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Thank your own personal deity—possibly the Doom Slayer—it's Friday! Speaking of which, his next riptastic adventure has appeared for preordering in the usual storefronts. Being a huge, ultra-nightmare completing fan of Doom 2016 (and then Eternal), I was always going to find you the best prices for this one. While I doubt it shall surpass the soundtracks laid down by Mr. Mick Gordon, my hopes are otherwise high. In retro news, I'm celebrating the 12th birthday of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, a timelessly pretty Studio Ghibli film-as-a-game. Level-5 developed a special one here: something that felt like the games of yore, looked like a game of tomorrow, and drew heavy inspiration from the classics us old-school JRPG fans were raised on. Better yet, the touching plight of the recently orphaned Oliver—mixed with a Talesesque battle system plus a dash of Pokémon—instantly hooked and held me for a 40-hour runtime. You'd be nuts not to give the 87% off Remaster a run. This Day in Gaming Aussie birthdays for notable games. - Ni no Kuni: WotWW (PS3) 2013. Redux Table of ContentsNintendo SwitchPCXboxPlayStationLEGONice Savings for Nintendo Switch ****** Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (-27%) - A$50.90Little Nightmares I & II (-70%) - A$20.98Guacamelee! 2 Complete (-75%) - A$8.06We Love Katamari Reroll (-75%) - A$11.23 Expiring Recent Deals LEGO Skywalker Saga (-80%) - A$17.99Octopath Traveler (-60%) - A$35.98LEGO Harry Potter Col. (-80%) - A$8.99No Man's Sky (-60%) - A$31.98Trials of Mana (-60%) - A$31.98 Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card. Switch Console Prices How much to Switch it up? [/url] Back to top Purchase Cheap for PC Undying (-100%) - FREESuper Meat Boy Forever (-100%) - FREE w/PrimeDeus Ex: GOTY (-100%) - FREE w/PrimeBlood West (-100%) - FREE w/PrimeLogitech G502 X Plus (-45%) - A$165Manor Lords (-30%) - A$41.96Palworld (-25%) - A$32.96NBA 2K25 (-60%) - A$47.98Street Fighter 6 (-58%) - A$42.47 Expiring Recent Deals Dying Light 10th Anniversary (-100%) - FREESleeping Dogs: DE (-85%) - A$4.04Ace Combat 7 (-91%) - A$8.54Titanfall 2 (-90%) - A$3.99Mass Effect: LE (-90%) - A$8.99 Or just get a Steam Wallet Card PC Hardware Prices Slay your pile of shame. [/url] Back to top Exciting Bargains for Xbox Doom: The Dark Ages (-9%) - A$109.95Sonic Frontiers (-63%) - A$37Barton ****** Pro Surfing (-65%) - A$29.95Top Spin 2K25 (-78%) - A$26.50Avatar: Frontiers (-47%) - A$58.49 Expiring Recent Deals FFXII: Zodiac Age (-57%) - A$34.23Dragon Age: The Veilguard (-28%) - A$79Red Dead Redemption II (-42%) - A$29Star Wars Outlaws (-50%) - A$55Hogwarts Legacy (-64%) - A$39Death Stranding DC (-50%) - A$27.47 Or just invest in an Xbox Card. Xbox Console Prices How many bucks for a 'Box? [/url] Back to top Pure Scores for PlayStation Astro Bot (-19%) - A$89Assetto Corsa Ult. (-75%) - A$13.73Silent Hill 2 (-20%) - A$79.96Space Marine 2 (-25%) - A$80.96DualSense Volcanic Red ($15 off) - A$109DualSense Cobalt Blue ($15 off) - A$109DualSense Silver ($15 off) - A$109 Expiring Recent Deals Star Wars Outlaws (-50%) - A$55Dragon Age: The Veilguard (-32%) - A$74CoD: MW3 (-55%) - A$49Resident Evil Origins Col. (-36%) - A$32Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 (-19%) - A$89Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza (-11%) - A$89 PS+ Monthly Freebies Yours to keep from Jan 7 with this subscription Suicide Squad: KTJL [PS5]NFS Hot Pursuit Remastered [PS4]The Stanley Parable: Ultra [PS4/5] Or purchase a PS Store Card. What you'll pay to 'Station. [/url] Back to top Legit LEGO Deals City: 4x4 Fire Engine + Boat (-40%) - A$29.99BMW M4 GT3 & BMW M Hybrid (-35%) - A$49Botanicals: Wreath (-29%) - A$119.95 Expiring Recent Deals City: Spaceship (-40%) - A$17.99City: Jungle Explorer (-36%) - A$32Botanicals: Roses (-35%) - A$15 Back to top Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Street Fighter 6 has revealed new details about the next big update, which will drop on February 5, adding three new ranks, Mai Shiranui, and more. Street Fighter 6 was released in June 2023, and since then, Capcom has been supporting the game through periodic updates with gameplay adjustments, character balancing, and new names for the roster. View the full article

