.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Sniper Elite 5: The First Preview

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 04:00 AM PDT

Prior to the infamous invasion of Normandy Beach on June 6, 1944, covert ops agents prepared the French theater of war behind enemy lines, and this is how Sniper Elite 5 sets the backdrop for one Sniper Elite veteran Karl Fairburne's return to the PC and modern consoles late next month. Sniper Elite 5 reverts to – and improves upon – the series' roots by placing you back into the third-person perspective and offering the expansive range of stealth options that Sniper Elite fans have come to know and love since the series started way back in 2005. However, it now has a few extra twists, including deeper weapon customization and expansive map layouts that offer plenty of ways to play, improving on (rather than revolutionizing) what fans already enjoyed about Sniper Elite 4.

Naturally, it wouldn't be a Sniper Elite game without impeccable sniping simulation – this accounts for everything from wind direction to Karl's heart rate, and I found it astoundingly easy to change the outcome of a battle by taking certain "irritants'' off the board earlier than later. Which is to say, Sniper Elite 5 seems like it leaves plenty of room for experimentation in how you approach its open-world-esque maps, even if your experimentation just comes down to picking somebody out of a tower half-a-mile away, before then darting into the bushes and military-crawling your way through the neighboring encampment.

I spent several hours playing with these systems, and despite how challenging this combat is due to strikingly intelligent AI opponents, I never got bored coming up with a new strategy each time I respawned. Do I want to create a distraction at the main barricade and hide in the tower, later ziplining down to the forest grove once the coast is clear – or do I want to methodically take out the roving transports and then trap them with grenades and other explosives that go off when the enemy AI sends out soldiers to take a look at the wreckage? Not once did I get the sense that I was being railroaded into any particular playstyle. In fact, relying solely on my single-shot Welrod pistol was a viable strategy – if I managed to stay out of sight, which meant relying on Sniper Elite 5's climbing system to avert enemy eyes.

I never got bored coming up with a new strategy each time I respawned.

Much like the previous Sniper Elite games, there are a variety of guns to play with, and each weapon has a signature feel to it. The series' famous slow-motion killcam makes a return here, and your killcam shots also apply to pistols and SMGs if you manage to land a killing blow at a creative angle. It's never a great idea to charge into battle with the limited arsenal Karl is able to carry at one time, and he's always about two or three well-placed bullets away from death, but there are also a fair number of powerful weapon pickups spread across the map that give each area a special tactical advantage. For example, this tower contains a high-powered rifle that's extremely useful for taking care of the Nazis guarding the front gates of this chateau, while this shed is filled with explosives. The map that I playtested had three major lanes, culminating at a massive compound within the chateau that spanned floors and tunnels that I may not have even seen in a single playthrough, and it's this level of openness that gives weight to the number of tactical options that are made available.

Weapon customization is one of the marquee features of Sniper Elite 5, and it's astounding how many different attachments and add-ons you can play with here. It's almost to the degree of Battlefield 4's customization, and that's a compliment. In addition to weapon customization, you also level up gradually as you complete certain challenges and rack up your kill count, and your level even persists between deaths – but only if you restart the mission after dying. Each time you level up, you can place skill points into perks that unlock certain features, like being able to revive yourself after being gunned down. It's an awfully nice way to alleviate certain challenges if you're struggling to get through the map. Speaking of, it also sounds like there will be multiplayer features such as co-op and player invasions, kinda like in Dark Souls, though I did not get a chance to see this feature in action. That said, there's enough openness to this map to make multiplayer seem like a natural fit at first glance, and it could be fun to keep an extra eye out for an enemy player flanking you or potentially even using your own tactics against you during a mission.

Elden Ring: New Patch Fixes Broken Malenia Boss Fight and More

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 03:42 AM PDT

A new update for Elden Ring has fixed a number of bugs introduced in the recent patch 1.04, including a glitch that caused Malenia to regain health for no reason during fights with summoned players.

