Aussie Deals: Over 20% Off Ratchet & Clank, Dying Light 2 and Sniper Contracts 2!

Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart is shaping up to be the Lombax’s pajamas, and we can hook you up for cheap. Don’t have a PS5? Not a worry! You can score discounts on Dying Light 2, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 and Far Cry 6 instead. Something for everybody today, and it’s all waiting below…

Purchase Cheaply for PC

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=aussie-deals-jun-6-pc”]

Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=aussie-deals-jun-6-ns”]

Exciting Offers for XO/XS

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=aussie-deals-jun-6-xo”]

Product Savings for PS4/PS5

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=aussie-deals-jun-6-ps”]

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Sign up to get the best Aussie gaming deals sent straight to your inbox!

Other Deals for June 6

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=aussie-deals-jun-6-farm”]

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It Defeats A Quiet Place Part 2 at the Weekend Box Office

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It secured victory in the domestic weekend box office over A Quiet Place Part II.

As detailed by Box Office Mojo, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’s $24 million weekend box office prevented A Quiet Place Part II from earning a second week at the number one spot.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/02/the-conjuring-the-devil-made-me-do-it-review”]

A Quiet Place Part II earned $19.5 million and was followed by Cruella’s $11.2 million, Spirit Untamed’s $6.2 million, and Raya and the Last Dragon’s $1.3 million.

The latest Conjuring film was shown in 3,102 theaters across the US and earned a $7,740 per-screen average, which is an even more impressive feat considering it is also available to all HBO Max subscribers at no extra cost.

While WB hasn’t shared how many people watched the film on HBO Max, it did share that it earned another $33.1 million overseas, bringing its worldwide total to $57.1 million.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”slug=the-conjuring-the-devil-made-me-do-it-images&captions=true”]

This only adds to the total earnings of The Conjuring films and its spinoffs, which is currently the top-grossing horror franchise of all time with $1.9 billion at the global box office.

A Quiet Place Part 2 saw a drop of 59% from last weekend, but it still managed to earn an additional $50 million overseas, putting its worldwide total at $138.6 million.

All of these movies should enjoy their time in the spotlight while they can, as F9 is fast approaching and has already made over $250 million in its first three weeks playing overseas.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/01/the-conjuring-the-devil-made-me-do-it-final-trailer”]

For more, check out our review of The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, how this film connects to Annabelle, and the true stories behind these horrifying movies.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

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

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

Balan Wonderworld Creator Unexpectedly Leaves Square Enix

Update (6/6/21) – Yuji Naka has confirmed his departure from Square Enix on Twitter, saying that he is considering retirement and that, while he can’t talk about the reason for leaving the company now, he hopes he can one day.

I retired from SQUARE ENIX at the end of April 2021 because I would like to contact the media and users,” Naka wrote, as translated by Google Translate. “I can’t talk about the reason now, but I hope I can talk about it when the time comes. As for future activities, I’m 55 years old, so I may retire. The photo is taken by Sega Hard Historia. Balan Wonderworld director and Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Yuji Naka has unexpectedly left Square Enix, following a poor reception to his latest game.:

Original story follows.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

IGN has independently verified that Naka left the company at the end of April, after Nintendeal pointed out that the developer’s Facebook page had been updated to list an end point to his employment at Square Enix. It remains unclear if Naka’s departure was his decision or Square Enix’s.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/30/balan-wonderworld-review”]

Upon joining Square Enix, Naka had opened his own internal studio, Balan Company, to make Balan Wonderworld. Naka had previously told IGN that the game was his “one chance” to make a platformer for the publisher. When the game arrived, it was critically panned, and has seemingly struggled commercially.

IGN awarded the game a 4/10 review, saying that it “isn’t always an awful platformer, but it is a consistently boring one.” After arriving in March, the game never cracked the top 20 best-selling games in the US, according to NPD reports, and SteamDB reports that the game reached a peak number of concurrent players the day after launch, with just 124.

