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The closed beta for Amazon’s New World is currently experiencing a rather successful stint on Steam, passing 200,000 concurrent players last weekend.

The MMORPG closed beta began on July 20 and has seemingly been popular with users on the platform. According to reports from SteamDB, New World has seen daily highs of around 180,000 concurrent players. The closed beta peaked on July 25 where the game amassed an impressive 200,856 concurrent players.

At the time of writing, the New World Closed Beta currently ranks sixth in SteamDB’s list of Most Played Games. This places New World higher than many other popular online multiplayer games including Rust, Team Fortress 2, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. In addition, the New World Closed Beta is currently ranked at number one on SteamDB’s Top Trending games list.

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It will be heartening new for Amazon Games, which has struggled to make an impact with its first games. a Grand Tour game was removed from sale, multiple projects have been cancelled, and reports have emerged of struggles with both management and the in-house game engine.

Crucible, a free-to-play multiplayer third-person shooter, was released by Amazon’s Relentless Studios in May 2020. The title saw an all-time high of 25,145 concurrent players before Amazon Games shut down servers in November 2020. Amazon Games said that the development team was “moving on to work on New World and other Amazon Games projects.”

Last week, there was worry amongst some players looking to access the closed beta amid reports that the New World closed beta was allegedly bricking Nvidia RTX 3090 graphics cards for those trying to access the game. Amazon Games responded to the allegations in a tweet:

Please read this message regarding recent concerns with graphics cards hardware. pic.twitter.com/L1gNeBBPQS

— New World (@playnewworld) July 21, 2021

Following this, EVGA also confirmed that it would replace all of the RTX 3090 cards that had seemingly been bricked by the New World closed beta.

Players hoping to gain access to the New World closed beta have a few options. Those interested can either sign up via the New World website for a chance to gain access, or pre-order the full game from Amazon or Steam. The New World closed beta will run until August 2, and the full game is set to release on August 31.

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

The next big update for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is coming tomorrow, July 27, and now Ubisoft has released the full patch notes, including details on its file size and release timing. This is the patch that introduces level-scaling, but it also lays the groundwork for The Siege of Paris DLC, introduces new skills, and fixes lots of bugs and other issues.

Update 1.30 will be released on all platforms July 27 at 5 AM PT / 8 AM ET / 2 PM CEST / 10 PM AEST. In terms of the file size, it’s a big one, though the exact size depends on your platform. PS5 users have a 6.85 GB download, while Xbox Series X|S owners have a 23.79 GB install. Ubisoft did not explain why the file size gap is so substantial between the two next-gen systems.

Patch Sizes:

• Xbox Series X|S: 23.79 GB
• Xbox One: 17.72 GB
• PlayStation 5: 6.85 GB
• PlayStation 4: 15.3-24.5 GB (depending on region)
• PC: 20.4-31.37 GB (main game– season pass)

In terms of the new content, update 1.30 adds the foundation for The Siege of Paris expansion, which launches on August 12 (another download will be required on that day).

As for what you can play on the more immediate horizon, the 1.30 update for Valhalla adds the Sigrblot Festival, which is a limited-time event that runs July 29-August 19. It’s the game’s newest festival and gives players the opportunity to take on new quests and earn rewards like a new one-handed sword.

Perhaps more noteworthy is that the 1.30 update adds optional level-scaling to Valhalla for the first time. If you choose to play with level-scaling and choose the Constant option, you’ll find that enemies will be at least the same power level as you. You can turn off level-scaling completely, or you can put it on Default, which features enemies that are up to 30 power levels under yours–and this is how the game is “intended to be played,” Ubisoft said. There is also a Harder option where enemies are 20+ power levels above you, and a Nightmarish option where they are 50+ above you.

Another thing to note here is that boss fights are treated separately from the new level-scaling and they have their own set intended difficulty settings, Ubisoft said.

The 1.30 update also introduces new skills, including Light Fingered, which allows Eivor to automatically pick up loot without pressing a button. Another new skill is Heidrun Slam, which knocks enemies down with a knee slam. Then there is Wolf Warrior, which increases your damage when your health is lower. You can see descriptions for all the new skills below.

Finally, the patch addresses a lot of bugs and other issues and oddities with Valhalla across audio, graphics, UI, and more. In general, the new patch should offer improved performance and stability. You can see the full patch notes below, as written by Ubisoft and shared on the developer’s website.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla 1.30 Patch Notes

Sigrblot Festival

• Sigrblot Festival is a new time-limited event from July 29-August 19.
• Partake in new festivities and quests to receive exclusive festival rewards (including a one-handed sword!!)
• Players must reach England and complete one of the first two narrative arcs (Grantebridgescire OR Ledecestrescire) and be at least Settlement Level 2 to participate in the Sigrblot Festival.

Level Scaling

• We added a new menu option to the game to adjust NPC levels to your liking. You may choose from the following options:
  • Off = Scaling is turned off; enemies appear exactly as prescribed in the region description.
  • Default = Lower enemies are brought up to 30 power levels under the player’s level (How the game is intended to be played).
  • Constant = Enemies will be at least the same power level of the player.
  • Harder = Enemies will be 20+ power levels above the player.
  • Nightmarish = Enemies will be 50+ power levels above the player.
• Note: Boss encounters and game modes will not be impacted by this as they have their own intended difficulty settings.

Skill Tree Update

• The Skill Tree has improved visibility for new skills added throughout the post-launch.
• We’ve added an option that will auto-acquire all the skill nodes required to reach the currently highlighted node (if you have enough skill points available).

New Skills

RAVEN

• Light Fingered: Eivor will now automatically pick up nearby loot with a quick flick of the wrist (without having to press the interact button). • Thrill of War: Gain adrenaline as long as you remain in conflict.

