I’m filling in some gaps in my RPG history. I’ve been playing series like Final Fantasy since I was a kid, but there are countless other landmark RPGs I’ve rarely touched, including the fantasy RPG Mana series, which splintered off of Final Fantasy Adventure in 1991. The only installment in the long-running franchise…

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The topic of Guild Wars 3 has been a common one over the last few years; when I dredged our articles, the first one I found specifically about Guild Wars 3 went all the way back to 2017 as MMO players speculated about the future of the franchise between expansions. But now Korean press have reported […]

I have, it must be said, a high tolerance for grinding and repetition. I can handle a very long stretch of doing the exact same thing, over and over, with little to no variation. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I can subsist on the exact same weekly routine with […]

It’s been a while since Massively OP’s MJ muddled about in Middle-earth, and she has missed it. With the Spring Festival in full force, it’s the perfect time for her to hop right in. (And not just to enjoy spring and flowers, as opposed to the snow still present outside her window.) Join us live […]

Gamigo’s Trove is continuing to get love regardless of what’s going on with the rest of the company’s MMORPG catalogue, and for the blocky sandbox, that comes in the form of yet another update called, cutely, the Gear Up!date. “With the new spring update, players can master the latest new profession, Gearcrafting, enjoy dynamic loot, […]

Sony has revealed Gran Turismo 7’s next big update, which adds three new cars, an extra Café Menu, three World Circuit Events, and more.

Gran Turismo 7 patch 1.44 includes the return of the legendary Toyota GT-One (TS020) ’99, as well as new stickers available for a limited time. Update 1.44 goes live today, March 27 at 11pm PST, Sony said in a post on the PlayStation Blog.

The three new cars are the aforementioned Toyota GT-One (TS020) ’99, the Audi R8 Coupé V10 plus ’16, and the Lamborghini Urus ’18. The Jaguar (Collector Level 41 and above) menu has been to the Extra Menus section (Extra Menu No. 37). And the following new events have been added to World Circuits:

European Clubman Cup 600 – Blue Moon Bay Speedway – Infield A ReverseSchwarzwald League – High Speed Ring ReverseWorld Touring Car 900 – 24 Heures du Mans race track

Elsewhere, official TV animation series Highspeed Étoile’ stickers are available for a limited time from the GT Auto / Livery Editor. Here’s the official blurb, from Sony:

For a limited time, 26 stickers including eight title logos and 18 main character stickers themed on the Japanese TV anime Highspeed Étoile will be provided in the preset decals of the Livery Editor. The original TV animation Highspeed Étoile depicting a world of motorsports in the near future is planned for broadcast in Japan starting April 2024. We will be updating information regarding the period of availability at a later date. And finally, Fukushima has been added as a featured Curation in Scapes.

Gran Turismo 7 launched on PlayStation 4 and 5 Gran Turismo 7 in March 2022, with IGN’s Gran Turismo 7 review returning a 9/10. We said: “Mixing the original GT’s trendsetting format with GT Sport’s stern but very successful focus on competitive online racing, Gran Turismo 7 makes a few errors but is a potent podium performance from developer Polyphony Digital.” Sony hasn’t announced sales numbers, but series development chief Kazunori Yamauchi has said Polyphony had maintained a high number of active users since launch.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].

Tony Hawk is making a kids-focused animated TV show called Skatebirds, a title inspired by Hawk’s ‘Birdman’ nickname.

Deadline reports Hawk is working with Montreal’s Laughing Dragon Studios to develop the series, which is aimed at kids aged 6-11.

According to Deadline, Skatebirds will “celebrate skateboarding’s playful community while emphasizing its adventurous nature.” It’s about a group of young skateboarders who are also birds. Expect plenty of teamwork, friendship, and a focus on community. Episodes are 11 minutes long.

Legendary professional skater Tony Hawk is the face of Neversoft’s phenomenally successful Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, which began life in 1999 on PSone. Activision released Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 in 2020, courtesy of developer Vicarious Visions, now known as Blizzard Albany. In 2022, Hawk claimed Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4 was canceled due to Vicarious Visions’ merger with Blizzard. Since then, Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. The company behind Xbox has yet to announce plans to revive the series it now owns.

Image credit: Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].

As a massive fan of survival games and Dune, I’ll admit to being a bit skeptical about an open-world survival game that takes place on the famously barren planet of Arrakis, but after an hour-long presentation of the upcoming Dune: Awakening, those concerns have disappeared entirely. Based on the hands-off showcasing of what’s to come in this MMO survival game, it certainly appears that developer Funcom has taken their hard-won learnings from the underrated Conan Exiles and applied it to this ambitious multiplayer world set in one of sci-fi’s most beloved galaxies. Whether it was the impressively detailed character creation options, the intricate RPG systems filled with skill trees and craftables, or the absolute insanity of trying to outrun a Shai-Hulud or escape a massive sandstorm, Dune: Awakening appears to be on track to become the sci-fi survival game I’ve always dreamt of, and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

How do you make a survival game set in an utterly desolate wasteland of sand? Well, according to Funcom, the answer lies in the “hidden spaces” of Arrakis. Described in Frank Herbert’s novels, these hidden pockets of shade and refuge are home to life and micro-biomes that will be altogether unfamiliar to those who have only seen the movies, but Dune: Awakening hopes to lean pretty heavily on their existence to fill the massive desert with things for players to do – whether that be finding a pocket of shelter to build a base in, delving into a cave that’s home to hostile creatures, or taking down remote enemy bases in search of loot and resources. In fact, the wide-open empty spaces filled with hot sand might be more of an asset than a hindrance, as it allows for a heat stroke mechanic where players are punished for spending time in direct sunlight with some pretty devastating debuffs, meaning players will instead need to dart from shelter-to-shelter, battling the elements as they explore the world and its many hidden spaces.