Raven Software announced that Call of Duty: Warzone will receive a number of different weapon balance changes next week for the XM4 Assault Rifle and PPSh-41 SMG. February's first Call of Duty: Warzone balance update could shake up the meta, if the aforementioned weapons receive buffs. View the full article

Fortnite players creating bot lobbies to climb the ranks in competitive game modes have been punished for their actions, and cheaters will continue to suffer the same consequences in the future. Fortnite has dozens of silly cosmetics and quirky items, so fans can easily have fun in-game, whether it's coming up with hilarious outfit combinations or trolling their friends and opponents with a Shockwave Grenade. Even though the game has a funny side, it also has a serious, more intimidating side called Fortnite competitive. View the full article

The rumored Gran Turismo 7 PC port has reportedly been canceled. This purported move makes the immediate future of Sony's PC porting efforts appear a bit hazier. View the full article

Just when you thought January was already filled with enough bad news, YouTube has decided to remonetize one of its most controversial creators. Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm, one of the largest streamers on Twitch before his ban, had his YouTube channel stripped of all monetization features after he admitted to inappropriately texting a minor. Now that six months have passed, YouTube, a video company owned by Google, has decided to remonetize Beahm’s channel. View the full article

Midnight Society, the game studio co-founded by stream Guy 'Dr. Disrespect' Beahm, has announced that it will be closing its doors and canceling its FPS game, Deadrop. The studio announced its closure on a post on X writing, "Today we are announcing Midnight Society will be closing its doors after three incredible years, with an amazing team of over 55 developers[.]" The studio added a call asking if any studio is hiring and could offere employment opportunities to its team members. Midnight Society was founded by Beahm, as well as veterans of games like Call of Duty and Halo Robert Bowling and Quinn Delhyo. The studio's first game, Deadrop was meant to be a free-to-play FPS that would build on the team's expertise. Deadrop was targeting a 2024 release, but missed their target. [Hidden Content] — Midnight Society (@12am) January 30, 2025 Midnight Society parted ways with Beahm in 2024 after the streamer announced exchanging messages with a minor through Twitch's Whispers feature that "sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate." Despite the split, Midnight Society continued development on Deadrop until this year when it shut down. The game was set in a fictional universe where "the 80s never ended," according to the studio. Images shared by Midnight Soceity shows characters wearing Daft Punk-like helments and wielding guns and swords. The gameplay was set to be a PvPvE style extraction shooter. Midnight Society joins the list of studios that have experienced closure or layoffs in this difficult time for the games industry that has impacted companies like Ubisoft, BioWare, Phoenix Labs, and many many more. Matt Kim is IGN's Senior Features Editor. View the full article

New over-the-top video showcases the Goro Pirates Anthem theme for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. View the full article

Just as it is in Dungeons & Dragons, the magic items in Baldur's Gate 3 are organized into rarity levels to designate their strength, ranging from uncommon, to rare, to very rare, all the way up to legendary. Generally, an item's usefulness can be determined by comparing its rarity to another of the same type; for instance, a +2 rare longsword is a straightforward upgrade to a +1 uncommon variant. View the full article

While Battlefield's reputation took a blow with the disastrous launch of 2042, there's no denying the FPS series has produced some exceptional games. Battlefield 3 remains the pinnacle of the series, in my eyes, but right behind it is Battlefield 1. Now you can pick up this brilliant WW1 shooter for its lowest ever price on Steam - so low, it's probably cheaper than your morning coffee. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Another EA game gets anti-cheat update, stops working on Steam Deck Battlefield 1's free weekend ended, but everyone's still playing Videogames mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War View the full article

