Look, we all know E3 is dead. Well, at least the event that we knew as E3 is dead – there’s something called Iicon that’s strutting arond wearing the dead E3’s clothes but we think it’s liable to be something of an imposter. It’s a pruely B2B event, for a start.
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But we’ve, at least, got alternatives. There’s the Keighley-backed Summer Games Fest that’s growing and growing every year (even if it doesn’t yet hold a candle to our dearly departed Electronic Entertainment Expo). Then there’s also IGN Live. Aimed more at fans than it is at journos and businessmen, IGN Live will return this June for a second year, and it plans to be bigger and better as a physical event than last year’s Los Angeles-based blowout.
IGN Live will once again be based at LA’s Magic Box downtown event space, and will feature hands-on oppurtunities for unreleased games, a stage with fresh reveals and trailers, interviews, and celebrity panels. It’s like all the bits you cared about at E3 without any of the backroom deals where execs would shake hands and waggle on about games that would probably never get released.
The big higlights that stick out from last year include an interview with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s cast, an interview and sneak peek for the upcoming Borderlands movie, and some fresh Greedfall 2 gameplay.
If you want to go and see what all the buzz is about for yourself (and nab yourself some more details on dates and tickets when they’re available), simply head over to this link.
Disclaimer: IGN Live is hosted and organised by VG247 and Gamer Network’s parent company, IGN.
Avowed’s selection of unique bows is well-rounded, but one known as The Long Touch is perhaps the best choice for most Rangers. While you could argue that the Ancient Alacrity is truly the best, it can’t be obtained until the final stretch of the game’s main story, making it a difficult recommendation. Meanwhile, The Long Touch can be found early and should make for an excellent weapon throughout the majority of your adventure. Here’s what you need to know about it and where to find it.
Live Forever in the Universe of ‘New World: Aeternum’
The Long Touch passive bonus and enchantments
The Long Touch comes with the Lesser Opening Strike passive bonus, which grants +5 percent damage when hitting foes with full health. This mediocre bonus isn’t the bread and butter of this bow, so it’s not something to think too much about.
The Long Touch comes with the Grim Focus enchantment, which gives you +10 percent critical hit chance when fine aiming. You can choose one of two permanent upgrades to this enchantment:
Lethal Focus – Increases the critical chance to +20 percent when fine aiming.Thrill of the Hunt – Gives you 10 percent extra attack damage and 20 percent extra attack speed for 6 seconds after killing an enemy.
Where to find The Long Touch
Screenshot: Obsidian Entertainment / Kotaku
The Long Touch is available very early in the game, after you gain access to Paradis within the first region of Dawnshore. Unlike many unique weapons, this one is purchased from a nameless militia merchant in Northern Paradis (also known as Hightown). She can be found within the Militia Headquarters, which is located in the northeastern segment of this upper-class area.
The militia merchant sells The Long Touch for 4,320 coins, which is quite a lot of dough early in the game. Sell anything you don’t need from your adventures and try to save up for it if necessary. You should find plenty of gems and weapons even during this opening part of your journey, so you’ll be able to snag it in no time. I believe in you.
With The Long Touch now in your possession, head on back into the great big world of Avowed and start sniping bonces. And don’t forget to use those Power Shots for faster speed and fine aiming for more crit chance!
It looks like Capcom’s latest entry in the wildly popular Monster Hunter franchise is already gunning to be one of the biggest releases of the year, drawing in record numbers on Steam.
As I write this, Monster Hunter: Wilds has just peaked a staggering 1,065,140 concurrent players on Steam, and that number is still rising. It will likely grow even larger as we enter the weekend proper and more people get a chance to play.
To put that into some perspective, that’s enough to make Monster Hunter: Wilds the 7th biggest game on Steam in terms of concurrent players, beating Cyberpunk 2077 which has been relegated to 8th. Next up is DOTA2 at 1,295,114.
Top of the leaderboard is still PubG at 3.2 million, followed by Black Myth: Wukong at 2.4 million and Palworld at 2.1 million.
As for the other Monster Hunter games, Monster Hunter: World (2018) was the last mainline entry in the series and peaked at 334,684, while Monster Hunter: Rise (2023) hit 334,684.
Of course, it goes without saying that concurrent player counts do not directly equate to sales numbers. However, they are a fairly decent indicator of how popular a game is and Monster Hunter: World’s million plus players show that at least 1 million people have bought the game on Steam so far. On top of that, there’s the Xbox and PlayStation versions to account for, boosting the numbers even higher.