Combined with the forever game of “the floor is lava” that is dodging sandworms on Arrakis, players will need to remain on the move constantly, and develop strategies for managing their water reserves, protecting against the heat, and, of course, engaging in the never-ending struggle for all-important spice. In one leg of the demo, players worked together to claim a massive deposit of spice while keeping an eye out for the ever-looming threat of the Shai-Hulud, drawn to their activity in the desert…only to be unexpectedly overwhelmed by a sandstorm instead, which swallowed them and their precious cargo along with them. In another section, a group of players worked together to infiltrate a high-level facility filled with rare materials and dangerous enemies, making sure to harvest the blood of fallen baddies to replenish their rapidly depleting water reserves. Before the demo, I had a lot of questions about how a Dune survival game would even work without becoming extremely monotonous in short order, but by the end I found myself wondering why in the heck someone hadn’t made one sooner – seeing all the clever ways Dune: Awakening plans to make brilliant use of Dune’s unique lore made me a believer.

Seeing all the clever ways Dune: Awakening plans to make brilliant use of Dune’s unique lore made me a believer.

Beyond the major things Dune: Awakening aims to get right, the demo also included all these little details that took my hype to the next level, like how they showed off an incredibly detailed character creation engine that included things like choosing your home planet and origin to decide some of your starting traits and aspects of your appearance, or how the in-depth skill trees and crafting system allowed you to drastically augment your playstyle from a telekinetic mentalist with a bag of supernatural tricks to run-and-gun soldiers with a bag of high explosives. As someone who has spent a good deal of time with the Dune tabletop RPG, dreaming up the characters I’d like to portray in that universe, this looks like it’ll scratch an itch I’ve had for decades, and I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on it later this year.

NetEase and Marvel Games have announced Marvel Rivals, a 6v6 team-based free-to-play shooter headed to PC that stars iconic heroes and villains from the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men, and many more.

While no release date was given, Netease and Marvel did reveal Marvel Rivals will have a Closed Alpha Test in May. It also shared that this multiversal adventure will feature an initial roster comprised of Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Groot, Hulk, Iron Man, Loki, Luna Snow, Magik, Magneto, Mantis, Namor, Peni Parker, Rocket Raccoon, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Storm, Star-Lord, and The Punisher.

Watch the announcement trailer below.

Marvel Rivals also promises ever-changing battlefields that will be destroyed by the cavalcade of powers on display in each match, no matter if it’s in Asgard, 2099’s Tokyo, or others. This isn’t for show either, as you can destroy and reshape your surroundings to gain a tactical advantage over your foes.

The strategic thinking doesn’t end there, as Dynamic Hero Synergy will be available for those who find the right combination of characters. For example, Rocket Raccoon can hop on Groot’s back to become more powerful and Hulk can unleash Gamma energy at Iron Man for a massive attack.

Much like other free-to-play games, Marvel Rivals will continue to evolve and gain new content as the seasons roll on, including new playable characters, maps, and much more. Each new season will also tell more of the story of Marvel Rivals, which was written by the NetEase writing team.

In this multiverse, Doctor Doom and his future self from the year 2099 are locked in a vicious battle that has caused countless universes to collide in the Timestream Entanglement. To stop things from getting even worse, heroes and villains from across the multiverse must put their differences aside and band together to save everything we know and love.

This will be NetEase’s third Marvel game following Marvel Duel and Marvel Super War. NetEase has also developed other such games as EVE: Echoes, Naraka: Bladepoint, The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War, Dead by Daylight Mobile, and Harry Potter: Magic Awakened.

As for Marvel Games, we have Skydance’s Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, Marvel’s Wolverine by Insomniac, EA’s Iron Man and Black Panther games, and Marvel’s Blade by Arkane Lyon to look forward to.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

Remember Hellgate: London? The dark fantasy action role-playing game came out in 2007 for PC, a year before developer Flagship Studios went bankrupt. Since then, various free-to-play and online revivals have come and gone. Now, 17 years after the release of Hellgate: London, it’s back.

Hellgate: London chief creator Bill Roper, via his new studio Lunacy Games, has signed a licensing agreement with HanbitSoft (HanbitSoft acquired the rights to the Hellgate franchise from Namco Bandai in 2020) to create a new AAA Hellgate game, codenamed Hellgate: Redemption. It’s due out at some point for console and PC, and is set in an as-of-yet undisclosed part of the alternate-history, demon-apocalypse world.

“I’ve dreamed of returning to the franchise we created back in 2007 for many, many years,” Roper said. “I’ve always felt I had unfinished business with the Hellgate IP, which is why our codename for the project is Hellgate: Redemption.”

Hellgate: Redemption is built on Unreal Engine 5, Roper added. “We’re keeping core gameplay and lore elements of Hellgate: London in our current design, but our intent is to build an exciting new experience that takes advantage of the numerous advances the industry has seen over the past 17 years since the original game launched.”

Here is an overview of the original game, via Lunacy Games:

Hellgate: London is an influential game that was ahead of its time in numerous ways. It pioneered the Looter Shooter genre, featuring randomly generated levels that demanded a proprietary 3D engine with real-time lighting support, and employed a business model that was unique at the time, now widely recognized as a Battle Pass. That era of gaming even required the formation of a second company to build and operate the online portion of Hellgate: London.

Flagship Studios was founded in 2003 by Bill Roper along with Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, and David Brevik, several developers who worked on Blizzard’s Diablo. Hellgate: London was hotly anticipated, but it launched with various bugs that caused the game to crash. Roper later admitted the game was too ambitious and should have narrowed its focus.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].