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In its early access state, No Rest of the Wicked is already full of surprises. Mostly those are great, like how one moment I found myself marveling at its slow and precise combat (all but unprecedented in the action RPG genre) and the next I found myself decorating my home like I was in an M-rated Animal Crossing. On the other side, although it’s certainly to be expected from a game that’s clearly labeled as unfinished, there were also some not-so-fun surprises, like various technical issues, a loot and inventory management system that needs some serious tweaking, and some levels that can be a headache to navigate from an isometric perspective. There’s nothing there that feels unsolvable, though, and all of those problems are eclipsed by just how exciting and special this genre-blending pioneer felt throughout my 30+ hours with the content that’s already available. The setting doesn’t rock the boat too much: You play as a magically imbued warrior and generic chosen one, sworn to ****** back an ancient plague that seems to be a pretty serious problem for folks, since they absolutely cannot stop transforming into Lovecraftian horrors at every opportunity. After arriving in the land of Sacra by boat, you immediately set to the task of helping these poor souls out by slaughtering all manner of ghoulish, feral wildlife, infected humans, and murderous bandits, all while suspiciously side-eyeing the zealous, militant ******* that will almost definitely become the bad guys in the back half of the campaign. It’s not exactly a peachy world to explore, but the compelling characters with top-notch voice performances and depressing vibes of a beautiful world gone terribly wrong are both exceedingly well done and quickly become an extremely alluring reason to press on through each harrowing area and lethal boss. As of now, this story is cut short 10 hours in, just as things are getting interesting, so time will tell if it delivers on that front. So far, though, it’s off to a very strong start. It definitely helps that No Rest for the Wicked is quite easy on the eyes at nearly every moment, owing to its painterly art style, expressive and memorable characters, and gobsmackingly beautiful foliage. Man, oh, man does Moon Studios sure know what it's doing when it comes to plants – clearly that experience working on the ****** Forest that Ori enjoys jumping around in has been put to phenomenal use. I will say, though, that at first glance the bizarre humans can be a bit off putting, with their creepily disproportionate, gorilla-like limbs, especially when you jump into the character creator and immediately see a default that looks like a waxed sasquatch. But once I hopped into the world and saw how it fit in with the stylized art, I was quickly put at ease with how I looked from a bird’s eye view. When you jump into the character creator you immediately see a default that looks like a waxed sasquatch. Combat sets itself apart as much as the art style, as this divergent action-RPG takes the brisk skirmishes of Diablo or Path of Exile (where you’re triggering a cascade of powerful abilities to ***** hundreds of enemies in seconds) and replaces them with steady, methodical, and wonderfully deadly swordplay against small numbers of opponents. Instead of running around as a **** of the battlefield, you’re a squishy adventurer who will have to master dodge rolls, perfect parries, and the rare combat ability here and there to scrape by, which makes battles much more challenging and demanding of your full attention. We’re not racing back to our corpses to recover lost loot or working with a finite number of healing items or anything like that, but there’s still plenty of difficulty for us masochists to enjoy. That fresh take on the genre works incredibly well, making for a journey that starts out as much more challenging than most, and where every downed opponent feels like a victory just barely snatched from the jaws of defeat. For someone who’s delved all of Diablo 4’s dungeons already, that’s a lot more engaging than mindlessly plowing through armies with ease (though that can be a lot of fun too). Exploring the early access portion of the land of Sacra makes for an extremely enjoyable time, whether you’re wading into rotting sewers filled with bandits or navigating ancient ruins where one false step will send you plummeting to your ****** (even if some of those spills are annoying). There’s an impressive number of ****** types packed into the small number of areas currently available, from diseased, split-faced rats