Just because you're an indie game it doesn't mean that you can't go on to be one of the best selling titles of all time. While Minecraft and Terraria lead the way when it comes to officially reported indie game sales, the bronze medal position may surprise you. With its newly announced lifetime sales milestone of 55 million units, the physics-based platformer Human Fall Flat is now right up there in the upper echelon of indies. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Why Human: Fall Flat's success is "f***ing crazy" Free Steam keys: Win one of 100 codes for physics-based clumsy-'em-up Human: Fall Flat, now with multiplayer! Human: Fall Flat is a tactile puzzle-platformer where fumbling reigns supreme View the full article

Following the announcement of Forza Horizon 5 for PlayStation 5, gamers wonder if Halo will finally show up on the system, and according to insiders like Jez Corden, it’s only a matter of time. Corden, executive editor for WindowsCentral, shared online that Halo: The Master Chief Collection was the first title he’s heard will make its way over to the PS5, and in that short tweet, he suggested that it’s one among many others. Now that one of Xbox’s “big three” is making the jump, starting with Forza, gamers are looking at this as the floodgates opening, with Halo and Gears of War possibly soon to follow. View the full article

A Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 Easter egg in The Tomb causes an animated zombie overlay, which freaks out some gamers. Some Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 Easter eggs are hard to come by, but this one is causing jumpscares with its random appearances. View the full article

Guy ‘Dr. Disrespect’ Beahm’s Midnight Society has announced it’s shutting down, and its debut shooter Deadrop is canceled, 6 months after its split from the streamer. In an announcement published on its social media channels, the studio – which was co-founded by Beahm, Call of Duty veteran Robert Bowling, and Halo designer Quinn Delhoyo – called for studios to help its remaining employees find new work. “We express our sincere gratitude to each and every one of our community members and [are] deeply sorry we were unable to reach our ultimate goal,” the statement reads. Read More... View the full article

The studio founded and initially supported by Guy “Dr. Disrespect” Beahm, Midnight Society, is closing down. It had one game in development, DEADROP, which will seemingly never see the light of day, while Dr Disrespect himself enjoys new success on his platforms. Midnight Society announced its closure in a Jan. 30 post on X, but provided few details on the actual reasons and circumstances behind this decision. It has been active for over three years and employed 55 developers, working to create DEADROP, an extraction shooter, which will end up lost in time and memory. Additional context regarding the shutdown came from Midnight Society’s level designer Brad Boice, who said that employees at the studio got a two-day notice and that the studio had run out of funding. The studio already went through a round of layoffs in September last year which should’ve been a strong indicator that something was very wrong. View the full article

Xbox's popular racing game Forza Horizon 5 is heading to PlayStation. In a surprise announcement, Playground Games announced that the most recent Forza Horizon game is coming to PS5 this spring. It will be the latest Xbox exclusive heading to the PlayStation console following Bethesda games like Starfield, Sea of Thieves, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The PS5 version was developed by Panic Button in partnership with Turn 10 Studios and Playground Games and will feature the same content as the Xbox and PC version. Furthermore, Car Packs, and the Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure expansions will also be included. The move comes amid growing interest from Xbox in releasing its games on non-Xbox platforms including PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer confirming its intention to support the Switch 2. In the most recent investor call, Microsoft revealed that while Indiana Jones and the Great Circle reached 4 million players, and Game Pass on PC grew 30% to increase services revenue by 2%, overall gaming revenue fell with console sales dropping nearly 30%. This may incentivize Xbox to prioritize Game Pass and push for more games on other hardware. Forza Horizon 5 is the continuation of the open world racing series. A little more arcade than its racing sim sibling, Forza Mortorsport, Forza Horizon 5 allows drivers to race and explore beautiful Mexico. You can read our full review here. Matt Kim is IGN's Senior Features Editor. View the full article

The Associate Marketing Director at Ubisoft has recently revealed that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has sold over 1.3 million units. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was not considered a very successful game by Ubisoft, so it can be somewhat surprising for some people to see it selling over a million units. View the full article