Unfortunately, there is some bad news as well as the game has launched to a “mixed” rating on Steam, currently based on over 6,000 reviews. Almost all of the reviews are praising the gameplay, but the biggest issue appears to be optimisation with a lot of negative reviews citing how badly the game is running. Interestingly, many of them note that the game ran fine for them during the beta and when using the seperate benchmarking tool.
As one user named Sgt. Walker Rhymes says: “very immersive game. you can cook a well-done steak on your GPU while you play and the hot blasts of air from your PC fans truly make you feel like you are in the desert. keep a bag of sand by your desk and periodically toss handfuls of it into the air to really complete the experience”
The Op Games, in partnership with Hasbro, has announced the release of CLUE: PEANUTS Edition (MSRP: $44.99). The game, now available online and at select retailers, celebrates the 75th anniversary of the PEANUTS comic strip by inviting players to investigate the disappearance of Linus’ security blanket.
In this special edition of the classic CLUE board game, players take on the roles of PEANUTS characters such as Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and Lucy. The goal is to determine who took the blanket, where the incident occurred, and what item was used. The game board features well-known locations from the PEANUTS universe, including Lucy’s psychiatric booth, Snoopy’s doghouse, and the Pumpkin Patch. Players gather clues, question suspects, and work to solve the mystery before their opponents.
Dane Chapin, CEO of The Op Games, stated:
“At The Op Games we believe happiness is…playing board games with friends and family. We’re excited to add CLUE: PEANUTS Edition to our growing line of PEANUTS titles in this special anniversary year, and fans can look forward to more of Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Snoopy just around the corner.
The game is designed for 2 to 6 players ages 8 and up and includes a game board, character movers, peril tokens, character role cards, and suspect clue cards.
The release coincides with the 75th anniversary of PEANUTS, the iconic comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz.
Cardboard Edison has revealed the finalists for its 2025 Cardboard Edison Award, celebrating unpublished board game designs. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the competition, which continues to attract a growing number of participants from around the world.
The 2025 contest received 348 submissions, setting a new record and surpassing the previous year’s 339 entries. Designers from 27 countries contributed to this year’s pool, reflecting the global reach of the board game design community. From these submissions, 21 finalists were selected, representing a wide range of themes, mechanics, and creative approaches.
The finalists include:
Athenia by Mark Holmes: A real-time plate reconstruction game for 2-5 players.
Babble by Jonah Kagan: A strategic word-building game where players collaborate and compete to construct a tower of words.
Bearden by Keith Donaldson: A tactical dice-placement game focused on creating artwork.
Branching Out by Jeff Grisenthwaite and Eliot Michaels: A cooperative game about growing a 3D bonsai tree.
Chainbreakers by Kyle Cushman: A card-drafting and contract-fulfillment game centered on bike mechanics.
Dot Com by Sammy Salkind: An app-assisted economic strategy game with a real-time element.
Free Range by Pedro Ometto: A farming game about organizing chickens.
Ice Hotel by Bob West: A game where players rescue luggage from a melting ice hotel.
Indie Alley by Mallory Hinks: A competitive card placement game about promoting indie bands.
Invasion by Amelie Le-Roche and Ashwin Kamath: A deduction and spatial puzzle game featuring Humans and Aliens.
Kingdom on the Rise by Piotrek Chojnowski: A competitive kingdom-building game with a stacking mechanic.
Molcajete by Hugo Labravo: A game about making salsa with elements of cooperation and sabotage.
Pip It by Jay Bell: A light-strategy dice-tossing game.
Produce Bazaar by Adam Eschborn: A strategic game set in a farmers market.
Renaissance Fair by Leo Taylor: A park-building game about creating a modern-day Renaissance fair.
Slam Quest by Jay Bucciarelli and Phil Gross: A cooperative game where players communicate by slamming cards.
Slopeside by Scott R Smith: A game about building a 3D ski resort.
Theology by Manoj Gedela and Sabareesh Mamidipaka: A worker placement and area control game featuring Ancient Indian Gods.
Time to Line by Adam Zwain: A tableau- and deck-building game about attracting guests to an amusement park.
Triptych by Brooks Barber: A trick-taking game with a shared slide puzzle.
Wildcrafters by Katie Tam: A competitive potion-crafting game.
Pitch videos for each finalist’s game are available on the Cardboard Edison website.