BEAR

• Heidrun Slam: Press R2 while sprinting to knock enemies back with a powerful knee slam. • Idunn’s Heart: Passively regenerate recent health loss after a short delay.

WOLF

• Survival Instinct: When at less than a third of health, hold -> for partial healing (Exchange adrenaline for health). • Wolf Warrior: Your damage increases the lower your health.

GAME IMPROVEMENTS

WRATH OF THE DRUIDS – EXPANSION 1

Addressed:

• Priest’s body would be missing in Flann Over Ireland.
• Cage cannot be opened to free the prisoners in Tuam caves.
• Only minor runes inside chests in Ireland.
• Shelf not movable in Cashelore.
• Cutscene didn’t start when sieging the church in The Scourging of Snakes.
• Couldn’t confirm kill on The Ash.
• Missing sound and subtitles within Wrath of the Druids.
• King’s Pass not collectible if the Raid is not also completed at the same time.
• Couldn’t collect the prison key in Courting the Kings.
• Barid vanished in Flann Over Ireland.
• Thorstein teleported back to the cave in the Snaring Thorstein.
• Couldn’t progress when the Puca was killed in Into the Fog.

MAIN GAME

Quests, World Events, and Side Activities

Addressed:

• Infinite Loading screens during various quests.
• Couldn’t complete War of the Collectors, Aelfred’s Jewels, Saint Faith, The Lost Drengir of Ragnar Lothbrok, Lamb Chops, Splitting Hares world events.
• Faravid wouldn’t get on the horse in This Son of Jorvik *This Son of Jorvik indeed*
• Catching the fish with weapons wouldn’t count towards quest objective in Bloody Path to Peace.
• Couldn’t fight Leofrith in Heavy is the Head.
• Sigurd didn’t follow Eivor in A Brother’s Keeper. *More like A Brother’s Leaver*
• Objective didn’t appear in Twists and Turns *this is how the turn tables*
• Issues interacting with Petra in the settlement.
• Eivor died upon arrival in Hordafylke in The Road to Valhalla.
• Hunter House world event didn’t trigger.
• Hunter & Warlock NPCs missing for The Plight of the Warlock.
• The Banshee world event couldn’t be started or completed.
• Couldn’t progress in the Mistress of the Iron Wood world event.
• Couldn’t interact with the seer in Of Blood and Gods.
• Reaching Hunwald’s house didn’t update the Homecoming quest objective.
• The boss didn’t take damage at the start of Extended Family.
• Hunwald was un-interactable during the Salve for a Fresh Wound.
• Map marker appeared out of bounds in Fiery Ambush.
• Couldn’t interact with Soma or Guthrum in Holy Day.
• Players desynced at the start of the fight in King Killer.
• Couldn’t confirm kill in the Reaver of the South.
• Couldn’t complete The Lost Drengir of Ragnar Lothbrok.
• Guthrum didn’t move in Kingdom’s End.
• Couldn’t collect the key from a body during Pilgrimage to St. Albanes.
• Edmund was missing in Puppets and Prisoners.
• Couldn’t confirm kill against Gotafrid Fair-Robes & Nokkfylla Shine-Eye.
• NPC with the coin didn’t spawn or targets didn’t appear for the arrow challenge in Firing the Arrow.
• Stuck between Binding Fate and Of Blood and Gods. *A Binding Fate, indeed*
• Black screen during Baker’s Plaint.
• Couldn’t interact with Halfdan in War in the North.

Graphics, Audio, and Animation

Addressed:

• Various graphics and lighting issues.
• Various animation and clipping issues.
• Various issues with missing SFX.
• Various issues relating to Audio Menu Narration.

River Raids, Jomsvikings, Raids

Addressed:

• Appropriate rewards not being provided after completing a Raid.
• Rations not healing the proper amount of health for Jomsviking.

Mastery Challenge

Addressed:

• Ability to access restricted areas in Mastery Challenge.
• Guards could be unreachable in Mastery Challenge.
• Player being detected from a stealth bush in the Wenlocan Raven trial.
• Reduced the possibility of doubling Armor sets that were acquired from the Store after completing the Mastery Challenge onboarding quest.
• Unlocked medals remaining after loading an older save game.
• Trouble entering stealth mode in some bushes.

Gameplay, Combat, and AI

Addressed:

• Fire weapons not setting NPCs or combustibles on fire.
• Enemies not taking proper damage from level 2 Incendiary Powder Trap ability.
• NPCs no longer attacking if they were ambushed by a snake. Snake 1, Human 0
• Extended flail combo dealt more damage than intended.
• Sickle Combo Attacks didn’t register properly.
• Various issues with the Viking Salute ability.
• Various issues causing the extended flail combo to do more damage than intended.
• Ostara items missing following Title Update 1.2.2.1.

World

Addressed:

• Instances where Eivor, NPCs, or the long ship would get stuck.
• Instances with misplaced or floating objects or textures.

User Interface/HUD

Addressed:

• Numerous UI/HUD issues.
• Numerous localization issues.
• Trouble exiting Photo mode using the ESC button.
• Some icons not adapting for color-blind modes.
• Silver Booster not applying correctly when looting low value items.

System

• Benchmark is not functional when the game path contains non-ASCII symbols.

Performance and Stability

• Improved performance and stability.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Siege of Paris expansion will be released on August 12, 2021.

The release date was revealed as part of the patch notes for Valhalla’s Title Update 1.3.0, which is set to be deployed on all supported platforms on July 27, 2021.

The Siege of Paris follows the Wrath of the Druids expansion and looks to cover the “most ambitious battle in Viking history” as Eivor and their warband attack the French capital. Alongside bringing back black box infiltration missions, it will also offer new weapons, abilities, skills, and gear.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/12/assassins-creed-valhalla-updates-and-expansions-roadmap”]

Luckily, for fans of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, this won’t be the end of the expansions as Ubisoft is planning even more story DLC for the game’s second year.

