Author: Trafficblast

We all love our Nintendo Switch, but deal hunters have reason to grumble. The Mario company is famous for maintaining high prices on its first-party games far longer than any other major game maker. Why, for instance, years after release, is Breath of the Wild still selling for $60 on the eShop?

Thankfully, Amazon will throw you a bone (albeit a small one). The online retailer has physical editions of most Switch games, including recent releases like Pokemon Sword, Astral Chain, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and many more, for around $10 off list price. It’s not a huge discount, but it’s not nothing! Here are some of the biggest Switch games you can find discounted right now at Amazon.

Nintendo Switch Game Deals

Don’t see the deals below? Click here.

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• Astral Chain – $49.94 at Amazon
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze – $51.76 at Amazon
• Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – $49.99 at Amazon
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses – $55 at Walmart
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – $49.49 at Amazon
• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – $49.49 at Amazon
• Luigi’s Mansion 3 – $50.90 at Amazon
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – $49.99 at Amazon
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – $44.32 at Amazon
• Mario Tennis Aces – $47.94 at Amazon
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order – $47.99 at Amazon
• Octopath Traveler – $49.92 at Amazon
• Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee – $47.99 at Amazon
• Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu – $49.99 at Best Buy
• Pokemon Shield – $53.99 at Walmart
• Pokemon Sword – $49.49 at Amazon
• Splatoon 2 – $44.99 at Amazon
• Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – $53.90 at Amazon
• Super Mario Maker 2 – $49.94 at Amazon
• Super Mario Odyssey – $49.94 at Amazon
• Super Mario Party – $49.99 at Amazon
• Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore – $49.49 at Amazon
• The Witcher 3 – $49.99 at Amazon
• Yoshi’s Crafted World – $49.99 at Amazon

And if you want to up your t-shirt game, be sure to visit the IGN Store and take a look at our Nintendo shirts. We have some great looking Mario, Zelda, and Animal Crossing styles.

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Chris Reed is IGN’s shopping and commerce editor. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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The X-Men may have achieved immortality, but every gift comes with a price. And in this case, the X-Men charge a heavy toll for the gift of mutant resurrection.

Read on to learn more about a macabre new ritual introduced in X-Men #7, but beware of spoilers ahead!

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The mutant race has suffered a great deal in recent years, particularly thanks to the events of House of M and Scarlet Witch’s misguided attempt to eliminate mutants altogether. Professor Xavier’s new resurrection machine finally gives the X-Men the ability to reverse that tragedy and restore all the mutants who lost their powers on M-Day. The catch is that they have to die first.

X-Men #7 introduces a grotesque Krakoan ritual called the Crucible. Basically, any de-powered mutant is free to seek a death and resurrection, but they have to earn that resurrection by fighting Apocalypse to the death. (Oh, you hadn’t heard? Apocalypse is part of the X-Men now.) The point isn’t to actually defeat the all-powerful Apocalypse, but to prove oneself worthy through ritualistic combat. That’s the ordeal Melody Guthrie (Cannonball’s sister) faces as she seeks to reclaim the power that was stolen from her.

Melody proves herself brave in the face of certain death, with Apocalypse savagely beating her and granting what he considers an honorable end. Melody is then resurrected with her powers restored and brought before the nation of Krakoa, now fully accepted as one of their own.

This is just the latest sign things have gone a little kooky in the X-Men world. From the beginning of writer Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men run, signs have been appearing that Professor Xavier may have turned evil. Powers of X #6 lent further fuel to that fire with the reveal Moira MacTaggert has spent years chipping away at Xavier’s moral code and making him more accepting of her extreme plans for mutantkind. The end result being Xavier has no problem watching as Apocalypse literally beats his students to death.

The reveal of the Crucible may lend some insight into one of the bigger questions surrounding the new X-Men status quo. If Moira showed Xavier and Magneto the future of the mutant race, why didn’t they do anything to prevent tragedies like the genocide on Genosha or M-Day? Based on the events of X-Men #7, it can be inferred that Xavier saw those events as necessary evils in order to show mutants the threat posed by humanity. Only by losing their powers and being forged in the fire of combat can these mutants become who they were meant to be.