In the next phase of the competition, the finalists’ games will be evaluated by a panel of board game industry professionals. Judges will assess the games based on criteria such as engagement, originality of theme and mechanics, replayability, smoothness of play, and fit for the target audience.
The winner of the 2025 Cardboard Edison Award will be announced later this year. Past winners have gone on to achieve recognition and success in the board game industry.
Untravelled Planet(yesm it is spelled that way) is a Nintendo 64 game in 2025 and unfortunately, not a very good one. It kind of reminds me of Jet Force Gemini without the Rare polish that the game had. You play one of two astronauts who fly to a remote planet, and get shot down by space pirates. You must repair your ship and escape. To do that, you wander around a bare planet, collecting things and shooting pirates, and even delve into the occasional dungeon(more on that in a bit). You start out slow and weak, and over time build upgrades to your suit and weapons. That is all told to you by a penguin thing:
Don’t worry, if you forget, Untravelled Planet will tell you what you are doing again in an un-skippable text cut scene:
Your main goal in Untravelled Planet is to power on ancient technology given to you by the penguin thing, and follow pipes of green energy to stuff to do, like a dungeon, where I got stuck in a room and unable to continue. I couldn’t tell if its an oversight or a bug, but I quit at that point because I got a taste for what the game was, mediocre. It’s not bad, per se. You just walk like you’re in tar. You shoot with a horrible gun with limited ammo and get killed by the pirates easily.
I quit here because there was no way out without falling on spikes.
Untravelled Planet is only six dollars, so I get the lack of budget. But a game with this size and scope just can’t be done on a small budget, otherwise you end up with this pile of mediocrity. There’s nothing here to recommend, so it gets a Not Recommended with a five back-end score. Go play Jet Force Gemini instead.
Overall: Untravelled Planet had big ambitions, but no budget left the game stuck in mediocrity, and it will never leave it.
Verdict: Not Recommended
Steam Page
Release Date12/23/24Cost$5.99PublisherYaqut Games
P.S. I haven’t had good luck with Steam Games so far…
An intriguing adventure awaits in Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit, a modern-day point-and-click adventure game that blends history, mystery, and puzzle-solving.
Developed by Tag of Joy and published by Headup, the game is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 4/5.
Inherit a Mystery
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit follows the story of Milda, a young woman from Chicago who unexpectedly inherits a house in Lithuania. What begins as a simple inheritance quickly takes a thrilling turn when Milda is threatened by a mysterious stranger demanding she relinquish her claim.
Intrigued and undeterred, Milda delves into her family’s past, uncovering cryptic documents and clues that date back to the 15th century. She soon finds herself embroiled in a quest for a long-lost relic, navigating a world of deception, danger, and hidden history.
Explore Europe’s Hidden Corners
The game’s vibrant hand-painted backgrounds bring to life real-world locations across Europe, from the cobblestone streets of Vilnius to the picturesque landscapes of rural Lithuania. Crowns and Pawns highlights the rich and often overlooked history of Europe, weaving a narrative that blends historical facts with myths and legends.
Crowns and Pawns embraces the classic point-and-click adventure formula, challenging players to solve puzzles, collect items, and interact with a colourful cast of characters.
The game features innovative twists on traditional mechanics, such as changing Milda’s appearance to solve puzzles and making dialogue choices that impact the story’s progression.
Key Features
Intriguing Narrative: Unravel a mystery that spans centuries and explores the hidden history of Europe.
Puzzle-Solving Gameplay: Solve classic point-and-click puzzles with a modern twist.
Hand-Painted Visuals: Explore beautiful environments brought to life with vibrant hand-painted art.
Meaningful Choices: Make decisions that influence the story and its outcome.
Character Customisation: Change Milda’s appearance to solve puzzles or express your style.
Fully Voiced Dialogue: Enjoy a fully voiced experience with a talented cast.
Original Soundtrack: Immerse yourself in a captivating soundtrack composed by Daniel Pharos.
Embark on a European Journey
If you’re ready to explore the hidden corners of Europe, unravel a mystery, and experience a modern take on classic point-and-click gameplay, Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit is available now on Xbox (here’s your Xbox Store link!) and PlayStation consoles.
It’s priced at £16.99.
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit Description
Legends of the past come back to life in this charming European mystery adventure. Crowns and Pawns is a modern-day point and click adventure. The game highlights the less explored history of Europe to the world of adventurers. Experience the legendary stories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, bring to light the villainous branch of the KGB, solve puzzles and follow hints to reveal the secrets of the King who was never crowned.