As for Title Update 1.3.0, this will add numerous game improvements and new content, including level scaling. Players will be able to adjust the NPC levels to their liking, and the options available will be as follows;

• Off = Scaling is turned off; enemies appear exactly as prescribed in the region description.
• Default = Lower enemies are brought up to 30 power levels under the player’s level (How the game is intended to be played).
• Constant = Enemies will be at least the same power level of the player.
• Harder = Enemies will be 20+ power levels above the player.
• Nightmarish = Enemies will be 50+ power levels above the player.

Boss encounters and certain game modes will not be impacted by this as they have their own intended difficulty settings.

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The update also adds the Sigrblot Festival – a limited time event that will run from July 29-August 19 and will include new festivities, quests, and rewards like a one-handed sword. Some new skills have also been added like Light Fingered, Thrill of War, Heidrun Slam, Idunn’s Heart, Survival Instinct, and Wolf Warrior.

The full list of skills and game improvements is as follows;

New Skills

RAVEN

• Light Fingered: Eivor will now automatically pick up nearby loot with a quick flick of the wrist (without having to press the interact button).
• Thrill of War: Gain adrenaline as long as you remain in conflict.

BEAR

• Heidrun Slam: Press R2 while sprinting to knock enemies back with a powerful knee slam.
• Idunn’s Heart: Passively regenerate recent health loss after a short delay.

WOLF

• Survival Instinct: When at less than a third of health, hold -> for partial healing (Exchange adrenaline for health).
• Wolf Warrior: Your damage increases the lower your health.

Game Improvements

Wrath of the Druids – Expansion 1

• Priest’s body would be missing in Flann Over Ireland.
• Cage cannot be opened to free the prisoners in Tuam caves.
• Only minor runes inside chests in Ireland.
• Shelf not movable in Cashelore.
• Cutscene didn’t start when sieging the church in The Scourging of Snakes.
• Couldn’t confirm kill on The Ash.
• Missing sound and subtitles within Wrath of the Druids.
• King’s Pass not collectible if the Raid is not also completed at the same time.
• Couldn’t collect the prison key in Courting the Kings.
• Barid vanished in Flann Over Ireland.
• Thorstein teleported back to the cave in the Snaring Thorstein.
• Couldn’t progress when the Puca was killed in Into the Fog.

Main Game

Quests, World Events, and Side Activities

• Infinite Loading screens during various quests.
• Couldn’t complete War of the Collectors, Aelfred’s Jewels, Saint Faith, The Lost Drengir of Ragnar Lothbrok, Lamb Chops, Splitting Hares world events.
• Faravid wouldn’t get on the horse in This Son of Jorvik *This Son of Jorvik indeed*
• Catching the fish with weapons wouldn’t count towards quest objective in Bloody Path to Peace.
• Couldn’t fight Leofrith in Heavy is the Head.
• Sigurd didn’t follow Eivor in A Brother’s Keeper. *More like A Brother’s Leaver*
• Objective didn’t appear in Twists and Turns *this is how the turn tables*
• Issues interacting with Petra in the settlement.
• Eivor died upon arrival in Hordafylke in The Road to Valhalla.
• Hunter House world event didn’t trigger.
• Hunter & Warlock NPCs missing for The Plight of the Warlock.
• The Banshee world event couldn’t be started or completed.
• Couldn’t progress in the Mistress of the Iron Wood world event.
• Couldn’t interact with the seer in Of Blood and Gods.
• Reaching Hunwald’s house didn’t update the Homecoming quest objective.
• The boss didn’t take damage at the start of Extended Family.
• Hunwald was un-interactable during the Salve for a Fresh Wound.
• Map marker appeared out of bounds in Fiery Ambush.
• Couldn’t interact with Soma or Guthrum in Holy Day.
• Players desynced at the start of the fight in King Killer.
• Couldn’t confirm kill in the Reaver of the South.
• Couldn’t complete The Lost Drengir of Ragnar Lothbrok.
• Guthrum didn’t move in Kingdom’s End.
• Couldn’t collect the key from a body during Pilgrimage to St. Albanes.
• Edmund was missing in Puppets and Prisoners.
• Couldn’t confirm kill against Gotafrid Fair-Robes & Nokkfylla Shine-Eye.
• NPC with the coin didn’t spawn or targets didn’t appear for the arrow challenge in Firing the Arrow.
• Stuck between Binding Fate and Of Blood and Gods. *A Binding Fate, indeed*
• Black screen during Baker’s Plaint.
• Couldn’t interact with Halfdan in War in the North.

Graphics, Audio, and Animation

• Various graphics and lighting issues.
• Various animation and clipping issues.
• Various issues with missing SFX.
• Various issues relating to Audio Menu Narration.

River Raids, Jomsvikings, Raids

• Appropriate rewards not being provided after completing a Raid.
• Rations not healing the proper amount of health for Jomsviking.

Mastery Challenge

• Ability to access restricted areas in Mastery Challenge.
• Guards could be unreachable in Mastery Challenge.
• Player being detected from a stealth bush in the Wenlocan Raven trial.
• Reduced the possibility of doubling Armor sets that were acquired from the Store after completing the Mastery Challenge onboarding quest.
• Unlocked medals remaining after loading an older save game.
• Trouble entering stealth mode in some bushes.

Gameplay, Combat, and AI

• Fire weapons not setting NPCs or combustibles on fire.
• Enemies not taking proper damage from level 2 Incendiary Powder Trap ability.
• NPCs no longer attacking if they were ambushed by a snake. Snake 1, Human 0
• Extended flail combo dealt more damage than intended.
• Sickle Combo Attacks didn’t register properly.
• Various issues with the Viking Salute ability.
• Various issues causing the extended flail combo to do more damage than intended.
• Ostara items missing following Title Update 1.2.2.1.