to slimy, four-legged aliens who multiply when *******, and flying witches who teleport around the map and lob fireballs at you. You’re given plenty of reasons to revisit areas and dig into every ***** and cranny. On top of that, there are lots of secrets to discover and hidden loot to claim, a surprising amount of things to climb, leap to, or precariously balance across that aren’t usually present in isometric level designs, and some really clever shortcuts that allow you to quickly get back to Sacra’s one and only safe haven, located in the center of the map, you’re given plenty of reasons to revisit areas and dig into every ***** and cranny. The only issue is that, because you can’t move the camera as you explore, sometimes the fixed view makes it a little hard to tell what can be climbed on, or to understand the exact dimensions of any given narrow walkway you’re maneuvering through. That caused me to accidentally leap to my ****** on more than one occasion. The RPG mechanics are similarly inspired, allowing for a ton of customization without locking you into a specific subclass or role that dictates your playstyle (at least initially). Since your build is largely determined by the weapons and armor you bring into battle, each of which comes with their own attacks, abilities, and stats, you get a nice layer of RPG mechanics to mess around with however you like. In one stretch I played as a lightly armored ********* with dual daggers that applied an elemental *****; later I switched to a katana and a shield that healed me as I blocked attacks. The buildcrafting is quite in-depth, and there are already so many combinations I had a hard time picking any one and running with it. That’s a good problem to have! Unfortunately, which options are available are limited by how the RNG Gods treat you, since you won’t always get a decent ******* that aligns with how you want to play. Even worse, you might find a ******* you really like but not have the right stats to wield it, and since there’s currently no way to respec, you’ll eventually lock yourself into a certain kind of loadout playstyle and find all other loot basically useless, unless you’re willing to spend attribute points inefficiently just to change styles. For example, I started finding really great two-handed claymores that required lots of strength to use long after I’d committed all my skill points to dexterity. Theoretically you could hand this loot off to your other characters or to fellow players once co-op multiplayer is added, but most of the time it feels like a real bummer to get cool loot you can’t use. That can really pump the brakes on the fun of experimenting with different loadouts, especially after you’ve been playing awhile. That’s not the only way in which loot can be unkind, either. No Rest for the Wicked falls prey to one of my biggest action-RPG **** peeves: a small inventory that constantly needs to be managed. Loot drops constantly, and even though your carrying capacities can be upgraded little by little, doing so is a slow process and you don’t gain access to real storage options until hours into the adventure, by which time I’d been forced to sell or abandon dozens of items I’d rather have kept. And since there are tons of different materials needed to level up, enchant, and craft weapons, you’re constantly being told to store up stuff you absolutely don’t have room to carry, which creates an infuriating dilemma. Which options are available are limited by how the RNG Gods treat you. That kind of thing might work in a game like Baldur’s Gate 3, where something has to stop you from looting every dinner plate you come across (and you have the option to trudge back to camp if you simply refuse to drop your prizes) but here it just doesn’t feel good to pause exploration every couple of minutes to juggle items in my inventory and make gut-wrenching decisions about what to leave behind. You’ll also find yourself bogged down by the weird way in which healing items are handled. You have to craft them all from raw materials, and they aren’t replenished when you ****. This means that if you encounter a particularly tricky part where you’re using lots of healing items and dying a lot, you’ll need to stop what you’re doing, retrace your steps through old areas to harvest herbs and mushrooms, then craft more potions before returning to whichever part was giving you trouble. And if you happen to take damage as you’re foraging and need to use healing items while making these supply runs, you’ll set yourself back even more. (Even Bloodborne’s biggest fans will usually admit restocking