Needless to say, many of the X-Men have mixed feelings about the Crucible and the consequences of unlimited mutant resurrection. The highly spiritual Nightcrawler is especially bothered by the implications of resurrection, wondering aloud to Cyclops whether a mutant’s soul returns to each new resurrected body or if these clones truly are nothing more than copies. Nightcrawler also ponders the implications of mutants finding a true paradise on Earth and whether that renders the afterlife unnecessary. In order to help confront these difficult conundrums, Nightcrawler announces his intention to create a new mutant religion.

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For more on the shocking state of affairs in the mutant world, find out which X-Men villain may bring Krakoa crashing down and how Marvel is using Free Comic Book Day to kick off the next phase of this X-Men saga.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Dreams, Media Molecule’s newest game-slash-creation tool, has been a hit with creatives looking to flex their game design prowess. But some say the discovery tool that’s meant to highlight up-and-coming projects tend to favor viral content over original creations, something Media Molecule says it’s looking to address.

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Dreams is a tool that lets creators work within the Dreams game engine and create all kinds of games, animations, and visual content. We’ve already seen wildly imaginative creations come out of Dreams already, and there’s even a Trending Dreams tab that’s meant to highlight some of the most popular Dreams creations.

But one critique of the Trending system is how it places more weight on games based purely on plays and not necessarily likes. In practice, this floats remakes and “memes” up to the top over original creations that may not have gone viral.

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“Feedback is a vital part of helping us shape and grow the Dreams community,” a Media Molecule spokesperson tells IGN when we reached out regarding these concerns. “We started making the first changes to our recommendation & discovery algorithms in Early Access and plan on continuing that work to improve them as we go.”

Media Molecule specifically mentions the Reddit thread saying, “The Reddit thread currently contains some good ideas, such as the ‘likes vs plays’ ratio currently and we are certainly giving them some careful consideration as part of this process.”

The studio didn’t mention specifically how it’s looking to change the Trending algorithm, but the developers are looking at the discussion in the Reddit thread. And there’s plenty of lively discussion from the community on some potential changes.

“The trending algorithm right now is rewarding clickbait and it is suffocating high-quality content,” writes one commenter. “There are two things that we need trending to do: 1. Direct users to content they are likely to enjoy 2. Ensure that high-quality creations get the attention they deserve. Right now it is doing neither.”

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Dreams boast several remakes of existing games. Games like Fallout 4, Persona 5, Ghost of Tsushima, Spyro, and more have all been remade in Dreams. And while original games like a project that lets players control a giant Kaiju have broken through, many argue that they’re still overwhelmingly buried underneath recognizable remakes. Especially since there are professional developers who believe Dreams can be a powerful tool for creating original games.

“I get what you’re saying but memes and remakes and random superhero free roam games won’t stop because that’s what younger audiences love and hey, I am not against those,” writes another commenter. “I think those projects are as welcomed as any other in Dreams. The problem is that the trending button is putting only the most played games at the top. It doesn’t matter if, in 300 plays, you get 300 likes. If a meme game gets 10 likes from 3k plays, it will overshadow your flawless game. That’s definitely an issue that won’t ease over time if [Media Molecule] doesn’t work on the matter [in my opinion].”

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Other commenters have said that the algorithm did change following the end of the early access period. And considering the studio wants to improve the system as well, Media Molecule says it will implement changes to the Trending tab with consideration to the community.

At less than a month out from Dreams’ official release, Media Molecule has already gathered a committed community excited about the game and its potential. Check out IGN’s Dreams review and wiki for starter tips, guides, and more.

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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.

Modders have had an enjoyable time with Red Dead Redemption 2 since its release on PC in November 2019. Whether it’s letting the player fly around as an eagle, turning Arthur Morgan into the Joker, or being able to access freecam and enable a photorealistic reshade. Much like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas before it, there’s even a Hot Coffee mini-game now, too. Publisher Take-Two Interactive would prefer that there wasn’t, however.