World

• Instances where Eivor, NPCs, or the long ship would get stuck.
• Instances with misplaced or floating objects or textures.

User Interface/HUD

• Numerous UI/HUD issues.
• Numerous localization issues.
• Trouble exiting Photo mode using the ESC button.
• Some icons not adapting for color-blind modes.
• Silver Booster not applying correctly when looting low value items.

System

• Benchmark is not functional when the game path contains non-ASCII symbols.

Performance and Stability

• Improved performance and stability.

[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.

Warhammer Vermintide 2’s Update 1.23 is out now, bringing with it an enhanced version for PS5. Players on the current-gen PlayStation can now expect better visuals, higher resolution, and an improved framerate.

The update is headlined by a significant increase in the PS5 version’s framerate, from 30 frames per second to 60fps. In addition, Vermintide 2 will now run at 1440p on PS5, improved from 1080p in the original version. There are also an array of fidelity and quality enhancements, including better shadows, screen space reflections, and tweaked lighting.

Update 1.23 also comes with a suite of other tweaks, fixes, and changes. The vast majority of these are bug fixes across heroes, weapons, UI, and various maps. You can see the full list of Update 1.23’s patch notes below.

Vermintide 2 was optimized for Xbox Series X|S back in December; it runs at 60fps across both consoles. It’s also still available through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Update 1.23 Patch Notes

PS5 Performance Update

• 30fps -> 60fps
• 1080p -> 1440p
• Improved shadow quality
• More shadow casting lights
• Higher density scattering
• Screen space reflections

Crashes

• Fixed some miscellaneous crashes.
• Fixed crash that would happen when a client tries to lift an AI unit with the Lifestaff that has already been despawned on the server.
• Fixed a crash that could occur if a player somehow tried to join a lobby as “Prologue Kruber”.
• Fixed a crash caused by changing skin on melee weapon equipped in ranged slot.
• Fixed a crash that could occur if a terror event was spawned as a level was being unloaded.
• Fixed crash caused when SotT gets despawned (dies or leave the game) before a placed Thorn Wall expires.
• Fixed a crash that could occur if an enemy highlighted by Kerillian’s Trueshot activated ability was killed by another source.

Heroes and Weapons

• Fixed some Javelin melee attacks counting as ranged kills
• Fixed Rapier special sidearm shots counting as melee kills.
• Fixed Javelin automatically issuing a light attack after a charged attack if player has high attack speed.
• Fixed Bounty Hunter’s ‘Just Rewards’ not working when the ranged crit is triggered with the ‘Locked and Loaded’ ability itself.
• Bounty Hunter’s career ability animation now scales properly with speed buffs.
• Saltzpyre should no longer get stuck in aiming (third person) after shooting with the crossbow.
• Fixed an issue where Sienna would remain fully slowed despite having vented to below the threshold.
• Fixed an issue where the Trollhammer Torpedo showing the ammunition when out of ammo.
• Fixed a minor animation issue on Kerillian’s Greatsword where transitioning from light attack hit to heavy charge would cause a frame flickering.
• Fixed a minor animation issue with Engineer’s piston during reload of Trollhammer Torpedo.
• Fixed a super minor issue where changing Staff whilst in the air would cause the Staff to glide/animate weirdly.
• Fixed a minor animation issue where a nocked Arrow could become misaligned with a bow.
• Fixed an animation bug where Kerillian got stuck aiming with her bows (third person) if shooting too fast.

General

• Fixed an issue where breakable planks/blockades would still be impassable for players who hotjoin a map, despite the party having already broke them, rendering the now joined player stuck further back in a level.

UI/UX

• Fixed some Shade items which were presented incorrectly in Lohner’s Emporium of Wonders.
• Blocked the chat window from accidentally opening when the Twitch username textbox has focus.
• Fixed a graphical glitch in the Twitch vote UI.
• The extra resource bars (overcharge, energy & career ability) are now displaced upwards whenever Twitch mode is active so they don’t overlap with the vote UI.
• Changed the Okri’s challenges summary to tally claimed instead of completed challenges. This solves an issue that would show that there were incomplete challenges even though all challenges were claimed.
• Fixed illusions showing “n/a Illusion” in tooltips instead of the item that they can be applied to.

Chaos Wastes

• Fixed an issue where the mouse cursor could remain on-screen and interactive when the player leaves the game whilst the party is in a Map Shrine.
• Animated Portrait Frames should now properly animate on the Chaos Wastes UI.
• Player levels should now display properly when invoking the player list within the Map Shrine UI.

Cinder Peak

• Fixed some land geometry that just wasn’t up to par.
• Fixed a spot where terrain wasn’t solid, and adjusted a chest and enemy spawn point to suit.
• Made optimizations to reduce hits to FPS in areas with a lot of lava.
• Fixed some bits that weren’t network synching properly.

The Foetid Gorge

• Fixed an issue where a player disconnecting with a barrel could softlock the level.
• Fixed various spots where players and bots could get stuck.
• Fixed an issue where Olesya could repeat event VO once the event had ended if a player re-entered the area which triggers said VO line.

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I’ve thought about The World Ends With You often in the 14 years since its Nintendo DS debut. Its incredible soundtrack, the irresistible vibes of the city of Shibuya, and its compelling coming-of-age journey stuck with me even when the weird intricacies of its plot had faded. So my desire for its long-awaited Switch sequel, NEO: The World Ends With You, was not necessarily that it would answer every hanging plot thread that had been left at the end of a game I played years ago. Rather, I hoped it could recapture the feelings that made the original so special: themes of growth, connection, and love of a place because of its people.