Thanks to the likes of Stardew Valley, farming and life simulation games are one of the most popular game genres in the modern gaming world. Offering a very relaxed take on the gaming experience, these types of games are often designed with slow living in mind, allowing players to temporarily escape the stresses of day-to-day life. Additionally, the art styles in these games are often colorful and cheerful, and many, including Stardew Valley, feature gorgeous pixel art that blends retro inspiration and modern influences. View the full article

NIS America has released free costume DLC to celebrate the launch for a limited time on PS5, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. View the full article

More Jujutsu Kaisen skins may be coming to Fortnite in the near future if a popular leaker's claims turn out to be true. Fortnite is well-known for bringing in crossover characters, including those who saw their origins in anime and manga, and this latest claim states that a very powerful jujutsu sorcerer is on the way. View the full article

Midnight Society, the videogame studio that recently dismissed co-founder and popular livestreamer Guy 'Dr Disrespect' Beahm, has announced that it will be shutting down after spending three years developing its NFT-infused extraction shooter Deadrop. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Midnight Society finally speaks out following Dr Disrespect issue View the full article

Epic Games has dropped a teaser for the next season of Fortnite OG, making it possible for fans to check out the content coming to the game with Chapter 1 Season 2, and this includes named locations, weapons, and OG Pass cosmetics. For a long time, Fortnite players had to limit themselves to Battle Royale, Save the World, if they bought access to it, and Creative Mode. However, in the past year or so, this has changed drastically with the permanent addition of several major game modes, such as LEGO Fortnite Odyssey, Fortnite Festival, Rocket Racing, Fortnite Ballistic, Fortnite Reload, and Fortnite OG. View the full article

When you begin your career in Sniper Elite: Resistance, you can hop into almost any mode, whether it be the level-based campaign or the competitive multiplayer. The new Propaganda mode, however, is locked off, and you're going to have to do some work to unlock it. This mode challenges you to try to kill as many enemies as quickly as possible with a set loadout, making it an ideal test of skill once you have some sniping hours logged... Read more.View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Monster Hunter Wilds introduces many changes, new features, and quality-of-life improvements to the Monster Hunter series. But did you know the developers were experimenting with ideas for this behemoth of a new installment all the way back during Monster Hunter World’s crossover events? Specifically, suggestions from Final Fantasy 14’s director, Naoki Yoshida, made during the FFXIV crossover and positive reception to The Witcher 3 crossover directly affected new gameplay elements in Monster Hunter Wilds. In short, conversations with Yoshi-P while collaborating for the FFXIV crossover inspired a change to Monster Hunter Wilds’ heads-up display (HUD): introducing attack names appearing on screen as you perform them. As for The Witcher 3 crossover, players’ positive reception cemented the inclusion of more dialogue options and a speaking protagonist in Monster Hunter Wilds. How Final Fantasy XIV’s Director Influenced Monster Hunter Wilds While working together on the Monster Hunter: World and FFXIV crossover, at a reveal event, Yoshi-P told Monster Hunter Wilds Director Yuya Tokuda that players like to be able to see the name of the attack they’re doing as they do it. And so, the new HUD feature was born, which you can see highlighted in the image above. We got a tiny taste of this feature during the 2018 FFXIV crossover event in Monster Hunter: World. It was a pretty huge collaboration that featured catchable Cactuars, a giant Kulu-Ya-Ku with a crystal hunted to the Chocobo music, incredibly cool Drachen armor, and a lot more. Most notably, the collab featured a notoriously difficult fight in Monster Hunter: World – Behemoth. As in most MMORPGs, you can see boss Behemoth’s moves appear in text on screen as it casts them in the World collab, which you can see in action in the video below. After completing the repel quest for Behemoth, you unlock the Jump emote, directly inspired by the Dragoon’s movements in Final Fantasy. When using the emote, text pops up on the screen: “[Hunter] performs Jump.” This was the only other instance of an “attack” name appearing on screen in this way before in Monster Hunter, as far as I know. How The Witcher 3 Influenced Monster Hunter Wilds Monster Hunter Wilds director Yuya Tokuda mentioned being impressed when some people compared Monster Hunter Wilds’ new dialogue options and some of its gameplay elements to The Witcher 3, because that is exactly what inspired the addition. The team looked at the popular, impressive Monster Hunter: World Witcher 3 collaboration as a “test” of sorts to see how players would react to more dialogue and options in a Monster Hunter. In The Witcher 3 crossover in Monster Hunter: World, players actually play as the Witcher himself, Geralt of Rivia. As such, he actually speaks to other characters and has conversations, allowing the player to choose dialogue options. This contrasts the innate playable character of Monster Hunter: World and the iterations before it, where the MC is both voiceless and wordless. That’s not the case in Monster Hunter Wilds, where, just like Geralt, your character has a voice and conversations with the NPCs around you. We learned this interesting info during our exclusive visit to Capcom’s Japan offices as part of this month’s IGN First. Don’t miss the full hands-on, final preview of Monster Hunter Wilds, new in-depth interviews, and other exclusive gameplay from January’s Monster Hunter Wilds IGN First: Behind Monster Hunter Wilds' New Approach to Starting Weapons and Hope Series GearMonster Hunter Wilds Interview and Gameplay: Meet Nu Udra, Apex of the Oilwell BasinEvolving Monster Hunter: How Capcom’s Belief in the Series Made it a Worldwide Hit Monster Hunter Wilds: Gravios Returns in This Exclusive Gameplay Casey DeFreitas is deputy editor of guides at IGN and has been hunting monsters since the PS2 era. Catch her on socials @ShinyCaseyD View the full article