Hot Coffee was an inaccessible mini-game in San Andreas where protagonist CJ could have sex with his girlfriend. The simulated intercourse was fully clothed and more humorous than anything else, but it gained infamy in 2005 when the game was released on PC and modders dug it out of the code. There was plenty of furore from lawmakers and the public alike, and San Andreas was quickly re-rated as “Adults Only” by the ESRB until Rockstar patched the content out.

Nowadays modders can just make things themselves without having to rely on buried code, which is where Red Dead Redemption 2’s Hot Coffee mod comes into the equation. It might not be around for much longer, though, as YouTuber Swegta says in a video that legal representatives for Rockstar and Take-Two have told the mod makers they need to take it down. The video quotes e-mail correspondence from the law firm, stating that the mod violates “the game’s End User Licence Agreement and Code of Conduct, as well as a host of other legal violations.”

It goes on to say that “Rockstar’s EULA licence conditions prohibits acts like decompiling, preparing derivative works based on, or otherwise modifying the software,” and that “the Code of Conduct for online services includes a prohibition on users creating, uploading, or posting material that is vulgar, obscene, sexually oriented, or inconsistent with community standards.

“It is the Hot Coffee mod that is causing particular concern here and the main reason why the mod needs to be taken down and disabled immediately.”

One of the mod makers, called Unlosing, confirmed with PCGamesN that a representative from Rockstar did ask them to take the mod down, but they argued that it doesn’t actually break any rules. “The mod doesn’t contain any nudity or nude models, and only uses assets that are still in the game,” Unlosing said. “The animations are from the drunk bar mission with Lenny (which are still in the game), and the ‘moaning’ noises are simply the sounds the [character models] make when they get injured. Also, they mention ‘online services,’ however this mod is only available for single-player.”

The Hot Coffee mod is still available, but for how much longer remains to be seen.

The team behind Diablo IV have released the first in a series of quarterly blog posts taking a look at some of the changes coming to the series, particularly in the UI department.

As part of the game’s darker art direction, Blizzard has rejiggered the inventory system to make the individual parts more visible during hectic play, primarily by changing the color spread and contrast levels of the UI. In terms of general UI design, the PC version of Diablo IV will allow players to choose either a center or left-corner configuration for their status bar, while the console version will use the corner option.

According to the post, all items in Diablo IV will take up the same number of inventory slots, as the team feels that they don’t want to interrupt gameplay with “pockets of inventory management.” Diablo IV will also allow the player to bind any skill to any key, including left-click, which was a feature that many fans requested. The game supports either controller or mouse and keyboard on PC, which required the team to unify the UI for ease of use on either control setup.

The blog post also discusses the monster design of the upcoming game in detail. No word on a release date yet, though.

The Division 2‘s first major expansion, Warlords of New York, launches next week, kicking off Year 2 of Ubisoft’s popular loot-shooter. While you wait, you might want to take a look at this awesome deal on the Dark Zone Definitive Collector’s Edition. Microsoft’s selling the once-seriously-expensive Dark Zone Edition for just $10 on Ebay. The Dark Zone Edition includes a collectible statue and a number of other sweet goodies, but it doesn’t include the game itself. That’s not really an issue considering how cheap The Division 2 is going for right now. The Dark Zone Edition originally sold for $190, so this is an excellent deal.

The Division 2 Dark Zone Collector’s Edition (game not included) | $10 ($190)

Despite not coming with the game, the Dark Zone Edition is still in new condition. If you don’t already own the base game, it’s on sale for just $3 right now on all platforms at the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, and Ubisoft Store (PC).

In addition to the Division agent statue, the Dark Zone Edition comes with a book of lithographs, the game soundtrack on CD, a map of Washington D.C., and a collectible steelbook case.