While NEO mostly delivers in that regard, what’s also clear is that Square Enix was so eager to at last revisit the same stories, characters, and places of its predecessor that it left this follow-up little room to tell an interesting new story or reach a new emotional peak of its own. Still, it’s a homecoming that’s pulled off well enough, with a flashy signature style and entertaining combat mechanics that were translated surprisingly well to the Switch.

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NEO: The World Ends With You takes place in a parallel version of Shibuya, Japan, where the deceased are sent to play a sadistic week-long “Reapers’ Game” for the right to return to life. The passive new protagonist Rindo and his charming cinnamon roll of a best friend Fret are sent to this alternate reality after Rindo has a strange and upsetting vision of Shibuya in chaos, and are later joined by the fangirlish Nagi and returning, math-obsessed, former antagonist Minamimoto. Across seven days, the group completes challenges, fights off strange monster-like enemies called the Noise, and solves puzzles set by the death warden Reapers. It’s a set-up that will be familiar to fans of the first game, but with the interesting new twist that instead of pairing off, players can form teams of unlimited size and work together as a group to “win” and set their entire group free. This welcome choice that allows NEO to explore a much larger party of allies at once than the first game could, while also opening the door to dynamics between competing players rather than merely implying their existence.

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Even though Rindo and friends are effectively ghosts, they can still interact in limited ways with the real-world Shibuya by visiting shops or restaurants. And just as in the first game, Shibuya remains a delight to explore, stuffed with fashion, food, music, and culture. It’s vibrant and exuberant, packed with real-world references and clearly assembled by a team of artists and designers that adores the actual city. Some of the best objectives in NEO involve getting to know its fictional Shibuya better, whether that’s by exploring its urban legends or seeking out notable landmarks. I loved popping into restaurants to stuff my characters with mouth-watering ramen, piles of fluffy pancakes, and spicy curry, or revisiting shops chapter after chapter to see what hot new couture I could buff them up with.

But beyond these bold strokes, NEO is full of small touches that bring its Shibuya to life. You can see them in its detailed art and character designs, and in the flavor text of equipment and the skill-tree-like “social network.” But the best example stems from Rindo’s ability to scan NPCs and read their thoughts. Apart from the required plot moments, scanning serves no gameplay purpose beyond giving you a better understanding of the world of NEO. Passersby will muse about their relationships, idols, TV shows, food, gaming, school, work, and plenty more. You can’t do anything with this information, but these pensive moments are well-written and charming, and help paint a brighter picture of NEO’s Shibuya and why its inhabitants love it so much.

Inseparable from all of this is NEO’s music, which continues in the footsteps of its predecessor as one of the most stand-out and bopping video game soundtracks I’ve ever heard. It spans multiple genres including hip-hop, rock, pop, and metal, and includes plenty of new tracks alongside remixes of fan favorites – often perfectly timed atop big story moments that excited me as a long-time fan. There are very few songs in this playlist that aren’t earworms, though new hits like Kill the Itch, bird in the hand, Breaking Free, and remixes of Calling, Transformation, and Twister are stand-outs.

Pin-demonium

Alongside its joyous portrayal of Shibuya, what further impressed me throughout NEO were the myriad ways in which it was also able to translate the spirit of the original’s mechanics and feel onto a very, very different console – one that, in case you didn’t notice, only has a single screen. Nowhere is this more evident than in the real-time battle system, which layers familiar 3D hacking and slashing with a timing-based combo system and a whole host of customizability. NEO succeeds at the unenviable task of following up a dual-screen, touch input-focused system with a button-based one, while still emphasizing teamwork and “flow” between the different characters.

The World Ends With You on DS had you activating ability-granting “pins” in battle by using different touchscreen motions, such as taps, swipes, or drawing certain shapes. In NEO, each character in your party can now only be equipped with a single pin at a time, with different pins corresponding to different kinds of attacks that are each cleverly assigned to a specific button. For instance, the X button will typically have pins with rapidfire, close-range attacks, while Y has fast long-range moves. Each character can use a pin a certain number of times before it must recharge, making it necessary to balance their usage so you’re not sitting on your butt half the battle. The sheer quantity and diversity of pins available made finding them, growing them into stronger forms, and testing them in different combinations to achieve a smooth flow during combat a blast, especially in the later chapters and once I started chasing pins only accessible on harder difficulties.

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There’s also a “groove” system that rewards you with powerful finishers for correctly timing combos and chaining attacks between different characters that is especially satisfying. I loved the thrill of Fret pulling off a pristine combo with a flaming sword, followed up by a big aerial kick from Minamimoto, passing to Rindo to shoot electricity out of his hands for a spell, and wrapping it all up by having Nagi drop a semi-truck on an enemy’s head before launching into a team finisher move, then passing back to Fret to do it all over again. That’s a peak I was always chasing, but the reality was that I spent a decent chunk of the roughly 40- to 50-hour campaign experimenting to find the moments where it flowed just right like that.

Especially in NEO’s first half, you won’t have a wide enough arsenal of pins to have perfectly smooth battles every time – or even if you do, your favorite pins might be outclassed by less comfy ones in sheer damage numbers. The solution is usually to grind more or try harder difficulties in the hope of getting better pins, which isn’t necessarily an ideal answer. Though it’s worth adding that, having appreciated the difficulty options and associated collect-a-thons from The World Ends With You, I was delighted to see these customizations return in all their robustness for NEO, further giving me reason to return after the credits had rolled.