As announced by Bandai Namco, Update 1.04.1 has "fixed a bug with Malenia, Blade of Miquella in which her HP was not healed correctly in the online multiplayer environment". This should mean that in fights where you have summoned co-operative player help, Malenia won't be able to regain her health unless her blows actually connect with a player. That's good news for anyone trying to overcome the game's hardest boss with friends.

There's good news for spell casters, too; the Cerulean Hidden Tear has been fixed. Update 1.04 accidentally slashed the duration of the Tear from 15 seconds down to 7, but thankfully this hotfix restores it back to its original form. Drink this when mixed in the Flask of Wondrous Physick and you'll be able to cast spells without draining FP for the full 15 seconds now.

The update has also "fixed a bug that caused some bosses to die at unintended times", as well as fixing a bug that prevented the final boss from working properly "under certain circumstances." Those circumstances are not mentioned in the post, but they shouldn't be a problem anymore.

In addition, some text issues have also been rectified.

This should put patch 1.04 in a good position, as other than these problems the update was well recieved by the Elden Ring community, especially in regard to its alterations to colossal weapons and Faith abilities. It did nerf Swarm of Flies, though, so anyone who relied on that to defeat Malenia may be slightly disappointed.

In other news, a dataminer has broken into Elden Ring's mysterious colosseum area and found what could be the first indication of upcoming DLC.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Features Editor.

Dying Light 2's Latest Patch Includes New Game Plus, Which 'Will Significantly Alter' Gameplay

Posted: 27 Apr 2022 03:41 AM PDT

Dying Light 2's latest patch, 1.03 includes dozens of changes – including a New Game Plus mode that developer Techland said will "significantly alter" gameplay.

Upon completing Dying Light 2's story (though not all 500+ hours of content) players can restart the game and experience it again with extra changes. Though Techland remained somewhat vague in its notes, the second playthrough will acknowledge that it's not the player's first time by modifying certain content and adding new and exclusive things to do.

The new content, completely unavailable in the first playthrough of Dying Light 2, includes: 30 new inhibitors, new platinum objectives for parkour challenges, updated distribution of the enemies (for example Volatiles and Banshee will now spawn during the night), a new legendary weapon tier, gold encounters, and enemy difficulty that will scale with player level.

Across all save files, Techland has also fixed a number of bugged quests and added a new one called Something Big Has Been Here, which introduces a new variant of mutated infected.

The developer is surprisingly frank about other changes, saying plainly that "enemies with bows are less annoying" now. The bug causing some enemies to become invulnerable to damage has been fixed alongside similar issues, and the patch also updates achievement registration so that everything pops as it should.

A significant number of changes to Dying Light 2's co-op mode have also been made, primarily quality-of-life improvements and solutions for connection issues that will hopefully help ease problems players have had while playing with others since launch.

Techland said that overall stability has been improved, progression-blocking glitches such as certain NPCs not appearing have been fixed, and issues like the game not acknowledging and thus spawning enemies around the joining player have also been addressed. The rest of the patch notes (available below) cover similar issues such as crash fixes and improved texture optimization.

Techland announced the update earlier this month and promised it was one of the biggest patches so far. Being the biggest patch would certainly be impressive given the day one update included more than 1,000 fixes, addressing some of the problems highlighted in IGN's 7/10 review: "Dying Light 2 is an ambitious zombie action adventure that's packed with top-notch parkour, an awesome open world, and every painful bug in the book."

Despite early issues, the game still proved incredibly popular by shambling its way onto Steam's 25 most-played games list and selling more than five million copies in its first month.