Much remains unclear after Naka’s departure, including what his next move will be, or what the fate of Balan Company and its other employees has been. IGN has contacted Naka and Square Enix for comment.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Splatoon 3: What We Want At E3 2021

While Switch’s 2022 lineup is still largely a mystery, we know of one marquee game coming to the system next year: Splatoon 3. The next entry in Nintendo’s colorful online shooter series is slated to hit the Switch sometime in 2022, and it looks like it’ll shake up the familiar Splatoon gameplay in some notable ways. Although Nintendo’s E3 Direct will focus largely on games coming this year, there’s a chance the company will show off more of Splatoon 3 during the presentation, and here’s what we hope we’ll see.

What We Know So Far

Nintendo officially announced Splatoon 3 at the end of its February Nintendo Direct, and the game’s reveal trailer gave us a look at some major changes for the series. The most obvious is the setting. Splatoon 3 takes place in an arid desert wasteland known as the Splatlands. At the heart of the desert is a new hub city called Splatsville, where players will gather between matches.

We also know the series’ signature 4v4 Turf Wars will return in Splatoon 3, but this time, there will be new stages set in the wilds around Splatsville. Nintendo teases there will be new moves and weapons, as well; we got a glimpse at a new bow and a crab-shaped autobomb during the reveal trailer. It also appears that players will now launch themselves onto the map from the air rather than spawning in at designated locations.

Beyond that, however, Nintendo hasn’t confirmed much about Splatoon 3, but there are indications there will be some sort of story mode, as in past games. The reveal trailer showed off a customizable Small Fry Salmonid buddy that will accompany the player, so there will presumably be some explanation of how that relationship came to be. We also know that Splatoon 3 isn’t slated to launch until sometime in 2022, so it’s still a way off from release.

What’s Confirmed For E3 2021

All Nintendo has confirmed thus far is that it’s airing a 40-minute Nintendo Direct on June 15, which is technically the final day of E3 2021. The company says the presentation will focus on Switch games “mostly releasing in 2021,” but that wording leaves enough wiggle room to suggest we’ll see some 2022 titles as well. Considering that Splatoon is now one of Nintendo’s best-selling franchises, it seems like there’s a good chance we’ll get another look at Splatoon 3 during the Direct–but that’s purely speculative at this point.

What We Hope To See At E3 2021

If Nintendo showcases Splatoon 3 during its E3 2021 Direct, we really hope the company will show off more of the game’s new weapons and other changes. It’s been very rare to see Nintendo release a sequel to one of its multiplayer-centric games during the same console generation, so we’re eager to learn more about how the game will set itself apart from Splatoon 2. A closer look at the new maps and any new special abilities being introduced would generate a lot of excitement.

The bow, a new weapon being introduced in Splatoon 3
The bow, a new weapon being introduced in Splatoon 3

We also hope to learn more about the game’s story and how it ties back to Splatoon 2’s Splatocalypse. Nintendo had said that event would determine the future of the series, and Team Chaos was ultimately victorious, which seems to have influenced the new, almost Mad Max-style setting. We hope Nintendo will give us more insight into what happened between Splatoon 2 and 3, and whether or not any familiar characters like Pearl and Marina will return in the new game.

Finally, we’re hoping Splatoon 3 gets a firm release date. Considering that the game’s not coming out until 2022, that admittedly doesn’t seem very likely, but even a release window would be nice, and it would give Switch owners a better idea of what they have to look forward to next year.

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out

12 Things You Didn’t Know About Sonic The Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the most iconic gaming heroes of our time. But – how much about Sonic and his creation throughout the decades do you know? Here are 12 Things about Sonic the Hedgehog you Might Not Know.

While the original Sonic the Hedgehog game had plenty of interesting zones that would become series staples – such as Green Hill Zone, or even the look and feel of Spring Yard Zone… which would basically evolve into Casino Night Zone – there were a couple of super interesting ones that never made the final cut.