Disney Dreamlight Valley’s new update, Tales of Agrabah is live right now and it includes all new story content as well as new Friendship Quests for the two new characters Jasmine and Aladdin. Jasmine and Aladdin are originally from the Aladdin movie. Players will be able to unlock them and invite them to the Dreamlight Valley. This guide will help you how to unlock Jasmine and Aladdin in Disney Dreamlight Valley.
How to Unlock Jasmine and Aladdin in Disney Dreamlight Valley
Unlocking Jasmine and Aladdin characters in Disney Dreamlight Valley will require players to unlock the Aladdin Realm and complete all of the new Realm quests. The Aladdin Realm is on the third floor of the Dream Castle and it costs 15,000 Dreamlight to unlock it.
Upon entering the Aladdin Realm, meet with Jasmine in Agrabah market. From there, you have to pursue along the quest to get the upgrade for the pickaxe. It will allow you to break the sandstones around the realm. After that, find and free Aladdin in the South Alley. From here, you will have to complete a series of Realm quests before you can bring Jasmine and Aladdin to Dreamlight Valley. There are six quests in total that you must complete to unlock both Jasmine and Aladdin.
During the end of the “Carpet Diem” quest, you will be able to invite Aladdin and Jasmine to Dreamlight Valley. You will get the foundation of Aladdin and Jasmine’s House. Go to the Valley and build their house. It will cost you 20,000 Star Coins to build their house. Once done, Jasmine will come to the Valley. Speak with her and then go back to Aladdin Realm and speak with Aladdin to bring him to the valley as well.
From here, you can freely hang out with them, give them gifts, and complete their Friendship Quests for exclusive rewards.
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Game Freak and The Pokemon Company has officially revealed gameplay for Pokémon Legends Z-A, the long-awaited next game in the iconic monster catching franchise. After a year of extra development time, the Nintendo Switch game has finally been properly revealed in a brand-new trailer alongside a release date.
Pokémon Legends Z-A release date
During the Pokemon Presents direct video, Game Freak confirmed the Pokémon Legends Z-A release date for Late 2025. Coming after the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, the game will be playable on both generations of Nintendo handhelds.
Pokémon Legends Z-A gameplay
Set within Lumiose City from Pokemon X and Y, players will explore the incredibly dense city with parkour elements, wild roaming creatures and the street battling with physical movement to avoid damage. After choosing from the starter Pokemon of Totodile, Chikorita or Tepig, players will explore a city going through a major redevelopment plan.
Alongside the return of Legends Acrceus-style gameplay, Pokemon Legends Z-A will also see the return of Mega Evolution, a mechanic missing from the series since Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. This mechanic allows you to temporarily evolve your creature into a more powerful form with awesome effects.
For the first time in the Pokemon series, battling has been overhauled. Now, moves have their own stats regarding reach and power, meaning your Pokemon needs to be within distance of another creature to do damage. Alongside the new battling, players will have to be careful to not get in the way of monster’s attacks.
To bring wild Pokemon to the city, multiple wild zones have been set up within the sprawling urban environment. Here, you’ll engage in catching mechanics very similar to those seen in Legends: Arceus, allowing you to sneak around and catch creatures without them noticing.
Additionally, the new game appears to be focused around Zygarde, a legendary Pokemon introduced in X and Y but not seen in-game until Sun and Moon. While not confirmed, it appears that players will be able to discover Zygarde cells across Lumiose City.
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GeForce NOW is blooming further with an array of 14 new titles in March.
A garden of gaming delights will have members marching straight into action and adventure this spring, with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Tripwire Interactive’s Killing Floor 3 and Hazelight Studio’s Split Fiction coming to the cloud next week at launch.
Start off with six games coming to the cloud this week, including Halo: The Master Chief Collection. And don’t miss out on the latest update for miHoYo’s hit game Honkai: Star Rail.
GeForce NOW one-month and six-month Performance and Ultimate memberships are available for new members to purchase again in the US, Canada and Europe, as well as the free tier. Stay tuned for updates as more membership options become available.
Split Adventure
It takes communication … lots of it!
Hazelight Studios, creators of the acclaimed It Takes Two, are returning with a new and imaginative co-op game: Split Fiction. The narrative-driven adventure follows Mio, a writer of science fiction, and Zoe, a fantasy author, who find themselves trapped in a simulation stealing their stories. Adventure across wildly shifting worlds, ranging from the dazzling, neon-drenched landscapes of futuristic cyberpunk cities to the enchanted, dragon-populated depths of ancient forests.