Dying Light 2 Full April Patch Notes:

New Game+

  • After finishing it once, the game can be replayed again, only this time with modified game parameters in place to encourage a second playthrough by the implementation of a unique system and experience. The player can now go through the story with revitalized mechanisms. These include new enemy behaviors, more difficult encounters, new objects within the world, namely the newly added inhibitors, and many more changes that will significantly alter the gameplay style and allow the player to develop their character further. All of this is only available in New Game+!
    • 30 new inhibitors
    • New platinum objectives for parkour challenges
    • Updated distribution of the enemies (f.e. Volatiles and Banshee spawn during the night, a wider variety of enemy pools in encounters)
    • A new legendary weapon tier added
    • Gold encounters added
    • Enemy difficulty scales with the player level

Co-op Updates

  • Fixed connection and stability issues in co-op
    • Fixed connection issues with the players who are further advanced inthe story
    • Improved game performance in co-op
  • Co-op story blocks
    • Fixed an issue that caused blocked progression in a single player game mode after a co-op session
    • Fixed few remaining death loops in co-op
    • Fixed an issue with a missing NPC during the Missing People quest in a co-op session
  • Co-op quality
    • Improved weapon visualization in online menu and inventory
    • Improved handling of challenges requirements in co-op
    • Fixed random bandit respawns while players are still in the bandit camp
    • Fixed issues with the player being unable to access inventory or map after dying several times in co-op
    • Fixed blocked story progression with "enemies nearby" notification
    • Fixed rare issue when a player can't move after a revive
    • Fixes for far away peer respawn from the host and respawning in geometry
    • Fixed AI jitter in random cases
    • Improved various animations in co-op - f.e. crouching, throwing, using the bow, and more
    • Fixed sound duplication in co-op
    • Fixed rare cases of unresponsive quest radio dialog in co-op, causing story blocks
    • Fixed the display of incorrect icons on the map after a co-op party
    • Fixed "call for help" when the player is being summoned during a gather in co-op
    • Fixed black screens in certain situations that could cause progression blockers during co-op progression
    • Fixed unnecessary "skill requirement" text-glitch in the description of a challenge in a co-op session
    • Updated the time of tutorial windows to 30 seconds during the co-op sessions
    • Fixed a bug that allows player to have multiple story quests active

Content Update

  • Mutated Infected - New quest added Something Big Has Been Here, which included special elemental Goon variants

Gameplay Updates

  • Enemies with bows are less annoying — decreased damage output
  • Completed achievements are correctly awarded upon completion. This works for the achievements that were obtained before the update as well
  • Fixed a bug that was causing Howlers and Screamers to become invulnerable to damage
  • Fixed a possibility to fast travel between map regions after completing various quests
  • Fixed a random AI bug of Human encounters
  • Fixed infected invulnerability to arrows
  • Fixed missing rewards after Bandit encounters
  • Fixed the Virals patrol movement in GRE facilities

Quest Updates

  • Fixed a bug related to wall-clipping during the Let's Waltz quest
  • Fixed a bug of the player getting stuck after using an inhibitor, or opening inventory after obtaining inhibitor in the Markers of Plague quest
  • Fixed the map display bug in The Only Way Out quest
  • Fixed the disappearance of Hakon in the Into The Darkness quest after playing in co-op
  • Fixed Sophie's inaccessible position in The Raid quest

UI/UX Updates

  • Added FOV slider on PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X
  • Improved UI textures optimization
  • Fixed issues related to switching between keyboard and controller
  • Fixed inhibitor pop-up message in Markers of Plague quest
  • Fixed quest display in journal
  • Fixed tutorial window display
  • Fixed weapon durability display, quest tracking, and inventory management on ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo second display
  • Aiden should no longer T-pose in the main menu
  • Fixed crashes related to launching the game in 5760x1080 resolution
  • Fixed display of incorrect numbers on Immunity Bar
  • Minor changes to PC key bindings

Technical Updates

  • Improved game stability
  • Several crash sources fixed
  • Improved the stability of frame rate in various places on the map
  • Fixed multiple bugs that allowed players to see and fall outside map texture
  • Fixed occasional texture glitches in various places on the map
  • Fixed various audio glitches
  • …and numerous additional bug fixes and quality improvements.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
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