health vials is the worst part of it.) It would probably be a better idea to just make healing items more accessible, or make some of them replenish upon ******, because it’s always an annoying chore to get through before I can get back to the task of avenging my most recent ******. When you aren’t fighting diseased abominations and stuffing baubles into your cute little fanny pack-sized inventory, you’ll find yourself in the cozy town of ********** where the goal surprisingly shifts to rebuilding the place, like you suddenly stepped into a Stardew Valley for goth kids. By bringing back materials to invest in the refurbishing of various local establishments and infrastructure you can turn the place into a veritable oasis of friendly vendors and scenic views, from a warm tavern and diner you can build near the town’s entrance, to an elevator in the center that can quickly ferry you from lowtown to the fancy upper level and back again. You can even purchase property for yourself, then spend way too much time decorating your place and filling it with the loot you don’t have room to carry. It’s very weird to find any of this stuff in such a dark, action-packed crusade, but this ended up being one of my favorite aspects. Every piece of wood or ore harvested from the world could be used to build a new facility, or to upgrade a vendor to expand their inventory and make life a bit easier. Plus, it’s just nice to take a break from the monstrosities trying to chop your head off to chill in your house and craft some furniture. Resting, if you will. The goal surprisingly shifts to rebuilding, like you suddenly stepped into a Stardew Valley for goth kids. Once you beat the campaign, you’ll unlock a roguelike endgame activity that pits you against a dungeon filled with powerful enemies and enormous amounts of loot (assuming you have inventory space for it). This mode is a lot of fun and makes the early access version of No Rest for the Wicked feel much more substantial. Unfortunately, every run at this activity requires a consumable that you have to grind to earn, and because you’ll likely be using lots of healing items during runs as well, you’ll more than likely have to stop whatever you’re doing to grind out areas you’ve already explored to stock up on items you’ll need to power your future attempts. Between that and juggling my inventory, I found myself spending an awful lot of time staring at menus instead of practicing my perfect parry. Another caveat is that, while it might be unsurprising for an early access game (or heck, a lot of full launches these days), No Rest for the Wicked has performance and tech issues to iron out. The frame rate is known to dip no matter how powerful your PC is (as evidenced by my own Ryzen 9 and RTX 4090), your character can get stuck in the side of a cliff until you spend some time dodge-rolling to break free, and sometimes massive parts of the environment (like a bridge or part of the ground) are invisible when you approach them until they awkwardly pop into existence right in front of you. Or sometimes they appear to be there when they aren’t: One time I dodge-rolled away from an ****** and went straight through the ground to **** in the empty space below. But again, these are the sorts of things one would expect to encounter in early access and then watch as they’re ironed out as development continues, and none of them were such a big deal that I wanted to stop and play something else. Except falling through the map – that’s never fun. It’s also important to note one of the major things unavailable in this version of No Rest for the Wicked: multiplayer of any type. While this is the very first thing listed on the roadmap of things Moon plans to roll out, its absence is acutely felt by those who, like me, really look forward to playing a game like this with friends. It’ll also be interesting to see how much the balance of combat is altered by adding allies to the mix, because right now the whole campaign feels very specifically tuned for solo play – I almost can’t imagine what a multiplayer version of these quests would feel like. But I’m intrigued to find out! 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Metaphor: ReFantazio has revealed a release date of October 11 and showcased more gameplay. Metaphor: ReFantazio is the next release from the creators of Persona that will take players through a medieval world. Set in the ******* Kingdom of Euchronia, a nation of three countries inhabited by eight tribes, the story of Metaphor: ReFantazio begins with chaos ensuing after the king is *******. View the full article