On day three of my visit to Capcom in Osaka, Japan, I once again sat in a dimly lit conference room. I was playing Monster Hunter Wilds, empty cans of coffee and tea strewn around my station. “You must be tired of being stuck in here playing,” said a friendly employee. All I could think was: “I wish I could play more.” This is after I played the first five hours of Monster Hunter Wild’s story and hunted four monsters in the Oilwell Basin in a different play state. I just couldn’t get enough; there are so many nuances to master with the new weapon and gameplay features and I’m the type of person who wants to scrutinize everything and figure out exactly how everything works through repetition and experimentation. I’m a guides writer - it comes with the territory - but because of my limited time, I needed to focus on the main story. That’s fine. After this hands-on, I know I’ll enthusiastically spend hundreds more hours in the game once it’s out. Is Monster Hunter Getting Easier, or Are You Just Better? I beelined it through the story to make sure I could see every monster there was to see, and in doing so, I didn’t make optimized equipment; instead, I crafted and upgraded what I could as I went. That’s the basic loop of Monster Hunter: Hunt monster, make better equipment, hunt stronger monster, and sometimes, hunt something multiple times to get what you need. With my minimal preparation, I hunted the first seven monsters without much trouble and never once carted* (aka, knocked out): Chatacabra, Quematrice, Congalala, Lala Barina, Balahara, Doshaguma, and finally, a repel quest for the Leviathan Uth Duna. When I played Monster Hunter: World for the very first time, even Tobi-Kadachi gave me trouble, so I was surprised to encounter such little friction while playing Wilds. I was actually so surprised that I went back and replayed the story in Monster Hunter: World through Anjanath, the seventh large monster. Well, the answer is that I’ve just gotten a whole lot better since I first played World, even though by that point, I had been playing Monster Hunter since the very first one on PlayStation 2. I easily ripped through everything up to Anjanath, who then made me sweat a bit before I defeated it on my first try. It’s funny, because I felt the same as when I played Monster Hunter Rise. I thought to myself, “This feels so much easier,” and in some ways, this could be because of the fun, zippy Wirebug mechanic and other factors, but that feeling was largely due to my increased skill as a player after 600 hours in World and Iceborne. That’s not to say I’m now some pro-level Monster Hunter–I’m certainly no speedrunner–but I’ve improved enough to notice. I’m bringing this up because I often see this lamentation in the community, questioning, “Perhaps, is Monster Hunter simply getting easier?” I would suggest that we may just be growing into better hunters. The developers’ goals don’t suggest they intend to make Monster Hunter easier. Things are certainly becoming more streamlined and accessible (see: Optimal Health and Status Recovery that removes the need to choose exactly how to heal, and the Focus Mode that makes it easier to aim) but the developers’ goals don’t suggest they intend to make Monster Hunter easier. Art director and executive director of Wilds, Kaname Fujioka, said the difficulty in Wilds generally follows suit from World. Series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto added: “We’ve been incredibly careful in Wilds to guide players to the fun of Monster Hunter without changing the core of the series,” and I very much feel that. Wilds immediately directs players into the meat of what Monster Hunter really is: hunting large monsters that could be set-piece bosses in other games. he main missions smoothly integrate mini small monster hunts and gathering as part of the story, which is a wonderful way to teach players about these necessary activities without them feeling like a roadblock. I’m conflicted about all of these…upgrades. I find myself always wanting to pull a “Back in my day…” and describe some archaic, ludicrous thing we used to have to do just to get by to be able to enjoy the game…like delivering explosive Powderstones from the top of a volcano while avoiding Gravios and Ioprey…and then doing it three more times because the quest didn’t count as cleared unless you were the one who posted it, and your whole party of four needed to clear it to join the next quest. I suppose I’m trying to say Monster Hunter has come a long way, and