It was also long rumored that Michael Jackson was involved in making the music for Sonic 3. He was reportedly a huge fan of Sega, and there was, of course, a Michael Jackson video game, Moonwalker.

PlayStation and PC Exclusive Oddworld: Soulstorm Rated for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC exclusive Oddworld: Soulstorm has been rated by the ESRB for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One.

As reported by Gematsu, Oddworld: Soulstorm features an ESRB rating of Teen for Blood and Gore, Language, Use of Tobacco, and Violence, and the platforms listed on this particular rating are Xbox One and Xbox Series.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/13/oddworld-soulstorm-review”]

This is a relatively good indication that an official announcement of Oddworld: Soulstorm arriving on Xbox platforms should be on its way, and it very well may happen during the week of E3 2021.

Just yesterday, an ESRB rating was spotted for Xbox and PC exclusive The Medium, signaling it may soon find its way to PS5.

Oddworld: Soulstorm was released in April 2021 and was available as part of that month’s PlayStation Plus games alongside Days Gone and Zombie Army 4: Dead War.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/03/april-2021s-best-and-worst-reviewed-games-reviews-in-review”]

In our review of Oddworld: Soulstorm, we said that it “is an excellent remake of a delightfully weird ’90s platformer with tons of charm, challenge… and annoying bugs.”

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

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

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

Daily Deals: Amazon Prime Members Can Earn Free Money With This Deal

This Saturday has brought with it quite the mix of deals, but they all have one thing in common, great savings. Need an air fryer? Best Buy has one discounted by over 50%. A new computer? We’ve got a couple great looking Dell laptops on offer. Games? Then you’ve come to the right place, as all kinds are currently on sale and can be found further down the page.

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=daily-deals-june-5-2021″][poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=daily-deals-games-roundup”]

Guerrilla Collective 2021 Day 1: Everything Announced and Revealed

The Guerrilla Collective online digital festival is back for its second year and the showcase is set to feature over 80 games from tinyBuild, 505 Games, Innersloth, and more. Produced by The Media Indie Exchange (The MIX), this year’s show takes place today, June 5, and next Saturday, June 12.

From Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night to Omni to Endling, check out each and every game, announcement, gameplay video, and trailer from the Guerrilla Collective’s first day below;

Aeon Drive

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/aeon-drive-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Aeon Drive, the speedrun action-platformer set in Cyberpunk Barcelona, received a new gameplay video that features Jackelyne, her sword, teleportation dagger, and unique skill to control time. Players must retrieve faulty pieces of dimension-bending machinery in order to preserve the space-time of the universe.

AK-xolotl

AK-xolotl is a top-down arcade battle arena shooter featuring “the cutest amphibian.” In this game, you become an axolotl who is equipped with an AK and you must defend your pond from enemy invaders!

ANNO: Mutationem

ANNO: Mutationem is an action-adventure game with RPG elements set in a cyberpunk world, featuring a unique mix of pixelated 2D & 3D graphics with a rich, dark and bizarre plot.

Beasts of Maravilla Island

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/beasts-of-maravilla-island-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Take on the role of a young wildlife photographer in the 3D adventure game Beasts of Maravilla, a game all about traversing a beautiful island to “discover extraordinary creatures, learn their behaviors, and, most importantly, photograph their majesty.”

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is an exploration-focused, side-scroller action RPG by Koji Igarashi. Play as Miriam, an orphan scarred by an alchemist’s curse that slowly crystallizes her body. Battle through a demon-infested castle and defeat its master to save yourself, and all of humanity! It was announced that Bloodstained will be headed to Google Stadia.

Chernobylite

From developer Farm 51 comes Chernobylite, a science fiction survival horror RPG set in “the hyper-realistic, 3D-scanned wasteland of Chernobyls’ exclusion zone.”

“You will take on the role of Igor Khymynyuk, a former physicist and ex-employee of Chernobyl, 30 years on from that fateful day, April 26th, 1986,” The official description reads. “The day that changed Chernobyl, and his life, forever. Haunted by the loss of your fiancée Tatiana Amalievain, in the chaotic aftermath, you return to Pripyat for the first time to investigate her mysterious disappearance. Can you survive the harsh and unforgiving environment in your search for the truth?”