YouTube Fortnite is rolling out an update on Tuesday that includes a new setting that filters out “confrontational” emotes. The v29.30 update will let players “choose not to see” the following emotes: “Laugh It Up”, “Take the L”, “Whipcrack”, and “Make it Plantain.” The four emotes won’t exactly be hidden per se, they’ll appear as still images in the game — but players performing them won’t dance and they won’t play music. Players can opt to only see these emotes from friends, or hide them altogether. Though Fortnite has hundreds of different emotes, this group of four are controversial because of how and when players will use them. Fortnite players will often play emotes like “Laugh it Up” and “Take the L” after ******** another player or... Continue reading… View the full article

HoYoverse’s upcoming action RPG, Zenless Zone Zero, is releasing much sooner than expected, with its arrival date confirmed thanks to Apple’s accidental early *****. Whether accidental or not, Zenless Zone Zero‘s release date has now been leaked, with HoYoverse’s Genshin and Honkai follow-up launching on Wednesday, July 3. This date was revealed by gaming content creator Wario64 on X (formerly Twitter) on April 23, who quickly discovered the date via a listing in the Apple App Store hours after the upcoming title’s release page was updated today. View the full article

A Helldivers 2 player discovered the model for Eagle-1 came with its own hitboxes after a comedic midair collision. Since the game's release, there's been no shortage of videos showcasing the many ways Helldivers 2 players can expire in the line of duty, but one unfortunate soldier met a particularly gruesome end when they were launched into the air and subsequently hit by the series' iconic Eagle Fighter. View the full article

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple will reveal its first AI applications later this year, noting that they will run locally without an internet connection. Gurman's comments align with prior speculation deduced from the company's hiring records. Read Entire Article View the full article

Metaphor: ReFantazio, the new RPG by the team behind Persona 5 among other RPGs, officially has a release date. In a special showcase streamed Monday, Atlus revealed that Metaphor will be out October 11, putting it squarely in the holidays. The release date was revealed amid a 25-minute showcase hosted by director Katsura Hashino, which showed off the gameplay, music, and other elements. It offered a glimpse of what Persona fans can expect from Hashino's latest project, which bears some resemblance to Persona 5 but is in other respects very different. Unlike Persona, which seeks to capture the feeling of being in a ********* high school, Metaphor is a much more high-concept fantasy adventure. It retains several of the elements of the Persona series, including the turn-based combat and the passage of time, but reimagines them. For instance, instead of a school year that progresses day by day, Metaphor is more of a fantasy roadtrip. It's all a bit difficult to describe, but the trailer above should give you an idea of what to expect. One way or another, expect Metaphor to feature the same memorable art and music that made the Persona games so famous. Hashino has been working on Metaphor since at least 2017, when he left P-Studio to establish Studio Zero with the intention of working on a new IP. He was joined by composer Shoji Meguro and artist Shigenori Soejima among others, all of whom had a hand in shaping the Persona series. Metaphor made its debut at the Xbox Game Showcase in 2023, with Atlus steadily revealing more details in the months since. Metaphor: ReFantazio will be available on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC when it releases later this year. In the meantime, Xbox is holding an ID @ Xbox showcase next week, which will be presented exclusively right here on IGN. Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Metaphor as an Xbox exclusive. IGN regrets the error. Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot. View the full article

A Stardew Valley player has shared the apothecary they designed. The shop uses items from the recent Stardew Valley 1.6 update, and the design has charmed fellow players. View the full article

We have just shipped an updated Steam Deck Client to the Preview/Beta channel. General Fixed slow startup on busy systems Remote Play Fixed the streaming button staying stuck on "Stop" when the streaming client exits quickly View the full article

The Steam Client Beta has been updated with the following changes: Remote Play Fixed the streaming button staying stuck on "Stop" when the streaming client exits quickly Fixed framerate drop when capturing over 120 FPS Linux Fixed slow startup on busy systems Changed the default scale from 200% to 150% on a 4K monitorView the full article

City building games have long been a lonely affair. Yes, you'll have hundreds, maybe even millions, of city residents to look after, but you're most often out there alone. A **** looking down on a realm you can never truly touch. Thankfully, The Whims of the Gods is here, to give you a fellow **** to share the burden in the form of a co-op partner who you'll work with in order to survive. Read the rest of the story... View the full article

World of Warcraft recently shared a full preview of the Warbands system coming in The War Within. This alt-friendly feature will allow World of Warcraft players to share tons of things from toon to toon, and makes having multiple characters significantly easier. View the full article

A mod concept revealed what Gwen Stacy's Ghost Spider would be like if she were included in Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man games. While she was already introduced as one of Peter Parker's most important love interests in the comics before her tragic ****** at the hands of Green Goblin, Gwen has become a major character in comics and other media recently due to the arrival of her multiversal variant, who was bitten by the fated radioactive spider instead of Peter and goes by the alias Ghost Spider (who has also been referred to as Spider-Gwen). View the full article