making it less convoluted and stripping away its “nonessential” bits and pieces has made it more palatable to a much larger crowd. Now, it’s largely just delectable meat with the occasional bone and dessert: there are no bitter vegetables to power through to be able to enjoy everyone’s favorite parts (except, maybe, grinding for a specific material.) And while on one hand I’m overjoyed that so many people have grown to truly enjoy something I love, there was something about being one of the few who prided themselves on eating their vegetables with a smile on their face. Even so, the evolution of Monster Hunter has continued to impress me. The nostalgia I have for how things used to be doesn’t cloud my judgment enough to make me misremember how I actually felt about needing to gather dozens of mushrooms and herbs and Wyvern eggs before I could finally hunt: “This is boring and tedious and my god please just let me kill a monster.” Wilds delivers the thrill of hunting a monster extroadinarily fast. The main story immediately spits you into the thick of things, and you’ll have hunted your first large monster in the first twenty minutes after customizing your character and Palico. There are no Kestodon Kerfuffles to contend with–you are one of the chosen hunters to protect your fleet from the big bads, and so that’s what you do. The action of these monster-hunting quests is seamlessly woven together with narrative tasks that drive the story and exciting cutscenes that drop you right into the fray. Travel is often accompanied by NPCs who progress the story with dialogue, so little time is wasted. The entire experience feels full and is structured like a more traditional RPG, as you aren’t posting quests from a board and loading into a map like in previous Monster Hunters. At the same time, you still have robust freedom to explore and discover things on your own without having your hand held too tightly. I’ll need to play more to discover exactly how the new decoration system and ingredient farming work, but it does appear you’ll still need to keep up on eating and inventory management yourself to be the best hunter you can be. I do hope there are challenges ahead that will require adequate preparation to succeed, as that’s where I think Monster Hunter shines brightest, but I do believe I may have encountered at least one of those in the Oilwell Basin. Alone in the Depths We discuss the Oilwell Basin and the four monsters I hunted there at length in our interview with the developers. Rompopolo, Ajarakan, Gravios, and the area’s apex, The ****** Flame, Nu Udra inhabit the Oilwell Basin, which is designed to be more vertically connected, rather than the more horizontally laid out Windward Plains and Scarlet Forest. Though it’s a rocky, cave-like locale filled with lava and mucky oilsilt, it’s inspired by the deep sea and the inhabitants of the ocean floor. This is much more apparent during the Plenty, where deep into the Oilwell Basin takes on an ethereal blue hue to contrast its muddy palette during the Fallow and bright, burning red-oranges of the Firespring. The change in climate sometimes made me feel like I was in entirely different places, and this was even more pronounced in the Oilwell Basin. The changes in these three-mode cycles, plus the drastic visual changes between day and night, add even more variety to these vast, large, diverse maps— meant to be two to two-and-a-half times the size of the maps in World. And we've only seen three, but I'm sure there must be more. I feel like I barely got a handle on the layout of the Oilwell Basin while hunting, and will likely need to make a concerted effort to learn its flow and remember where things are, like the very helpful environmental traps, including a perfectly placed Sleeptoad beneath precariously placed stalactites in the ceiling of a cave. When I beat it down enough, it deflated–a hilariously sad sight I was delighted to experience. As for the monsters I faced there, they were a unique and impressive bunch. Rompopolo is absolutely grotesque, using its needle-like mouth to spew poison and the sharp appendage on its tail to inject gas into the ground, making use of the flammable oilsilt to cause large AOE explosions. It made great, unique use of its environment. When I beat it down enough, it deflated–a hilariously sad sight I was delighted to experience. I can see Ajarakan giving some players a bit of trouble. It’s an ape-like fanged beast that’s aggressive, fast, and strong. It also just looks cool–how its body