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Hitting those good vibes are what will ultimately stick with me about NEO’s battle system, but the groove had its missteps, too. For one, NEO’s boss battles seemed to only either be effective but unmemorable, or flashy but frustrating. The later hours have a number of battles with some truly fascinating twists and turns, but its dodge and camera controls aren’t always up to the task of keeping your team out of danger but also in view. Because you only control one character at a time (whichever one last used a pin), the AI is left to manage the rest of your party and will often walk them through poison clouds or directly into attacks that you correctly dodged, meaning you might lose a fight here or there despite doing everything right. This doesn’t happen often, but in fights with huge enemies boasting hard-hitting moves, it can feel more like you’re fighting your comrades than the enemy.

I also ran into a few annoying bugs in battles, especially in later chapters. Multiple times, enemies mysteriously got launched outside the official boundaries of the battlefield, making them nearly impossible to hit and forcing me to randomly fire off long-range attacks in the hope a few would connect and eventually whittle down their HP so I could move on. One enemy turned invisible (it was not supposed to turn invisible, though there are other foes that do have this as a functional mechanic) and became completely undamageable by anyone for any reason, forcing me to start a chain of eight interlinked fights all over again. Another time, NEO completely crashed as I was entering a very dramatic boss fight. These were small blips in the grand scheme, but happened just often enough to frustrate and merit mention.

Wicked Plot Twisters

Story-wise, NEO is as direct a sequel to The World Ends With You as one could want, despite coming 14 years after it. Without getting into any spoiler-y specifics, put simply: if you liked The World Ends With You and are hungry for resolution to the numerous plot threads left dangling at the end of it, NEO is likely to be very satisfying. I highly recommend either playing The World Ends With You: Final Mix or watching the anime first, though – while the characters try their best to summarize certain major events key to the setup of NEO, the weird intricacies of that story can be difficult to follow if you’re just listening to characters deliver rushed summaries to a confused Rindo.

What NEO unfortunately sacrifices in its success as a direct sequel are its new, original characters. Rindo, Fret, Nagi, Shoka, Kanon, and other new members of the cast have occasional moments of depth and development, but they never quite reach the heights of the arcs in the first game. The first World Ends With You was all about Shiki, Beat, Joshua, and especially main protagonist Neku coming to terms with their own weaknesses, reckoning with trauma, and growing up a little through their connections with one another. NEO’s new cast doesn’t get the same space to tackle that growth because they’re constantly giving up their own time to returning plots and problems.

When they do get a bit of character development, it’s usually all smashed into one day here or there, with characters making bold pronouncements about themselves or others with little build-up or explanation. The main protagonist, Rindo, in particular gets done dirty by an arc that boils his problems down to a single, flimsy character flaw he only meaningfully exhibits once or twice. The rest of the time he’s not much more than a plot delivery vehicle. Without your lead hero having a meaningful conflict or a central perspective, a lot of NEO’s intended emotional peaks don’t matter nearly as much as they should, whether you played the original or not.

That’s a shame, because Rindo and his friends are a genuinely fun group to spend time with, especially compared to the antisocial tendencies of their predecessor, Neku. The writing of NEO is, largely, a delightful bit of work that leans into modern youth and meme culture without coming off as too corny or “How do you do, fellow kids?”, and it has both the English and Japanese voice acting to match. The one exception is a spoiler-loaded character that appears in the middle of the story, whose speech felt both awkward and appropriative in a way that was totally unnecessary given that character’s setup.

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As someone who adored The World Ends With You as a teenager and waited eagerly for a sequel for over a decade, I found myself feeling a bit conflicted about what NEO tried to do and whether or not it succeeded. It’s a worthy sequel both in how it captures the feel and spirit of the DS game, as well as in the very direct ways in which it follows up its story. But with such a long gap between the two, I found myself disappointed that NEO leaned so heavily on the nostalgia I had for characters I loved as a teenager, and didn’t do more to embrace the new characters and stories I was excited to get invested in as an adult (and especially the ones that headlined all its marketing).

It’s hard to say much without spoiling anything, but there’s a point about 20 hours into the 40- to 50-hour story where it becomes very apparent that NEO is not really about what the trailers and box art want you to think it’s about. That might be fine for some, especially those who checked out the Final Mix version of The World Ends With You or the recent anime, but even those connections can’t magically give NEO a theme and throughline of its own as strong as its predecessor. NEO feels like it’s here to finish what The World Ends With You started, and it does that well enough. I just wish it hadn’t sacrificed its own story and characters to do so.

IGN is excited to officially reveal Jumpstart: Historic Horizons, a Magic: The Gathering set coming exclusively to MTG Arena on August 12. Historic Horizons will contain 782 cards legal in the Historic format, including 31 entirely new cards unique to Arena – many of which will have mechanics that only work digitally.

You can flip through the gallery below to see nine cards arriving in Jumpstart: Historic Horizons (including two reprints, one from Modern Horizons), and read on to learn how their new mechanics work and why Wizards of the Coast decided to take Arena this direction:

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Similar to the original Jumpstart, Historic Horizons cards can be added to your collection either by using wildcards or by participating in a timed event (ending September 9) in which you pick two themed packs from a possible 46, combine them into a single deck, and then compete against other players. 

While a majority of the cards in Historic Horizons will be reprints – most of which are new to Arena, including many cards from both the first and second Modern Horizons sets – the 31 brand new cards will be exclusive to Arena’s digital platform. These cards will include three new mechanics with “digital-first” designs that cannot not be replicated in paper Magic.

Jumpstart: Historic Horizons’ Digital-First Mechanics Explained

The first of these mechanics is called “Seek,” which is a digital twist on a tutor effect. Certain cards (like Manor Guardian, visible in the gallery above) will allow you to seek a card with specific criteria, randomly pulling one from your library that meets that criteria without shuffling afterward – something that couldn’t happen at the tabletop without a player manually looking through their deck.

The next mechanic is called “Perpetually,” which modifies a specific card permanently, even as it enters other zones of play. That could be a card like Davriel’s Withering, which perpetually gives a creature -1/-2 – if that card reduces a creature to 0 toughness or less and sends it to the graveyard, for example, the debuff will remain in effect even if a player is able to bring it back to battlefield (causing it to immediately die again). 