The project lead on the Fallout: London mod voiced the team's feelings of being "blindsided" by Bethesda's announcement of the Fallout 4 next-gen update. The project lead's comments shed light on the challenges faced by the Fallout: London developer team caused by a lack of clear communication with the Fallout 4 developer. View the full article

The release date for Genshin Impact maker HoYoverse’s upcoming urban role-playing game, Zenless Zone Zero, might have leaked before its official announcement. The action RPG’s soft “coming soon in 2024” placeholder text may actually mean this summer. According to Zenless Zone Zero’s Apple App Store page, the anime-inspired third-person action RPG is expected to release on July 3. As of the time of writing, developer HoYoverse has yet to announce an official release date on its official social media accounts. So far, only Zenless Zone Zero’s Apple store page has a listed release date, though the storefront does couch the expected date with supplemental text, saying, “This content may change without notice, and the final product may be different.” Zenless Zone Zero's seemingly leaked expected release date may hold some water, considering the whoopsie daisy comes weeks after the free-to-play urban fantasy RPG’s official PlayStation 5 technical test sign-up announcement. Prior to Zenless Zone Zero’s PS5 technical test sign-ups — which ended on April 17 — HoYoverse invited players to Amplifying Tests for PC and mobile platforms. Taking all of this into consideration, it wouldn’t be wild to assume the conclusion of ZZZ’s PS5 technical test serves as the action RPG’s final pitstop before its official release. The sooner we’re able to play as a bazooka-wielding grizzly bear, the better. Zenless Zone Zero was first revealed in May of 2022. In it, players take on the role of mercenaries for hire named Proxys tasked with defending the last vestiges of the post-apocalyptic world of New Eridu from Bleach-esque monsters called Hollows. Zenless Zone Zero will also be available on Android, PlayStation 5, and PC. Be sure to check out our Zenless Zone Zero guide to get yourself well acquanted with the game's sprawling lore and enemble cast of anime-inspired characters. Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh View the full article

Developer Starbreeze Entertainment is finally adding an important feature to Payday 3: Quickplay. The studio announced the much-needed multiplayer component in a post on its website. The feature, along with Player Merging, will arrive as part of the next update. It says Quickplay is simple for now, allowing players to, well, select a difficulty mode and quickly join a Payday 3 multiplayer match. An updated version of the option is in the works, but players can rest easy knowing it'll be a little easier to actually start playing. “We know we want to create an updated Quickplay, a v2, by building on the groundwork that we have for this update," Starbreeze explains. "What that will look like is still being discussed, and we’re open to suggestions. Currently, we’re at the crossroads of either creating a standalone Quickplay v2 with filters, or somehow baking it into the ******.Net-style server browser coming later in the year.” Player Merging, meanwhile, lets heisters remain in a party together after finishing a job. It’s another simple feature that players have asked for since launch. Starbreeze urges fans to leave feedback once they’ve finally gotten their hands on the new features. Payday 3 suffered a notoriously troubled start when it launched for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S in September of last year. A rough online experience left many players unable to enjoy the game at all, with the wound made deeper by a lack of communication in the months following. In January 2024, Starbreeze announced that it had assembled a team to help turn things around, but Payday 3’s sales and engagement were still deemed disappointing as of last month. CEO Tobias Sjögren exited the company on March 20. While there is undoubtedly a mountain of work to do, today’s update proves that Starbreeze is at least still dedicated to winning back its fans. In December, the team released Chapter 1: Syntax Error as the game’s first major DLC drop. Despite its rough start for many, we found Payday 3 gave heist fans a solid foundation for something special. We gave it a 7/10 in our review, saying, “Payday 3's cooperative heists are off to a strong start, even if the vault is a bit bare at the moment.” Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx. Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe. View the full article

I've never seen anyone look as good in a Vault suit as the actors in the Fallout show. The licensed Vault-Tec jumpsuits you can get from costume stores are spandex disasters, but even the more expensive Vault suits aimed at cosplayers look a bit pajama-like. The show's jumpsuits, however, are form-fitting without being superhero-tight, yet don't seem to limit movement whatsoever—they look cool and comfy... Read more.View the full article