glows when it gets ramped up is magnificent, as is one of its strongest attacks, where it spins in the air and crashes down, like a fiery Sonic the Hedgehog homing attack. If you let it grab you, it will roar in your face before brutally dragging you across the ground and tossing you like a rag-doll. Though Gravios, a returning monster, has been a pain in the **** to fight in previous games, with its hardy HP pool and super tough defenses, I found fighting it in Wilds much more enjoyable. Its hitboxes are more finely tuned, and the developers were able to gradate the toughness of its body more specifically, so it was easier to land hits on the points I actually wanted to get at. I also didn’t get hit by seemingly unfair hip-checks, which was a welcome change. Gravios has a new attack the developers were happy to be able to implement, too: a beam focused on the ground that turns the immediate surroundings into molten rock that persists for a few seconds with a fiery effect. An Impressive, Fiery New Foe When it comes to the apex, Nu Udra: wow. That thing is awesome, and it also really threatened to kick my ****. It’s the only monster that carted me during my playtime with Wilds, and I had the hardest time getting a read on its movements and intentions. Nu Udra is an octopus-like cephalopod that uses a skeleton (in game-design terms) entirely new to the Monster Hunter series, so of course I wouldn’t have any familiarity to rely on. Its tentacles can all move independently of each other, it moves with a graceful slickness, and it hits hard with its body and flame attacks. Its unpredictable, multi-directional attack patterns seem to encourage teaming up with friends, or at least NPC Support Hunters, too. Nu Udra is also uniquely beautiful–the sensory organs on the tips of its tentacles glow when it intends to use them in an attack, and occasionally covers itself in oilsilt and engulfs itself in flames–another cool use of the environment by an Oilwell Basin inhabitant. One of its attacks even resembles a dangerous fireworks display. Truly, Nu Udra is an impressive sight to behold: a slithering, octopus-like, menacing creature engulfed in flame, hellbent on your destruction. How exciting! I’m really looking forward to how this creature is incorporated into Monster Hunter Wilds’ story, too. I had no real context around the monster hunts in my time in the Oilwell Basin, as I could only really experience the hunts themselves after the Quest Start and before the Quest Complete screen, so all I can really tell you is that the monsters I fought in this build were in high rank, as was my equipment. The builds I played (in graphics mode on the PS5) also performed significantly better than the Open Beta Test. The monsters and environments acted as they were meant to, for the most part, and I didn’t experience any jarring graphical issues or bugs. This comes with the caveats that I was offline playing in single-player and that I, personally, probably wouldn’t notice if there was a small graphical stutter while fighting for my life. But if you’re in it for the gameplay, I can confidently say that Monster Hunter Wilds works well and looks good–in my opinion. I’m especially impressed by the fire and lava effects I saw in the Oilwell Basin– for example, the compressed fire beams from Gravios and Nu Udra engulfing itself in fire in real time. One of my biggest curiosities is how Wilds’ story progression will work in multiplayer, as it’s one of the best parts about Monster Hunter, and something I haven’t been able to experience in Wilds outside of the Open Beta Test. But, I’m told you’ll be able to play through the story with friends without the roadblocks encountered in World, which is the most important factor for me. The impressive variety of monsters in Monster Hunter Wilds, both in appearance and behavior, and the environments I’ve seen have so much attention to detail that it’s clear how much care the developers put into the series. This is especially so after speaking with them about it. Wilds developers implemented ideas they had been working on since back in World after players responded positively to it in the Witcher 3 collaboration, and they took advice from Final Fantasy XIV’s producer Naoki Yoshida while working with him on the FFXIV collab–which you can read more about here. Truthfully, I could yap about Monster Hunter for days, but I’ll leave it at this–I can’t wait to sink another 300 hours into a new Monster Hunter. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]