Warlords of New York will take The Division 2 back to New York City, the setting of the first game, on March 3. It will feature a brand-new campaign set in previously unexplored Lower Manhattan, side-quests, and numerous tweaks, including raising the level cap to 40. Until March 2, you can play the base game for free on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. If you’re a returning player, make sure to check out our Warlords of New York pre-order guide for all of the details you need to know about the various editions and bonuses.

Fans of the ever popular Star Wars franchise think they might have discovered a new Baby Yoda in concept art for the new Star Wars: The High Republic project.

The image spotted by fans can be found at about 2:31 during the announcement trailer. In a photo of artist Ian McKay, a board of sketches can be seen behind him, containing some drawings that look rather Yoda-like.

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The final two images on the top row look like they could be a new Baby Yoda. Alternatively, these could be just young versions of the Master Yoda fans know and love. But, given the timeline of The High Republic, Yoda would be about 700 years old. With the furthest image looking a little too young, perhaps this means we’ll get to meet another younger member of Yoda’s species?

This is, of course, just concept art. Even if the image is what fans are thinking, it doesn’t mean we’ll see anything like that in any of the stories. After the way the internet exploded with Baby Yoda in The Mandalorian, if there is a new young cute Yoda, everyone will probably hear about it soon enough.

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Star Wars: The High Republic is a publishing initiative which will include novels, books, and comics all set around the time when the High Republic thrived and Jedi were more akin to the Knights of the Round table. Hopefully this will fill the Death Star-sized hole in fans’ lives until we see a new Star Wars film in 2022.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Music fans, rejoice! Studio Ghibli has released 38 soundtracks from its celebrated anime films across several major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play and YouTube Music, though some regions are only displaying a limited number of songs.

Hypebeast reports that, in total, 693 tracks from 23 Studio Ghibli films, excluding 1988’s Grave of the Fireflies for which the studio doesn’t control the rights, are now available across these popular streamers, delighting many listeners around the globe.

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By making Studio Ghibli’s music widely available, more people can now be transported to the whimsical worlds of the studio’s beloved classics, including the likes of Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totoro.

In addition to its catalogue of compositions, Studio Ghibli has also compiled 15 “image albums”, featuring music inspired by characters and moments from its films such as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Porco Rosso.

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This news comes shortly after Netflix added its first wave of Studio Ghibli films to its service for subscribers outside of North America and Japan, with the next batch of titles set to be released on March 1, 2020.

Elsewhere, HBO Max previously announced that it had acquired US streaming rights to Studio Ghibli’s famed body of work, which will be available to stream on their new platform when it launches in Spring 2020.

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For more on the Japanese arthouse, read about the two new films Studio Ghibli is working on in 2020, find out about the new Studio Ghibli theme park opening in 2022 and check out our list of Top 10 Hayao Miyazaki movies.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Square Enix has revealed that its games currently in development will be available on both current and next generation consoles, and games exclusively made and released for next-gen consoles will be “somewhat farther down the road”.

The company, which develops Final Fantasy and will publish Marvel’s Avengers, made the announcement in an investor Q&A. President Yosuke Matsuda said:

“The next-generation consoles will have backward compatibility, so we plan for the time being to make our new titles available for both current and next-generation consoles. It will therefore be somewhat farther down the road that we release titles exclusively for the next-generation consoles.”

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What’s interesting here is that mention of backwards compatibility. It may be that Square Enix is only working on current-generation versions of its games right now, because Xbox Series X and PS5 will both play them out of the box. It’s not entirely clear from the text – we asked for clarification from Square Enix, but received a no-comment response.

Microsoft’s new Smart Delivery policy, which allows players to buy a current-gen game and get access to its next-gen version for no extra cost (already adopted by the likes of CD Projekt Red for Cyberpunk 2077), could also be an option. However, Smart Delivery is an opt-in for third-party publishers, who may not want to give multiple copies away for free.

Either way, sticking to current-gen releases is an understandable move – releasing next-gen exclusives results in a far smaller pool of potial buyers, particularly when you take into account that PS4 is now the 4th highest-selling console of all time.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News, and he is playable exclusively on Ouya. Never forget. Follow him on Twitter.