Note: This update is for the Steam Deck Preview channel, and includes new features that are still being tested. You can opt into this in Settings > System > System Update Channel. General Additional stability and security improvementsView the full article

Ritual Ashes of the Sker Hotel is a tricky map full of twisting passages and cryptic puzzles. If you’re struggling, let me help you with our Sker Ritual Ashes of Sker Hotel guide: Full walkthrough and all objectives.How to complete every objective in Sker Ritual: Ashes of Sker HotelSker Hotel is brutal to navigate, so expect the story to take a few goes until you’ve familiarized yourself with the map layout. I found the lighting in this stage particularly obnoxious, to the point where I changed my graphics settings. I turned my Gamma up and also turned Volumetric Fog off. You can find this right at the bottom of the graphics menu.There are multiple objectives to complete in the Sker Hotel, so let me explain each one step by step.Refuel the Teleportation PlatformYour first mission is to restore power to the Teleporter in the middle of the Grand Hall. You’ll be coming back here often, as it’s like a central hub for the map. Grab the Canist...View the full article

Many changes to Pokémon Go have not been the best, and the community has repeatedly spoken out about how they feel about them to developer Niantic. The latest biome update, though, has been much more positive, and it’s a rare win for the team. The biome update was added today alongside the surprise Rediscover Kanto event. Many Kanto Pokémon have a higher chance to appear in specific parts of the wild, and it all comes down to the particular biomes you can encounter in Pokémon Go. The new system has been praised by players as a gorgeous update, making the overall visuals much more appealing and giving it a fresh feeling when players go to catch a Pokémon. View the full article

One of the most puzzling mechanics in League of Legends’ ranked system is the way the game treats new players who are trying ranked for the first time. League has a reputation for over-hyping new players and placing them well above their appropriate skill bracket after their initial placement games. But after a recent update, this should no longer be the case, and new players should find themselves placed “more correctly” on the ranked ladder, according to an update shared by League’s lead gameplay designer Matt “Riot Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison on social media earlier today. View the full article

After rescuing Finley from his cage in the Nameless Pass, and having a brief conversation with him, he’ll mention to you that he will meet you back in **********. When you return to **********, you soon discover he is nowhere to be found.It turns out that Finley only comes out at a certain time. Read further to learn about Finley’s shop hours in No Rest for the Wicked.No Rest for the Wicked: When does Finley appear in **********?As it turns out, Finley only appears and opens up shop on Saturdays between the hours of 8 AM and 12 AM. And no, this isn’t in-game hours, Finley is only available on real-world Saturdays. In other words, you need to play No Rest for the Wicked during the weekend to purchase some of his goodies. When Saturday comes around, you can find Finley at the location shown in the image below.Screenshot: PC InvasionAt this location, you will notice a note on his door that mentions the 8 AM to 12 AM shift. While thi...View the full article

After The Weeknd and Lady Gaga's release, singer-songwriter Billie Eilish seems to be next up on stage for Fortnite Festival. Developed by Harmonix, the studio behind the Rock Band games, Fortnite Festival is a rhythm game in a similar vein to Harmonix's previous releases. Players either play in a group or solo, hitting notes on a track depending on which instrument they decide to play. View the full article

Microsoft has announced that its ID@Xbox Digital Showcase will return next week on April 29. The showcase is a dedicated platform for highlighting upcoming indie games heading to Xbox consoles and PC, promising a smattering of new announcements as well as updates for existing ones. View the full article

The Max Payne movie really sucked. It sucked so bad that I can't remember a thing about it even though I'm pretty sure I watched it, a bit of selective amnesia that I assume is my brain protecting me from the trauma of seeing my beloved Max done so ******. But that's not keeping the team behind El Paso, Elsewhere from taking a run at the big screen: A Variety report says the Max Payne-inspired indie shooter is being made into a movie of its own... Read more.View the full article