Alternatively, Lumbering Lightshield can perpetually increase the casting cost of a card in your opponent’s hand by one colorless mana – the affected card then maintains that increase whether it’s cast from hand or somewhere else, like from the graveyard with Flashback or from exile with Foretell. While this is an effect that can more reasonably be tracked with paper cards, it becomes substantially simpler in a digital space.

The third digital-only mechanic is called “Conjure,” which creates a card for you to use out of nowhere – not a token or a copy, but an actual card that can sit in your hand until you are ready to use it. This can include cards that aren’t otherwise in a set or format, with a few examples of this in the gallery above being Ponder, Stormfront Pegasus, and Tropical Island (none of which are collectible in Historic Horizons on their own). 

Historic Horizons utilizes its digital-only nature beyond these three recurring mechanics as well, with WotC saying it makes it possible to print cards with rules that wouldn’t fit in a paper frame. That includes the planeswalker Davriel, Soul Broker, who has an otherwise cryptic -2 ability: “Accept one of Davriel’s offers, then accept one of Davriel’s conditions.” In practice, this has you pick one of three randomly selected positive effects from a whopping possible list of eight before doing the same for a negative effect.

In a digital-only environment, there isn’t the usual requirement of spelling out every single detail on the card itself, which WotC says will open up new design possibilities or even allowing it to modify Davriel’s lists substantially post-release. Davriel also uses the perpetually and conjure mechanics, further solidifying him as a planeswalker not meant for paper – in fact, Historic Horizons will have a “digital-first” Planeswalker for every color, each with a themed pack of their own.

The Jumpstart format has also been unbound from its paper roots – where the original would simply give you a random selection of themed packs to pick from, WotC tells me it can better collate Historic Horizons’ packs to offer a greater variety of options and synergies each time, or even keep track of which packs you’ve picked previously to provide fresh options on your next run. Packs can have more variance within them too, with certain cards having a set chance to be swapped for another of similar mana value and your mana base adjusting to the combined deck you end up with.

Why Wizards of the Coast Is Making Digital-Only Magic Cards

Speaking with Magic: The Gathering’s Vice President of Design Aaron Forsythe and MTG Arena’s Game Director Jay Parker last week, it became clear to me that WotC is using Jumpstart: Historic Horizons to take some confident but measured first steps toward what’s possible for Magic digitally. 

“We didn’t want to overwhelm people,” Forsythe says, clearly aware that this is a significant choice for a game nearly three decades old and acknowledging that it’s going to be “uncharted waters” for a lot of Magic players. “We could have easily come out with a dozen wacky digital mechanics, but we felt like the way to make this feel like a card set is to pick a small number and show the breadth that that small number of mechanics can execute on.”

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“Lots of people love to play magic in a lot of different ways, and we want to keep providing for all of that,” Parker explains. “When we add these new elements, we really want these to be an ‘and’, not an ‘or’.” Parker says they want to keep expanding the different types of Magic experiences they can offer, but reiterates that they “want to keep the core as well.”

Forsythe similarly emphasizes that they wanted to make sure this new chapter of Historic still feels like Magic, just with more design possibilities. “We don’t want to necessarily be designing the lowest common denominator version of Magic that has to work exactly the same on every platform,” he explains. Just as WotC makes products specifically targeted toward Modern players, Commander players, collectors, etc., Forsythe sees the digital player as “that obvious next frontier” that can be catered to with something unique.

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But this shift will no doubt be concerning for some players too, with Forsythe even admitting it could “spook some of the purists out there” who see Arena as a direct translation of the paper game. To that end, he confirmed that they are going to ensure Standard, booster drafts, and other tabletop formats remain intact the way they are now, without the digital-only mechanics available in Historic. “We’re just adding new stuff for the players that live in this environment and have experience playing other digital card games out there that do things like this.” 

“If you’ve seen our release calendar, the tabletop players should fear nothing as far as not getting enough stuff,” Forsythe says. “We are giving them new, cool things more regularly and more often than we ever have before.” And as for digital players, Arena actually tested these waters with a recent timed event called Mirror, Mirror. In it, powerful banned cards from other formats were rebalanced, and WotC says the response from players who had only ever played digitally was very positive – albeit, entirely new digital cards are certainly a step further than temporary rebalances.

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But in terms of what digital-only cards could do, Seek, Perpetually, and Conjure actually seem like they fall on the tame end of the spectrum to my eyes. Forsythe explains that Magic’s R&D team has decades of rejected ideas to pull from, designs that were fun but weren’t suited for paper because they were too tough to track or couldn’t easily be adjudicated, for instance. So while they’re intentionally starting slow here, he says they will likely “push the boundaries of the space” as they get more comfortable designing for it, just like they do in paper Magic.

Unshackling a Magic card from the need to work physically blows the design doors wide open too, so I wanted to gauge just how crazy they might be willing to get. When I suggest the possibility of, say, a quad-faced card (a physical impossibility in the real world), Forsythe says that actually sounds “totally reasonable” as skirting around physical limitations is “exactly the kind of thing digital card games should be trying to do.” Forsythe jokingly provides his own example of a crazy effect that would actually be going too far – playing a game of Space Invaders to determine a creature’s toughness when it enters the battlefield.

Once again, they tell me the goal isn’t to make Arena an unrecognizable version of Magic, just one that leans into what it can do best in the same way that Commander-specific cards do for Commander. “We can make a whole new game that uses a lot of Magic’s rules, but I don’t think that’s what people want,” Forsythe says. “I do think they want to slide back and forth through different expressions and play the one that suits their needs at that given time.”