El Paso, Elsewhere

El Paso, Elsewhere is a supernatural neo-noir third-person shooter that has players hunting werewolves, fallen angels, and other damned creatures in “a vivid slow motion love letter to action classics.” Save victims of Draculae, the lord of the vampires, and explore a three-story motel that has somehow gained 46 stories… all below ground.

Elderand

Elderand received a new gameplay video, and it showed more of the Lovecraftian-inspired story-driven action-RPG that has players fighting in “a dreadful world rich in treasures and deadly creatures.”

Endling

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/endling-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Endling tasks players with becoming a fox mother who happens to be the last of her kind after humanity ravaged the planet. Help your three vulnerable babies through a “dystopian future of an exploited Earth, where there is barely enough room or food for them to survive.

Fire Tonight

Fire Tonight is a narrative puzzle game set in 1990 following a couple’s quest to reunite in a city on fire. Become Maya and traverse city blocks while avoiding fires and solving puzzles to find Devin’s apartment. While Maya is making her way to Devin, Devin himself “reminisces about their time together as he looks at all the mementos scattered around his apartment.”

Grow: Song of the Evertree

As the last of the Everheart Alchemists, it is your ancestral task and privilege to care for the Evertree, a place where “many worlds resided on its countless branches.” The Evertree is now nothing more than a sapling and no one but you knows how to make it grow. See your actions change the world for the better and bring the Evertree back to life in Endling, a “breathtaking world-crafting sandbox, with life management and adventure elements.”

Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/guild-of-dungeoneering-ultimate-edition-announcement-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition is a completely rebuilt version of the award-winning 2015 indie hit from Gambrinous. In this turn-based dungeon crawler with a twist, instead of controlling the hero you build the dungeon around them. Using cards drawn from your guild decks you lay down rooms, monsters, traps and of course loot!

INDUSTRIA

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/industria-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

INDUSTRIA is a first-person shooter that takes you from East Berlin into a parallel reality, shortly before the end of the Cold War. On the search for a missing work colleague, you decypher a dark past in a mysterious parallel dimension.

Kraken Academy

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/kraken-academy-animated-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Make friends, free spirits, and make sure that the world doesn’t end! Welcome to Kraken Academy, a technicolor fever dream that, for legal reasons, can only be described as “technically a school.” Join forces with a magical kraken to manipulate a time loop and save the world.

KungFu Kickball

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/kungfu-kickball-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

“Compete against your friends in a fantasy sport that mixes soccer with kung-fu action movies. Fly through the air and unleash a flurry of punches, kicks, and mystical arts to overpower the other team and smash the ball into their bell. Every bell ring counts as a point and the team with the most points when time runs out is crowned the winner.

Hone your skills in the single-player championship modes against increasingly difficult AI, then duke it out with friends in either local multiplayer or online multiplayer in versus or quickmatch modes.”

Lamentum

Lamentum is a pixel art survival horror game, set in New England in the mid-nineteenth century.

Legend of Keepers: Return of the Goddess

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/legend-of-keepers-return-of-the-goddess-dlc-announcement-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Legend of Keepers: Return of the Goddess is the first DLC for the reverse dungeon crawler Legend of Keepers, and it includes a new master, new environments, new monsters and more!”

Moroi

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/moroi-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

You are an amnesic hero that wakes up in a weird castle. Interacting with different characters, you find that the way to escape the castle is to defeat The Red King. Making your way lower and lower through the castle, you realize that he is not who you expect.

My Lovely Wife

My Lovely Wife delves into the depths of a man’s grief after the sudden death of his beloved wife. Explore the notions of one’s willingness to do anything for love and the importance of letting go in this mix of dating, management, and alchemy simulators.