Each level introduces fresh abilities, mini games and chaotic scenarios. Tame dragons, snowboard through explosions, master laser swords, solve gravity-defying puzzles, fight robotic parking attendants, outdance monkeys and flee supernovas while building trust between strangers. Play online or in couch co-op mode, using innovative split-screen mechanics that demand genuine teamwork and optimal communication between players to succeed. The Friend’s Pass feature lets one player host the full game while their partner joins for free.
Adventure through the genre-bending worlds of Split Fiction across devices with a GeForce NOW membership. With cloud saves and instant access, members never have to miss a moment to dive in whenever their gaming buddy’s available.
The Legend Lives On
Suit up, Spartan.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection comprises six legendary games for members to play — Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST and Halo 4. Dive into more than 60 adrenaline-fueled campaign missions, from the explosive beginnings of the Halo saga to the high-stakes battles that shaped its epic legacy.
With breathtaking visuals, fast gameplay and stunning multiplayer arenas, this collection delivers heart-pounding action and unforgettable thrills. Whether a seasoned Spartan or new to the fight, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will keep players on the edges of their seats.
Gear up for an exceptional gaming experience with these upcoming titles and more. Ultimate members can stream in stunning 4K resolution at over 120 frames per second, powered by NVIDIA DLSS and Reflex technologies — delivering seamless gameplay on virtually any device.
New to Town
New heroes, old flames and a dash of chaos.
The newest Honkai: Star Rail update, “Light Slips the Gate, Shadow Greets the Throne,” is now available for members to stream in the cloud. Version 3.1 introduces a new chapter in the Flame-Chase Journey, playable characters and more. Explore the “Grove of Epiphany,” a new map ravaged by the black tide, where players must rescue survivors and reclaim Cerces’ Coreflame.
Two new playable characters are Tribbie, a five-star Quantum character on the Path of Harmony, and Mydei, a five-star Imaginary character on the Path of Destruction. The update also includes the return of limited five-star characters Yunli and Huohuo, a new season of the Divergent Universe game mode with a “Day and Night System,” as well as the Awooo Firm event where players manage a chimera squad in Okhema.
Look for the following games available to stream in the cloud this week:
Balatro (New release on Xbox, available on PC Game Pass)
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics (Xbox, available on the Microsoft Store)
The Evil Within 2 (Epic Games Store, Steam, and Xbox available on PC Game Pass)
Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Steam and Xbox, available on PC Game Pass)
Murky Divers (Steam)
Somerville (Xbox, available on the Microsoft Store)
Here’s what to expect for March:
Dragonkin: The Banished (New release on Steam Mar. 6)
Split Fiction (New release on EA App and Steam, Mar. 6)
Split Fiction: Friend’s Pass (New release on EA App and Steam, Mar. 6 App)
Assassin’s Creed Shadows (New release on Steam and Ubisoft Connect, Mar. 20)
Wreckfest 2 (New release on Steam, Mar. 20)
Killing Floor 3 (New Release on Steam, Mar. 25)
Atomfall (New release on Steam and Xbox available on PC Game Pass, Mar. 27)
The First Berserker: Khazan (New Release on Steam, Mar. 27
inZOI (New release on Steam, Mar. 28)
City Transport Simulator: Tram (Steam)
Dave the Diver (Steam)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak II (Steam)
Motor Town: Behind The Wheel (Steam)
Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator (Steam)
Full of Games in February
In addition to the 17 games announced last month, six more joined the GeForce NOW library, including Halo: The Master Chief Collection being added this week:
Far Cry: New Dawn (New release on PC Game Pass, Feb. 4)
F1 Manager 2024 (New release on Epic Games Store, free, Feb. 13)
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (New release on Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, Feb. 20)
Batman: Arkham Asylum – Game of the Year Edition (Steam and Epic Games Store)
Batman: Arkham City – Game of the Year Edition (Steam and Epic Games Store)
Batman: Arkham Knight (Steam and Epic Games Store)
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH II Sys:Celes didn’t make it to the cloud this month. Stay tuned to GFN Thursday for updates.
What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.
The month is almost over, what last-minute gaming goals do you still need to check off?
— NVIDIA GeForce NOW (@NVIDIAGFN) February 26, 2025
Following numerous rumours fuelled by insiders, the alleged remake/remaster of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion has now been all but officially confirmed to...
NVIDIA GeForce NOW (@NVIDIAGFN) February 26, 2025