Of course the Historic format was already unique to Arena as well, if technically playable with paper cards. This new path changes it from essentially being Arena’s (much smaller) stand-in for older formats like Modern or Legacy to something wholly digital. “We’re really excited to be able to use Historic in a way that gives it its own identity as a format,” Parker says, explaining that he’s glad it’s now able to leverage the unique position it occupies.

On the surface, 31 digital-only cards may not seem like a huge amount given they’re arriving in a pool with 751 others, but it doesn’t take many to potentially warp a format in unexpected ways – and such a large influx overall will undoubtedly bring shifts in the Historic metagame. Parker says one of the main goals of Historic Horizons was “trying to get a whole lot of cool fun stuff from Modern Horizons into the format,” but that the higher power level of Modern meant they had to be careful while doing so.

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“With the Mystical Archive, we learned a lot about how [Historic] responds to an infusion of new high power level cards,” Parker explains, referring to the set of iconic instants and sorceries added alongside the Strixhaven set earlier this year. With a few of those cards quickly becoming staples of the format (one was banned in June, and another was suspended just last week), Parker notes that “getting a little more creature heavy with these [Historic Horizons] reprints and additions is a healthy note to strike for the balance of the format.”

Still, Parker and Forsythe both reiterate that the first goal of this set is to add a bunch of cool new cards, digital or otherwise – without ballooning the power level out of control too quickly, that is. There are still hundreds of cards in Historic Horizons yet to be revealed, but I jokingly ask if we can assume Modern Horizons 2’s now notorious monkey Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer won’t be among them. Forsythe chuckles. 

“That’s a pretty safe bet.”

All month long, IGN Premiere is spotlighting some of the biggest upcoming releases in entertainment. Today, we have an exclusive clip from Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two, the upcoming feature-length DC animated film.

After being disfigured, District Attorney Harvey Dent (voiced by Transformers’ Josh Duhamel) wakes up to his alter ego, Two-Face, in this IGN Premiere exclusive clip. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC, Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two will be distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on Digital starting July 27, 2021, and on Blu-ray beginning August 10, 2021.

You can watch the clip via the player above or the embed below.

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The Long Halloween, Part Two chronicles the second half of this yearlong crime saga. As the mysterious Holiday Killer continues their deadly crime spree, District Attorney Harvey Dent is pushed to the brink in his quest to bring justice to Gotham City. As the trailer shows, The Long Halloween is also the origin story of Two-Face.

Making matters worse, Bruce Wayne has been captured by Poison Ivy, leaving Gotham undefended during its darkest hour. Even mob boss Carmine Falcone is becoming increasingly desperate, striking a Faustian bargain with Gotham’s new generation of super-criminals.

The Long Halloween, Part Two features the same creative team as Part One, including supervising producer Butch Lukic, director Chris Palmer and screenwriter Tim Sheridan. The film is produced by Jim Krieg and Kimberly S. Moreau and executive produced by Michael Uslan and Sam Register.

Most of the Part One voice cast will return for the sequel, including Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, Batman: Under the Red Hood) as Batman/Bruce Wayne, the late Naya Rivera (Glee) as Catwoman/Selina Kyle, Josh Duhamel (Transformers, Las Vegas) as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Billy Burke (Twilight, Revolution, Zoo) as Commissioner James Gordon, Katee Sackhoff (The Mandalorian, Battlestar Galactica, Batman: Year One) as Poison Ivy, Titus Welliver (Bosch, Deadwood) as Carmine Falcone, Julie Nathanson (Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay) as Gilda Dent, David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad, Dune, Ant-Man,) as Calendar Man and The Penguin, Troy Baker (The Last of Us, Batman: Arkham Knight) as The Joker, Amy Landecker (Your Honor, Transparent) as Barbara Gordon and Carla Vitti, Fred Tatasciore (American Dad!, Family Guy) as Solomon Grundy, Alyssa Diaz (The Rookie, Ray Donovan) as Renee Montoya and Alastair Duncan (The Batman, Batman Unlimited franchise) as Alfred.

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Part Two will also feature several new additions to the voice cast. These newcomers include Robin Atkin Downes (The Strain, Constantine: City of Demons) as both Scarecrow and Thomas Wayne, John DiMaggio (Futurama, Disenchantment) as the Mad Hatter, Laila Berzins (Genshin Impact) as Sofia Falcone, Jim Pirri (World of Warcraft franchise) as Sal Maroni and Zach Callison (The Goldbergs, Steven Universe) as Young Bruce Wayne. Gary Leroi Gray and Rick Wasserman also provide additional voice work.

For more on the DC Universe Movies line, check out IGN’s recent reviews of Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One, Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Batman: Soul of the Dragon, and Justice Society: World War II.

Final Fantasy VII Remake was easily one of the best games of last year, receiving a rare 10/10 from GameSpot, and with Intergrade, the upgraded PS5 version of Remake, you can return to Midgar with enhanced visuals and performance, new features, and a brand-new side story starring the ninja Yuffie. For those who missed out on Remake when it released on PS4, now’s a great time to pick it up and experience the entire package in its best form, as Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade for PS5 is on sale for $59.94 today. That’s just over $10 off its next-gen list price of $70.

Check out our full Final Fantasy VII Remake review for more on the game as well as the improvements added with Intergrade and the Yuffie DLC. “Final Fantasy VII Remake was already a stunner of a game on PlayStation 4, but its PS5 upgrade, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, demonstrates just how beautiful a game it really is,” wrote editor Phil Hornshaw in his update to our review. “Like many PS5 games, the upgraded version offers two graphical modes–one that provides 4K resolution and a lower frame rate, and the other that provides 60 FPS with a lower resolution. With either setting, Intergrade feels like a significant visual leap for an already gorgeous game, sharpening the impressive graphics and making for silky smooth battles.”