Omno

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/omno-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

A single-player journey of discovery through an ancient world of wonders. Full of puzzles, secrets and obstacles to overcome, where the power of a lost civilisation will carry you through forests, deserts and tundras – even to the clouds.

Onsen Master

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/onsen-master-official-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Onsen Master is a hot spring customer management game where players must create ingredients to match the various customer ailments, across the fantasy island of Izajima!

Rubi: The Wayward Mira

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/rubi-the-wayward-mira-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Rubi: The Wayward Mira is a 2D action-platformer game based in a lush pixel world where science and magic come together. Featuring ability-based progression, Rubi is a Metroidvania at its core, but features nonlinear gameplay with multiple playstyles and endings.

Run Die Run Again (RDRA)

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/run-die-run-again-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Run Die Run Again (RDRA) is a fast-paced first-person precision platformer, where every inch of the environment is out to kill you! A speed-running, trial and error endurance contest, where fast reactions and acrobatic dodging skills are rewarded.

Source of Madness

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/source-of-madness-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

“Source of Madness is a side-scrolling dark action roguelite set in a twisted Lovecraftian-inspired world powered by procedural generation and AI machine learning. Take on the role of a new Acolyte as they embark on a nightmarish odyssey. Uncover the cosmic secrets of the Loam Lands and The Tower of Madness, the moon’s mysterious Citadel.

Fight hordes of nightmarish beasts utilising powerful close-combat magic, explore labyrinthine environments, collect powerful loot and manage your item loadout, then infuse the beasts’ blood at magical altars to unlock additional abilities, perks and spells. Decide your Acolyte’s fate in the customisable skill tree.

As your journey progresses, the arcane lore of the Loam Lands unfurls and plunges you deeper into its dark depths. The world and monsters are rendered using a combination of hand-drawn assets, AI visual manipulation and procedural generation. The monsters inhabiting this dark world are animated using a machine learning AI. This means Source of Madness offers ever-changing landscapes to explore and new monstrosities to face on every run.”

Super Space Club

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/super-space-club-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

In Super Space Club, journey alongside a group of anthropomorphic heroes as they set out to be the top-ranked defenders of the galaxy. You’ll take on various missions, partake in several space dogfights, and jam out to lo-fi beats in this chill, arcade-style shooter.

Tamarindos Freaking Dinner

Tamarindos Freaking Dinner – the spiritual successor of Baobabs Mausoleum – is the second game of the “Jacob Jazz´s Treelogy”. A mix between A 90´s sitcom, Luigi´s Mansion, Metroid Prime & the tabletop game Clue!

The Eternal Cylinder

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/the-eternal-cylinder-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

“In The Eternal Cylinder, players control a herd of adorable creatures called Trebhums and must explore a strange alien world filled with exotic lifeforms, surreal environments, and the constant threat of the Cylinder, a gargantuan rolling structure of ancient origin which crushes everything in its path. In this unique alien ecosystem, real-time world destruction, animal AI, and organic exploration and puzzle design all combine to deliver an unforgettable adventure.

Your Trebhums begin at the bottom of the natural food chain but can mutate and evolve with new physical attributes and abilities by eating a variety of flora and fauna. Discover and adapt dozens of mutations, including new traversal skills like flying and swimming to reach new areas, and new senses to help overcome puzzles and dangers. Your many Trebhums can each have different mutations, empowering you to create a unique herd. Each mutation will also change the physical look of a Trebhum and stacking these will generate surprising new creature designs which players will be able to organically discover as they explore this unique alien world.”

The Legend of TianDing

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/the-legend-of-tianding-official-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

The Legend of Tianding is a sidescrolling action game about Liao Tianding, the legendary Taiwanese Folk Hero. Explore the dazzling streets of Colonial Japanese Taiwan in the early 20th century, as you rob the rich, feed the poor, and expose the darkness lurking in the heart of Taipei.

The Lightbringer

The Lightbringer is a poetic adventure/puzzle platformer with light combat elements, set in a beautiful world claimed by a vile corruption. Guided by your sister’s spirit, you must prevail where she could not. Cleanse the corruption, become The Lightbringer.

Tinkertown

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/tinkertown-new-content-announcement-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Tinkertown is a multiplayer sandbox game where you build your own village and community while exploring dungeons. The latest update, coming June 16, adds a new Desert Dungeon, which includes new “trap” mechanics and monsters, including a new boss.

Trifox

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/trifox-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Trifox is a twin-stick action-adventure game set in a colorful world inspired by classic platformers. In Trifox you play as a multi talented fox on a quest to restore and return peace to his recently invaded and plundered home.

Ultra Age

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/ultra-age-gameplay-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Take on hammer-wielding robots and giant enemies in this trailer for Ultra Age, as showcased during Guerrilla Collective 2021.

Vertigo

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/vertigo-official-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

“Ed Miller, a writer, came out unscathed from his car crash down into Bixby Canyon, California. Even though no one was found inside the car wreckage, Ed insists that he was traveling with his wife and daughter. Traumatized by the event, he begins to suffer from severe vertigo. As he starts therapy, he will try to uncover what really happened on that tragic day.

Prepare yourself for a most disturbing investigation inside the human mind: truth is sometimes worse than madness.”

Ynglet

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/ynglet-launch-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

“Swim, launch and bounce through this meditative floating platformer.

A reactive soundscape creates the soundtrack to your exploration through the playful puzzles of Ynglet’s hand-drawn levels.

In Ynglet you jump between bubbles that float in the sky like you’re a space dolphin, as you melt into a highly reactive and dynamic soundtrack created by Ynglet’s custom (and needlessly complicated) music software!”

Zodiac Legion

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/05/zodiac-legion-official-trailer-summer-of-gaming-2021″]

Zodiac Legion is a turn-based tactical RPG featuring lethal combat, squad management and strategic elements. Lead your heroes through daring raids and forgotten ruins, defend your land in a time of conquest and betrayal, and master the secrets of volatile ancient magic to restore a realm beset by the armies of undying fiendish sorcerers.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

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

Meet the Hacker Exposing Secrets in PT, Bloodborne, God of War, and More

Lance McDonald put himself through hell while hacking the modern horror classic, P.T. Lisa — the ghostly maiden who haunts the game’s endless, amniotic corridors — is hard-coded to jumpscare the player whenever they clip out of bounds. So, if you clip through the game map or interact with the geometry in an unintended way, Lisa pounces through the screen and restarts the loop. For McDonald, that means when he was messing with the game code and exploring the underbelly of the universe, he was constantly risking a frightening interruption.

“I had spent months trying to move the camera around arbitrarily in P.T.,” he recalls. “I had to turn my speakers off most of the time to mitigate those constant jump-scare triggers.”

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/09/09/pt-is-hiding-a-creepy-secret-revealed-only-with-camera-hack”]

McDonald’s hard work paid off. In his months of exploratory hacking, he managed to position P.T.s camera to show him the entire game map from a distance. It was from that vantage point where he discovered a horrifying truth. Apparently, Lisa stood a few feet behind the protagonist at all times, mirroring his movements, and matching his pace as he gingerly crept down the hallway. There was no way to glean that unsettling knowledge in-game; one of P.T.’s more malicious tricks is how the ethereal adversary on your tail is constantly stowed away in your dim periphery. But from way up high, the whole narrative is recontextualized. Lisa was toying with you the whole time — you just needed to hack a PS4 to find out.

“Over the course of a few weeks after discovering this, I tried to make sense of what I’d seen and actually get the camera in a reliable location so that I could demonstrate it clearly,” says McDonald. “The process of actually getting to that point was genuinely intense.”

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”slug=the-best-ps4-games-summer-2020-update&captions=true”]

McDonald has made a name for himself by turning up the secrets like these abandoned deep within the Playstation library. Scroll through his Twitter account and witness a proud gallery of exploits. Remember the first boss battle in God of War? That bare-knuckle brawl with Baldur that sets the tone for the rest of the game? McDonald dredged through the assets, and found that Baldur is flipping the double-deuce as he’s tumbling down a cliffside, (off-camera, of course.) A few weeks ago McDonald managed to melt away Jin’s clothing in Ghost of Tsushima and found a tight, perfectly-modeled butt underneath. Here he is, sprinting naked through a torchlit beach. McDonald is not the first hacker to unearth cut content and taciturn easter eggs, but he is one of the few to grind out these vulnerabilities on a console. Cracking into a PC game is relatively simple — the command prompt is only a “~” away. Doing the same on PS4 is much more complicated. According to McDonald, that’s part of the appeal.

“I’ve always really enjoyed the strange limitations and tools that are required to hack games on console hardware, rather than just running games on emulators and relying on PC tools, where possible. The very messy process of finding a way to actually connect to a modern video game console, and researching or making tools to hack a game in the way I want is something I grew up with and have always found extremely rewarding,” says McDonald. “People often take literal offense to the fact that I insist on always working on physical console hardware instead of using emulation but I’m just over here doing things the way that I grew up doing them, and by taking a unique approach I seem to always find something interesting that no one has seen before, so I feel like it’s justified.”

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/03/27/bloodborne-review”]

McDonald tells me he first became curious about video game hacking after acquiring an Xplorer Cheat Cartridge — similar to a GameShark — as a teenager. He hooked that cartridge up to his PS1 and connected it to a tiny, extremely late-90s 486 laptop. That apparatus allowed McDonald to see all the RAM on the Playstation, which allowed him to edit game code in real-time. He didn’t have internet access, so he slowly decoded the source code without a digital index to rely on. “I was always interested in working out how the camera worked in games like Silent Hill, and making it so I could see things that would otherwise be impossible,” says McDonald. “Especially with games of that nature. There’s always so many things hidden just off screen or obscured. Being able to see things no one else had before was an incredible prospect.”

Three decades later, that passion hasn’t left McDonald, and today he can call himself one of the few full-time video game hackers in the world. His primary source of income is his Twitch stream, and while he doesn’t decompile games live on air, McDonald says a large portion of his audience discovered his stream because of the amazing ways he can bend a PS4 to his will on his Twitter. “It all comes together,” he says. “I upload YouTube videos showing my discoveries when possible but that’s not really a sustainable income compared to the hundreds of hours that go into each video.” Just more proof that in 2021, anything can be your job.

But does McDonald have any lingering white whales? Does the man who exposed Lisa, Baldur, and Jin feel that he has a few more stones left to be unturned? Of course. You won’t be surprised to know that McDonald dreams big. Someday, he hopes to restore Project Beast, the very early Bloodborne build that is said to resemble a much different video game than the Yharnam we eventually received. “[Project Beast] notably had a double-barreled shotgun with reloading animations among so many other things,” he says. It sounds like a long shot, but as everyone who’s followed McDonald’s career, it’s impossible to count him out.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”][poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart to Feature a 60FPS Ray Tracing Mode at Launch

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart’s Day 1 patch will add a Performance RT mode that will allow the game to run at 60FPS with ray tracing enabled.

Revealed by Insomniac Games, the Performance Mode and Performance RT Modes will both be available to all players who update Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart when it is released on PS5 on June 11, 2021.

This is another example of Insomniac Games giving players a best-of-both-worlds option and follows the Performance RT Mode being added to both Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PS5.

Speaking of options, Insomniac has also added an extensive list of accessibility features to Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, which includes the ability to adjust Fire Modes, Aim Mode and Auto Aim, various contrast options, adjusting motion blur and screen shake, and much more.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/12/ratchet-and-clank-rift-apart-ps5-preview-massive-heart-epic-scale”]

For more, check out our final Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart preview, how the latest entry in the series that began on PS2 in 2002 uses PS5’s DualSense and 3D Audio, and how Rivet is core to the game’s ambitions.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.